‘The Serpent Queen’ Recap: ‘The Price’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Three of ‘The Serpent Queen’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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Over the course of the past couple of weeks, we’ve talked at length about how the STARZ miniseries, The Serpent Queen, has done a phenomenal job of providing us with a comprehensive study on how people that history considers to be bad… are forged into their evil through choice. Dark choices of course, ones that produce results that encourage them to continue along that path. But what’s truly impressive about this aspect of the show and why it continues to deserve merit and deconstruction, is the sheer fact that the series is exploring that in such detail, that we are becoming privy to every single choice that created the Serpent Queen in question. For the first two episodes have featured those small choices, the ones that get people a taste of what breaking bad can do for them. 
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Which is why choice is of note today. For the next episode in this series opted to push Catherine de’ Medici into the next phase of her dark growth. For ‘The Price’ is a story that prompted Catherine to make a hard, hard choice. One that would truly test her like never before and task her as to whether or not this was the path she wanted to go down, and it accomplished this feat, by plunging her into a world of uncontrollable nightmares. For this is a story that saw her beloved husband return to France… with another spare lady. One that just so happened to sire a child for him while he was out on the battlefield and that of course, left Catherine beside herself, since she loved him so and didn’t think that kind of betrayal in the name of sowing oats was possible. 

While she dealt with that, with Diane’s help, other problems came into the mix as well. Since the Dauphin’s camp was beyond upset that they didn’t get want they wanted in the deal with Italy, and they started to ponder upon how best to upend royal matters in the hopes of giving the Dauphin more agency. For Henry was now the golden child and that could bring harm to agendas and stature and sadly… that prompted some in that camp to try and harm Catherine. But before justice could be served properly regarding that, the Dauphin died of a heart defect. Something the idiot King could not process and he of course, decreed this to be nothing more than an act against the crown and the perpetrator, who somehow poisoned his boy, had to pay, and pay dearly.

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Which prompted the remnant of the Dauphin’s advisors to try and pin this on Catherine, since she was the one who accused the Dauphin of trying to harm her and well… therein lie the choice. For when a suspect was arrested, her dressmaker no less, she merely had to decree him as the man that poisoned the firstborn son of King Francis, and she did just that. Condemning that man to a horrible fate and that forced her to see the horror of such a decision, and that moment also forced her to make another choice. Live with the price of such choices and truly see them as a chance at staying alive and gaining agency and power and stature, especially since she was finally with child… or take the high road that the rest of us would. And of course, after being beat down emotionally for so long and having so many try to deny her life and freedom… she chose the low road and embraced her actions.
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A move that pushed her deeper into the darkness and of course, put her on a terrifying path. Because once a person realizes they can emotionally handle putting someone to death in the name of their needs, the next one becomes easy and the next easier still. Not to mention, it makes everyone expendable in that’s person’s eyes. For now, it is all about getting what they deserve, and what they want and if someone needs to be pushed aside to make that happen so be it. A reality that put the fear of God into her advisors and friends, the ones that took the time to feed her the truth about what was happening behind the scenes, since they realized one wrong step, or one inopportune moment, would come back to haunt them dearly.  

That likely means, we are entering a dark chapter of this story for certain, one that will show us how Catherine truly honed her skills by handling those that deny her agency in a similar manner, and it will be fascinating to see how far she will go to find that and of course… power… as this fascinating and detailed journey continues along. But while we wait to see that come to fruition, we can truly celebrate one quality and engaging tale. One that genuinely held nothing back in its exploration of how those choices can quickly present themselves to a person in power, and how easily it is to cross that line. Since it took Catherine but a moment to do so, a reality that definitely gives one pause and serves to remind us… how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Until next time.

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