meridian_rose

Season 3 Episode 7 Alis Volat Proplis
Spoilers. Recap and review in which I am angry at how heterocentrism rears its head. Also, how to get on my bad side: be mean to Vanessa. Lorenzo and Laura I am looking at you. With a side of screw the Crusade.

Alis Volat Proplis: One Flies With One's Own Wings – a reference to Leo's obsession with flight? Possibly it refers to needing to stand alone, because everyone will betray you, choose another, abandon you.

The Council of Dickheads as I continue to call them, are debating Rome and Florence's commitment to the Crusade. Sixtus wants to know where Riario is. And then a Turk staggers in.
Except it's not a Turk under the armour, but a dishevelled Lorenzo. Truly there's no excuse for him not taking his disguise off once he reached Florence though.

Meanwhile Leo and Riario at the studio. Leo thinks Riario is cured, his eyes are clear. It took Leo poisoning him to get past the Labyrinth conditioning, but Leo pushed harder, fighting with fire.
Again, expelling the toxins isn't the same as undoing the conditioning, but what do I know? Most Enemies of Man don't go round bleeding all the time, so a lack of eye haemorrhaging might suggest Riario's free of the Sinner and the poison but not necessarily the brainwashing.
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Leo thinks the worst is over; Riario points out he has to live with what he's done. Bear in mind the last time he felt this alone he cut his wrists. He's also concerned about the return of the Sinner if Leo releases him, and this suggests to me that at this moment Riario is in his right mind. The Sinner would be more eager to be free.
Leo tells him to trust himself, to start over.

Or as tumblr post suggests, "Start over with me." I'd kill for something like that. It's made clear to us over and over that Leo and Riario work better together, balancing each other out. But as on the ship when Riario was lost for anything to do other than go back to Rome and should have gone with Leo, Leo does not offer and Riario does not ask. I know Riario's supposed to go to Rome to organise the Crusade, but can't he and Leo at least try to acknowledge their relationship?

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"The next choice is the one that defines you," Leo says. Then he gets excited and shows Riario his new designs, a gesture of such trust, a moment between friends. Their bromance is interrupted by Laura.

Riario tells her that Leo thinks he's cured, and that he is of sound mind. He thinks what he did cannot be forgiven. Laura begs to differ. Leo is distracted by the noise outside; Lorenzo's return has caused a stir.

Lorenzo is holding a crying Giulio and doesn’t want to give him back to Vanessa. Leo runs in, astonished. Lorenzo hands back the baby and dismisses everyone. Leo hugs him in a way he has never been allowed to hug Riario, even after Riario killed Zita, not that I'm intensely bitter about that. Lorenzo even calls him 'brother' which is particularly nasty given what happens later.

Leo and Lorenzo talk about his escape, since we didn't see it. I'll assume he's telling the truth until proven otherwise, but who knows at this point. We could have had at least this much detail about Riario's heroic rescue of Leo from the Labyrinth, but no such luck.

Laura tells Riario that Sixtus is demanding his presence, Because the Crusade. I'm getting sick of hearing how the Only Solution is a Crusade by a United Italy, especially since Leo's made it clear that this kind of One God/One Way thinking on both sides is what's behind all the grief in the first place.
Riario gives Laura a blade in case he threatens her again. Given the state of Florence/Italy she ought to be armed anyway.

Leo is still talking to Lorenzo, blah-blah army, blah-blah, new designs.
Me: By the way, Clarice is dead.
Clearly this has been mentioned because Lorenzo abruptly demands to see "her".

Outside in Laura's Gothic parade of the glorious dead, Clarice's skeleton, wrapped in gauze, sits in state.
Why is she just bones? I know Leo autopsied the body, but did he dissolve all the skin afterwards? Was it done by the family's undertakers, or by Laura's keepers of her creepy museum? I don't think it has been nearly long enough for all of the flesh to have fallen off naturally.

Lorenzo asks how she was killed, Leo dissembles a bit before admitting to the crucifixion. Lorenzo feels guilty for abandoning her. Leo tells him of the letter he found, in which Clarice begged for forgiveness. Lorenzo is touched, though he asks about Lucrezia. He wanted to kill her and Leo helped her escape; Leo truthfully says he hasn't seen her since. He doesn't know that she was there when Riario handed him over to Zo after the never to be spoken of rescue from the Enemies of Man.

