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shallownessThe Musketeers 3.10
I didn’t get a chance to collect my thoughts properly after watching what was a pretty satisfying last episode ever, putting us through the wringer, blowing stuff up, speeches, gorgeous costumes, the breaking of the Fellowship, HEAs for nearly everyone, my favourite moment being morally dubious - I felt quite emotional by the last scene and then I realised I could rewatch it. So this is going to be quite long.
I like the fact that we began with a proper send-off for Treville, and he was posited as the musketeers’ father (given the ending). There was also a bookending of contrastng voiceovers. So the Musketeers ended up having a wake at the tavern. The second Constance said they were off to get more wine, it was obvious that Grimaud’s threats were going to be acted upon.
Cue a little joke about Athos not drinking. (But Sylvie is the pregnant one.)
Cue bomblets and then the garrison getting blown up! They really went for it with the scale, from the funeral, to BLOWING UP THE GARRISON. Well, why not? I presume they had to have known this was it. And then came some awful few minutes as it looked like they’d killed Constance, then D’Artagnan, too. Then they let us think that although he’d rescued her body, Constance, THE MUSKETEER, was still dead, TOO MUCH.
Fortunately, she was still alive, and mainly extras were dead.
The WE ARE THE GARRISON speech almost deserves to be quoted, but I’m too lazy, however, Burke’s delivery and the stirring music made it A Moment. It also contrasted the Musketeers’ unity with the conflict between Grimaud and Marcheaux.
Enter the midwife to pretty much spell out in sparkly lights to the baddies that Sylvie was pregnant - but still feisty! – and get killed for her pains
I have to admit that I didn’t think ‘But they don't know we have D’Artagnan' was the advantage it turned out to be.
They seeded the outcomes for the characters with the emergence of tactical!Porthos who realised about the powder and that Grimaud thought D’Artagnan was alive, while Aramis rushed to the Palace for supplies and, presumably, got them (on first viewing, I thought that was just an attempt to see Anne, but it didn’t materialise so I'm going to take it in this way.)
Pasqualino ramped up the passion throughout. Athos and D’Artagnan had a lovely moment, with Sylvie having just had an exchange with Grimaud about why she’d bring a child into this world (love!), Constance being brilliant and taking care of the cadets and Athos asking how having a Constance in his life changed things for D'Artagnan. (I will allow this writing loving Milady out of his history, because Athos wasn’t a soldier when he first married.) I also picked up that Howard Charles was playing it like Porthos could hear and was responding to this exchange, because who turned up for him? Elodie! Nameless baby in her arms! I could have lived with having more time with her, and she benefitted from being Porthos’s latest fling of the week, because the poor boy hasn’t been allowed any permanent love interest, but she was great, and we had Porthos holding an ickle baby, which was nice.
In between typical Musketeer sass, Athos found out about Sylvie's pregnancy in the worst possible way.
FIGHT! Grimaud got injured, which means nothing. But D’Artagnan’s fight with Marcheaux was very satisfying after all the build up of this season, which got referenced in the whipping ‘for Sylive’. Brutal end, though. It was even more satisfying as Athos lost Grimaud. AGAIN. I know what they were trying to build it up to be, but Athos vs. Grimaud was a bit cartoonish, really.
Another emotional high point was the reaction to Sylvie being pregnant ‘Teriffied’ Sylvie’s face falls ‘but elated’ big smiles. Jokes about swordfighting girls (but no kidding their daughter would be a fighter) and then Athos showing the real depth of his feelings in his gratitude to Porthos.
ANNE, MY QUEEN! All her choices as Regent were so good (apart from arranging a public blessing with Grimaud still out and about, but that wasn’t her fault). And Burke played suggesting Aramis as Minister to minister to her needs perfectly.
I could live with the other cadet dying to give Bujon, who has made more of an impression, growth/angst. But what was really beautiful was that Constance, who had been a tower of strength (sure, we’ll find somewhere for Elodie and her newborn child in the smoking ruins of our lives! I nearly died last night! And I’m doing all the nursing) go away and have a little breakdown in private...in the cellar where Grimaud was lurking. The tension of whether they would kill Constance off THIS TIME was unbearable as, again, she took care of someone and found hope, and that someone was the baddie.
ANNE, MY QUEEN! looked amazing in that ridiculous blue cloak and big hair, as she gave the little King his first lesson in how to be a better King than the last one. Of course, when the plot was discovered, they became Aramis’s responsibility. ‘I’m Aramais’ is one instance of many bits of good tracking of who knew who throughout this episode – Aramis having been kept away from his son all this season.
Given that Athos has tried to take Grimaud down all season, and failed abysmally, the first time around, I was raging at him for not letting D’Artagnan come too, and then I thought Grimaud had struck him fatally and that it’d be a case of killing him a and losing his own life, but no. Finale rules are different. Athos got the better lines, to kill his adversary off - Grimaud being yet another baddie who hasn't quite worked; this show would have been well different if Capaldi hadn't gone off to do Doctor Who) and survivie.
