The Great
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Come on, guys.
Shes inaugurating a new salon and Shakys paintings are everywhere!
RIP Shaky and her fanciful eye patch.
Catherine is still desperately trying to just her mother, Joanna, who has an odd dislike for Beethoven?
Catherine gives her peanuts from the Americas, and Joanna hilariously keels over from a nut allergy.
Nut allergies are nothing to sneeze at.
Unless sneezing is your particular allergic reaction to nuts.
As an alternative to this, Catherine bans peanuts.
The Ottomans have sent something back!
It is a large box that Velementov expects to be full of poisonous bees.
The sultan sends a note to Catherine agreeing to discuss a way forward for their two nations.
He also sends these sinister-looking red candles, which, okay.
Was I the only one!!
The candles turn out to be poisonous murder candles because of course they do.
This is accompanied by the men of court singing a solemn dirge for seemingly hours on end.
To make things worse (how?
), Arkadys teenage son Alyosha laughs at Peter when his shovel breaks, and Peter attacks Alyosha.
Arkady stops him, and Peter later apologizes, which is growth for him.
And no one is saying it is; this is a messed-up thing Peter does.
But optics matter, and impact matters, and here we are.
Peter decides to apologize in part because no one ever apologized to him as a kid.
Good self-reflective work, Peter.
Peter punches Grigor and says he wants Catherine and Paul and not anyone else.
My heart, it cannot take it.
Arkady and Grigor leave, and Peter sadly says hes sorry again.
Hes working on it.
What would you do if Gillian Anderson very concertedly hit on you?
This seems like a tough situation for Peter.
Hes trying so hard, and then she slaps him, which, omg.
His later excuse is that he has graves to dig.
Well done, sir.
Peter the Great lives in the now and doesnt have time for things like missing people.
Our Peter says he wants to be a good father.
We know you do, Peter.
His hallucinated dad is, of course, terrible, and Peter tries to stab him.
(Side note: Why couldnt we get a scene between Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson?
Can you IMAGINE?)
Did we not talk aboutpublic birthyet?
Catherine is shown to a room with spectator seating.
Also, the pain will be so terrible that she wont even notice the people.
Then the baby was immediatelytaken awayby Empress Elizabeth.
Elizabeth inThe Greatwould NEVER.
As might be expected, Catherine is very angry about the Ottomans and their poisoned candles.
She tells Velementov to prepare for war.
This is a real bummer for him because he just threw his battle plans in the fire.
And thats why you always file backup copies.
Catherine realizes her mother doesnt believe in her and never has.
Joanna tries to persuade her to step down, saying her child will become her empire.
Catherine says no, it will not Russia is her child.
Joanna thinks she is mad and needs help, which is all so crushing!
Catherine orders her to leave the palace and Russia.
Can you imagine ordering Gillian Anderson to leave?
Before she goes, though, Joanna pays a visit to Peter, who just gives up.
I am not pro-this, but also, this scene is Very Good.
Nicholas Hoult and Gillian Anderson might both be the sort of people who have chemistry with everyone?
So together, its just very nice.
Still morally reprehensible, etc., etc.
Then theyre having sex against one of the palace windows, and she falls out.
Or, as my notes say,OMG.
SHE FELL OUT THE WINDOW.
AHHHH.I did not expect this!!
What a memorable end.
Elizabeth sees what happens, and she and Marial take care of it for Peter.
They bury her in one of the graves hes been digging.
They decide they will be better parents than their own.
Catherine is clearly having A Moment about Peter and almost kisses him, but her water breaks.
Can we bring back Jason Isaacs as a hallucination ghost who just pops in every now and then?
WHY DID NO ONE SUSPECT THE CANDLES?
