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llywela"I can't rest until I know the truth."
Disclaimer: I wrote this ages ago and wasn't going to post it, because I have so many incomplete review projects already and already know up-front that I won't finish this one either, especially since I have so very little free time at the moment - this was written over a period of about a month, in tiny snatches here and there! I managed to complete four out of ten first season episodes before my time blew up and the project came to a grinding halt, and I was planning to just keep them for myself and not bother posting at all. But what the heck, LJ has given me extra storage capacity, so I decided to throw this one up anyway, just because. Feel free to scroll on past - but be warned, the recap got very long, once I got going, so it has to be split over three entries.
Further disclaimer: I made the screencaps below, but not the gifs*, which have been collected piecemeal from around Teh Interwebz, credit at the end.
Also, I've slightly back-dated this post, so no one is going to see it anyway!
So. The Musketeers! I always end up recapping my favourite shows in the end, if only in part, so perhaps it was inevitable that I'd be unable to resist going over this one, at least in part, now it is over, since I really did love it and have many thoughts about it.
Okay, so the show may not be high art and it may never win any awards, but it is an excellent example of what it is: a rollicking, swashbuckling action-adventure series, full of friendship, romance and drama, imperfect but loads of fun. I don't expect anyone to read this, I was just having a re-watch and one thought led to another, and I found myself scribbling notes, because that's a thing that I do, and then expanded on those notes, and then I was dipping into my collection of gifs and screencaps, and now here we are. Writing all this was pure self-indulgence, scratching an itch – sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes serious, just like the show itself.
'Friends and Enemies' is where it all starts.
Country Road
In the beginning, there's a lot of rain and mud and washed out cinematography as a young man named d'Artagnan rides toward Paris with his dad, blissfully unaware that his life is about to be changed forever.
D'ARTAGNAN JR: Come on, you're tired, Father. We should stop here.
D'ARTAGNAN SR: Paris is only a few hours away.
D'ARTAGNAN JR: Paris will still be there in the morning.
D'ARTAGNAN SR: Look, I could ride all night. But if you're saying you need to rest...
Okay, so it's kind of cheesy, but it immediately establishes a warm and loving bond between father and son, which we need to understand up front to make sense of who d'Artagnan Junior is and why he reacts the way he does to what follows.
Country Inn
The d'Artagnans escape the torrential rain by stopping for the night at a roadside inn, Junior taking the horses to the stable while his father, by virtue of seniority, heads into the warmly fire-lit bar to book a room and dry off. The place is quiet – just one patron slumbering in a corner and the landlord nowhere to be seen.
First sequence and I'm already enjoying the detail of the period setting – the dirt floor of the inn and the dangling horseshoe used as a bell to summon the innkeeper, etc. Show might take liberties with the period authenticity (and timeline) here and there, but it is always internally consistent in its detailing, building a rich and immersive world for its characters to populate. The sets and cinematography are absolutely gorgeous throughout.
Country Road
But all is not well, for a large group of masked horsemen is also heading for the inn, accompanied by ominous music.
Country Inn
LANDLORD: Heading for Paris, Monsieur?
ALEXANDRE: Ah, yes. To petition the King on Gascony's behalf. His new taxes are an intolerable burden.
BAR PATRON: Too right. This country is going to hell. Michel Fournier at your service.
ALEXANDRE: Alexandre d'Artagnan at yours.
I'm just going to note for the record here that the intolerable taxation of Gascony is a subject so very dear to their hearts that d'Artagnan Junior never mentions it again. More importantly, however, d'Artagnan Senior now has a forename, which allows us to distinguish one d'Artagnan from t'other, since his son is never given a personal name, ever – and see how easy it was for Alexandre and Fournier to introduce themselves with full names! Why can't all the characters do that? In three seasons of the show, d'Artagnan Junior's first name (Charles was the name of the actual historical person the character was originally based on) is never once stated on-screen. He is simply d'Artagnan, not even his dad addresses him by any other name – and neither does his wife, when (spoiler alert) he eventually marries. In this, the show follows on from Dumas' original novels, which are also coy on the subject of the forenames of certain characters, I guess because surnames were used as a matter of form, social etiquette…but Show can be a bit weird about it. I think Aramis comes off worst here. Over three full seasons, everyone acts as if 'Aramis' is both his real name and the only name he has. The source material makes absolutely no bones about it being a nickname and gives his real name as René d'Herblay – ironically, he's the only one of the famous four whose full name is given in the books – but here? Is Aramis meant to be his first name? Is it his surname? Who can tell? It's like if someone made a show about Dwayne Johnson and pretended The Rock was his real name throughout.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
FOURNIER: The Cardinal bleeds us dry. It would never have happened under the old King.
Exposition by way of dialogue to flesh out the political landscape being set up as a backdrop to the show: the Cardinal clearly recognised as the power behind the throne, or at the very least held responsible for the more unpopular measures adopted by the current regime. How long is Louis XIII supposed to have been on the throne at this point? Season one is set in 1630 (although early drafts of the script say 1625) and Louis ascended the throne in 1610, in actual history, so he's been in power 20 years at this point…or would have been, if this was the real world, but the show kind of exists in a little universe of its own, and doesn't always match real world history or timelines. Still, whatever the timeline, it is in keeping with human nature that people would be looking back through rose-tinted glasses to the perceived halcyon days of the past, especially given the turbulent circumstances of Louis's early (and, let's face it, current) reign, of which we will learn more in later episodes.
Outside the Inn
While Alexandre is talking politics at the bar, outside the masked horsemen have arrived and we get our first glimpse of Musketeer uniforms as they dismount. A subtle detail I really like here is that they are all wearing their (spoiler alert) stolen pauldrons on the wrong shoulder – left instead of right. It's such a tiny little detail, easily missed, coming so early, before we've even met any true musketeers. Only looking back, once we've got to know the Musketeers properly, can you notice this mistake made by the imposters.
Their leader helpfully re-arranges his scarf so that we get a good look at his face before he heads into the inn, gun in hand. This is a stick-up.
Inside the Inn
BANDIT: My name is Athos, of the King's Musketeers. Kindly empty your pockets of money and jewellery. If you want to live, do it now.
Dun, dun, DUN...
Well, okay, nice try, Show, it's a decent attempt at a twist, casting doubt on the integrity of one of the famous Three Musketeers in the opening sequence, but I can't imagine anyone fell for it for a moment. Not least because if the famous Athos really was running around the countryside robbing and murdering, I very much doubt he would make such a point of telling everyone his name and job title while he did it! It's a very obvious fit-up job.
Alexandre gets a smack about the face with a pistol butt just to show the robbers mean business, so the landlord and Fournier are quick to hand over their cash.
Stable
In the stable, young d'Artagnan Junior is seeing to the horses when two armed men sneak up behind him. Caught unawares, he is swiftly captured and shaken down for anything of value, his weapons quickly taken from him.
Inside the Inn
ALEXANDRE: I was told the Musketeers were honourable men. I see that I was misinformed.
BANDIT: You think this is bad? I'm only just getting started.
It's the signal for the shooting to begin. Michel Fournier is shot before he can surreptitiously pull his own gun – and then Alexandre d'Artagnan is also gunned down, for no other reason than he happened to be standing there. Alas poor Alexandre, he doesn't even make it out of the opening sequence, his death serving as the Inciting Incident to propel d'Artagnan Junior into his story arc for the episode while also cutting him adrift to set up his Lead Protagonist character arc for the season.
Stable
D'Artagnan, still held at gunpoint in the stable, hears the gunshots and just freezes, and I really appreciate the subtlety of Luke Pasqualino's acting in this moment. D'Artagnan hadn't realised until this moment that there were more robbers here than just the two menacing him, and hadn't seemed afraid up till now, merely annoyed – but now he is terrified, not for himself but for his dad. Nicely played.
Already stripped of his own weapons, he reacts immediately, shoving Bandit#1 away and then whirling to grapple with Bandit#2, shooting #1 with #2's gun, and then whipping #2's sword from its hilt – so now we know Our Young Hero has skills to take into his future career as (spoiler alert) a musketeer.
