Reign season two begins this Thursday and we couldn’t be more pumped. As excited as we are, we do have a wishlist of things we’d like to see this season.
The dresses, the cute guys, the politics, the suspense… Our hearts are racing with the anticipation of Reign‘s season premiere. It’s been too long since we’ve gotten our French court fix.
So long that we’ve had time to think of a few things that we really hope to see this season. They aren’t make-or-break requests by any means, but their fulfillment will make for a more pleasurable viewing experience.
No more love triangle nonsense
One of the things that drew us most to Reign was the strength of each individual character. From the pilot onward, Mary and all of the other characters were all their own persons. More than that, they were all interesting people who were each facing serious real-world issues. Greer needed to marry well to ensure that her sisters would have a good future. Kenna wanted the power that came with being the King’s mistress. Mary had the entire weight of the country of Scotland on her shoulders, for goodness sake!
But what has added extra unnecessary tension? Love triangles. There was the main love triangle with Mary, Francis, and Bash which, thankfully, seems to have resolved itself. We could deal with one. But now we’re faced with the potential for two more love triangles and we’re just not having it. The storytelling and characters are strong enough without needing more love triangles, at least for the time being. So Reign season two, please don’t bring about a Mary/Francis/Lola or a Greer/Leith/Yvette Castleroy (daughter of Greer’s fiance) triangle. Please.
The long-awaited return of Clarissa
While we’re pretty positive that the first half of the season will focus almost exclusively on the Black Plague and its effects (as well as Greer’s engagement situation), we would love to see Clarissa return in the back half of the season. After all, we haven’t seen Clarissa since 1×12 “Royal Blood,” even though she has been referred to a handful of times since then.
Last season was about 50% magical/fantasy, so we’re expecting the same for Reign season two. The Black Plague will probably be the realistic storyline of the season, so why couldn’t Clarissa’s return somehow be the mystical storyline? She was positioned as a ghost-like figure at the start of the series, so she could fulfill that role again. Or she could be the realistic storyline and the plague the fantastic one. Either way works.
All we know is that Clarissa’s storyline isn’t over. Not nearly. We want more ASAP.
Appearances by well known (or slightly well-known) historical figures.
Something that a wide range of other shows (like Sleepy Hollow and Doctor Who) are doing well is incorporating familiar or recognizable historical figures into their plots. And those shows aren’t historical dramas like Reign. So, we would really love for Reign season two to introduce more historical figures. It could only enhance the world that the writers have already built.
So just who (or what) would we like to see? For starters, we’d love to see Queen Elizabeth I. There has been so much talk about the English throne that we’d like to see Mary’s adversary. Other potentially interesting 16th century historical figures we’d like to catch glimpses of include Ivan the Terrible, baby William Shakespeare, Sir Francis Drake, and the Mona Lisa. Even if they were short glimpses, they’d be like fun history Easter eggs to us. And maybe they’d give the show a little more credibility with the Reign naysayers. Not that that really matters to us because we love the show.
More Lola (and not just ‘Lola as a mother’)
Aside from the now-deceased Aylee, Lola is probably the most underused character on the show. While Kenna and Greer have gotten their own strong, independent storylines and romantic interests, Lola has been around supporting everyone’s decisions and hasn’t really had a story for herself. She’s pretty much gotten the shaft. When she did finally get her own plot point, it was made very clear that it wouldn’t be independent from Mary’s trajectory like Greer and Kenna’s plots pretty much are. It kind of feels like Lola’s pregnancy plot was implanted just to cause drama for Francis and Mary, not go give Lola her own agency. That’s disappointing to say the least.
So, this season, we’d like to see who Lola is beyond being a mother. We’re not saying that being a mother is simple (because it’s definitely not), but we really want to learn more about Lola and her family, background, and romantic tastes. We would love to have a fuller picture of Lola as a complicated character like we have for the rest of the main characters. Yes, we want to see her as a mother, but we don’t want to see her as just another obstacle for Mary and Francis. Lola deserves to be seen as her own person and we’re hoping that Reign season two will do that for her.
(Note: We could find very few quality images of just Lola, which says a lot about her character’s portrayal so far!)
Frequent Francis and Bash team-ups
What do we enjoy more than King Henry’s sons fighting? Why, when the two hottest French royals team-up to achieve a common goal! We loved it when Francis and Bash teamed up to track down the Portuguese prince. We loved it even more when the two went after the scary creature in the woods. They just work better when they’re together than when they’re apart. When they’re fighting, we’re forced to pick sides and try to decide whose opinion is more right than the other. With those two, it’s never black and white. Choosing a side can be just plain old exhausting (that’s why we’re glad the shipping war has died down!). Besides, team-ups are so much better than rivalries (case in point: The Avengers!).
This season, we’d love to see Francis and Bash race to find a “cure” (or deterrent) for the Black Plague. We’d even like to see Bash go after his brother and assist him and Lola in getting back into the castle. At the very least, we’d love to see Francis and Bash teaming up to have fun with each other. Sports, a bit of swordplay, maybe a race around the castle… We’ll pretty much take anything at this point (and we hope we aren’t the only ones!).
Bigger and/or more extravagant dresses
One of the best parts about Reign is the lush scenery and regal dresses. Who wouldn’t want to wear a gorgeous bejeweled dress like those the royal ladies wear? They’re just so marvelous to look at that sometimes we need to rewind the episode a bit because we were too busy taking in all of the folds of the ladies dresses instead of paying attention to the dialogue or action on screen.
So, our hope for this season is that there will be dozens of new dresses for us to gawk at. Big ones, slim ones, frilly ones, and bejewled ones. Dresses that have sleeves and may be a bit more revealing than the 16th century court may have actually allowed and dresses that look like they came straight out of an Elizabethan era painting. We want it all. Forget the guys; the dresses are our #1 eye candy on Reign.
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