Cut to Lucrezia, down in the dungeon with Lupo's body. Francesco interrogates her. He says they found three bodies (so maybe Lupo wasn't eating them as I suggested earlier :P) but four pairs of shoes. He thinks the missing girl has the Page. Lucrezia denies knowing this.
Enter Leo's mother. Told you she wasn't dead.

There's a council of war with Laura, Riario, Sixtus, Leo, etc present. Lorenzo hasn't yet told them about troop movements though Leo thinks it will helpful when he does. Sixtus asks Riario's advice and he suggests which cities shall be next to fall. After Naples, it is only three days march to Rome. Again there's the notion that if Rome falls, Florence will follow, and a pre-emptive surprise attack is the best approach.
Leo says he has discovered ways to defeat his old designs, his new designs are a secret, and he's deciphering the secrets of Vlad's armour. Vlad is staying out of the Crusade and I can't blame him for not getting caught up in the religious fervour.
Also, how does Leo writing in code stop Al-Rahim from stealing the secrets straight from his mind as he claimed during the hallucination in the church at Otranto? Am I missing something?

Leo's mother, Caterina, is interrogating Lucrezia again, as she did during season two. Caterina tells Francesco a lie, that the Page is on its way to Rome.

At the council chamber, Vanessa and Nico have been sidelined to the back of the room. Lorenzo is stomping about the floor, furious. If all their troops are at war, who protects the cities? His wife was murdered, as was Dragonetti, and he walked in unchallenged. Lorenzo does not want to give Sixtus a say in Florence's affairs and I don't blame him. Rome is their enemy and there's no guarantee Sixtus's influence and troops will withdraw rather than stage a coup after the war.
It's pointed out that the Council has already voted but Lorenzo rescinds that. He accuses Cellini of sucking at the papal teat, accusations are made, Vanessa is called a whore and Clarice's cheating is brought up, and Cellini gets beaten to death by an enraged Lorenzo.
You know what? He kind of had it coming. You know what else? NOT LIKE THAT. Shout him down, have him assassinated later, be diplomatic about it. But this is not how politics works, it wasn't even trial by combat. Lorenzo has lost it. But he's yelling how Florence now stands alone and nobody dares question him, though honestly I think there's a case to be made for the guards removing the madman and returning the reins to Vanessa who has shown a level head despite her disdain for the council.

Back to Lucrezia, I'm getting pretty bored of this now, she and Caterina (and I had to see her name in the transcript because it's never really mentioned, she's just "Leo's mother"/"the seer" to me) talk. Caterina lied about Rome to protect Sophia, Leo's sister.
Lucrezia wonders why she's kept them apart until now. Caterina says it is the only way to save them. More of this Only Way bs. Caterina witters about not sacrificing her children as she was told to; were they too dangerous to live? If so, how come her powerful captors have never found and assassinated Leo, who's not hiding out in a convent but showing off all over the place?
She thinks Sophia was safe in the convent (she wasn't) but Leo wasn't safe (yet he's survived everything so far, and could have done more with the proper knowledge and training, but this always the hero's lot, to be kept in the dark for "safety" and then have to learn everything in five days and save the world thanks very much).

Leo takes Laura to Singh's brothel. No, not like that. He says she can wait outside, but she's having none of it. The guy knows Leo and suggests things Leo might want to do, lol, someone remembers Leo's bisexual, just before the tide of heterocentrism floods in again. At least I think poking the badger might be a m/m ref while buzzing the honey-hole is m/f but IDK.

Lorenzo is being whipped as some sort of punishment/pleasure. Given the scars on his back and his grief over Clarice, it's some kind of attempt to deal with his pain. Leo and Laura whine about the Crusade again, but Lorenzo is also sick of hearing about it.
Lorenzo wants Leo's weapons to defend Florence. Remember Florence, the city Leo loved? Like everything else, Leo's devotion seems fleeting, it's all about the Crusade now.
Lorenzo has them thrown out of the brothel, wants Laura's creepy Gothic museum gone, and in a bridge too far, wants everything confiscated from Leo's workshop. That is an act of betrayal worse than the one he believes Leo to be committing. He calls Leo brother again but it's with bitter irony.

To further piss me off, Lorenzo has dismissed Nico from court. Nico goes to Vanessa, wanting to take her and Giulio away. He clearly loves her. He'll ask his father for money, will take care of her and Giulio.
But Vanessa can't leave, she points out that "Lorenzo will never give up his heir. And I'm not going anywhere without my son."
Nico replies Lorenzo beat someone to death in front of her, but Vanessa won't be persuaded, sends him away for all their sakes. It's incredibly sad. And I'll touch on this again later.

