The Serpent Queen recap: Samantha Morton as Catherine de Medici's ruthless rise to power

Power, poison, and the crown—The Serpent Queen unveils the dark legacy of Catherine de Medici.

A still from The Serpent Queen

Despite the initial belief that it would be a limited series, The Serpent Queen confirmed season 2 at the end of its run. The show premiered in autumn 2022. The series continues the story of Catherine de Medici with vigour, humour, and a selective adherence to historical accuracy, thanks to a charming ensemble that includes Samantha Morton as the title character. Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France, written by Leonie Frieda, boldly incorporates contemporary speech and feelings into the narrative of a queen about whom nothing is known.

Catherine de Medici's controversial reputation

For all intents and purposes, she was a vulgar newcomer, a poisoner and practitioner of the dark arts, and an affront to Europe's male-dominated power structures, according to her contemporaries. As she found herself thrust into the cutthroat world of the French court, Catherine resorted to power struggles for survival. Despite her goal's high cost, she not only survived but also succeeded, becoming France's Regent by the end of Season 1. Breakout actress Liv Hill portrays Catherine de Medici, who was born into an aristocratic yet unappealing household. Her dowry, arranged by her uncle the Pope (Charles Dance), was the main selling point of her story.

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The only alternative to marriage for the orphaned Catherine was to be transferred to a nunnery, where she endured bullying and was forced to perform menial work. Despite facing arrest during a French invasion, Catherine managed to escape harm. It was then that she recognised, for the first time, that she needed to initiate and lead the marriage negotiations with Henri, the second son of the French king (Alex Heath/Lee Ingleby), if she wanted to survive. With her newfound knowledge of how to gracefully use the fork, as well as proper table manners and dance moves, Catherine increased both the budget and the impressiveness factor. She made a spectacular entrance into France by stepping out of an egg-shaped carriage wearing elaborate clothing with Chinese influences.

Catherine's relationship with Rahima

When Catherine (now played by Morton) is bored with planning her son's coronation in 1560, she tells Rahima (Sennia Nanua), a humble servant, her life narrative. She claims, among other things, that weird occurrences have been happening around her since childhood, seemingly at her command. Despite the servant's knowledge of Catherine's reputation, he was both captivated by her and terrified of her. Despite Catherine's best attempts to indoctrinate her, she successfully stood her ground and negotiated a title and land in exchange for her services. Her only piece of advice? "Trust no one."

Confiding in her cousin, the beautiful Diane de Poitiers (Ludivine Sagnier), was Catherine's initial blunder. The second was developing feelings for her fiancé, Henri, despite his infatuation with Diane, a woman 25 years older, and his incessant preference for her over his bride. In addition, Catherine was aware that she risked expulsion to Italy if the couple did not have children over the several years that they struggled to conceive (or worse). As time went on and she still couldn't conceive, her status plummeted, so she sought out Ruggieri, her magician (Enzo Cilenti). In Season 1, he came and went, putting Catherine at risk through his use of the occult, and he wasn't always looking out for her best interests.

In addition to Mathilde, who had an affair with the Dauphin, Aabis, her dressmaker, who had an affair with the King, and Angelika, her perfumer and poisoner, who betrayed Diane by falling in love with her and becoming her drug supplier, Diane had developed a taste for liquid gold, which was said to keep her youthful. All of her entourage members were untrustworthy and played power games on the court. Sebastio, Catherine's majordomo (Adam Garcia), also met a tragic and horrific demise. She was clearly a terrifying presence to the royal servants.

Catherine's rise to power as Regent

The Court failed to recognise Catherine's brilliance, ruthlessness, and competence. Catherine assumed the role of Regent when Henri went to war in Italy to acquire the estates promised to her as part of her dowry. He brought Diane along for some military advice that was basically bad, like not personally leading his army into combat, which ruined his reputation. He brought back a new mistress and her child as mementos. To top it all off, Catherine was the one who bypassed the reluctant Council and went right to Parliament to settle the war expenses.

Upon his elder brother's death, Henri became the heir apparent and took the title of Dauphin; at the same time, Catherine began to have infants. She engaged Francis, her eldest son, to Mary (Antonia Clarke), the daughter of King Scots, also known as Mary, Queen of Scots. Unfortunately, Francis passed away, and in her desperation, Catherine numbed the agonizing death of her son with a Ruggieri-supplied opiate. Even though she had not wed the next royal son, Mary determined that she was next in line for the throne with the help of the Holy Roman Emperor, who was eager for a Protestant genocide. However, Catherine devised a scheme to have Mary return to Scotland with the assistance of Rahima.

The Serpent Queen Season 2 will stream on Lionsgate Play (OTTplay Premium) on August 30, 2024.

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