The Borgias: End of Season 2

[osprey_archer]

After Juan and Cesare’s random fight in the first episode of the season, I was a little worried that the show wouldn’t manage to build up Juan & Cesare’s enmity to convince me that Cesare actually would kill his own brother - but in the event, they built it up beautifully, so no worries. Pretty much everything from the siege of Forli onward (Caterina Sforza! “I will have ten more sons!” Take that, Juan) was magnificent.

It was just such a Juan way to fail, kidnapping Caterina Sforza’s son Benito and trying to make her yield by torturing him: the miscalculation, the brutality, and the basic cowardliness of it.

Cesare is also brutal, but with more courage and panache and fairness. When Cesare killed Ursula’s husband, he did it one-on-one. When Juan killed Paolo, he brought with him, what, half a dozen supporters? That pretty much sums up the difference between them.

Also, Benito Sforza. Let me discuss how much I love Benito Sforza. The trauma! The ANGST! The undying vengeance he clearly feels in his heart against the entire Borgia family, even though it’s totally Juan’s fault! (Although really, if Cesare didn’t want Benito to feel undying vengeance, maybe he shouldn’t have made Micheletto Benito’s jailkeeper. Micheletto clearly stood outside his cell going “I would enjoy killing you sooooo much.”)

The scene where he’s washing up in the stream, and Micheletto is like “They say drowning is like dreaming,” and Cesare’s all “Um, let’s not kill the Sforza boy,” and then Benito comes up to Micheletto and repeats “They say drowning is like dreaming” because he heard everything. What was he planning to do if Micheletto tried to drown him?

I hope Benito comes back in season 3.

And of course it’s Juan’s threat against Lucrezia’s child that pushes Cesare to finally kill him

SPEAKING OF LUCREZIA. I do not find her suitors subplot quite as exciting as I found, say, “Lucrezia pwns the King of France,” but her scenes with Alfonso of Aragon have been great. Her whole “I vet Lady Lucrezia’s suitors for her! TAKE OFF YOUR CLOAK and hopefully all the rest of your clothes so I can check you out better!” shtick was awesome.

And then Alfonso finds out the Lucrezia is in fact Lucrezia and is so completely gobsmacked that he can’t say anything at all, and Lucrezia is like, “Does he talk? Apparently not? Oh well, I will marry him anyway!” He is kind of adorable.

I suspect that one of the things Lucrezia looks for in a suitor - possibly as a reaction against Rapey Sforza, and possibly just because she’s a BAMF - is someone with whom she’ll always have the upper hand.

ALSO ALSO. The other great Lucrezia scene, where Lucrezia and Cesare are having one of their totally-not-incestuous talks while lying on Lucrezia’s bed.

Lucrezia: I would ask you to marry me.
Cesare: As you wish. My word is my word. We shall run away, change our names perhaps, live out our days in some small fishing village by the coast where no one will ever guess who we once were.
Lucrezia: ...to Alfonso.

Oh, Cesare, that is what we call a Freudian slip.

This scene is a great character study for Cesare: he imagines sloughing off his responsibilities and living in a grotty little fishing village, and he’s smiling, and it’s suddenly very visible how unhappy he is. He’s so driven and effective that normally I don’t (and presumably he doesn’t) think much about how he feels; but then there are these tiny moments where something does make him smile, then you see how miserable he is much of the time.

I wonder if getting out of his cardinal’s vows was always part of his endgame for killing Juan.

And the scene where the Pope carried Juan’s body out to the garden - imagining him as a little boy again - and dug a grave with his own hands, and buried him - I realize it sounds sappy written out like that, but it was very effective. If ever a man deserved to die it was Juan, but the Pope’s grief was so palpable I still cried.



***

And now I am kind of going, "So why did I watch that so fast? Because it is not like I'll see season 3 until the DVDs come out." But it was a good time!

And hey, hopefully the new Vikings ep will be on Hulu tomorrow! I've been thinking I should try to watch it in a timely fashion, instead of waiting until the Sunday after it first aired to catch up.

Comments

[silverusagi]

It was just such a Juan way to fail

Yep.

Cesare is also brutal, but with more courage and panache and fairness. When Cesare killed Ursula’s husband, he did it one-on-one. When Juan killed Paolo, he brought with him, what, half a dozen supporters? That pretty much sums up the difference between them.

Yep again.

The scene where he’s washing up in the stream, and Micheletto is like “They say drowning is like dreaming,” and Cesare’s all “Um, let’s not kill the Sforza boy,

I LOVE THAT SCENE.

And of course it’s Juan’s threat against Lucrezia’s child that pushes Cesare to finally kill him

Yessssssssss. That was the final straw: Lucrezia worriedly shouting as Juan dangles her baby over the balcony. MURDER IN CESARE'S EYES.

And then Alfonso finds out the Lucrezia is in fact Lucrezia and is so completely gobsmacked that he can’t say anything at all, and Lucrezia is like, “Does he talk? Apparently not? Oh well, I will marry him anyway!”

That was adorable. I also liked how he was all, 'After I am married can I still see you?' And Lucrezia said that that wouldn't be possible and then he wanted to run away with her even though she was 'nobody'.

But Lucrezia did try to drop a chandelier on Juan, even though there was no pwning of the King of France. To think, she rode out last season trying to save Juan's ass, and now she's trying to skewer him. (Though he did kill her lover, to be fair.)

The other great Lucrezia scene, where Lucrezia and Cesare are having one of their totally-not-incestuous talks while lying on Lucrezia’s bed.

IT'S ALL GOLD.

And Juan's burial scene was very well done. I also thought the talk between Rodrigo and Cesare, where Cesare admitted to killing his brother without actually saying it, was also well done.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Cesare and Micheletto are totally losing their assassinate-y edge in that scene. Your victim shouldn't know ahead of time that you're plotting his doom, Micheletto!

Although given that he basically sat around staring at Benito going "Death death death death," I guess the secrecy ship had sailed.

And ha, OF COURSE it is Juan's threat to Lucrezia that forces Cesare's hand.

It's interesting that his father understands Cesare's explanation that he totally killed Juan - clearly he realizes that Juan was a shame to the Borgia family name, even if he would never admit it in public.

I was a little surprised that Cesare and Lucrezia were so sure Juan was the favorite son, given that it's clear to me that Rodrigo trusted Cesare far more. But then I realized that whenever Rodrigo gives Juan one of his "Stop being a fuck-up" talks, it's in private - in public he always shows absolute faith in him. Of course Cesare hates that.

[silverusagi]

Although given that he basically sat around staring at Benito going "Death death death death," I guess the secrecy ship had sailed.

And it's not like Benito really stood a chance with both Micheletto and Cesare in the middle of nowhere. Micheletto didn't exactly have to be stealthy, lol.