Outside the Inn
The rest of the bandits are fleeing, having accomplished what they set out to do. D'Artagnan's hapless opponent rushes out and makes good his escape with them, leaving d'Artagnan frustrated – and his little burst of rage here is our first glimpse at the temper he is going to need to learn how to control. That will be part of his character arc going forward.
Then Alexandre staggers out of the inn. Focused on the robbers, d'Artagnan doesn't realise his father is injured until he collapses in the mud – naming Athos as his murderer with his dying breath.
Again, Athos is one of the famous Three Musketeers, so I'm fairly certain not a single viewer would have fallen for the set-up here, but young d'Artagnan, in his grief, falls for it hook, line and sinker. Now, in the source material, d'Artagnan is as sharp as a bag of knives and cunning as a den full of foxes and would never fall for such a ruse, he's always on the lookout for trickery. Here, he is neither so bright nor so sceptical, although he gets to keep his courage, skill, impetuosity and idealism. Aramis, when we meet him, suffers similarly, but gains a shedload of warmth, heart and charisma to compensate for the loss of the razor-sharp intellect of his much colder, more introverted, and highly ambitious book counterpart, whereas Porthos is given reverse treatment, in effect, as the show allows him to be both clever and competent in stark contrast to the comedic buffoon he is in the books. Of the four, the melancholy, aristocratic Athos bears the closest resemblance to his book-self. Now, ordinarily I would be looking askance at such deviation from the source material, since book adaptations that claim to be faithful yet make significant changes without acknowledging that they've done so always irritate me enormously, but The Musketeers is different because it makes no pretence of being a direct adaptation of the books, instead choosing to simply take its inspiration from that source and reinvent the familiar story as something completely new. I'm good with that...although I will continue to refer to the books from time to time, for comparative purposes.
In this instance, d'Artagnan can hardly be blamed for taking the situation at face value and not looking any deeper than that, as he sits in the mud watching the robbers flee while his father dies in his arms.
ROLL CREDITS
I will freely admit, I found the boppy theme tune and pop art title sequence more than a little off-putting at first, but they gradually grew on me – and certainly set the tone for the show, which is primarily light-hearted, although capable of being both deadly serious and highly emotional when it chooses. That versatility and tonal variety is one of the things I really love about the show.
Athos's Quarters
After the titles, we are in Paris to meet the Three Musketeers themselves, the Inseparables: Athos, Porthos and Aramis. We start with Athos, the real Athos, just waking up in his painfully Spartan quarters, fully clothed and horribly hung over, empty wine bottles scattered about the floor. The visual paints a very clear picture, no dialogue needed.
He finds a few drops at the bottom of a bottle to break his fast and plays unhappily with the locket worn about his neck to ensure we notice it, although he doesn't yet open it to show what's inside. Then he opens the window to bring in a bucket of frozen water into which he plunges his entire head, which is quite the wake-up call.
Still barely able to get his feet under him, he then performs a few perfunctory lunges and exercises, growing visibly steadier and more alert in the process, but it is only as he straps on his uniform to face the day ahead that he seems to fully come to life, as if that uniform is what holds him together.
Streets of Paris
By the time Athos heads out into the streets of Paris, he is the very picture of an upright, professional soldier, striding along in business-like fashion.
This is our introduction to Athos: brooding, alcohol dependent, haunted by his own personal demons. Duty is what gets him through the day.
Inn
Elsewhere in Paris, another Musketeer is in a bar, playing cards with a Red Guard named Dujon and having an absolute blast. He's big and strong, with an elaborately decorated uniform, a cheeky smile and a deep belly laugh. This is Porthos.
Athos arrives just in time to see him accused of cheating, but Porthos is not what you'd call overly concerned.
ATHOS: What's going on?
PORTHOS: Dujon and I were having a discussion about personal integrity.
DUJON: Your friend had the King up his sleeve.
PORTHOS: Oh, that's slander. Tell him, Athos.
ATHOS: Don't involve me in this.
Dujon promptly pulls a gun on Porthos…who still isn't the slightest bit concerned. Athos doesn't seem too worried either.
ATHOS: Shoot him and its murder.
DUJON: One less Musketeer. Who cares?
PORTHOS: Fine words from a Red Guard.
ATHOS: There's only one way to resolve this. A duel between gentlemen, supervised according to the strict code of honour.
DUJON: Fine. In a fair fight, I'm a match for anyone.
PORTHOS: Confidence. I like that in a man.
DUJON: Still, why fight fair when you might lose?
Porthos isn't wearing his sword belt – and Dujon now kicks it away, just so we know the Red Guard are antagonists here. Athos protests that attacking an unarmed opponent defies every principle of chivalry…so Porthos picks up a fork, delighted by his own audacity.
ATHOS: Close enough.
Beneath the humorous surface of the scene, there's a lot of character nuance going on here, an excellent introduction to the pair, who are a study in contrasts. Solid-as-a-rock Porthos is articulate, cheerful and confident, all life and laughter, full of bluster and bravado but with an edge of steel. His casual, careless attitude invites his opponent to underestimate him, but the eyes are shrewd, missing nothing. Not a man to be dismissed lightly. I'd never seen Howard Charles in anything before, but love him already – just watch the subtle undertones to his performance in this scene as he sizes up his opponent and finds him wanting. Athos, meanwhile, is caustic and disinterested, well-spoken, elegant and noble; he's reluctant to get involved, but supports his friend anyway – and enjoys the show thoroughly. This, we will learn, is typical of Athos, an angst-soaked character whose rare smiles are almost uniquely reserved for his enjoyment of the idiosyncrasies of his friends.
Athos lets Porthos have his fun for a while, but then intercedes to end the fight with a pistol butt to the head of Dujon.
PORTHOS: What happened to the code?
ATHOS: Oh, who has time? Treville wants to see us.
Also, Porthos actually was cheating, we learn, and merely shrugs that he should work on his technique. These, it is obvious, are not quite the traditional Musketeers of legend, but rather are something much earthier, more real and relatable, and I love them for it already.
ATHOS: Where's Aramis?
PORTHOS: …
ATHOS: Tell me he's not that stupid.
And thus we get a neat segue to the introduction of Aramis, who, it turns out, really is that stupid…
Adele Bessette's House
…he's having an affair with the Cardinal's mistress, Adele Bessette, and we first encounter him in her bed in a state of undress. Thank you, writers and director, thank you very much! Both are perhaps a little too well clothed to be quite as post-coital as they are meant to be, but we'll run with it. I'm going to head-canon that after spending the night together they'd begun to dress for the day, but then distracted each other all over again, which is where we come in, and it's a sexy enough scene even with the clothes!
Aramis is relaxed and sleepy while Adele is in a playful mood, curious to know the stories behind his various scars.
ADELE: This?
ARAMIS: Stabbed in combat at the siege of Montauban in '21.
ADELE: And this one?
ARAMIS: Musket ball at the Ile de Re, '22.
ADELE: Poor Aramis. And this one?
ARAMIS: Your nails, at the Luxembourg Gardens, the day before yesterday.
Since we've already seen a title card proclaiming this 1630, we thus learn that he's a veteran with a long and active military career behind him, and on that note, another point to ponder here is that in the original books, Aramis is the youngest of the three Inseparables by quite some margin: at 22 when we first meet him he is closer in age to 18-year-old d'Artagnan than to Athos, who is approaching 30, with Porthos somewhere in between. The ages of the characters in the show are never specified, but Santiago Cabrera is the oldest of the four lead actors, he was about 34/35 when season one was filmed, head-hunted for the part because Executive Producer Jessica Pope thought he'd be ideal, so the character was designed with him in mind. He's probably playing a good few years younger at this point but since the battles Aramis mentions here took place eight and nine years before the show opens, the character is clearly meant to be older and more experienced than his book counterpart. It is implied that he's had the longest military career of the four leads, and much of his character is built around this revised concept of him as an experienced career soldier.
