The Musketeers: Keep Your Friends Close

Guess who just got back today?

Them wild-eyed boys that had been away

Haven't changed, haven't much to say

But man, I still think them cats are crazy

I can't have been the only one with that song in my head while watching this. 

The season premiere of The Musketeers had a lot to get through – establishing that the Cardinal had regenerated passed away, ushering in a new villain, and reminding us of (or introducing us to) each individual Musketeer's character arc: that Aramis is the biological father of the infant dauphin, that D'artagnan and Constance's love affair has been foiled by her husband, that Porthos is apparently the son of someone known to Captain Treville, and that Athos is So Done With Everything (Milady did not make an appearance, but it looks like she'll be back next week).   

So. Completely. Done.

The first few minutes were an exercise in contrasts: from the sober funeral of Cardinal Richelieu, to the blaring music and galloping Musketeers across the countryside, to the delicate bedroom full of women where Queen Anne is giving birth. There's a trope called Birth/Death Juxtaposition, and it couldn't it be portrayed any clearer than in this screenshot:

Nicely done.

So the writers clearly aren't wasting any time with their story. It's farewell to the Cardinal and hello to the new baby prince. And yet this episode demonstrates Richelieu still has power from beyond the grave. In a touch that I honestly didn't think the writers would revisit, Aramis is taken to a crypt where Adele Bissett's body has been laid to rest with the epitaph "died for love" on her tomb, and told the truth about her disappearance.

Aramis even mentions Isabelle when he talked of "all the women I've loved," spurring Athos to remind him for the umpteenth time to keep his damn mouth shut about the Queen. Get it together, Aramis!

But wow. I mean, this show didn't start off on a particularly strong foot when it came to its female characters, but if you're going to stuff the likes of Adele and Isabelle into the fridge, I can at least appreciate that they aren't completely forgotten after the fact.

It's a nice way of keeping the Cardinal's shadow looming over the Musketeers, especially when it comes to a) the fact that Rochefort was one of his agents, and b) that that moment last season in which the Cardinal witnessed Aramis and Anne speaking together privately might yet come to fruition in some way. It would take only one brief note left behind to arouse suspicions as to the dauphin's true paternity.

But most of the episode was devoted to introducing our new nemesis: Marc Warren as Rochefort, who has already been bumped up to the opening credits. Thankfully they haven't tried to make him a carbon copy of his predecessor, and in many ways he's Richelieu's complete opposite. Whereas Richelieu was well-groomed and refined, Rochefort looks a bit like a tattered pirate. Rochefort is openly hostile to our Musketeers (at least at first), whereas the Cardinal recognised that they had their uses. Rochefort is more of a peer to the Musketeers in terms of age and ability.  And of course, everything the Cardinal did was in pursuit of France's domination in Europe. Not so much with Rochefort.

If Richelieu was a hidden rapier, then Rochefort is a drawn dagger, and it's his ruthlessness that the writers seem most interested in projecting. When the Musketeers find him in the hands of a lynch mob, they're about to leave them to it until he states that he has important information for the king. As they grudgingly fight to save his life, Rochefort scampers off, though not before taking a completely unnecessary and fatal shot at the village elder (presumably out of spite).

It's perhaps a bit much, as the writers then have to backtrack a little in order to establish him as a political foe as well as a physical one. He's apparently on very good terms with Queen Anne, and because Captain Treville pulls a Suyin (from Korra) and passes on being a part of the King's council, Rochefort is given the opportunity to slip right into his place.

So it turns out that Rochefort has recently escaped from a Spanish citadel, and knows of another prisoner called General De Foix who could end up a huge liability to France if the Spanish manage to extract his knowledge of French secrets. It doesn't come as much of a surprise to the audience to learn that this is all a setup – Rochefort has defected to Spain in exchange for his freedom, and the whole endeavour is just a way for him to a) get rid of the Musketeers, and b) get in the King's graces.

Or so it would seem. It could be that there's a double-bluff going on here, for there's every chance that Rochefort is in fact loyal to France, and just using the Spanish for his own ends. And after all, he did save Athos's life twice in the same mission – because he couldn't afford not to or because he didn't really want him dead? Okay, probably the former. The show needs a villain, and it looks as though this is him.

While Athos, Aramis and Porthos are bushwhacking with the Spaniards sent out to assassinate them, D'artagnan is sent ahead to scope out the area and ends up in a pretty cool action sequence all on his own. He dives into the moat, swims through a tunnel, climbs up a well, somehow manages to knock a man out by punching him in the face (okay this bit was daft), creeps into the citadel and carries on with the rescue mission without knowing whether the others were dead or alive, and hinging everything on the hope that they're not.

