Period Drama "The Borgias" ended its three-season run last Sunday with an episode entitled "The Prince." This one centred on Francois Arnaud's Cesare, as he successfully took Forlis from nemesis Caterina Sforza (Gina McKee), and her as his prisoner. Rodrigo (Jeremy Irons) placed ultimate trust in his son, laying out his vision of a Papal empire ruled by Cesare.
Meanwhile, Lucrezia (Holliday Grainger) continued to struggle with finding happiness in her marriage to Alfonso of Aragon (Sebastian De Souza). The culprit; persistent rumours of her incestuous relationship with Cesare, who upon returning to Rome plots his brother-in-law's murder using an assassin. He ends up doing the deed himself when Alfonso comes after him with a sword after returning home following a night of drinking.
The final scene is on Alfonso's deathbed. Cesare arrives to find Lucrezia laying beside her dying husband covered with his blood, and lovingly caresses her face. "I cannot wash this blood off," she says. Cesare offers to strip her wash it from her body.
I've read about behind-the-scenes drama, and how it was planned to follow Rodrigo until his death. Also about how plans for a movie just to wrap up all the storylines were nixed. There is even a #SaveTheBorgias hashtag on twitter. I'd love to see the tv movie, but I'd be careful of another season. I think there was a risk of the whole 'incest' angle taking over, and moving it too far towards becoming a 'soap opera.' It was only rumoured incest.
I'm satisfied with the way it ended. There was no cliff-hanger; just a single dramatic moment. I could easily see stopping in to visit the lives of these characters in a year or two down the road. The one major cliff-hanger moment was with Micheletto; is he dead? Cesare only dreamed he was. I loved him, and I think he'd make a good character for a spin-off if they had one.
The way the episode was done from Cesare's point of view left open the possibility they could even go beyond Rodrigo's death with stories told from his point of view, and that could be a direction to take it.
They could go either way, or just leave it as it ended.
No comments:
Post a Comment