Full of charm and sensuality, Aramis is just getting into the swing of his foreplay when Adele kills the mood by mentioning that 'Armand' will be arriving soon.
ARAMIS: He doesn't love you as I do.
You know, once we've met and got to know the Cardinal, we can see that he's probably right about that, in a way, they each regard her very differently, the one as an object of desire and the other as an object of possession, but I also wonder if that's just a line or if he truly does believe himself to be in love. Does he care about Adele for who she is, or is she just a conquest, a challenge, the Cardinal's own mistress? They talk about previous liaisons and plan to see one another again, so we know this is an ongoing affair rather than a one night tryst, but how committed is he really? His status as the libertine romantic of the team is already clear. He becomes a bit downcast when Adele reminds him that 'Armand' pays for her lifestyle, so we know he is batting way above his paygrade here, throwing up some interesting contrasts and parallels with his book counterpart, who is always involved in some intrigue or other with a string of powerful women, but generally more for reasons of personal ambition than we ever see with show!Aramis, who is far more interested in sex than politics and exhibits almost no personal ambition whatsoever. Vanity is the primary note of commonality between the two versions of the character!
'Armand' is just arriving as they speak, early, so it's probably just as well the sexy fun times didn't progress any further – this is Cardinal Richelieu, played by Peter Capaldi, the second of the only three actors in the show I actually knew going into it (Santiago Cabrera and Hugo Speer being the other two). As the Cardinal enters the building and heads upstairs, up in the boudoir Adele and Aramis are running around in comic fashion wondering how to avoid being caught together.
ARAMIS: Please tell me there's another way out.
ADELE: The window.
ARAMIS: Have you seen how far down that is? No, that's not going to work. I'll...simply tell the Cardinal I had a good reason for being here.
ADELE: In my bedroom?
ARAMIS: You thought you saw a rat and screamed. I was passing by and ran to help. Easy.
ADELE: If you love me, you'll jump.
He really doesn't want to, the window is high, but he does it anyway, for her sake, throwing his gear into the road below and dangling from the windowsill by his fingertips just as the Cardinal sweeps into the room. Crisis averted, by the skin of their teeth…but they've slipped up, Aramis has left behind an elaborately ornamented and thus highly identifiable pistol, which Adele hastens to hide before it is seen.
Trying perhaps a bit too hard to act nonchalant, Adele is quick to make nice with the Cardinal, who is beautifully sinister and suspicious. I really love Capaldi in this role, he's perfect. Meanwhile outside, Porthos laughs his head off when he and Athos arrive just in time to find their friend hanging from the windowsill wondering how to get down without breaking his legs, while Aramis is ruefully amused at his own predicament. It's a fair cop.
And thus our introductions to the four leads are complete. Four very distinct personalities, played by four very beautiful and talented actors; Show is off to a flying start! But we haven't finished meeting the main cast yet.
Musketeers Garrison
The Three Musketeers head for the garrison, our first look at the headquarters built for them by the show on location. Along the way, Porthos and Athos take the opportunity to rag Aramis mercilessly about his affair with Adele, providing us with further character insight in the process. Porthos chides him for playing with fire, because Porthos's first concern is the safety and wellbeing of his friend. Aramis insists that he loves her, and evidently believes this overrides all other considerations, which tells us quite a bit about Aramis and his priorities. Athos thinks it has more to do with stealing what belongs to the Cardinal, which tells us something about Athos and his cynicism. Personally, I take exception to the notion that any woman belongs to any man, but this is the 17th century and attitudes were very different back then. Even Adele knows that for as long as the Cardinal is paying her bills, he owns her.
The garrison yard is full of Random Extra Musketeers, milling around training and whatnot to lend a bit of breadth and depth to the musketeer world. Our three heroes have no sooner arrived than they are summoned up to the captain's office by Captain Treville himself, who is lurking around on the balcony waiting for them, since clearly none of the other musketeers hanging about the place will do instead.
It's been a good many years now since I first saw Hugo Speer in The Full Monty, and, like a fine wine, he's aged well. Treville is great. He's a bluff, gruff, no nonsense leader of men who never minces even a single word. Also, I believe, another lead character who never gets a full name in three seasons of the show. Or a pauldron, for that matter. How is it that the Captain of the Musketeers doesn't wear the primary emblem of their regimental uniform?
Treville has heard complaints about musketeers duelling with the Cardinal's Red Guard, he says, so either he's already had words on the subject with all the other musketeers we just saw down in the yard, or he knew full well who the culprits would be and didn't bother looking any further.
TREVILLE: Is it true?
ATHOS: Let me think...no. Because that would be illegal.
TREVILLE: I can't protect you from the Cardinal if you keep fighting his men.
And thus the rivalry between the Musketeers and the Red Guard is established.
This complaint wasn't actually the reason Treville summoned them, however, he was just going through the motions there and quickly moves on to the more pressing matter at hand: Captain Cornet and his troop are missing, and they are to search for them. I thought Treville was the captain of the Musketeers, so am confused as to how Cornet fits into the hierarchy, if he's also a captain. How many captains can one regiment support? Anyway, Cornet's troop is a day late returning from a mission to Chartres, the details of which Treville is very cagey about. 'The King's work,' is about all he'll say. Classified, we'd call it today.
The trio…okay, they aren't called the Inseparables on-screen as they are in the book, but sod it, I'm calling them the Inseparables. It's who they are. The Inseparables head off to Chartres to find out what's become of Cornet.
Parisian Inn
We're back to d'Artagnan, freshly arrived in Paris full of rage and grief and in need of a place to stay, so he's found himself an absolute fleapit of an inn, complete with comedy old shrew of an innkeeper, who is absolutely shameless, extolling the cleanliness of her house even as she stamps on a cockroach.
LANDLADY: Twenty sous for the bed. Ten, if you share. Any lice or crabs?
D'ARTAGNAN: No, thanks, just bed and dinner.
LANDLADY: This is a very clean house. Monsieur...?
D'ARTAGNAN: D'Artagnan. Son of the late Alexandre, of Lupiac in Gascony.
LANDLADY: Didn't ask for your life story. Dinner is extra.
D'ARTAGNAN: Clean water?
LANDLADY: Extra.
D'ARTAGNAN: Soap? Don't tell me, I can guess.
LANDLADY: But use of the communal towel is free.
Ha. I kind of love her. D'Artagnan is beautifully snarky about the state of the place, but takes the room anyway. As the landlady shuffles out, he is left looking very small and alone, symbolic of his current situation: cut adrift by his father's murder and left to flounder in search of a new purpose in life.
Incidentally, how much time is meant to have passed? Only a day or two, we learn later, so what has d'Artagnan done with his father's body, enquiring minds would like to know? Found the nearest church to bury him, presumably, so poor old Alexandre didn't even get to be buried in the family plot…but I digress.
Louvre Palace Gardens
King Louis XIII is shooting birds as we first make his acquaintance, accompanied by a whole retinue of attendees, all of whom have better things they could be doing.
KING LOUIS: There's something about shooting that makes a man feel fully alive.
QUEEN ANNE: Unlike the birds, I suppose.
KING LOUIS: They're born to be shot, like rabbits... and poets.
Ha. The marital disharmony is already loud and clear and we've only known them twenty seconds. Also, Louis is awful, but I love him, too. Ryan Gage's performance is always so subtle, bringing layers of nuance to a character who could so easily have been a one dimensional comedy figure – and I really should add him to my list of actors I already knew going into the show, since I'd seen him previously in The Hobbit films, but it took me a good two seasons to make the connection, so it probably doesn't count! I recognised the other three instantly and was pleased to see them, having enjoyed all three in other roles, but Gage is so different here I didn't recognise him at all. Everyone else was completely new to me.
King Louis continues to shoot at his birds, while Queen Anne flinches at every shot. Not exactly a match made in heaven.
