Riario is being sinister like a sinister person in
sinister surroundings like the sinister bloke he is. (He must practice to get
his sinister this perfect), eating snack food prepared by a servant
(intimidated by his sinisterness) and being taught a bored game by a prisoner.
They try to make it some kind of metaphor for the show, with Da Vinci staring
at his map (aha, the cunning move of “stoner’s laziness!” I know it well) and
Lucrezia doing her spying and dodging her husband (I am not even going to comment
on the subtext and stereotypes with her husband because if I accept that they
ARE trying to portray him as gay with all these stereotypes, after what they’ve
done to the actual gay Leonardo, I may have to break something).
Lucrezia violates curfew, dodging the guards to leave her
message for Riario. She’s caught briefly by a captain but a lady of her
standing who is boffing the boss doesn’t get arrested. And on the way back she
runs into Lorenzo’s carriage – he’s waiting for her and pretty desperate for
her. She quickly has to arrange things so they can have their fun and she can
hide her message. Clarice Orsini, Lorenzo’s wife, watches from her window and
isn’t amused
While Lorenzo’s chief assistant, seneschal, whatever,
Becchi complains at Leonardo because he’s holed up in his room rather than
watching the workshop cast his canons. They go there and Leonardo has a blind
mind hitting the finished barrels with a spoon to listen to the sound they
make, if they ring loud and true. One doesn’t and Leonardo reams the engineers
for scrimping with cheaper materials. Guiliano Medici has a hissy fit over
this, because Guiliano has to have a hissy fit per scene he’s in, it’s a rule.
When proved wrong and that the inferior canon will crack he then whines to his
brother that he’s never trusted to lead. Seriously, this is when you make your
argument for greater responsibility?
With money in his pocket Leo goes to the market to
release more birds, being bemused why one stays in its cage. And Lucrezia
approaches him asking why he isn’t spending more time on her portrait and
accusing him of running from his feelings.
But also in the market is a half naked woman covered in mud and wounds, screaming and babbling. Vanessa recognises her from the convent – she’s a nun. When she runs to help with Guiliano she screams that Lorenzo is making a new Sodom. Over nuns arrive to help her, they say demons are afflicting her, long with 5 other sisters in their convent. (Wow, ladies your convent is infested with demons? That must be a pretty shoddy convent there; by definition the nunning should make it demon proof). It gets even more grizzly when the nun manage to grab a knife from one of the guards and stab herself in the eye. Guiliano has a hissy fit (of course).
Back in his studio, Leo has discovered tectonic plate
movements based on the shape of Africa and the map he’s found (does his map of
South America have a scale?). Andrea isn’t impressed that Leo is mooning over a
map rather than doing his legitimate work – or moving out the rotting corpses.
Nico runs in saying Vanessa has gone to the convent and wants Leo to help – but
Leo doesn’t believe in demons and swears at Nico for interrupting his map
obsessing.
The Medicis, however, are more concerned about the will
of the people if ranting naked nuns run through the street accusing them of
causing demonic possession. It’s not great PR. Guiliano is sure he can handle
it, let him handle it oh please please please! Unfortunately, in a moment that
perhaps proves Leo isn’t the only one on drugs, Lorenzo agrees. Becchi also worries
that Lorenzo’s wife, Clarice Orsini, who Lorenzo married to build links with
Rome may be the spy. Lorenzo rejects it vehemently.
Riding to the convent, Guiliano and his men come across 2
more enraged nuns who attack – one of whom Guiliano stabs by instinct. As his
men point out, that’s not going to help PR either. The convent is not a happy
fun place. Ok, convents generally aren’t supposed to be, but severed arms is
taking things a little too far. One of the guards is pretty useless since all
he can do is cross himself, kiss statues and pray. They find a room full of
screaming, raging nuns being restrained by their more lucid sisters. One of
which, the Abbess, berates Guiliano for the Medicis being all bad and naughty
and evil. And Da Vinci has arrived – to find that Vanessa is one of the
restrained women. Abbess (I don’t know her name so I’ll just call her Widdecombe),
Mother Superior Widdecombe berates Da Vinci for dissecting cadavers, having sex
and nude modelling for his paintings.
She wants no help from him or the Medicis – just prayer and penitence.
Lorenzo is counting in his counting house (sounds like
the beginning of a nursery rhyme), since the Medicis are bankers before all
else, he keeps an eye on the sums and doesn’t just leave it to the help.
Clarice is there to comfort him as he worries about well, everything. He tells
her what Becchi said and she thinks they’re quite reasonable suspicions to ask
and it would be ridiculous not to think of them, though it was silly to talk
about it with her - she says he should have had her letters read without her
knowledge (obviously). Showing she is considerably more politically savvy than
Lorenzo. She makes it clear she’s loyal and adds a double entendre that she
knows he is with Lucrezia – she understands the need for escape as long as he
comes back to her.