A part of me felt that it might have been a little Out Of Character for him to continue on after hearing the gunshots in the forest, but then perhaps it's signifying his Character Development that he was able to put his duty first – even though he couldn't quite bring himself to kill General De Foix when it looked as though there was no other way out.

Yet this newfound maturity makes his conduct toward Constance doubly infuriating. He understands the need for duty in his own line of work, but totally disregards it in hers, even after being told exactly what kind of consequences she would face should they be exposed as lovers. (But I'll get to this in a bit).

The sequence with the suspension chair across the gorge was great! The weak point was the fact that the Spaniards had Stormtrooper Marksmanship, but the race to get one person across the gorge at a time was great stuff, and suspenseful enough that I yelped when the chair got stuck during Lucie's turn. (Plus you could tell the boys were having great fun).

And so Rochefort settles for a half-victory. The General is saved (though perhaps fatally wounded) and he's made the Captain of the Red Guard, but the Musketeers are still alive and the Spanish aren't too happy about the trail of bodies he's left behind him. Of course, there have got to be easier ways for them to exert influence over the Spanish Queen by trusting a French turncoat's manipulations, but hey – I don't tune in for the rock-solid plotting.

***

What I appreciate about The Musketeers is that despite it very much being a boy's show, the writers clearly make an effort to involve the girls as well (unlike others I will one day stop mentioning). Queen Anne has certainly risen in power and confidence, for now that she's had a long-awaited son Louis is certainly treating her with more respect. More interestingly, other people have begun to take note of her as a political force. There were no less than three meaningful glances sent her way as various men try to manoeuvre through the waters of any given exchange:

Let's hope this means more of a central role for her (especially in court politics now that the Cardinal has been edged out of the picture). And she's hired Constance as one of her ladies-in-waiting! Let's ignore the fact that the Queen hiring a draper's wife that she's never met before as her confidant makes no sense whatsoever, and instead celebrate female solidarity at work and the passing of the Bechdel Test! 

Getting moved into the palace hopefully means that Constance will be embroiled in spy-work soon enough, and – whether consciously or not – Anne has delivered her from the passive-aggressiveness of her husband (okay yes, he's a git, but I can't really bring myself to judge him too harshly for being upset that his wife had an affair).

But there's a downside. This new position for Constance is the work of D'artagnan, and Constance quickly points out all the flaws in what is presumably a plan to bring them together again. She's a married woman, and carrying on with a Musketeer is only going to get her ostracized from society (and no doubt promptly fired from her new job). And unfortunately, D'artagnan choses to be a dick about it by calling her a coward even though she stands to lose absolutely everything, and he has nothing to risk at all. Urgh. It would have been nice if he had been more understanding about her point-of-view, especially if the writers want me to root for them as a couple.

As far as the other female characters go, Olivia Llewellyn's Lucie was ... fine, I guess? On the one hand her introductory scene had her stripping naked for a bath, and she's inevitably turned into the Distressed Damsel on the suspension chair, but on the other hand she kept her head throughout all the danger, was allowed to make a few snarky comments, and – well, didn't die. It could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse.

(What amused me most was the fact she's the actress who played Mina on Penny Dreadful, which means she's now played a Mina and a Lucy. Get it?)

Then there's Charlotte Salt as Marguerite, currently employed as the baby dauphin's nursemaid. She only gets a brief scene here, giving Aramis the chance to flirt and pine at the same time, as well as sigh that he "always wants the things I cannot have." Whether he's referring to the woman or the baby remains to be seen, though I suspect that he might well try to use his charm on her in order to get close to his own child. And because of that enigmatic look she gave him, I suspect she's not going to have the wool pulled over her eyes for long.

 Oh, and in a conversation between Treville and De Foix in the final few minutes, we learn that Porthos is the son of a man called Belgost (or something). That this remains a secret seems to be extremely important to Treville, suggesting once again that he has quite a dodgy past. We await illumination...

Miscellaneous Observations:

I've no idea what this maid was carrying, only that she got it all the way to the Queen's bedchamber before it was instantly knocked out of her hands.

Oh Constance, feel free to share more of your daydreams with us.

It was rather touching that Louis was the only one choked up at the Cardinal's funeral. The Queen gets a free pass since she's busy giving birth.

The Gilligan Cut (sort of) from King Louis saying "my son" to Aramis's wistful face – ouch, right in the feels.

What's up with Tamla Kari's hair? There's no way a draper's wife has the time or energy to have it so luxuriously curled, and though I'm pretty easy going when it comes to wigs (they save a lot of time) this one looked rather dreadful at times.

Just so you know, it's been quite a mission to get hold of this episode. The you-know-what site has been down for a few months now, and just the other day my laptop crashed (on taking it to the computer place, I learned that it was riddled with viruses). Then, right in the middle of watching, the screen went dark because I had forgotten to plug it in and the battery had run out. So let's be thankful that this review exists at all.