Da Vinci’s friend shares with him some wacky baccy (which, y'know, at the time period shouldn't really contain tobacco at all) to
help him see visions and demons – which Da Vinci doesn’t believe in; leading to
the rather awesome response “then why do you fight so hard to keep both away?”
There follows lots of nifty foreshadowing of how Da Vinci will change the
world, history is a lie and seeing the future.
Well that was a pretty nifty opener I have to say, almost
enough to make me forgive us now going 4 days earlier. I hate flashforwards.
To a man going through his morning routine and kicking a
much younger man (who he calls boy) from his bed. After driving him out and
throwing money after him he asks his disapproving manservant what day it is.
Palm Sunday. His response is “balls” and to complain about his hangover.
Meanwhile several holy looking blokes are being searched
for weapons, but the guards forget to check their holy books – from which they
take thin pieces of weapon they build a weapon out of when combined with their
crosses. It’s like Krypton Factor assassins!
So when our hungover man arrives at church in a grand
entry (and bonus points for “artless fuckwit.”) he gets stabbed in the neck –
courtesy of the “secret archive.” On a Palm Sunday in a church with a dagger
made of a crucifix no less – maximum blasphemy achieved.
While all this excitement is happening, Leonardo is
sketching a naked woman out in the countryside and telling a story of his past –
when he was 6 months old he was left in a field in a basket and a falcon
considered eating him. Well it perched on his basket and looked at him, which I
interpret as deciding whether to eat him or not (makes more sense than it
passing on wisdom – it’s a falcon!) His mother drove it away before it managed
to eat the sweet baby meat and Leonard laments he can’t remember his mother’s
face despite his super-duper memory. She amateur psychoanalyses him and they
kiss.
At which point Nico, his apprentice arrives saying Leonardo’s late for something that Leo doesn’t care about – especially since Nico’s late for Leo’s experiment. Nico’s a little transfixed by the half clothed model, Vanessa (newly “liberated” from a convent) though Leo points out “they’re called breasts Nico, all women have them”. He’s testing a flying machine and, using the ribbons in Vanessa’s hair as a windsock, he then flies is apprentice like a kite – straps him to a giant kite tied to a cart, the horses run and the apprentice flies. Leo loves it, Nico is not very happy about the situation. Silly boy, apprenticing to a Mad Scientist then protesting about some minor experimentation – just be thankful genetics hasn’t been discovered.
In the city Leonardo praises Florence for being a relatively liberal city where he can practice his experiments without being burnt as a heretic, he waxes lyrical about the city before being transfixed by a woman in noble clothes walking down the street. She’s Lucrezia Donati, mistress to Lorenzo di Medici and not someone it’s wise to stare at. Even if she does look back. Their musings are interrupted by a messenger riding down the street – and Leonardo deduces it’s bad news and Lorenzo won’t be happy reading it.
The messenger takes the missive to Lorenzo who is very
unhappy indeed and has a little tantrum. The Duke of Milan is dead (that would
be our hungover friend in the beginning). Guilano Medici doesn’t seem upset,
and puts it down to an honour killing for the man “deflowering” someone’s niece
since the Duke was a “pig of epic appetites.” Lorenzo’s not having it – the duke
was their pig! And he suspects the Vatican’s involvement – as well as Italy’s
power structure being overset. The Medici’s need something to inspire the
support of the people in response. A carnival!
To the Pope, who has a truly awesome bath in which he is
joined by a boy – who he is molesting and holding at knife point. He’s
interrupted by his three assassins celebrating the death of the Duke of Milan
and how this leaves Florence vulnerable – and they know about the planned
carnival thanks to a spy they have in the ranks. Also, apparently relevant, the
“Turk” is in Florence looking for the Book of Leaves. Apparently this arboreal
focused Turk is a matter of concern.
Unfortunately for the boy in the pool, all of this was top
secret so he gets his throat cut. In the pool no less, that’s going to have to
be drained now.
Back to Florence with Guilano Medici trying to get some
plans he commissioned that have been locked in a box – a box rigged to explode
if anyone tampers with it. Who would make such a thing? Leonardo, of course!
Leonardo engages in massive info-dumping of what a Columbina is, much to the
Medici’s irritation, with lots of insults thrown at previous workshops who made
this flying dove. After much preamble he shows them his model – it’s beautiful
and it flies on its own with no need for wires. They’re impressed but they’re
also Medici bankers who need to dicker over the price. Da Vinci, getting his
money, further pushes his luck offering to paint Lucrezia Donati.
Leonardo feverishly sketches and smokes his
hallucinogenic baccy to get more visions of him, as a boy, looking for a lost
black sheep and blood on his hands. He wakes up screaming. His mentor/boss/business
manager/whoever comes in to check on him and Leonardo tells him his maths is
off, he’s not sure he can scale up the model of the dove in time for Easter and
make it flight worthy. The man chides Leo for his opium consumption and Leo has
a tantrum – he needs it to quiet his endlessly raging thoughts.
