Lothar: They bolted the gates. They let the village be looted and did nothing.
Néro: How do you know that?
Lothar: No signs of combat. And the soldiers – no injuries.
Néro: The hanged men, they're not deserters. They wanted to help the villagers.
Episode description: “At Havreval, the group has doubts about their hosts. Rochemort must act violently when someone unexpectedly returns.”
The motley group decides to go to Havreval. Néro is against this – he wants to get to Ségur, where he thinks he will get the damned necklace removed, and his daughter will be delivered to the archbishop – but the dangers of the penitents convince the others to choose Havreval, a city protected by strong walls. In Havreval, they think they will be safe and will be able to go to Ségur on horseback with an armed escort, and will be able to take a break. Given the knowledge they have at the time, both choices are reasonable, but of course, as this is only the fourth episode, it will not go well.
And, when they arrive, they find many dead bodies outside the walls, presumably from an attack by the penitents. Our group is initially refused entry, but Hortense, engaged to Ségur's prince, to whom the count of Havreval owes allegiance, gains admittance. Hortense is welcomed by the count, and they are offered food and clothing and baths. As someone who thinks birds are cool, the scene at the dovecote where they send a pigeon off with a message to Ségur was especially enchanting.
Naturally Lothar, a military captain, pieces together what actually happened – or did not happen in – at Havreval. He sees no wounded soldiers, only hanged soldiers, and he concludes there was no battle. The people inside the fortress left the villagers to die, and the hanged soldiers were not cowards but men who wanted to fight. Lothar communicates this to Néro in the bath (and we get to see a naked Lothar from the back, very nice indeed, because the actor, Yann Gael, is in fantastic shape).
Néro and Lothar comprehend the danger, and how the count, in an attempt to hide his cowardice, is killing anyone who objected. They decide not to say anything about it. However, they do not warn Hortense, and she – with her high rank – insists that the maidservant, Ophélie, tell her what happened.
Of course, a series like this compels increased intimacy between Néro and Hortense (we expect they will eventually make love). In this episode, he fixes her hair – made ragged by tall, bald, would-be rapist – for her. You’d think the count must have someone who could do it, but it’s a nice scene, and Néro’s good with blades and scissors, and besides, these two are already attracted to each other, so maybe they would try to arrange it anyway. Hortense, when she sees her image in a mirror complains he did a terrible job, but her smile shows us she thinks otherwise.
In Ségur, the show gives us a compelling scene in which a body is delivered to the archbishop (I liked the details with the bell and the weird outfits used doing the medieval version of an autopsy). Anyway, the body belongs to Toussaint, the guy who killed the original consul after being teleported by sorcery to the consul’s bedroom. Apparently Toussaint’s corpse was taken out of a mass grave (I don’t think we understand why they were searching it in the first place). Rochemort is alarmed as the archbishop plans to revive poor Toussaint long enough to talk and to presumably condemn Rochemort for employing witchcraft. Rochemort and Princess Joséphine sneak through secret passages to Toussaint’s body (why isn’t it guarded? or maybe it's considered sufficiently well hidden?) to do whatever they can to keep his corpse from talking. They first try to take out his tongue. They are not good at it (which explains why you need trained torturers and assassins, such as Néro). Eventually they just chop off his head, which does the trick. But in Havreval, Ophélie does lose her tongue, just for saying there was a massacre in the village.
Havreval has an intruder. Néro and Lothar join others in trapping him, just in case it's the one-eyed witch, but it happens to be the inquisitor. Horace, man of the church, is interested, and talks to the guy.
Liked how Hortense and Perla share a bed for the night – ever since killing the tall, bald, would-be rapist, they have a deep bond. When they hear a scream, Hortense blocks the door with a chair and tells Perla not to worry. Perla tells Hortense not to worry as she has a dagger beneath her pillow. This reminds us of her father, who had a dagger in the bathwater.
Adelme, who had a moment with Perla at the dovecote – they were cute together – speaks out at dinner the second night, revealing that the soldiers in the fort killed the villagers in order to cover up their cowardice. He gets killed for speaking, of course, but weirdly they let him finish his story before attacking. A pity, as Adelme was easy on the eyes and it was nice to see Perla flirting with someone; but that romance is not going to happen. The murder of Adelme turns the dinner into a free-for-all, and many people die, and Néro chasing after the count and Hortense in order to rescue her. He doesn't though; Ophélie kills the count with a giant pair of scissors, something that is satisfying, but it looks as if she probably died too. In the meantime, in a separate battle, the inquisitor has killed the men holding him prisoner and he chases after Horace and Perla.
