We’ve made it to the penultimate episode of the season, and hot damn, have they started out strong! We arrive back in the wonderful world that Deb Harkness has created for us to find Matthew and Diana making their way to Goody Alsop. Surprisingly they find out some astounding and seemingly impossible news…
Diana begins her work with the knots, the threads of the universe. She makes it all the way to “With knot of Seven, the spell will waken.” And this magical utterance brings forth one of the most beloved creatures from the book series to fully-fleshed out life on the screen – the Firedrake – Corra. She arrives on our screens in all her splendor!
While Matthew feels the weight of Queen Elizabeth’s displeasure at his failure to retrieve her subject Kelley from Bohemia, Diana is tricked by Marlowe into thinking that Matthew is in trouble. She finds herself easily led to an isolated and remote location. With the Queen knowing that Matthew desires the infamous Book of Life, while she holds him in her chambers, she sends men to scour his lodgings and bring over every single book they find. So we see when one of the men discovers the book hidden beneath a wooden board on the floor. But our disappointment is short-lived, as we see Gallowglass stop the men before they leave. Young Jack sneaks toward the peacocking men and takes back Diana’s book. Always handy to have a pickpocket around, especially one as adorable as him.
As charming as our male protagonist is, Matthew eventually soothes the Queen’s fears and worries. He even gifts her a drop of his blood to soothe her toothache. This was also picked right from the pages of the original books. He commented to Diana on their first date that the wine they were drinking smelled like “candied violets. Elizabeth Tudor absolutely adored them, though they ruined her teeth.” The commitment to keeping the heart of the novels alive in the television series is something that is highly appreciated by fans of the trilogy. She takes it and allows him to press the bead of blood into the gum above the teeth that trouble her most. She laments that his blood could make her immortal. Matthew becomes uncommonly candid. He tells her there will be no Spanish Invasion and that the witches need not concern her. Part of this seems like simply buttering her up, but he is speaking facts. Surprisingly he trusts her with the truth that his wife is a Time Spinner. With that, he wraps up her confidence in him, sealing it forever.
Matthew returns home to find the house in disarray after the Queen’s men ransacked the house. Jack takes him by surprise when he shows him the book he stole. But his brief pleasure is nullified when they hear that she left Goody Alsop’s hours ago and no one has seen her. We then jump to an ambush of Louisa DeClermont. After toying with her dinner, she hands the pistol to Marlowe, who, upon aiming it at Diana, she dips into her depthless knowledge of literature and speaks the words of his poem. She knows no one in this time period has yet seen it.
“It lies not in our power to love or hate, for will in us is overruled by fate. When two are stripped long ere the course begins, we wish that one shall lose, the other win. Where both are deliberate, the love is slight. Whoever loved, that loved not at first sight?” – Hero and Leander. K. Marlowe.
After Diana wins over Marlowe, Louise pistol whips him, knocking him to the ground. Not holding any punches, she fires a shot, but Corra protects Diana from the bullet, leading her to reassert control, deciding on their deaths until Matthew arrives and stops her.
After some deliberation, Matthew admits that his blood rage still pushes him to possess her, body and soul. Knowing this will be alleviated once he feeds on her, Diana encourages him to. And does her own Wiccan version of seeing into his soul after he’s finished. The series leaves us on an oddly calm end to an episode. Granted that the next episode is the season finale, we can expect a LOT of events to come!
