Reign‘s midseason premiere airs tonight. In case you didn’t get a chance to marathon the first eight episodes of the series during the winter hiatus, or if you can’t recall everything that happened so far this season, this is your guide to everything you need to know.
A lot of things have happened in such a short time on Reign. It honestly doesn’t feel like the show has only been around for just half of a season and that it was just last month when we wrote about why everyone should start watching this show.
While there have been so many intriguing plot points that have unfolded so far this season, the majority of them led up to the crazy and intense midseason finale. Here are a few things you need to know going into tonight’s episode of Reign.
Midseason finale recap
Frary was definitely a go.
Things weren’t looking so good for Francis and Mary’s engagement when Reign first began. Francis was distant and seemingly in love with someone else. However, over the course of the first half of the season, Francis and Mary ended up falling for each other. In the midseason finale, Mary and Francis slept together for the first time and were itching to be married immediately. Those plans changed, however, once Mary learned of a certain prophecy…
Queen Catherine told Mary about the prophecy, asked her to leave.
All season, the Queen’s main goal has been to keep Francis alive. She has done almost everything she could to thwart Nostradamus’ prophecy, including sacrificing Mary’s virtue. When Mary and Francis started pushing to be married ASAP, Queen Catherine decided that she had to tell Mary about what Nostradamus had seen. At first, Mary didn’t want to believe that her marriage with Francis will cause his untimely death. But, it didn’t take her too long to figure out that all that Nostradamus sees comes to pass somehow…
Mary realized that all of Nostradamus’ prophecies have been fulfilled.
After Queen Catherine told Mary about the prophecy, Mary set out to investigate some of Nostradamus’ other visions. Mary discovered that his prediction from Reign‘s third episode, “The lion will fight the dragon on a field of poppies,” ended up referring to Bash fighting Prince Tomas of Portugal. Mary later discussed Nostradamus’ visions with her handmaidens who were all skeptical of his gift. That is, until one of Mary’s own handmaidens fulfilled two of the Seer’s prophecies…
Aylee will never go home.
Nostradamus previously saw that Aylee “will never go home.” That prediction, along with his vision of one of the handmaidens dying before the first frost falls, unfortunately referred to Aylee’s untimely and heart-breaking death. She died from drinking poisoned tea and being shoved down a set of castle stairs. Regardless of Aylee’s fate, the poisoned tea was originally meant for Kenna but she, unaware of the poison, let Aylee drink it. At the end of the episode, we learn that Clarissa was the one who poisoned the cup and pushed Aylee because she wanted Mary to believe Nostradamus’ prophecy about Francis. Clarissa was trying to protect Mary while also actually carrying out Queen Catherine’s hit on Kenna…
Queen Catherine put out a hit on Kenna.
Queen Catherine can’t stand betrayal and stupidity. Since Kenna is guilty of both, Queen Catherine put out a hit on her. Earlier in the midseason finale, Kenna had informed Queen Catherine of Diane de Poitier’s intention to have Bash legitimized behind the royal family’s back. Queen Catherine then used that information to blackmail Diane into leaving court and slipping poison into Kenna’s morning tea. Unfortunately, as mentioned previously, Clarissa took on the hit in Diane’s place in order to protect Mary, which means that Diane fled court without being Queen Catherine’s hitman. But Diane isn’t the only one who fled from court that day…
Bash and Mary ran away… together.
After his mother’s plan was discovered, Bash decided to flee as well. He was already on Francis’ bad side for kissing Mary and didn’t want to risk his life even further by sticking around for Francis and King Henry’s wrath. While saddling up to leave, he noticed Mary rush into the barn. Aylee’s death had convinced Mary of Nostradamus’ credibility so she decided to flee court as well and return to Scotland, ending her engagement to Francis. That was the only way (in her mind) to keep Francis alive. The final scene of the season finale depicted a heartbroken Francis who was reduced to his knees as he watched his half brother and the love of his life run away from him… together, Mary to Scotland and Bash simply as far away from the castle as possible.
‘Reign’: So where do we go from here?
As far as we know, very little time has passed between the midseason finale and the midseason premiere. Here are a few plot details that we didn’t mention above but could very well be important in the second half of the season:
- The handmaidens have lost two of their friends, one to death and the other to Scotland.
- Since Diane fled, Kenna is now the King’s only mistress… For now.
- Greer will be falling in love/already is in love with Leith. This will probably cause tension when it comes to her finding a suitable husband.
- Clarissa and Nostradamus have some sort of sibling-like relationship that has yet to be explored. So maybe she isn’t a ghost?
- Clarissa has proven that she will do anything to protect Mary. The question now is how far will she try to go?
- How will Mary and Francis’ relationship change after he witnessed her running away from him with Bash? How about her relationship with Bash?
You can check out the dramatic promo for Reign‘s midseason premiere, “For King and Country,” below. “Long may she reign.”
Reign returns tonight with episode 9, “For King and Country,” at 9/8 c on The CW!
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