Minor continuity blip over D’Artagnan’s face wound.
But from this point on it was all coasting...ANNE, MY QUEEN! ‘disbanding’ the Musketeers, promoting Porthos and sending him back to the front – nice moment where all the other women gave Elodie a sympathetic look.
Athos made explicit the Treville-as-father example to help Aramis decide on the Queen’s job offer (that’s Athos who is about to be a father, while Porthos adopts another man’s child, even naming her Crepe Suzette, while there’s no sign that Constance has changed her mind about making babies, she and D’Artagnan will replace Treville in turning cadets into musketeers – men who can in turn father others, literally or symbolically, which is where this episode ended).
So, perhaps all of this build up made me rather love ANNE, MY QUEEN! taking up Milady’s services. And yes, Milady took a swipe at her ‘You’ll be alone in your empty bed with your conscience,’ says Milady who was Louis’s mistress, but Anne was hiring her to kill Gaston who wanted to kill her son!? I think Anne's conscience will mostly be fine with that – she seemed pretty steely about it to me. The Milady-Gaston scene was also fun and let Milady be Milady.
So, Porthos said adieu, Bujon got his elevation and, to his surprise, so did D’Artagnan,
Athos’s mission of great importance was basically a roadtrip with Sylvie – right? Beyond giving D’Artagnan a fine hat, even if he was tired from the effort of killing Grimaud, I found it hard to believe that he and Sylvie would leave Paris like that.
But if he wanted to give D’Artagnan a moment with his fine new hat, fair enough.
After playing gooseberry to three other couples, crowned by swelling music and an ABOVE ALL THINGS LOVE speech/voice-over from Athos, Aramis, looking fine in civvies, got to watch over his son and make out with Anne, who was wearing something almost plain for her.
SIGH. I quite like all the canonical ships we've ended up with - Porthos/Elodie needed more time and Athos/Sylvie did a little bit too much twisting and return WRT the past with Milady, which I think is partly down to how Sylive was written, too, but married!D'Artagnan/Constance have been a treat, with what screentime they've had, and with Louis out of the way and Anne being able to be the Queen the country needs, I am squeeful that she and Aramis have a chance. (The fact that they havne't named their child is surely going to be a pain for fic writers.) I can live with the Musketeers were separated, but alive and with a chance to be happy.
I didn’t get a chance to collect my thoughts properly after watching what was a pretty satisfying last episode ever, putting us through the wringer, blowing stuff up, speeches, gorgeous costumes, the breaking of the Fellowship, HEAs for nearly everyone, my favourite moment being morally dubious - I felt quite emotional by the last scene and then I realised I could rewatch it. So this is going to be quite long.
I like the fact that we began with a proper send-off for Treville, and he was posited as the musketeers’ father (given the ending). There was also a bookending of contrastng voiceovers. So the Musketeers ended up having a wake at the tavern. The second Constance said they were off to get more wine, it was obvious that Grimaud’s threats were going to be acted upon.
Cue a little joke about Athos not drinking. (But Sylvie is the pregnant one.)
Cue bomblets and then the garrison getting blown up! They really went for it with the scale, from the funeral, to BLOWING UP THE GARRISON. Well, why not? I presume they had to have known this was it. And then came some awful few minutes as it looked like they’d killed Constance, then D’Artagnan, too. Then they let us think that although he’d rescued her body, Constance, THE MUSKETEER, was still dead, TOO MUCH.
Fortunately, she was still alive, and mainly extras were dead.
The WE ARE THE GARRISON speech almost deserves to be quoted, but I’m too lazy, however, Burke’s delivery and the stirring music made it A Moment. It also contrasted the Musketeers’ unity with the conflict between Grimaud and Marcheaux.
Enter the midwife to pretty much spell out in sparkly lights to the baddies that Sylvie was pregnant - but still feisty! – and get killed for her pains
I have to admit that I didn’t think ‘But they don't know we have D’Artagnan' was the advantage it turned out to be.
They seeded the outcomes for the characters with the emergence of tactical!Porthos who realised about the powder and that Grimaud thought D’Artagnan was alive, while Aramis rushed to the Palace for supplies and, presumably, got them (on first viewing, I thought that was just an attempt to see Anne, but it didn’t materialise so I'm going to take it in this way.)
Pasqualino ramped up the passion throughout. Athos and D’Artagnan had a lovely moment, with Sylvie having just had an exchange with Grimaud about why she’d bring a child into this world (love!), Constance being brilliant and taking care of the cadets and Athos asking how having a Constance in his life changed things for D'Artagnan. (I will allow this writing loving Milady out of his history, because Athos wasn’t a soldier when he first married.) I also picked up that Howard Charles was playing it like Porthos could hear and was responding to this exchange, because who turned up for him? Elodie! Nameless baby in her arms! I could have lived with having more time with her, and she benefitted from being Porthos’s latest fling of the week, because the poor boy hasn’t been allowed any permanent love interest, but she was great, and we had Porthos holding an ickle baby, which was nice.