Cardinal Richelieu arrives just in time to praise the king's shooting abilities, but Capaldi manages to bring just enough dryness to this flattery to make it sarcastic without being obviously so. Nicely done. Louis doesn't notice a thing and is delighted by such praise.
LOUIS: Good enough for the Musketeers, Treville?
TREVILLE: My men are professional soldiers, Your Majesty.
LOUIS: You should try flattery sometimes. It plays very well around here.
TREVILLE: I have always told Your Majesty the truth, and always will.
Heh. Treville, on guard with a squad of musketeers and very clearly wishing himself elsewhere, is not the slightest bit interested in playing at either politics or diplomacy, much to the amusement of that consummate politician, Richelieu.
LOUIS: That's why I like you, Treville. These people just pay me empty compliments. It amuses me to have an honest man at court.
It's kind of a pointed statement and seems directed at Richelieu, hinting beautifully at all kinds of political undercurrents swirling about the place, and again, the distinct personalities and personal dynamics at play here are sketched out very clearly in just a few lines of interaction. Nicely done.
RICHELIEU: Reports are arriving with disturbing frequency, Your Majesty. Musketeers on the rampage, robbing and murdering.
TREVILLE: There has been some mistake. These villains are not Musketeers.
ANNE: I, for one, don't believe a word of it. I never knew such a loyal and law-abiding body of men.
Queen Anne has clearly never seen them cheating at cards or duelling in bars, natch, but her willingness to speak out in defence of the Musketeers here tells us something of who she is: a quiet, gentle character with a core of inner strength, unafraid to stand up for a cause in which she believes. She will remain closely affiliated with the Musketeers throughout the show. Richelieu, frustrated, strongly recommends an enquiry into the matter – and the difference between his manipulative melodramatics and Treville's stalwart defence of his men could not be starker.
RICHELIEU: I know you love Captain Treville, but a great king must be seen to be fair. He cannot have favourites.
LOUIS: Unless it's you, you mean?
I'm enjoying the push-pull of this relationship already.
Richelieu has another card up his sleeve, however, because Richelieu never plays with anything short of a stacked deck. He asks if there have been any recent absences or desertions from the Musketeers, and you just know that he knows about Cornet and his missing troop. Treville flat out denies it, graven image expression never so much as flickering for an instant, and that's good enough for Louis, but Richelieu won't let it drop, pleading his concern for the king's reputation, and finally Louis agrees to the enquiry just to shut him up.
It's an excellent insight into the politics of the realm.
Countryside
Now we get our first tease of the Musketeers' own heroic theme as the Inseparables ride through the snowy countryside – not the full theme, though, not yet, that will come in a more triumphant moment later, but we get just a hint of it here to accompany the establishing shot of their journey.
Take good note of the route, as this particular stretch of countryside was used for similar travelling shots many times through the three seasons of the show.
Chartres – monastery
Aramis takes point in talking to the Abbot, and returns to tell the others that Cornet and his men never arrived…and neither did the Spanish envoy the monks were also expecting, a detail omitted by Treville in his mission briefing.
PORTHOS: Cornet is a fine soldier. If he's gone missing, there's a good reason.
ARAMIS: Or a bad one.
I'm still wondering about Cornet's position in the Musketeer hierarchy, because this top secret mission he was on is exactly the kind of thing our Inseparables get to do for the remainder of the show, so was Cornet, being more highly ranked, previously Treville's go-to guy for all the topmost classified missions, with Our Heroes bumped up the pecking order by (spoiler alert) his demise in this episode? Was Cornet an equal of Treville rather than a subordinate, and his position is simply never replaced? Or was calling him 'captain' a mistake in the script? Enquiring minds would like to know.
Parisian Inn
Back at the inn, d'Artagnan is moping around waiting for his dinner when beautiful young woman swans in with a portly older man, acting as if she owns the place. Say hello to Milady de Winter, who is so much more than merely the femme fatale of the show.
MILADY: We'll have your best room. And if the bed has fleas, you'll be whipped. Draw me a bath. Be sure the water's clean. I don't want to bathe in someone else's scum.
D'ARTAGNAN: Clean water is extra, Madame. Don't even ask about the towel.
MENDOZA: Are you addressing me, sir?
D'ARTAGNAN: Not unless your name is "Madame".
Milady's gentleman friend Mendoza is outraged at being addressed thus by this young upstart, but alas for him he has brought a sword to a gunfight and thus is forced to back down.
MENDOZA: You are not a gentleman.
D'ARTAGNAN: That stings.
D'Artagnan is past caring about anything and is delightfully snarky with it, calmly agreeing to a duel first thing in the morning. As she ushers her companion upstairs, Milady is highly amused by him, and thus d'Artagnan gets to form his first connection with a fellow regular cast member…albeit an antagonist. In this, I think, Show is adhering to the spirit of the book, even while changing the plot completely, since book!d'Artagnan also encounters Milady before the Musketeers (also Rochefort, but we aren't going to mention him here).
D'Artagnan is left to 'enjoy' his dinner.
D'ARTAGNAN: This looks like a badger's intestines.
LANDLADY: Speciality of the house. Enjoy.
Adele Bessette's House
Adele takes a moment to play with Aramis's pistol, hidden in the linen drawer, all dreamy-eyed over this memento of her lover, and I wonder about her motivations, since we are never really given any insight into her point of view. She is the mistress of the most powerful man in the land, living at his expense, and she is having an affair, which is a hugely dangerous game to be playing. So does she think Aramis worth the risk because she simply loves him that much? Is she that naïve? Or is the risk itself part of the appeal, as Athos has implied may be the case for Aramis? Would she actually leave Richelieu for Aramis given half the chance? Or does she love this lifestyle too much to ever give it up, with the affair no more than a passing indulgence? Does she care for Richelieu at all, or is he simply the price she pays for her lifestyle? How much choice does she have in their relationship? So many questions, so few answers!
Adele's timing is lousy, for Richelieu enters the room while she's looking at the pistol, but she is clearly very practiced at covering her tracks as her composure doesn't falter for a moment, swiftly shutting the drawer as she turns to greet him with a smile. But Richelieu is a clever, cunning man, not easily fooled, and also not a man prone to showing his cards before he is ready to play them. She's playing with fire, and Chekhov's Gun is sitting right there, just waiting to go off.
Richelieu admits to having a bad headache, and Adele implies that he gets them frequently, but this is a character note that's never returned to in later episodes. If he is harbouring any suspicions about Adele's fidelity (and we know from later events that he is), he doesn't let it show, confiding in her in a way we will only rarely see again, with anyone, although given what a politician he is, he might just be telling her what she expects to hear, to prevent her becoming suspicious. Plus, obviously, it's another dose of needed exposition to continue the world-building, stressing the point that Richelieu is the power behind the throne, keeping the machine of government running; back at the inn, we remember, it was he who was blamed for the high taxes, rather than the king, so the populace are well aware of who is really in charge of their nation.
RICHELIEU: The King is a petulant child. The regions refuse to be governed. The treasury is as good as bankrupt. Yet I am obliged to spend half my time dealing with the indiscipline of the Musketeers.
I'm fairly certain the only person obliging him to have anything to do with the Musketeers at all is himself! Adele massages his head and makes sympathetic noises.
ADELE: You ruin your health for the sake of France.
RICHELIEU: It's these Musketeers who will ruin France. They are an ungovernable faction at the heart of the state.
ADELE: Is that why you hate them so much, because they're beyond your control?
RICHELIEU: Nothing is beyond my control.
He can deny it all he likes, but she's right: he hates the Musketeers because he doesn't control them personally, and it's because he doesn't control them that he considers them ungovernable, because he doesn't trust anyone but himself to govern anything.
As if to prove that nothing is beyond his control, Richelieu tells Adele to undress for him, and because she is dependent on him, she complies, without offering any hint of how she feels about it.
RICHELIEU: I can trust no-one at court. I'm surrounded by fools and liars. But at least I can always rely on you.
It sounds like a statement of trust, but there is a double-edged sword concealed in that statement. This is a powerful, dangerous man.