Most startling moment: Moments that were supposed to be startling were not. Although Horace’s treachery was a shock to Néro and Perla, it was not to us. Although Hortense was surprised that Ophélie’s tongue was ripped out, we were not. Maybe the most startling moment is when the one-eyed witch shoots a crossbow to save Perla from the inquisitor.
Most emotional moment: When Hortense realizes that Ophelie’s tongue was cut out.
After Perla complains about Horace’s treachery – and it is terrible, as Horace is the man who raised her, claiming to have the rights of a parent while Néro deserves none – Hortense leaves with Perla and Néro, even though she belongs more properly with the more establishment Horace and Lothar. This is especially true as Horace and Lothar are headed to Ségur, which is her destination. Why does she go with the others? Well, she is bonded with Perla and attracted to Néro. Besides, Néro has been making slightly better decisions than the others during their journey, so maybe she thinks her chances of survival are better with him. But the reasoning for her choice could have been clearer.
Title musings: The title of the episode is “The Inquisitor” or “L’inquisiteur.” An inquisitor shows up in Havreval, and his presence lets us know the Holy See is very interested in what is going on. He is also key to learning about the treachery of monk Horace and makes us wonder about the one-eyed witch. Still, he has few lines and no personality, so naming the episode for him seems a bit much. However, the word inquisitor also means questioner. It applies to Hortense, who gets Ophélie in trouble by asking her questions. It also applies to Perla, who wants to know what’s going to happen to her with respect to Néro when they reach Ségur. I like the title.
Bits and pieces
Have been watching this in French as well as English, and sometimes the translations are not exact. The count speaks of being a cousin of the Prince of Ségur, but the French version uses the phrase “petit cousin” which translates as “little cousin” or perhaps “lesser cousin” or “distant cousin.” My French is reasonably good but not perfect, so if someone has a better translation, please post in the comments. In the English version, they only use “cousin.”
My research shows that plague bells were actually from well after 1504, although the leper’s bell may have been from earlier. Doesn’t really matter; it was a nice touch and certainly possible.
This is what AI had to say about the costumes worn by the men in Ségur performing the autopsy of Toussaint: “During the Middle Ages, those performing autopsies during plague outbreaks wore a distinctive costume consisting of a long, waxed, or leather overcoat, gloves, boots, and a wide-brimmed hat. The most iconic element was the beaked mask, which was stuffed with aromatic herbs and spices to protect against "miasma" or "bad air." The mask also included glass eye coverings, and doctors carried a wooden cane to examine bodies from a distance.” Well, maybe people several centuries from now will mock our current PPE (personal protective equipment).
In shows like this, there are so many deaths that you wonder how the human race could survive. First, nearly everyone outside the fortress dies; afterwards, most of the people inside die. At least in the previous episode’s slaughter, where the penitents had taken over a village, many villagers survived.
It is nice to let our characters take baths and get cleaned up and get clean clothes. One point of television is treating us to people who are attractive, but the actors are less so when they’re dirty and have bad hair.
Quotes
Perla: What becomes of me once I've seen the Archbishop of Ségur?
Néro: They'll put you in a nice orphanage, I suppose.
Perla: But I'm not an orphan.
Archbishop: You do not seem to be aware of the gravity of these events. This evil is the result of very powerful sorcery. So a witch has returned. And I'm not talking about one of those innocents who are burnt all the time by obscurantism and human stupidity. I'm talking about a deadly envoy from Hell.
Adelme: There were no wounded because there were no penitents. Our scouts saw them. And the count ordered that the gates be closed shut. The whole village was shut out. The women. The children. We abandoned them out there. And the penitents never even came. To keep our cowardice secret, we rounded them up in the square. It was a massacre, with our own hands.
Horace: Perla has to die, Néro. She is the last descendant of the Devil.
Néro: What?
Horace: The witch wants to keep her alive in order to perform a ritual to enable the Devil to take possession of Perla's body. And once he is on Earth, he'll summon the Apocalypse.
Overall rating
The violence and all the dead bodies are getting a bit repetitive, as is all their wandering in the wilderness. Still, much of the episode was entertaining, and I loved the echoes within the storylines, such as trying to remove tongues and how both Néro and Perla always have a dagger within reach. Three out of four pigeons.
Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
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