Rohan’s world is slowly crashing around him in Marie Antoinette season 2, episode 5, but he may have friends in the right places. Meanwhile, Jeanne needs the right friends that she doesn’t quite have.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Marie Antoinette season 2, episode 5.
The latest episode of Marie Antoinette stars with the very public arrest of Cardinal Rohan. Everyone knows how damaging this it, and it doesn’t take Provance long to point out that the entire Rohan family will come to the cardinal’s defense.
However, Louis and Antoinette need to get to the bottom of Rohan buying the necklace now that the jeweler has accused him of theft. Rohan tells them all about Jeanne and the charity, but it’s only as he’s being taken away that Antoinette listens to him comments about the charity. Now he needs to know where Jeanne is.
Jeanne lies start to come out in Marie Antoinette season 2, episode 5
While Rohan is arrested, Jeanne uses it as a chance to break into his apartment and steal the letters. She also finds pornographic pictures in his drawer, but she doesn’t take them. All she came for was the letters, as she doesn’t want to get caught.
Of course, it doesn’t take long for her charity to be exposed and for her to be arrested. She’s going to be charged with charity fraud, which while bad, is not as bad as theft. Antoinette offers her a chance to a lighter sentence, though. She will need to testify against Rohan in court.
Jeanne isn’t interested in doing that at first, but she does when Antoinette talks about how small the prison cell will be. She tells Antoinette that Cagliostro was also behind the whole thing with Rohan.
It’s going to be hard for anyone else to give her sympathy, though. Lambelle tells Antoinette that she fell for the charity and many other women did. They wanted to provide for innocent children, with some of them having personal reasons to do so.
This is one of the first times we see Antoinette reconnect with Lambelle. As Yolande is quick to ridicule Lambelle, Antoinette points out that she understands what it’s like to be so lonely that you are easily scammed. She doesn’t blame Lambelle, but is this the way to mend their friendship?
The Rohan family come to defend the cardinal
Meanwhile, the Rohan family shows up in full force. They are not impressed with the king’s actions, and they want him to see sense with this idea of the public trial.
Everyone is on the Rohan family side. They know how important it is to treat this situation discreetly. It’s no wonder that Louis and Antoinette start to lose the respect of the people. They are doing everything to anger those around them.
It also doesn’t help that Louis’s brother, Provance, wants the throne, and Chartres is out for the throne as well and wants revenge against Antoinette. With the two of them continually working against Louis, it’s only a matter of time before Louis loses everything.
Chartes even offers Rohan a great lawyer, one that he was saving for himself. He’s happy to share as it means that Antoinette is pulled down even further with the trial.
At the same time, Felicite is working against the royal family, as she has her own gains. She wants France to be like America and become a republic. She also wants equal rights for women, and she’s sure that Chartres is the way to gain all of that. It’s probably not, though. Chartres doesn’t want equal rights for women. It’s funny how so many men are scared of the idea of women having equal rights.
Provance continues to rally support for himself in Marie Antoinette
As all that goes on, Provance has his own plan. He learns that Louis wants to bring in a land tax for the wealthy. What Provance doesn’t realize is just how much the country is bankrupt. If he knew that, he would probably find another way to bring his brother down, because he is going to inherit this huge issue. For now, though, he sees this as an option.
He decides to get word to parliament about the entire situation. He also makes Louis look like he is going mad. Finding out there’s a lunar eclipse, Provance convinces Louis to head to a specific location that night. He then takes a member of Parliament via that location so the man can see Louis. While Parliament would usually stand by Louis, if he isn’t fit to reign, then they are not going to back him. They need to back someone else.
That’s either going to be Provance or Chartres. Well, we all know who Parliament will want to back considering they want to keep the royal institution intact.
The very end of the episode makes it clear that Antoinette’s plan to get Jeanne to help take Rohan down isn’t going to work. Villette has been found and beaten unconscious. Placed in a coffin, it looks like he’s going to end up imprisoned and forced to make a choice.
Marie Antoinette airs Sundays at 10/9c on PBS.
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