On to Part Two
Disclaimer: I wrote this ages ago and wasn't going to post it, because I have so many incomplete review projects already and already know up-front that I won't finish this one either, especially since I have so very little free time at the moment - this was written over a period of about a month, in tiny snatches here and there! I managed to complete four out of ten first season episodes before my time blew up and the project came to a grinding halt, and I was planning to just keep them for myself and not bother posting at all. But what the heck, LJ has given me extra storage capacity, so I decided to throw this one up anyway, just because. Feel free to scroll on past - but be warned, the recap got very long, once I got going, so it has to be split over three entries.
Further disclaimer: I made the screencaps below, but not the gifs*, which have been collected piecemeal from around Teh Interwebz, credit at the end.
Also, I've slightly back-dated this post, so no one is going to see it anyway!
So. The Musketeers! I always end up recapping my favourite shows in the end, if only in part, so perhaps it was inevitable that I'd be unable to resist going over this one, at least in part, now it is over, since I really did love it and have many thoughts about it.
Okay, so the show may not be high art and it may never win any awards, but it is an excellent example of what it is: a rollicking, swashbuckling action-adventure series, full of friendship, romance and drama, imperfect but loads of fun. I don't expect anyone to read this, I was just having a re-watch and one thought led to another, and I found myself scribbling notes, because that's a thing that I do, and then expanded on those notes, and then I was dipping into my collection of gifs and screencaps, and now here we are. Writing all this was pure self-indulgence, scratching an itch – sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes serious, just like the show itself.
'Friends and Enemies' is where it all starts.
Country Road
In the beginning, there's a lot of rain and mud and washed out cinematography as a young man named d'Artagnan rides toward Paris with his dad, blissfully unaware that his life is about to be changed forever.
D'ARTAGNAN JR: Come on, you're tired, Father. We should stop here.
D'ARTAGNAN SR: Paris is only a few hours away.
D'ARTAGNAN JR: Paris will still be there in the morning.
D'ARTAGNAN SR: Look, I could ride all night. But if you're saying you need to rest...
Okay, so it's kind of cheesy, but it immediately establishes a warm and loving bond between father and son, which we need to understand up front to make sense of who d'Artagnan Junior is and why he reacts the way he does to what follows.
Country Inn
The d'Artagnans escape the torrential rain by stopping for the night at a roadside inn, Junior taking the horses to the stable while his father, by virtue of seniority, heads into the warmly fire-lit bar to book a room and dry off. The place is quiet – just one patron slumbering in a corner and the landlord nowhere to be seen.
First sequence and I'm already enjoying the detail of the period setting – the dirt floor of the inn and the dangling horseshoe used as a bell to summon the innkeeper, etc. Show might take liberties with the period authenticity (and timeline) here and there, but it is always internally consistent in its detailing, building a rich and immersive world for its characters to populate. The sets and cinematography are absolutely gorgeous throughout.
Country Road
But all is not well, for a large group of masked horsemen is also heading for the inn, accompanied by ominous music.
Country Inn
LANDLORD: Heading for Paris, Monsieur?
ALEXANDRE: Ah, yes. To petition the King on Gascony's behalf. His new taxes are an intolerable burden.
BAR PATRON: Too right. This country is going to hell. Michel Fournier at your service.
ALEXANDRE: Alexandre d'Artagnan at yours.
I'm just going to note for the record here that the intolerable taxation of Gascony is a subject so very dear to their hearts that d'Artagnan Junior never mentions it again. More importantly, however, d'Artagnan Senior now has a forename, which allows us to distinguish one d'Artagnan from t'other, since his son is never given a personal name, ever – and see how easy it was for Alexandre and Fournier to introduce themselves with full names! Why can't all the characters do that? In three seasons of the show, d'Artagnan Junior's first name (Charles was the name of the actual historical person the character was originally based on) is never once stated on-screen. He is simply d'Artagnan, not even his dad addresses him by any other name – and neither does his wife, when (spoiler alert) he eventually marries. In this, the show follows on from Dumas' original novels, which are also coy on the subject of the forenames of certain characters, I guess because surnames were used as a matter of form, social etiquette…but Show can be a bit weird about it. I think Aramis comes off worst here. Over three full seasons, everyone acts as if 'Aramis' is both his real name and the only name he has. The source material makes absolutely no bones about it being a nickname and gives his real name as René d'Herblay – ironically, he's the only one of the famous four whose full name is given in the books – but here? Is Aramis meant to be his first name? Is it his surname? Who can tell? It's like if someone made a show about Dwayne Johnson and pretended The Rock was his real name throughout.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
FOURNIER: The Cardinal bleeds us dry. It would never have happened under the old King.
Exposition by way of dialogue to flesh out the political landscape being set up as a backdrop to the show: the Cardinal clearly recognised as the power behind the throne, or at the very least held responsible for the more unpopular measures adopted by the current regime. How long is Louis XIII supposed to have been on the throne at this point? Season one is set in 1630 (although early drafts of the script say 1625) and Louis ascended the throne in 1610, in actual history, so he's been in power 20 years at this point…or would have been, if this was the real world, but the show kind of exists in a little universe of its own, and doesn't always match real world history or timelines. Still, whatever the timeline, it is in keeping with human nature that people would be looking back through rose-tinted glasses to the perceived halcyon days of the past, especially given the turbulent circumstances of Louis's early (and, let's face it, current) reign, of which we will learn more in later episodes.
Outside the Inn
While Alexandre is talking politics at the bar, outside the masked horsemen have arrived and we get our first glimpse of Musketeer uniforms as they dismount. A subtle detail I really like here is that they are all wearing their (spoiler alert) stolen pauldrons on the wrong shoulder – left instead of right. It's such a tiny little detail, easily missed, coming so early, before we've even met any true musketeers. Only looking back, once we've got to know the Musketeers properly, can you notice this mistake made by the imposters.
Their leader helpfully re-arranges his scarf so that we get a good look at his face before he heads into the inn, gun in hand. This is a stick-up.
Inside the Inn
BANDIT: My name is Athos, of the King's Musketeers. Kindly empty your pockets of money and jewellery. If you want to live, do it now.
Dun, dun, DUN...
Well, okay, nice try, Show, it's a decent attempt at a twist, casting doubt on the integrity of one of the famous Three Musketeers in the opening sequence, but I can't imagine anyone fell for it for a moment. Not least because if the famous Athos really was running around the countryside robbing and murdering, I very much doubt he would make such a point of telling everyone his name and job title while he did it! It's a very obvious fit-up job.
Alexandre gets a smack about the face with a pistol butt just to show the robbers mean business, so the landlord and Fournier are quick to hand over their cash.
Stable
In the stable, young d'Artagnan Junior is seeing to the horses when two armed men sneak up behind him. Caught unawares, he is swiftly captured and shaken down for anything of value, his weapons quickly taken from him.
Inside the Inn
ALEXANDRE: I was told the Musketeers were honourable men. I see that I was misinformed.
BANDIT: You think this is bad? I'm only just getting started.
It's the signal for the shooting to begin. Michel Fournier is shot before he can surreptitiously pull his own gun – and then Alexandre d'Artagnan is also gunned down, for no other reason than he happened to be standing there. Alas poor Alexandre, he doesn't even make it out of the opening sequence, his death serving as the Inciting Incident to propel d'Artagnan Junior into his story arc for the episode while also cutting him adrift to set up his Lead Protagonist character arc for the season.
Stable
D'Artagnan, still held at gunpoint in the stable, hears the gunshots and just freezes, and I really appreciate the subtlety of Luke Pasqualino's acting in this moment. D'Artagnan hadn't realised until this moment that there were more robbers here than just the two menacing him, and hadn't seemed afraid up till now, merely annoyed – but now he is terrified, not for himself but for his dad. Nicely played.
Already stripped of his own weapons, he reacts immediately, shoving Bandit#1 away and then whirling to grapple with Bandit#2, shooting #1 with #2's gun, and then whipping #2's sword from its hilt – so now we know Our Young Hero has skills to take into his future career as (spoiler alert) a musketeer.