At the convent, Leo criticises Guiliano who has a hissy
fit. Honestly, someone get that boy some anger management therapy already. Leo
asks his plan then scoffs at the idea of waiting until the spirits leave since
there’s no proof of demons at all. After brainstorming in which Leo merrily
shoots down Guiliano’s ideas; before going for his own. Magic mushrooms,
poisonous spiders, mercury in the paintings. All prove false – and there’s a
delegation from Rome, Lupo Mercuri. He’s
here for an exorcism.
In Rome the Pope and Riario discuss the dead nuns in ways
that hint that they may be behind it as a way to discredit the Medici’s. Riario
also thinks that Lucrezia could turn Leo to their side – he’s impressed by the
weapons he makes. The Pope also demands Riario’s slave for the night.
In Florence, Clarice meets with Lucrezia to tell her that
she knows about her affair with Lorenzo – and that she isn’t the first. She
doesn’t want it to end but she does want Lucrezia to be more discreet –
especially with a traitor about, flaunting a weakness is a bad idea. Lucrezia
is a distraction – no more and she rubs Lucrezia’s face in it more than a
little. As she leaves, Becchi tells Lucrezia that he will call on her tomorrow
to ask about her movements – as he is everyone who accesses the palace.
To the nunnery!
Where Lupo’s exorcism doesn’t go well – especially when he starts
strangling one of the women to death. Lupo is gleeful, claiming he saw the
light of god in her eyes before she died; ugh… yay? Leo is much less impressed.
But then Vanessa cries out with some hard truths for Leo – he promised her
wonders but questions whether they’re all just toys to him. Lupo moves in for
exorcism and Leo negotiates one more day.
But the next day Vanessa almost commits suicide, trying
to “fly” for Leo. Guiliano banters words with the Romans and has a hissy fit
(yes, yes he does) and gives away important state secrets in a temper. And he wonders
why he’s never trusted.
Lucrezia returns to the place that night and plants her
little book with the hidden compartment and messages before seeing Lorenzo.
He’s surprised because he didn’t send for her and is too busy with political
matters and tells her to go. He changes his mind when she strips naked.
Afterwards, she urges Lorenzo to search everywhere for the spy, even those
closest to him, let no-one be above suspicion.
Back to the convent where Leo uses Nico to taste things
to see if they’re drugged – no longer looking for natural causes but
intentional poisoning. He doesn’t buy demonic possession or divine punishment –
not when there’s heathens like him unscathed and god’s admirers are afflicted.
He sees it as a plot to make people afraid – because frightened people don’t
question.
Their rumination is interrupted by the praying and statue
kissing soldier they brought with them losing his mind and slashing throats
(statue kissing being the most relevant part here, methinks, since we already
had images of many nuns doing the same thing). Guiliano restrains him. Leo
talks about the man and learns that he’s the most pious of all of them (as if
that weren’t obvious) and learns that everyone kisses the feet of the statue in
prayer (like we’ve been seeing. C’mon why did Leo need people to tell him what
has long since been obvious?). Dousing the lights and using fireflies in
glasses they can see the fungus on the foot of the statue (Renaissance UV
lights!)
At the same time Lupo is covering all the women in flammable liquid to burn them and make them all better. Dead, but better. Leo runs in screaming about ergot, a fungus that causes hallucinations. Leo points out only those devout enough to kiss the statue fell sick – not heretics and non-pious people. He challenges Lupo to do the same. He gives the cure to Abbess Widdecombe and even Guiliano praises him. Luppo leaves in a huff
And we’re suddenly plunged into Leo’s nightmarish hallucination. After many disturbing images – he wakes up undergoing the cure (involving many leeches). He kissed Vanessa and the ergot was on her lips.
We see a flashback of how it happened – the bottle given
by Riario to Lucrezia and she pouting the ergot on the statue per instruction,
since the convent is open to all.
Back in Florence Lorenzo is happy to have more term, but
Becchi isn’t happy by Guiliano telling Rome how many cannon they have. They
conclude they’ll have to produce more guns. And the guard, searching the
palace, find Lucrezia’s book – in Becchi’s quarters. They look through and find
all the spy’s instructions – Lorenzo instantly believes Becchi’s guilt and hits
him and has him imprisoned.
Riario loses his game against his imprisoned friend and
has his own little tantrum.
Leo goes home and has the corpses removed and we get the
closing scene with lots of cages.
The plot thickens, kind of – the story remains decent.
And we have a Black woman – and she’s a slave who, it
seems, is raped by the pope. +10 points for recognising Black people were
around in Florence at this time +5 points for referring to Abyssinia,
-1,000,000 points for making her a raped slave.
Women in general on this show need vast improvement,
especially after an episode with lots of female victimisation. I hope Clarice
Orsini becomes more of a power rather than just being “insightful” enough to
tolerate her husband’s infidelity
Even Lurcrezia with her cunning spying would be a great
character – if that spying was something she chose. But it isn’t and she isn’t
even a valued agent; she’s a disposable tool who is casually abused by Riario.
And it puts the doubt to everything she does – is she having an affair with
Lorenzo or Leonardo because she wants to or because she is being threatened by
Riario?
Decent plot, decent setting, but with near non-existent
POC (and highly problematic when they appear), victimised women and a
straightwashed Leonardo makes for a show that’s full of severe representation
problems and offensiveness.