Meanwhile Lorenzo's goons are destroying Leo's workshop. Paper flies everywhere. Good job looking for the designs guys! Great work not damaging those precious plans you're trying to confiscate!
Lorenzo is ever more pissed off when he is handed whatever they did actually take to him; the designs are in code. The Da Vinci Code? :P

Vanessa's trying to calm Lorenzo by having the cook prepare his favourite meal. She tries soothing him, talking to him. Remember, she's good at this. She's the only one who can always get through to Leo. She's spent her life as a nun, a bartender, and, briefly, a Regent. She knows how to talk to people.
When she talks of missing him, Lorenzo thinks she means Cellini. No, he was "an obnoxious prick," she assures him, and Lorenzo's actions were extreme but these are extreme times. No, she means Machiavelli.
Lorenzo is pleased by her praise, but he knows Nico was Leo's friend and tells Vanessa she deserves better than "a child" for company.
Vanessa counters she was "a child" to him when he left for Naples and she and Nico stood against the Crusade as long as they could.
Lorenzo isn't angry because he believes she was in an impossible situation and did what she thought best. They talk about his brother, Giuliano, and Vanessa is still flattering Lorenzo, and Lorenzo says he envies his taste in women.

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Ugh, no, I do not want Lorenzo/Vanessa, especially not like this, with her bedding him just so he doesn't kill her or remove her child from her custody.

Vanessa tells him that Clarice loved him. Remember her, dead wife, woman you haven't finished grieving for ?
It backfires: "You remind me of her. Strong-willed, unafraid to offer your mind in the face of opposition."

img src="https://media.giphy.com/media/YxBjmQ97IeJQ4/giphy.gif" border="0" alt=" buzz epic nooooo"/>

Zo thinks that the Crusade is done for, "City states are dropping like flies now that Florence has pulled out. Even if you manage to recreate all your designs, - who in bloody hell's gonna wield them?"

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Leo says Zo is right. Zo is floored. Leo even admits Zo's instincts have been right more often than his own. Zo is worried Leo must be dying. Leo is tired and doesn't see a way to win without the manpower Florence and the others would have provided. Come on Leo, you're a genius, stop moping and think of something else.

Leo attempts to send Zo away while he will go to Rome and see if anything can be "salvaged" but Leo's friends are loyal, none more so than Zo and he won't leave Leo. And Leo shouldn't go to Rome. This is probably because jealous Zo doesn't want Leo alone with Riario, not realising Laura's going to cockblock them.
"I know of one man powerful enough to turn the tide in our favour," Zo says and Leo thinks he means him, lol, no, "shithead," Zo says affectionately. Leo really does need calling out on his arrogance more often. Zo means Vlad.
It leads to this exchange:
"- Son of Dracul.
- Hm.
Ruler of the Order of the Dragon, Prince of fucking darkness.
And the man that that you stole from and I poisoned and we set fire to and we pushed him out of a window.
- Yeah.
- Yeah? I didn't say it was a perfect plan.
Even if he is alive and he doesn't slit our throats on sight .
.what exactly is our pitch? The Ottomans stole his armour.
You get the armour's secrets, and the Crusade gets the man who made it.
Inimicus inimici Mei amicus meus est.
- The enemy of my enemy - Is my friend."
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Wouldn't "Inimcius inimici" have been a better title? Given all the double dealings and deceit going on?

Riario's having Guilt while looking at a portrait of Clarice. Laura and Riario talk about Lorenzo being a tyrant. Riario feels that his murder of Clarice has tipped Lorenzo over the edge but Laura insists it was all the Turks' fault. Anyway, the Crusade is lost. Laura doesn't want to give up, the Crusade is alive as long as they are.

"And Lorenzo will be left to watch as his beloved Florence burns." Kind of nasty to predict the destruction of an entire city just because their leaders didn't want to join your little club, er, Crusade, Riario. Though I don't think he's truly gloating, he sounds more sad than anything.

Laura recites a Bible quote about sins like scarlet being forgiven. Like she's forgiven Riario for trying to kill her.
"I do not deserve such kindness," Riario says, because he's still lacking in self-worth, ffs Leo you picked him up off the floor but you didn't stay to make him whole. "I do not deserve you."
Who says he has her? Oh, right, let's kiss. Remember last episode, when Leo likened Laura to Riario's mother since Zita's existence has been wiped from the record? Because Laura loves him "as his mother did"? Most people don't kiss their mothers like that, just saying, and a show too terrified to let their bi character be bi isn't going to touch incest.