In the market the next day, Leonardo buys a cage of
starlings – he doesn’t want them, he wants them released so he can study them
flying (now here’s something with historical accuracy – Leonardo Da Vinci often
bought caged birds to release them, but more as a humanitarian gesture). He studies
them and sketches them in flight in a nifty little animation sequence. Then
they see Lucrezia again, this time with Lorenzo and Leonardo’s father, Lorenzo’s
notary. Leo moves in to cause trouble, showing off his sketches which Lorenzo
seems patient enough to listen to – but not his followers.
To the tavern to drown his sorrows where we have another
historical fact played out – Leo is vegetarian. His friend, Zoroaster and
general rogue offers him bodies for medical examination before discussing
hustling people with tarot cards. And a male model approaches Leonardo
flirtatiously to offer to be painted again – and gets the brush off, though Leonardo
notes he’s pleasing to the eye once he’s driven him off. Leo has an epiphany
that if he wants his ideas to be developed and respected he needs to create
things for Florence’s defence –since Florence has no standing army and war may
be coming.
Epiphany interrupted by the guards harassing someone.
Nico asks why, but Zoroaster dismisses it “he’s a Turk and a heathen, that’s
reason enough” (and this guy is called Zoroaster, so let me raise my eyebrows
at that one). Leo decides to get involved. Alas, as he tells them while easily
taking the sword from one guard, he has a character flaw where he just has to
intervene when stupidity is involved - then cuts another, taking his sword and
fighting all three of them ambidextrously before they leave issuing threats.
They check on the man they were bullying and he pulls out the exotic middle
eastern cryptic mysticism trope to the hilt, announcing that he’s the “Son of
Earth and Starry Heaven”. Well, that’s one way to make an introduction. He
tells Leo where he’s staying and to come see him before he leaves to return to
Constantinople.
Drinking finished, Nico helps the heavily inebriated
Zoroaster home, leaving Leo to go alone (dismissing Zoroaster’s talk about
omens from his tarot cards). Which means Leo is alone when Dragonetti, the
guard he thought in the inn, finds him with a gazillion of his friends. We cut
to Leo being chained up and beaten in a dungeon – and daddy dearest arrives,
apparently behind the whole thing, who disapproves strongly of Leo’s antics
bringing the family’s name into disrepute. He warns Leo to keep away from the
Medicis since Leo is an illegitimate son and will embarrass him. Leonardo mocks
him, calls him petty – and his dad tells his men to beat him for another hour.
They make a point of stamping on his fingers
The next day he, Nico and Zoroaster hang around in the
sun, Zoroaster mentioning that a Jew is being executed – he calls it sport and
Leonardo objects. Rather than speak more of it, they talk about Lucrezia again,
who Leonardo seems to be stalking. Leonardo sketches her while Zoroaster moves
from anti-semitism to misogyny, and sends Nico with the sketch to Lucrezia. She
takes the sketch looks at it and sends Nico back to Leo, telling him she wants
to speak to him. Leo tells Nico to tell her he’s busy, much to Zoroaster’s
shock.
As they leave, they pass the gallows where the Jew is
being hanged – on the scaffold he looks at Leonardo and says “I am the Son of
Earth and Starry Heaven. I am thirsty, please give me something to drink from
the fountain of memory” before he is hanged. Leonardo goes to find the Turkish man
at the Roman ruins another of town where he finds a hidden passage and stairs
leading downwards. He sits opposite the man and they repeat the scene we opened
with.
He says that the phrase “I am the Son of Earth and Starry
Heaven. I am thirsty, please give me something to drink from the fountain of
memory” is a way for members of their fraternity to recognise one another. He
says they are the Sons of Mithras and that progress is just remembering what
was forgotten – knowledge written in the Book of Leaves. The executed man was
one of them and a former member of their group, Lupo Mercuri serves the Vatican’s
secret archives, hiding knowledge rather than spreading it. The Turk urges
Leonardo to remember his mother – a woman taking from Constantinople against
her will, and his memories of looking for the sheep as a boy, finding the cave
and coming out covered in someone else’s blood. The Turk – Al Rahim – tells him
fate has chosen him to find the Book of Leaves. He breathes dust in Leo’s face
and he falls unconscious
To wake up found by Nico and Zoroaster. Lorenzo Medici
has asked for him. When there, Lorenzo briefly surmises Leo who takes exception
to “arrogant” since it implies he overinflates his own worth. But Lucrezia
wants him to paint her. The advisor warns Lorenzo that Leo takes many commissions
he often doesn’t finish – Leo admits it, saying he bores easily. Lorenzo agrees
and they try to shuffle him out but Leonardo is desperate to show Lorenzo his other
designs. The guards try to shuffle him out but Lorenzo wants to see. He rapidly
shows Lorenzo an array of weapons he designed – new cannons, armoured cars and
the like, intriguing Lorenzo. Leo wants to become a military engineer for
Florence – but Lorenzo’s a humanist, he doesn’t want war. Leo counters that his
humanism is why war will happen.
