‘Mary & George’ Recap, Episode 6: ‘The Queen is Dead’

Mary and George

The queen is dead

season 1

Episode 6

Editor’s Rating

4 stars

****

Photo: Starz

If you were there for the decimation of queer characters in 2016, you will understand my pain that this episode caused. In 2016, if you were queer, fictional, and on TV, your time was probably limited—especially if you were a woman. So imagine my surprise when a queer female character is killed off in the series where everyone seems to be queer by default. It’s not like we’re drowning in women here in James England either.

Our number of female characters is as follows: We have Mary, but she’s Julianne Moore, so she’s not going anywhere; Queen Anne, also now dead; Sandie, George’s wife, whose name I forget because she was hardly there; Frances, who disappeared; Frances’ mother, Lady Hatton, who has disappeared; and George’s sister, who also disappeared. Oh, and Countess Somerset, who we’re led to believe died at the hands of the state but historically survived. So if you say that we now have two women among our men, then yes. I’d like to be a Lady Catherine de Bourgh who says, “I’m pretty upset,” except I’m more like a Marianne climbing a hill in the rain, Looking lost at what could have been.

Don’t kill queer characters! You have suffered enough!

Okay, I’ll get to the other events of the episode. In England too, everyone is angry about the killing of fictional queer women. Just kidding! They are absolutely furious about the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh and the role Spain played in it. In 17th century England, they expressed this by dressing up a pig as King James and throwing it into a fire while shouting “King James, Spain Fucker.” Hmmm. James is now in his palace and says: “Well, yeah. Here we are.” To be honest, I don’t know how I would react to that either. It seems like a pig’s waste.

James experiments with avoidance behaviors such as staying in his room, not ruling, not burying his wife, and acting out Greek scenes with various ladies-in-waiting. They’re not even sexy tableaux; they are just silly. Get it together, James (he won’t). Meanwhile, Charles loses his temper because his mother hasn’t been buried yet, because James is out of money and won’t open Parliament because he hates it. To be fair, Parliament seems very annoying, especially given the rise of the Puritans. But the King needs Parliament to raise taxes, and it has not been convened for six years. James is in a bind about whether to bury the queen, but he doesn’t really think about it. He hasn’t even gone to pay his respects to Queen Anne (see also “Avoidance Behavior”).

James also appears to be avoiding George, who now has long hair. I don’t know what I think about the long hair! It’s Nicholas Galitzine, so he can do it, but it’s not my favorite. George punished Mary as best he could, but that doesn’t stop her from telling him that he’s called the “Marquis of Fuckingham” in taverns. This is very good. Everyone spends this episode telling Mary how little power she has incite, and I wouldn’t encourage someone as morally devoid of morals and as adept at scheming as Mary. Didn’t any of you realize what she was capable of? Or how quickly do blows of fate occur in court? And now you’ve removed the thing she cares about most. So what does she have to lose? I imagine someone saying “Susan” and Mary saying “Who?” Poor Susan. I had to look up her name as she is almost never mentioned. I hope she was able to marry this guy.

George and Charles talk about James and George tells Charles that James needs to be constantly reminded that he loves you or he will forget you. Due to this very unfortunate fact, George, Charles and some other gentlemen carry the Queen’s coffin into James’ room and place it on his bed, forcing James to take care of it. And he does – he reopens Parliament and tells them that they are eagles pecking out Prometheus’s liver, but in a way they find it funny and everyone except Sir Edward Coke shouts, “God save him.” King.”

There is a lot of political shenanigans between Francis Bacon, George and Diego Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador. Essentially, Diego paid off both of them to keep James on Spain’s side, but now Sir Edward is running an anti-corruption committee, so everyone is screwed, and by “everyone” I mostly mean these two guys.

Before Francis is threatened by the committee, he locks Sandie up for murder, which is fair because she’s guilty, but no one wants that either. Mary begs Sir Edward to release Sandie and he basically tells her to fuck off. So Sandie might be left hanging and Mary is desperate, but she also has very little influence right now. Until! Sir Edward comes for George and Kit (I love Kit). They escape through the back yard while George’s very pregnant wife Katherine (I looked it up!) tries to seduce Sir Edward into letting George off the hook. It almost works, but then he gets the very puritanical “I will not succumb to the temptations of the flesh” thing about it. Katherine is truly a team player.

Sir Edward is looking for evidence of corruption, and since there is a lot of it, George and Kit don’t know what to do except seek out Mary. Mary gets them both to apologize, but especially George. As they should; he was terrible. She says that if George can secure a pardon for Miss Brooks (Sandie), she will make it right. The plan is to sacrifice Bacon by getting evidence from Diego that Diego paid him. This plan works, and Bacon confesses before Parliament and is stripped of his titles, his lands, and his place in court.

But then Bacon, now suffering from smallpox, visits George and asks for a small act of personal revenge, to which George agrees, because MEN. This act is of course about murdering Sandie. Right from the start, he pays off the woman who threw the king pig into the fire, and she stabs Sandie in the throat when Sandie thinks she’s on her way to freedom. JUST NOT COOL, SHOW.

We only have one episode left and there isn’t much time left for James’ reign. We’ll find out how Mary reacts to Sandie’s death, and for the sake of drama, I hope she kills George. Can you introduce? But I’m content to let her tear down everything else in the wake of her icy rage. That sounds pretty good too.