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Sunday 14 August 2016

The Musketeers 2.5 "The Return" Review

                                                     Image result for the-musketeers the-return photos
Athos (Tom Burke) wakes up tied to a chair and is greeted by his villagers back in Pinon.  They want him to take action against the Baron Renard (Miles Anderson) who is taking over his land.  He refuses and wants nothing to do with this place anymore.  He left it and the Baron arrives with his son, Edmond (Barney White) who beats an old man and Athos tells him to stop.  Renard telling him he doesn't recognize nobility and the Comte de la Fere.  They have a discussion about his lands and Athos tells him he's renounced his title but he has kept his lands.  He wants an agreement to treat the villagers fairly from him, and they shake hands when Renard tells them they will be treated "as they deserve."  Which obviously in his eyes will be as peasants and slaves and not with any dignity.  He tells this to Edmond.

Jeanne (Linzay Cocker) tells Athos they sent him letters and he says he doesn't read letters.  The others are worried about him and don't know where he is.  They read his letters instead where the villagers plead for his help.  D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino) suggests they ride out to Pinon as it's only a day's ride away and Treville (Hugo Speer) reluctantly agrees.  Renard suspends Athos from a rope and will finish him off, as a woman fires a shot releasing him from the rope.  They ride away saying soldiers are coming and take Jeanne with them.  He tells them he doesn't want to be here and wants nothing to do with them.

Riding away Athos stops at the burnt out house and has a flashback to Milady (Maimie McCoy) being arrested after she kills Thomas and says he forced himself upon her.  With the woman turning up, Catherine (Marianne Oldham) was his brother's betrothed and she lives in the servant's quarters when her father lost his laads.  Porthos (Howard Charles) and Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) are tasked with rescuing Jeanne from the baron and they do this without them even noticing.  They think she escaped by herself as they tie a sheet through the window.  Of course, they didn't really go anywhere.

Catherine tells Athos this place would've been hers now and how they were to be married, but he tells her they were too young.  Instead she got Thomas.  She didn't marry anyone else cos she doesn't have a dowry or money.  As he rides back, he has another flashback with him and Milady frolicking in the grass. ha.  The others say he was all for justice and yet he's deserting his own people, convincing him to stay.  He and D'Artagnan ride for gunpowder, as there's a secret stash at his crypt.
Athos: inspecting a pistol, "a little battered but just about servicable."
D'Artagnan: "are you talking about yourself or that old pistol?"
As the others teach the villagers how to fight and defend themselves after Treville tells them it's their home and their land and family and so they have something to live and to fight for.  They should turn up at sun up if they want to do this.  Which they do.  As they learn and set up a barricade.  Aramis says they can't come here in the night, but they will be here in the morning.

Which they do and are met with a fight.  The baron rides up with a white flag and tells Athos to surrender.  Handing over his lands but he refuses.  Jeanne tells him he handed over the land to them and Catherine says he gave the land to her, Athos replying he did, he gave the land to everyone including her.  She's enraged by this and goes back to the room and breaks her mother's pearl necklace.  She wanted to be mistress of the manor and the land.  After a battle and a half, they finally defeat Renard's men, but not before Edmond and Athos have a sword fight to the death, you could say.  Only he's interrupted by Catherine, who tries to shoot Athos, but gets Edmond instead.

Athos signs over the land to Bertrand (Steve Evets) as Mayor and Aramis says they should get to the country more often.  As Catherine pulls on guns and is probably attempting to go after Milady, as she says she can't breathe in a world where she's still alive.  Athos telling her a number of times she's Louis's (Ryan Gage) mistress.  Also sensing that there's something going on between Porthos and Treville.

Now didn't that shell of a house remind you of Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre and yes I mention it gain cos Tom Burke was Rochester in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Jane Eyre this year and he does remind me of Mr Rochester, very dark and brooding, even in his portrayal as Athos!  Although there wasn't much damage caused to the house by the fire.  Athos can't forget Milady even after her betrayal which shows he must have some feelings for her still, but also as he says to Catherine, as she drinks to the past, that's "the one toast I can't drink to."  But he'll have the drink anyway!  ha. He can't forget the past no matter how many times him or Milady say it's all in the pasta and should be left there.  It's not so easy.

Aramis: "...just to fight, to risk everything.  To put it all on the line.  How else do I know I'm truly alive."  Once again Aramis utters words which will have a deeper meaning for him later in the series, as he goes from fighting to not fighting and then to taking up arms again in series 3.

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