Versailles Review: The Wheel of Fortune (Season 3 Episode 6)
Things at court take a decidedly dark turn on Versailles Season 3 Episode 6, “The Wheel of Fortune,” as everyone comes together to mourn poor dead Queen Marie-Therese, Louis continues to embrace religious persecution and Madam de Maintenon flexes just a little too hard.
Not only does it feel as though Versailles has lost its moral center with the death of the queen, it seems as though Louis has lost his way as a ruler too.
He takes his persecution of the Protestants at court to the next level following his wife’s death. No longer content to merely force them to publicly recant their faith, Louis is now burning Bibles and kicking them out of court.
A lot of this is due to the influence of Madame de Maintenon, who insists that the way to secure the Catholic Church’s help in taking control of Spain is to aggressively oppress those of other religions.
Watching the formerly mousy Maintenon step forward as a serious power behind the throne is intriguing, but it’s also hard to tell how much of this she all believes in and how much she doesn’t.
Her devout faith has been a key part of her character since she first appeared on the show. But are we meant to think she’s pushing Louis so hard out of her love for Catholicism, or her newfound enjoyment of having a powerful man listen to her?
After all, she’s spent so much of her life in submissive roles of varying degrees.
Now, for the first time, she’s sexually satisfied, intellectually challenged and allowed to make her own decisions about everything, even up to and including the future of France.
That’s got to be a heck of a drug. And given that this is Louis’ court, it can’t last forever. Just ask Madame de Montespan.
In other news, is the big plot twist of Versailles may just turn out to be that Fabien Marchal is secretly the worst superspy in the world.
This is, after all, the second time that he can’t figure out that the woman he’s sleeping with is lying to him constantly and committing loads of crimes on the side.
Sophie — much like her mother — isn’t exactly a criminal mastermind either, given that she’s walking around looking afraid all the time and audibly begging for forgiveness next to the queen’s dead body. Get it together, Fabien!
His idiocy actually makes it difficult to even vaguely enjoy the fact that he and Sophie finally gave into their seasons-long attraction to one another, because it’s so obvious that, once again, he can be completely and totally distracted from a murder investigation with sex.
This is the most time we’ve spent with Sophie all season, and while Versailles does well to remind us how smart and resourceful she can, the show still does almost nothing in the way of giving her any real motivation for her behavior.
Sure, we finally see her share a scene with Leopold that acknowledges she’s working for him in some capacity, but we’re still never really told why or given a real look at her POV.
Is she still angry over the death of her lover from last season? Does she blame Louis for her horrible marriage? At this point — now that she’s killed the queen — it seems more important than ever to know.
Despite Fabien’s stupidity when it comes to Sophie, he nevertheless manages to figure out almost immediately that Louis’s father had a secret love child on the side based on almost zero evidence.
All this from one random throwaway line from a dead guy, and despite the fact there’d never been a whisper of the former King Louis’ unfaithfulness!
Maybe if Bontemps were a little more flirtatious he could have kept this secret, is all I’m saying.
This is a deeply unbelievable twist, given that there are roughly fifteen possibilities that should jump out at people before “illegitimate son” but since this finally means that the Man in the Iron Mask plot is kicking into gear, it’s hard to care too much.
Versailles is going with the idea that Louis’ father, fearing that his queen might never give him a legitimate male heir, was prepared to settle for making his mistress’ son the Dauphin of France. Or at least he was until Louis was born.
How we got from that to the boy must live his life hiding in an iron mask is not quite clear. But at least this story is finally moving. (And maybe it means Phillippe will finally find his way back to the main storyline.)
Here’s hoping anyway.
Stray Thoughts and Observations
- Seriously is there a way that Liselotte can just rule France herself? Her scenes with Phillippe’s daughter were so charming, and such evidence that she’s starved for someone to care about.
- Liselotte is also the undisputed Queen of Petty. Her snide comments to Maintenon about how Louis will eventually marry someone who isn’t here were perfection.
- The weirdest part of this Fabien/Sophie thing is that he clearly suspects that she knows something or has done something horrible. And yet he keeps dropping hint after hint without doing anything about it other than standing around looking pensive. Did he want to give her a chance to run?
- Louis sudden realization that he treated his dead wife horribly is legitimately the definition of “too little too late”.
What did you think of this episode of Versailles? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Reviewer Rating:
User Rating:
Versailles airs Saturdays at 10pm on Ovation.
Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.