In between typical Musketeer sass, Athos found out about Sylvie's pregnancy in the worst possible way.
FIGHT! Grimaud got injured, which means nothing. But D’Artagnan’s fight with Marcheaux was very satisfying after all the build up of this season, which got referenced in the whipping ‘for Sylive’. Brutal end, though. It was even more satisfying as Athos lost Grimaud. AGAIN. I know what they were trying to build it up to be, but Athos vs. Grimaud was a bit cartoonish, really.
Another emotional high point was the reaction to Sylvie being pregnant ‘Teriffied’ Sylvie’s face falls ‘but elated’ big smiles. Jokes about swordfighting girls (but no kidding their daughter would be a fighter) and then Athos showing the real depth of his feelings in his gratitude to Porthos.
ANNE, MY QUEEN! All her choices as Regent were so good (apart from arranging a public blessing with Grimaud still out and about, but that wasn’t her fault). And Burke played suggesting Aramis as Minister to minister to her needs perfectly.
I could live with the other cadet dying to give Bujon, who has made more of an impression, growth/angst. But what was really beautiful was that Constance, who had been a tower of strength (sure, we’ll find somewhere for Elodie and her newborn child in the smoking ruins of our lives! I nearly died last night! And I’m doing all the nursing) go away and have a little breakdown in private...in the cellar where Grimaud was lurking. The tension of whether they would kill Constance off THIS TIME was unbearable as, again, she took care of someone and found hope, and that someone was the baddie.
ANNE, MY QUEEN! looked amazing in that ridiculous blue cloak and big hair, as she gave the little King his first lesson in how to be a better King than the last one. Of course, when the plot was discovered, they became Aramis’s responsibility. ‘I’m Aramais’ is one instance of many bits of good tracking of who knew who throughout this episode – Aramis having been kept away from his son all this season.
Given that Athos has tried to take Grimaud down all season, and failed abysmally, the first time around, I was raging at him for not letting D’Artagnan come too, and then I thought Grimaud had struck him fatally and that it’d be a case of killing him a and losing his own life, but no. Finale rules are different. Athos got the better lines, to kill his adversary off - Grimaud being yet another baddie who hasn't quite worked; this show would have been well different if Capaldi hadn't gone off to do Doctor Who) and survivie.
Minor continuity blip over D’Artagnan’s face wound.
But from this point on it was all coasting...ANNE, MY QUEEN! ‘disbanding’ the Musketeers, promoting Porthos and sending him back to the front – nice moment where all the other women gave Elodie a sympathetic look.
Athos made explicit the Treville-as-father example to help Aramis decide on the Queen’s job offer (that’s Athos who is about to be a father, while Porthos adopts another man’s child, even naming her Crepe Suzette, while there’s no sign that Constance has changed her mind about making babies, she and D’Artagnan will replace Treville in turning cadets into musketeers – men who can in turn father others, literally or symbolically, which is where this episode ended).
So, perhaps all of this build up made me rather love ANNE, MY QUEEN! taking up Milady’s services. And yes, Milady took a swipe at her ‘You’ll be alone in your empty bed with your conscience,’ says Milady who was Louis’s mistress, but Anne was hiring her to kill Gaston who wanted to kill her son!? I think Anne's conscience will mostly be fine with that – she seemed pretty steely about it to me. The Milady-Gaston scene was also fun and let Milady be Milady.
So, Porthos said adieu, Bujon got his elevation and, to his surprise, so did D’Artagnan,
Athos’s mission of great importance was basically a roadtrip with Sylvie – right? Beyond giving D’Artagnan a fine hat, even if he was tired from the effort of killing Grimaud, I found it hard to believe that he and Sylvie would leave Paris like that.
But if he wanted to give D’Artagnan a moment with his fine new hat, fair enough.
After playing gooseberry to three other couples, crowned by swelling music and an ABOVE ALL THINGS LOVE speech/voice-over from Athos, Aramis, looking fine in civvies, got to watch over his son and make out with Anne, who was wearing something almost plain for her.
SIGH. I quite like all the canonical ships we've ended up with - Porthos/Elodie needed more time and Athos/Sylvie did a little bit too much twisting and return WRT the past with Milady, which I think is partly down to how Sylive was written, too, but married!D'Artagnan/Constance have been a treat, with what screentime they've had, and with Louis out of the way and Anne being able to be the Queen the country needs, I am squeeful that she and Aramis have a chance. (The fact that they havne't named their child is surely going to be a pain for fic writers.) I can live with the Musketeers were separated, but alive and with a chance to be happy.