Or, as Fangs For the Fantasy puts it:

"So Riario and Laura are now, inevitably, a thing. Because this is so important (along with all the brothel scenes). And we still have Leo and Lucrezia. Look at all this gratuitous heterosexuality." source

I'll give you that Laura is at this this point seemingly a well developed character and that her affection for Riario is more genuine and had more build up than most canon ships in this show, but the rampant gratuitous heterosexuality, as I saw it described on Tumblr, is obnoxious. See also Leo/Lucrezia which we have more to look forward, oh how I can't wait /sarcasm and Leo/Ima which wtf even was that? Also Vanessa/Giuliano, Lucrezia/Lorenzo, Clarice/Lorenzo, Clarice/Carlo, Riario/Zita, and some minor Vanessa/Nico and subtextual or UST Zo/Lucrezia and Zo/Malia. Maybe others I've forgotten about.

The only gay characters I recall on the show are background brothel patrons, a murder victim in the pilot, and Leo's lover whose betrayal got Leo arrested for sodomy. Which wouldn't be so horrendous if not for the fact that Zo is clearly coded as bi, if not gay; pretty sure Vespucci hinted at it once. Oh and the fact that Leo is canonically bisexual.
There's a lot of talk about the Leo/Riario parallels and their bromance and their almost love affair. But bromance will always come second to boobs. Leo isn't even allowed to kiss Zo and I think they'd often share kisses if nothing else.

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Back to Lucrezia, Caterina says the Crusade's in jeopardy. Oh no, no the Crusade! And Leo's leaving Florence and he won't meet up with Sophia! Oh noes! See how upset I am.


"Without each other, they face unspeakable horrors," says Caterina, like her visions are never wrong, and she hadn't fucked up a ton over the years, and she can see every possible future. Clearly this is where Leo gets his arrogance from.

Lucrezia wants Caterina to appear in a vision to Leo. LOL, let's mess with his head some more poor boy. He's already half-deranged from all his hallucinations. He no longer trusts his mother but maybe he trusts Lucrezia. What? Since when?

Leo hands over his non-coded plans to Riario in a gesture of immense trust. Riario is surprised Leo isn't coming with them but Leo says he's going to enlist Vlad's help. Riario almost warns him to be careful, but he knows Leo knows this. They understand each other. Why does this show keep splitting them up?!
Riario offers an escort to protect his boyfriend, er, Leo, but Leo thinks it will send the wrong message. He has Nico and Zo, and that's enough.
Riario jokes they're hardly the Swiss Guards. Educational moment! I'd not heard this in DvD before, nor even in The Borgias, which surprises me on reflection. I did hear it when watching an episode of "Father Brown" today, where the plot involved a missing cross meant to given as a coronation gift from the Pope to the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II, and which artefact was being escorted by a cohort of Swiss Guards.

From Wikipedia:
"Swiss Guard…is a small force responsible for the safety of the Pope, including the security of the Apostolic Palace. During the periods of "sede vacante" (which is when there is no pope), the Swiss Guard instead guards the College of Cardinals, so as to ensure that the Cardinals, meeting in Conclave, are able to perform their duty in electing a new Pope.
Like various European powers, earlier Popes recruited Swiss mercenaries as part of an army. The Pontifical Swiss Guard was founded by Pope Julius II on 22 January 1506 as the personal bodyguard of the Pope and continues to fulfil that function." x
And:
"The Pontifical Swiss Guard has its origins in the 15th century. Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484) had already made an alliance with the Swiss Confederation and built barracks in Via Pellegrino after foreseeing the possibility of recruiting Swiss mercenaries. The pact was renewed by Innocent VIII (1484–1492) in order to use them against the Duke of Milan." x

Enough history. Sixtus is anxious to be off.

They promise to meet in Rome and then Leo and Riario part, possibly for the last time, which makes me sad, without a thank you, a handshake, a hug, or a clap on the back, which makes me even sadder. Fuck you show.

"And we're certain he's all right?" Zo asks Leo, re Riario.
"Physically, yes, but I can't count for the emotional toil."
I think I wrote fic similar to this with Zo as the concerned party.