On a map of Italy he points to Florence and Rome as cities that have no standing armies so have allied with states that do – Milan and Naples. With the death of the Duke of Milan, Florence is in a precarious position. Lorenzo agrees to a modest stipend for Leo to prove he can do it (50 florins – of course Leo said 100) Lorenzo also throws a warning about being too clever, realising that Leo has used Lucrezia to get to Lorenzo. As he leaves, Leo is transfixed by an odd statue in the room, which will no doubt be relevant later.
Back at the workshop everyone is celebrating Leonardo’s
commission – and Leo asks Zoroaster to dig up the executed man’s body.
Carnival time – where we’re introduced to even more people
(the Pietzo family, old family in Florence, drown in the characters folks,
drown in them!) and it’s time for the Columbine to fly – which it does most
impressively, interspaced with lots of eye contact between Leo and Lucrezia (she’s
wearing a mask but her identity is easily deduced by the fact that she’s the
only woman with more than 5 minutes on screen) and then sudden flashes of them
having sex.
In the afterglow Leonardo tells Lucrezia he knows who she
is. He asks why she would risk her reputation for a lowly artisan and she just
puts it down to Carnivale. But he says there’s more – his sketch captured an
essence of her no-one else sees, not even her husband, someone she only sees “when
she looks in the mirror and sees a stranger staring back at her.” They look at
his sketches and she turns his question back on him – why has he risked death
to be with her. She puts it down to love, which he laughs off as absurd.
Meanwhile at the Vatican, assassin Girolamo Riario (the one
who killed the Pope’s bathing parner) enters the Secret Archive, giving one of
its guards a severed finger. He reports to the Pope and his council about
Leonardo’s involvement. The Pope dismisses it but he has brought his agent from
Florence to say Leonardo is no ordinary painter – and the agent is Lucrezia.
She also tells Lupo Mercuri that Leonardo has met the Turk and is looking for
the Book of Leaves. Shock! Horror!
The pope’s orders: Convert Da Vinci or kill him
Am I the only one getting really strong David Tennant
Doctor vibes from Tom Riley here? If much much darker and edgier? It’s like
what he would be if he were more sarcastic and a little crueller.
It was fun… but not enthralling, interesting but not
massively. There’s a huge number of characters here, and a massive amount to
digest. I can’t say it’s made it to my favourite list but I’m not dreading he
next episode or bored. I think it needs to set a theme – is it dark and grim,
or light and fun because I think it keeps trying to be both.
As for marginalised characters – oh. Oh dear.
Ok, the intolerance and hatred of Renaissance Italy is
true to the time – including attacking Turks and murdering Jewish people, to
gloss over it would be wrong. But turning them into bit notes who provide mystical
woo-woo and insight to the white protagonist is overdone, an old old old old
old trope and one we can do without . Similarly, Florence was a major
cosmopolitan city at the time, some POC wouldn’t be amiss.
We have 2 female characters and we’ve seen both of their
breasts. 1 is a model and sex interest, the other is a love interest and
conniving spy. Even Game of Thrones would look in askance at this.
Then let’s look at Leonardo. Leonardo Da Vinci, the real one, was tried with sodomy when he was 24. He was linked to several male “companions” including one model who lived with him for decades and to whom he left the, even then, extremely expensive Mona Lisa. He was never ever linked to a female lover. Frankly, and given the common straightwashing of history, we’re rarely given a more overt indication that the man was gay without him leaving rainbow backed notebooks.
And this show? We virtually open with him kissing one
woman, we see him stalk another woman for most of it before having sex with
her. The show’s creators insist they’re
going to make him bisexual (which, still, is wrong and it’s clear we’re going
to have a complete focus on his relationships with women and the actual history
of Leonardo) but so far the only shred of indication of that is him brushing
off a male model but admitting, afterwards, that he’s “easy on the eyes” which
could, just as easily, be the comment of an artist about his model.
This is offensive and insulting straight washing at its very worse.
And as to actual GBLT characters? Well we have the bisexual “pig of epic appetites” (strongly implied hedonist) Duke of Milan – unpleasant and dead. Pretty much it
(I think the Pope is being cast as a paedophile not a gay man – it’s awkward to infer the age of the boy he was groping at knife point simply because there’s no way they’re going to cast a child actor for the role for very very very obvious reasons. Obviously, if the Pope IS supposed to be gay or bisexual then that just adds to the offensive shit in this episode by making a gay villain while straightwashing the ACTUAL gay hero. Oh and that's 2 man-on-man sex scenes where one of the participants dies. Uh-huh, this is really really homophobic).
In all, this series has to do a lot more to make me
happy.