Outside the Inn
The rest of the bandits are fleeing, having accomplished what they set out to do. D'Artagnan's hapless opponent rushes out and makes good his escape with them, leaving d'Artagnan frustrated – and his little burst of rage here is our first glimpse at the temper he is going to need to learn how to control. That will be part of his character arc going forward.
Then Alexandre staggers out of the inn. Focused on the robbers, d'Artagnan doesn't realise his father is injured until he collapses in the mud – naming Athos as his murderer with his dying breath.
Again, Athos is one of the famous Three Musketeers, so I'm fairly certain not a single viewer would have fallen for the set-up here, but young d'Artagnan, in his grief, falls for it hook, line and sinker. Now, in the source material, d'Artagnan is as sharp as a bag of knives and cunning as a den full of foxes and would never fall for such a ruse, he's always on the lookout for trickery. Here, he is neither so bright nor so sceptical, although he gets to keep his courage, skill, impetuosity and idealism. Aramis, when we meet him, suffers similarly, but gains a shedload of warmth, heart and charisma to compensate for the loss of the razor-sharp intellect of his much colder, more introverted, and highly ambitious book counterpart, whereas Porthos is given reverse treatment, in effect, as the show allows him to be both clever and competent in stark contrast to the comedic buffoon he is in the books. Of the four, the melancholy, aristocratic Athos bears the closest resemblance to his book-self. Now, ordinarily I would be looking askance at such deviation from the source material, since book adaptations that claim to be faithful yet make significant changes without acknowledging that they've done so always irritate me enormously, but The Musketeers is different because it makes no pretence of being a direct adaptation of the books, instead choosing to simply take its inspiration from that source and reinvent the familiar story as something completely new. I'm good with that...although I will continue to refer to the books from time to time, for comparative purposes.
In this instance, d'Artagnan can hardly be blamed for taking the situation at face value and not looking any deeper than that, as he sits in the mud watching the robbers flee while his father dies in his arms.
I will freely admit, I found the boppy theme tune and pop art title sequence more than a little off-putting at first, but they gradually grew on me – and certainly set the tone for the show, which is primarily light-hearted, although capable of being both deadly serious and highly emotional when it chooses. That versatility and tonal variety is one of the things I really love about the show.
Athos's Quarters
After the titles, we are in Paris to meet the Three Musketeers themselves, the Inseparables: Athos, Porthos and Aramis. We start with Athos, the real Athos, just waking up in his painfully Spartan quarters, fully clothed and horribly hung over, empty wine bottles scattered about the floor. The visual paints a very clear picture, no dialogue needed.
He finds a few drops at the bottom of a bottle to break his fast and plays unhappily with the locket worn about his neck to ensure we notice it, although he doesn't yet open it to show what's inside. Then he opens the window to bring in a bucket of frozen water into which he plunges his entire head, which is quite the wake-up call.
Still barely able to get his feet under him, he then performs a few perfunctory lunges and exercises, growing visibly steadier and more alert in the process, but it is only as he straps on his uniform to face the day ahead that he seems to fully come to life, as if that uniform is what holds him together.
Streets of Paris
By the time Athos heads out into the streets of Paris, he is the very picture of an upright, professional soldier, striding along in business-like fashion.
This is our introduction to Athos: brooding, alcohol dependent, haunted by his own personal demons. Duty is what gets him through the day.
Inn
Elsewhere in Paris, another Musketeer is in a bar, playing cards with a Red Guard named Dujon and having an absolute blast. He's big and strong, with an elaborately decorated uniform, a cheeky smile and a deep belly laugh. This is Porthos.
Athos arrives just in time to see him accused of cheating, but Porthos is not what you'd call overly concerned.
ATHOS: What's going on?
PORTHOS: Dujon and I were having a discussion about personal integrity.
DUJON: Your friend had the King up his sleeve.
PORTHOS: Oh, that's slander. Tell him, Athos.
ATHOS: Don't involve me in this.
Dujon promptly pulls a gun on Porthos…who still isn't the slightest bit concerned. Athos doesn't seem too worried either.
ATHOS: Shoot him and its murder.
DUJON: One less Musketeer. Who cares?
PORTHOS: Fine words from a Red Guard.
ATHOS: There's only one way to resolve this. A duel between gentlemen, supervised according to the strict code of honour.
DUJON: Fine. In a fair fight, I'm a match for anyone.
PORTHOS: Confidence. I like that in a man.
DUJON: Still, why fight fair when you might lose?
Porthos isn't wearing his sword belt – and Dujon now kicks it away, just so we know the Red Guard are antagonists here. Athos protests that attacking an unarmed opponent defies every principle of chivalry…so Porthos picks up a fork, delighted by his own audacity.
ATHOS: Close enough.
Beneath the humorous surface of the scene, there's a lot of character nuance going on here, an excellent introduction to the pair, who are a study in contrasts. Solid-as-a-rock Porthos is articulate, cheerful and confident, all life and laughter, full of bluster and bravado but with an edge of steel. His casual, careless attitude invites his opponent to underestimate him, but the eyes are shrewd, missing nothing. Not a man to be dismissed lightly. I'd never seen Howard Charles in anything before, but love him already – just watch the subtle undertones to his performance in this scene as he sizes up his opponent and finds him wanting. Athos, meanwhile, is caustic and disinterested, well-spoken, elegant and noble; he's reluctant to get involved, but supports his friend anyway – and enjoys the show thoroughly. This, we will learn, is typical of Athos, an angst-soaked character whose rare smiles are almost uniquely reserved for his enjoyment of the idiosyncrasies of his friends.
Athos lets Porthos have his fun for a while, but then intercedes to end the fight with a pistol butt to the head of Dujon.
PORTHOS: What happened to the code?
ATHOS: Oh, who has time? Treville wants to see us.
Also, Porthos actually was cheating, we learn, and merely shrugs that he should work on his technique. These, it is obvious, are not quite the traditional Musketeers of legend, but rather are something much earthier, more real and relatable, and I love them for it already.
ATHOS: Where's Aramis?
PORTHOS: …
ATHOS: Tell me he's not that stupid.
And thus we get a neat segue to the introduction of Aramis, who, it turns out, really is that stupid…
Adele Bessette's House
…he's having an affair with the Cardinal's mistress, Adele Bessette, and we first encounter him in her bed in a state of undress. Thank you, writers and director, thank you very much! Both are perhaps a little too well clothed to be quite as post-coital as they are meant to be, but we'll run with it. I'm going to head-canon that after spending the night together they'd begun to dress for the day, but then distracted each other all over again, which is where we come in, and it's a sexy enough scene even with the clothes!
Aramis is relaxed and sleepy while Adele is in a playful mood, curious to know the stories behind his various scars.
ADELE: This?
ARAMIS: Stabbed in combat at the siege of Montauban in '21.
ADELE: And this one?
ARAMIS: Musket ball at the Ile de Re, '22.
ADELE: Poor Aramis. And this one?
ARAMIS: Your nails, at the Luxembourg Gardens, the day before yesterday.
Since we've already seen a title card proclaiming this 1630, we thus learn that he's a veteran with a long and active military career behind him, and on that note, another point to ponder here is that in the original books, Aramis is the youngest of the three Inseparables by quite some margin: at 22 when we first meet him he is closer in age to 18-year-old d'Artagnan than to Athos, who is approaching 30, with Porthos somewhere in between. The ages of the characters in the show are never specified, but Santiago Cabrera is the oldest of the four lead actors, he was about 34/35 when season one was filmed, head-hunted for the part because Executive Producer Jessica Pope thought he'd be ideal, so the character was designed with him in mind. He's probably playing a good few years younger at this point but since the battles Aramis mentions here took place eight and nine years before the show opens, the character is clearly meant to be older and more experienced than his book counterpart. It is implied that he's had the longest military career of the four leads, and much of his character is built around this revised concept of him as an experienced career soldier.