Nico has found something that was tossed out with Lorenzo's kitchen scraps. I'm not sure what it is though or if it's important to the plot. EDIT: I am assured this is the breastplate of armour which will prove to Vlad that the Turks have stolen it from him. That makes sense. But someone might have mentioned that, given it was so dark I couldn't actually see it onscreen properly. Also surely metal doesn't thrown out with kitchen scraps but given to a blacksmith to reuse? But what do I know :/

The departure for Rome continues in daylight as Lorenzo and Vanessa watch. Laura decides this is a good time to bitch at Vanessa.

"One day, you will open your eyes, signora.
And what will I see? That tyranny is brutal and lonely.
Especially for those who serve the tyrant."

(my edit)

Last episode I was pissed at Laura for her "your life belongs to your child" fetishism of motherhood. Well guess what Laura? Vanessa is doing what you told her. She's putting her child's safety above everything else.

If Vanessa attempts to leave, Lorenzo will send men after her to drag her back or to merely take her child from her by force. She's expendable. As it is, at any moment he could decide to kill her or banish her.
She can't stage a coup. If Giuliano had married her, if she and Nico had led for longer during less tumultuous times, she might have been able to garner the support to challenge Lorenzo. But she's alone and friendless. Leo has abandoned her as he always does, but now she doesn't even have Nico.
Her best hopes lie in keeping Lorenzo on side, even if that means fucking him, and/or choosing her moment to kill him and frame someone for the murder. She could then take over as regent once more.
I'd like to see you do better Laura.

Leo is sleeping and having a vision. He finds Lucrezia.
"How do I know this isn't a trick?" he asks. She kisses him.
WHAT THE HELL? Remember how she lured you into bed, Leo? Your entire relationship with her was built on a lie. How does kissing prove anything except that she hasn't changed? Leo however, falling victim to the gratuitous tide of heterosexuality says "Even if you're only in my head, I don't care."
How about you think with your brain and not your penis? If you're that sexually uptight, have a wank.
To paraphrase Monty Python, "kissing dream women who've done nothing but lie to you in the past is no basis for trusting them". But Leo's obsessed with her, because the writers say so.

Lucrezia finally unlocks her lips long enough to tell him she has a message from his mother. The Page, Sophia's his sister, blah-blah. Also she found the Page. She could have led with "look what I did for you" as opposed to "let me dream kiss you" but whatever.
"Your mother said the Crusade would be hopeless without it."
This Crusade is a pretty piss poor effort if it needs Florence and all the other cities AND the Page and Leo and God only knows what else to be a success. If it's the One True Way it shouldn't be this difficult or fragile.

"You are the only one who can save us now."
Just as Leo gets taken down a peg by Zo, here's Lucrezia, channelling Leia, "Help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope!" or maybe it's more Dale Arden's "Flash, Flash, I love you, but we only have 14 hours to save the earth!"

Leo wakes up, wakes Zo, says he has to leave because he had a message. Lucrezia "appeared" to him. He's going to Vinci. Every time he tries to go home shit goes down so I can't approve. Zo doesn't either, he thinks it's "fucking insane".

Now Leo leaves Zo and Nico because there isn't time to both go off on a side quest for randomly generated sibling drama and get Vlad to help in time to save the precious Crusade.
Don't worry Leo, others will take care of the important stuff. Follow your hallucination, even though you've spent all season screaming at those who appear to you. He promises to meet them in Rome. There's going to be a lot of worried and pissed off people waiting for Leo in Rome if he gets too distracted.

Sophia's sitting on a hillside, communing with imaginery Caterina while on the ship Lucrezia watches Caterina doing her mystical thing. Caterina is telling Sophia not to go to Florence but to Vinci instead, to find her brother.
But then a guard chokes Caterina to death with a chain. Blood spews everywhere.
My head canon is that Caterina, as well as Leo and Riario, are immortal, Because the Vault of Heaven. But as far as the show goes, even I think she's dead now, at least as far as this season goes, and thus the series. If s4 appeared, I'd think she'd be resurrected as some sort of ghost figure at least, which I guess ties in with the Star Wars theme now I've mentioned it.

I wasn't as emotionally drained by this episode but I'm all kinds of pissed off.
Quick note: despite my complaints I love the show, I fell in love with the characters. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't put so much effort into analysing it or participating in the fandom. It is because I love this fandom that I feel I have the right to critique it and to want the show to have done better in tackling the things I raise issues over.