The Musketeers - 'The Good Traitor', 'Emilie' and 'The Return'

It seldom pays to fuck with anyone played by Colin Salmon.

We had a bit of a catch up on The Musketeers this week, starting with 'The Good Traitor', in which Spanish General Tariq Alaman (Colin Salmon) offers France a devastating new kind of gunpowder if the Musketeers can help to rescue his daughter (because all sympathetic generals in this series have sexy daughters of about the Musketeers' age.)

This episode brings up a number of interesting things about The Musketeers, most obviously that - unlike say Merlin or Atlantis, it doesn't use colourblind casting. This is because it is actually a show that is interested in race. Alaman and his daughter are Spanish Moors, betrayed by their country; Alaman's protege turned persecutor Balthazar spits racism, while his daughter Samara tells Porthos that France will one day turn on him. This dovetails with a developing subplot across these three episodes: General de Fois from 'Keep Your Friends Close' has left Porthos a bequest and Treville won't explain why. The audience knows it is about his parentage, so now we all wonder who his dad is and how that will affect his acceptance.

Next for Crusaders

As is the way with this series so far, the episode also sees the Musketeers either not actually succeeding, or by sticking to their code displeasing the King. In this case, they save the girl but not the secret formula (and of course the dad buys it; they always do,) while 'Emilie' follows the latter scenario. The Musketeers are more or less sent to assassinate a prophetess mustering a peasant militia for a war against Spain. Discovering that she is an honest woman being used as a puppet prophet, they instead persuade her to stand down her force, but the King - who wanted blood - finally dismisses Treville as Captain of the Musketeers.

'Emilie' also has a watershed moment for the Queen and Aramis, as Anne takes a risk to save lives and almost loses hers, precipitating a reunion with her Musketeer (and the ditching of the royal nanny, who is almost at once scooped up as a source by Rochefort.) Of course, the Aramis business is likely to seriously moulder Rochefort's rind, as he is clearly obsessed with the Queen well beyond his desire to rule France through her. Other than this unknown bump in his designs, things are going swimmingly for him, with the King adoring him more than anyone bar new squeeze Milady and the latter deployed to terminally terminate his deal with the Spanish.

A final development across these two episodes is in the relationship between the Queen and Constance. Kidnapping the Dauphin to see his fever properly treated almost has Constance executed, but ultimately secures her the Queen's favour. This is confirmed when she is chosen to escort Anne to visit Emilie.

"Can you not afford even a single unripped shirt on a
Musketeer's salary? Maybe you could shop where that
peasant prophet goes."

All - or from another point of view, as this is a standalone episode with character notes for Athos, none - of which brings us to 'The Return'. During a major drunk, Athos is kidnapped by the tenants of his estate and brought to defend them against his neighbours' rapacious land-grabbing. Baron Renard and his idiot son are suitably vile, at one point kidnapping the featured village girl for a ritualised rape which is thankfully interrupted. In some ways, however, the real villain of the piece is Athos' late brother's former fiancee, initially nudged in as the episode's love interest, but revealed to be exactly the same kind of elitist swine as the Baron.

Catherine is mostly there as a set-up for later, I think, as she seems determined to bring some vigilante justice to the King's mistress, and the bulk of 'The Return' is given over to the Magnificent Seven-style showdown as the villagers defend their homes and usher in a spirit of early Republicanism.

On the strength of these three episodes, the second season of The Musketeers is more than holding its own, and exceeding the standards of the first. It's really getting its teeth into the character - despite the loss of the Cardinal - and even managing some decent commentary on liberty and equality.