Full of charm and sensuality, Aramis is just getting into the swing of his foreplay when Adele kills the mood by mentioning that 'Armand' will be arriving soon.
ARAMIS: He doesn't love you as I do.
You know, once we've met and got to know the Cardinal, we can see that he's probably right about that, in a way, they each regard her very differently, the one as an object of desire and the other as an object of possession, but I also wonder if that's just a line or if he truly does believe himself to be in love. Does he care about Adele for who she is, or is she just a conquest, a challenge, the Cardinal's own mistress? They talk about previous liaisons and plan to see one another again, so we know this is an ongoing affair rather than a one night tryst, but how committed is he really? His status as the libertine romantic of the team is already clear. He becomes a bit downcast when Adele reminds him that 'Armand' pays for her lifestyle, so we know he is batting way above his paygrade here, throwing up some interesting contrasts and parallels with his book counterpart, who is always involved in some intrigue or other with a string of powerful women, but generally more for reasons of personal ambition than we ever see with show!Aramis, who is far more interested in sex than politics and exhibits almost no personal ambition whatsoever. Vanity is the primary note of commonality between the two versions of the character!
'Armand' is just arriving as they speak, early, so it's probably just as well the sexy fun times didn't progress any further – this is Cardinal Richelieu, played by Peter Capaldi, the second of the only three actors in the show I actually knew going into it (Santiago Cabrera and Hugo Speer being the other two). As the Cardinal enters the building and heads upstairs, up in the boudoir Adele and Aramis are running around in comic fashion wondering how to avoid being caught together.
ARAMIS: Please tell me there's another way out.
ADELE: The window.
ARAMIS: Have you seen how far down that is? No, that's not going to work. I'll...simply tell the Cardinal I had a good reason for being here.
ADELE: In my bedroom?
ARAMIS: You thought you saw a rat and screamed. I was passing by and ran to help. Easy.
ADELE: If you love me, you'll jump.
He really doesn't want to, the window is high, but he does it anyway, for her sake, throwing his gear into the road below and dangling from the windowsill by his fingertips just as the Cardinal sweeps into the room. Crisis averted, by the skin of their teeth…but they've slipped up, Aramis has left behind an elaborately ornamented and thus highly identifiable pistol, which Adele hastens to hide before it is seen.
Trying perhaps a bit too hard to act nonchalant, Adele is quick to make nice with the Cardinal, who is beautifully sinister and suspicious. I really love Capaldi in this role, he's perfect. Meanwhile outside, Porthos laughs his head off when he and Athos arrive just in time to find their friend hanging from the windowsill wondering how to get down without breaking his legs, while Aramis is ruefully amused at his own predicament. It's a fair cop.
And thus our introductions to the four leads are complete. Four very distinct personalities, played by four very beautiful and talented actors; Show is off to a flying start! But we haven't finished meeting the main cast yet.
Musketeers Garrison
The Three Musketeers head for the garrison, our first look at the headquarters built for them by the show on location. Along the way, Porthos and Athos take the opportunity to rag Aramis mercilessly about his affair with Adele, providing us with further character insight in the process. Porthos chides him for playing with fire, because Porthos's first concern is the safety and wellbeing of his friend. Aramis insists that he loves her, and evidently believes this overrides all other considerations, which tells us quite a bit about Aramis and his priorities. Athos thinks it has more to do with stealing what belongs to the Cardinal, which tells us something about Athos and his cynicism. Personally, I take exception to the notion that any woman belongs to any man, but this is the 17th century and attitudes were very different back then. Even Adele knows that for as long as the Cardinal is paying her bills, he owns her.
The garrison yard is full of Random Extra Musketeers, milling around training and whatnot to lend a bit of breadth and depth to the musketeer world. Our three heroes have no sooner arrived than they are summoned up to the captain's office by Captain Treville himself, who is lurking around on the balcony waiting for them, since clearly none of the other musketeers hanging about the place will do instead.
It's been a good many years now since I first saw Hugo Speer in The Full Monty, and, like a fine wine, he's aged well. Treville is great. He's a bluff, gruff, no nonsense leader of men who never minces even a single word. Also, I believe, another lead character who never gets a full name in three seasons of the show. Or a pauldron, for that matter. How is it that the Captain of the Musketeers doesn't wear the primary emblem of their regimental uniform?
Treville has heard complaints about musketeers duelling with the Cardinal's Red Guard, he says, so either he's already had words on the subject with all the other musketeers we just saw down in the yard, or he knew full well who the culprits would be and didn't bother looking any further.
TREVILLE: Is it true?
ATHOS: Let me think...no. Because that would be illegal.
TREVILLE: I can't protect you from the Cardinal if you keep fighting his men.
And thus the rivalry between the Musketeers and the Red Guard is established.
This complaint wasn't actually the reason Treville summoned them, however, he was just going through the motions there and quickly moves on to the more pressing matter at hand: Captain Cornet and his troop are missing, and they are to search for them. I thought Treville was the captain of the Musketeers, so am confused as to how Cornet fits into the hierarchy, if he's also a captain. How many captains can one regiment support? Anyway, Cornet's troop is a day late returning from a mission to Chartres, the details of which Treville is very cagey about. 'The King's work,' is about all he'll say. Classified, we'd call it today.
The trio…okay, they aren't called the Inseparables on-screen as they are in the book, but sod it, I'm calling them the Inseparables. It's who they are. The Inseparables head off to Chartres to find out what's become of Cornet.
Parisian Inn
We're back to d'Artagnan, freshly arrived in Paris full of rage and grief and in need of a place to stay, so he's found himself an absolute fleapit of an inn, complete with comedy old shrew of an innkeeper, who is absolutely shameless, extolling the cleanliness of her house even as she stamps on a cockroach.
LANDLADY: Twenty sous for the bed. Ten, if you share. Any lice or crabs?
D'ARTAGNAN: No, thanks, just bed and dinner.
LANDLADY: This is a very clean house. Monsieur...?
D'ARTAGNAN: D'Artagnan. Son of the late Alexandre, of Lupiac in Gascony.
LANDLADY: Didn't ask for your life story. Dinner is extra.
D'ARTAGNAN: Clean water?
LANDLADY: Extra.
D'ARTAGNAN: Soap? Don't tell me, I can guess.
LANDLADY: But use of the communal towel is free.
Ha. I kind of love her. D'Artagnan is beautifully snarky about the state of the place, but takes the room anyway. As the landlady shuffles out, he is left looking very small and alone, symbolic of his current situation: cut adrift by his father's murder and left to flounder in search of a new purpose in life.
Incidentally, how much time is meant to have passed? Only a day or two, we learn later, so what has d'Artagnan done with his father's body, enquiring minds would like to know? Found the nearest church to bury him, presumably, so poor old Alexandre didn't even get to be buried in the family plot…but I digress.
Louvre Palace Gardens
King Louis XIII is shooting birds as we first make his acquaintance, accompanied by a whole retinue of attendees, all of whom have better things they could be doing.
KING LOUIS: There's something about shooting that makes a man feel fully alive.
QUEEN ANNE: Unlike the birds, I suppose.
KING LOUIS: They're born to be shot, like rabbits... and poets.
Ha. The marital disharmony is already loud and clear and we've only known them twenty seconds. Also, Louis is awful, but I love him, too. Ryan Gage's performance is always so subtle, bringing layers of nuance to a character who could so easily have been a one dimensional comedy figure – and I really should add him to my list of actors I already knew going into the show, since I'd seen him previously in The Hobbit films, but it took me a good two seasons to make the connection, so it probably doesn't count! I recognised the other three instantly and was pleased to see them, having enjoyed all three in other roles, but Gage is so different here I didn't recognise him at all. Everyone else was completely new to me.
King Louis continues to shoot at his birds, while Queen Anne flinches at every shot. Not exactly a match made in heaven.
Cardinal Richelieu arrives just in time to praise the king's shooting abilities, but Capaldi manages to bring just enough dryness to this flattery to make it sarcastic without being obviously so. Nicely done. Louis doesn't notice a thing and is delighted by such praise.
LOUIS: Good enough for the Musketeers, Treville?
TREVILLE: My men are professional soldiers, Your Majesty.
LOUIS: You should try flattery sometimes. It plays very well around here.
TREVILLE: I have always told Your Majesty the truth, and always will.
Heh. Treville, on guard with a squad of musketeers and very clearly wishing himself elsewhere, is not the slightest bit interested in playing at either politics or diplomacy, much to the amusement of that consummate politician, Richelieu.
LOUIS: That's why I like you, Treville. These people just pay me empty compliments. It amuses me to have an honest man at court.
It's kind of a pointed statement and seems directed at Richelieu, hinting beautifully at all kinds of political undercurrents swirling about the place, and again, the distinct personalities and personal dynamics at play here are sketched out very clearly in just a few lines of interaction. Nicely done.
RICHELIEU: Reports are arriving with disturbing frequency, Your Majesty. Musketeers on the rampage, robbing and murdering.
TREVILLE: There has been some mistake. These villains are not Musketeers.
ANNE: I, for one, don't believe a word of it. I never knew such a loyal and law-abiding body of men.
Queen Anne has clearly never seen them cheating at cards or duelling in bars, natch, but her willingness to speak out in defence of the Musketeers here tells us something of who she is: a quiet, gentle character with a core of inner strength, unafraid to stand up for a cause in which she believes. She will remain closely affiliated with the Musketeers throughout the show. Richelieu, frustrated, strongly recommends an enquiry into the matter – and the difference between his manipulative melodramatics and Treville's stalwart defence of his men could not be starker.
RICHELIEU: I know you love Captain Treville, but a great king must be seen to be fair. He cannot have favourites.
LOUIS: Unless it's you, you mean?
I'm enjoying the push-pull of this relationship already.
Richelieu has another card up his sleeve, however, because Richelieu never plays with anything short of a stacked deck. He asks if there have been any recent absences or desertions from the Musketeers, and you just know that he knows about Cornet and his missing troop. Treville flat out denies it, graven image expression never so much as flickering for an instant, and that's good enough for Louis, but Richelieu won't let it drop, pleading his concern for the king's reputation, and finally Louis agrees to the enquiry just to shut him up.
It's an excellent insight into the politics of the realm.
Countryside
Now we get our first tease of the Musketeers' own heroic theme as the Inseparables ride through the snowy countryside – not the full theme, though, not yet, that will come in a more triumphant moment later, but we get just a hint of it here to accompany the establishing shot of their journey.
Take good note of the route, as this particular stretch of countryside was used for similar travelling shots many times through the three seasons of the show.
Chartres – monastery
Aramis takes point in talking to the Abbot, and returns to tell the others that Cornet and his men never arrived…and neither did the Spanish envoy the monks were also expecting, a detail omitted by Treville in his mission briefing.
PORTHOS: Cornet is a fine soldier. If he's gone missing, there's a good reason.
ARAMIS: Or a bad one.
I'm still wondering about Cornet's position in the Musketeer hierarchy, because this top secret mission he was on is exactly the kind of thing our Inseparables get to do for the remainder of the show, so was Cornet, being more highly ranked, previously Treville's go-to guy for all the topmost classified missions, with Our Heroes bumped up the pecking order by (spoiler alert) his demise in this episode? Was Cornet an equal of Treville rather than a subordinate, and his position is simply never replaced? Or was calling him 'captain' a mistake in the script? Enquiring minds would like to know.
Parisian Inn
Back at the inn, d'Artagnan is moping around waiting for his dinner when beautiful young woman swans in with a portly older man, acting as if she owns the place. Say hello to Milady de Winter, who is so much more than merely the femme fatale of the show.
MILADY: We'll have your best room. And if the bed has fleas, you'll be whipped. Draw me a bath. Be sure the water's clean. I don't want to bathe in someone else's scum.
D'ARTAGNAN: Clean water is extra, Madame. Don't even ask about the towel.
MENDOZA: Are you addressing me, sir?
D'ARTAGNAN: Not unless your name is "Madame".
Milady's gentleman friend Mendoza is outraged at being addressed thus by this young upstart, but alas for him he has brought a sword to a gunfight and thus is forced to back down.
MENDOZA: You are not a gentleman.
D'ARTAGNAN: That stings.
D'Artagnan is past caring about anything and is delightfully snarky with it, calmly agreeing to a duel first thing in the morning. As she ushers her companion upstairs, Milady is highly amused by him, and thus d'Artagnan gets to form his first connection with a fellow regular cast member…albeit an antagonist. In this, I think, Show is adhering to the spirit of the book, even while changing the plot completely, since book!d'Artagnan also encounters Milady before the Musketeers (also Rochefort, but we aren't going to mention him here).
D'Artagnan is left to 'enjoy' his dinner.
D'ARTAGNAN: This looks like a badger's intestines.
LANDLADY: Speciality of the house. Enjoy.
Adele Bessette's House
Adele takes a moment to play with Aramis's pistol, hidden in the linen drawer, all dreamy-eyed over this memento of her lover, and I wonder about her motivations, since we are never really given any insight into her point of view. She is the mistress of the most powerful man in the land, living at his expense, and she is having an affair, which is a hugely dangerous game to be playing. So does she think Aramis worth the risk because she simply loves him that much? Is she that naïve? Or is the risk itself part of the appeal, as Athos has implied may be the case for Aramis? Would she actually leave Richelieu for Aramis given half the chance? Or does she love this lifestyle too much to ever give it up, with the affair no more than a passing indulgence? Does she care for Richelieu at all, or is he simply the price she pays for her lifestyle? How much choice does she have in their relationship? So many questions, so few answers!
Adele's timing is lousy, for Richelieu enters the room while she's looking at the pistol, but she is clearly very practiced at covering her tracks as her composure doesn't falter for a moment, swiftly shutting the drawer as she turns to greet him with a smile. But Richelieu is a clever, cunning man, not easily fooled, and also not a man prone to showing his cards before he is ready to play them. She's playing with fire, and Chekhov's Gun is sitting right there, just waiting to go off.
Richelieu admits to having a bad headache, and Adele implies that he gets them frequently, but this is a character note that's never returned to in later episodes. If he is harbouring any suspicions about Adele's fidelity (and we know from later events that he is), he doesn't let it show, confiding in her in a way we will only rarely see again, with anyone, although given what a politician he is, he might just be telling her what she expects to hear, to prevent her becoming suspicious. Plus, obviously, it's another dose of needed exposition to continue the world-building, stressing the point that Richelieu is the power behind the throne, keeping the machine of government running; back at the inn, we remember, it was he who was blamed for the high taxes, rather than the king, so the populace are well aware of who is really in charge of their nation.
RICHELIEU: The King is a petulant child. The regions refuse to be governed. The treasury is as good as bankrupt. Yet I am obliged to spend half my time dealing with the indiscipline of the Musketeers.
I'm fairly certain the only person obliging him to have anything to do with the Musketeers at all is himself! Adele massages his head and makes sympathetic noises.
ADELE: You ruin your health for the sake of France.
RICHELIEU: It's these Musketeers who will ruin France. They are an ungovernable faction at the heart of the state.
ADELE: Is that why you hate them so much, because they're beyond your control?
RICHELIEU: Nothing is beyond my control.
He can deny it all he likes, but she's right: he hates the Musketeers because he doesn't control them personally, and it's because he doesn't control them that he considers them ungovernable, because he doesn't trust anyone but himself to govern anything.
As if to prove that nothing is beyond his control, Richelieu tells Adele to undress for him, and because she is dependent on him, she complies, without offering any hint of how she feels about it.
RICHELIEU: I can trust no-one at court. I'm surrounded by fools and liars. But at least I can always rely on you.
It sounds like a statement of trust, but there is a double-edged sword concealed in that statement. This is a powerful, dangerous man.
On to Part Two
