Versailles Review: The Legacy (Season 3 Episode 10)
Versailles Season 3 Episode 10, “The Legacy,” brings the period drama to a generally satisfying end with an episode that highlights both the series’ great strengths and its obvious flaws.
Is it as wild and crazy as perhaps some of us had hoped for? No, but it’s still packed with enjoyably dramatic and over the top scenes, including an assassination attempt, several heartfelt reunions, and a final image of Louis in triumph.
On the whole, “The Legacy” is a season finale that also works as a conclusion to the series, leaving almost everyone in a fairly satisfying place by the end of it. (Except for Marchal, but his storyline has been so utterly all over the place this season, that this is pretty much the ending he deserves.)
And at the end of the day, it’s tremendous fun to watch. Which, let’s face it, is why most of us are here.
Sure, there are definitely some moments that feel forced or as though they come out of nowhere. And it seems pretty obvious that once the powers that be found out Versailles would end, they had to work overtime to cram in some things we knew would happen eventually.
Philllippe’s sudden decision to forgive Louis for poisoning their father — after what appears to be about two days of sulking back at his estate — seems a bit ridiculous after last week’s pout fest.
And in a season in which Monseiur and the Chevalier barely spoke, having them suddenly declare their love for one another and make out under Liselotte’s approving gaze is…odd, to say the least.
Plus, we just spent how many episodes watching Lorraine risk his life and freedom to be with the extremely Protestant Madame d’Angiers?
I have no doubt that the “Monchevy” pairing was always endgame for the Versailles writers and for fans everywhere. And I’m sure the rushed nature of their reunion was dictated as much by the decision to wrap up the show as by anything else.
But these two still deserved better than this reunion, even if they are immediately better together than they ever were apart.
Louis, for his part, goes out like a king, getting to revel in his godlike powers and all the pomp and majesty of his office one more time. He even gets to make up with Phillippe properly which, let’s be real, was pretty much all this episode really needed to do.
No matter what insanity was going on around them — some of it of their own making to be sure — the relationship between the brothers Bourbon has always been the heart and most important part of Versailles. The finale is no different.
The two patch their relationship up, with Louis asserting how much he needs Phillippe by his side, and the Duc d’Orleans admitting that he understood his brother well enough now to no longer harbor jealousy over his position as ruler.
Yay, family! After all, it is, as the episode takes pains to remind us four or five times, the most important thing.
But, of course, Versailles can’t end without one more utterly over the top sequence, which is why Louis’ trip into Paris to hold a traditional healing ceremony for the locals is so satisfying.
One, this whole idea is ridiculous. Why Louis would think that taking himself into the city to literally lay hands on the citizens that have spent the past nine episodes hating him is a good idea, I don’t know.
But he does, and it’s kind of hilarious just from a procedural perspective, as a row of musketeers shuffle a line of injured poor people through what looks like a game of Red Rover in order to receive a blessing from Louis.
The fact that there’s a small peasant uprising and an attempt on the king’s life in the middle of it all is really just the icing on the cake.
Like pretty much everything else to do with the Poor People Problems plot this season, it doesn’t make a ton of sense. I’m not quite sure why Jeanne and Bastien think that murdering Louis is the only way to… lower taxes?… on the people of Paris.
It’s also not clear why they think the newly renegade Marchal would help them carry out their plot, but it’s been a weird season, all around.
At any rate, at least this showdown in the public square wraps up this unsatisfying storyline in a neat bow, killing off every one of these secondary characters we were never that invested in anyway.
Guillame the shoemaker has somehow been promoted to Marchal’s old job as head of the king’s guard, ostensibly just so he can die as quickly as possible. His sister Jeanne is also shot and killed, though at least she gets to die in Marchal’s arms (why??) because that character has had literal zero coherent motivation this season. And Phillippe takes out Bastien before he can shoot Louis. Victory for all!
The question of whether the Poor People Problems plot was worth spending screentime on in a season that saw so many other characters get short shrift (Liselotte, Sophie, even Phillippe to some extent). It was never as interesting as the writers’ seemed to want it to be.
But at least it’s over, and we can all assume Louis and company simply trotted back to their lives of indolence and opulence at his eternal palace, where they all lived happily ever after, gossiping and backstabbing each other. That’s how I’m going to remember them, anyway.
Stray Thoughts and Observations
- Versailles‘ decision to end its run with a voiceover of Louis describing the immortality of kingship to his son is kind of odd when, historically speaking, the Dauphin will never rule France. The real Louis XIV ruled for such a long time that he outlived almost all his heirs, and when he finally died the only person who could inherit was one of his grandsons.
- It’s so weird that Louis having over a dozen people executed and 10,000 Protestants arrested barely merits a mention in this episode. Guess the religious persecution plot is over! Cool that it all worked out so fast!
- The biggest failure of Versailles Season 3 has to be the arc of Fabien Marchal. Not only is he never forced to confront the fact that he knowingly released a woman who literally murdered the queen, we never really see him face the fact that he betrayed his king either. Sure, he gets arrested when he goes back to try and save the noble peasants from being shot in response to their attempted murder plot and, quite frankly, he probably deserves it. But are we really supposed to believe the revelation of the Man in the Iron Mask’s identity broke him so thoroughly that he abandons his previously ironclad sense of duty to France? Whew, dude.
- Colbert literally dying while the Marquis de Louvois was trying to wax nostalgic about their friendship is the most perfect and succinct example of why this show is so great.
What did you think of the finale of Versailles? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Versailles airs Saturdays at 10pm on Ovation.
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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.
4 comments
The whole series had no clue and, as a result, could not convey even the slightest sense of history, of absolutist power and the way it structured all relations (including personal, erotic, etc. ones). The main characters where like Wall Street CEOs in costume and the contemporary voice drowned everything.
Apart from the active resistance to the historical era from which they supposedly drew inspiration, they also felt free to commit big historical errors, Louis XIII and Anne of Austria were not childless. Taking into consideration that they married when they were 14, they had four stillborn children prior to Louis, who was born 6 years after the last stillbirth, and named Louis Dieudonné (given by God) and two years latter Philippe. They were 37 and 39 years old respectively. All this is disregarded to advance the most ridiculous among all the ‘man with the iron mask’ fictions. Utter poppycock (also skipping over the big resemblance between Louis XIII and Louis XIV remarked upon by all their contemporaries and portraitists). If they wanted to tamper with historical facts to a basic logic defying degree they should have tried harder.
I agree with your critique of the way the writers destroyed the character of Fabien Marchal in the 3rd season. They must have smoked something when they were writing it. None of his actions made any sense. It made no sense that this loyal servant, whose entire being was staked upon serving his king and protecting his king from the king’s enemies (real or imaginary) would let a traitor who killed his queen go away just because they shagged a few times (and the daughter of a woman who fooled him for that matter!). Or let a true threat to his king’s plans, and therefore to his own country’s plans, like the fictional niece of Leopold was, simply gallop away. He would have at least kept her a prisoner, if the writers did not want him to murder a ‘young, innocent girl’ (as if that would have stopped him if he were supposed to be the character he was supposed to be!) until the actual marriage of the king of Spain to Marie Louise took place A cunning, complex man was turned suddenly into a complete dolt and the writers wasted one of their most interesting characters in the series.
Another point that was awful is that they did not show what an affectionate father Philippe was (instead he is shown first not to recognise his favourite child, Marie Louise and later to slap her!). And there was nothing on the rise of the golden age of French letters and music. Very very disappointing and wasted series.
Late to the party, but: Louis XIV ruled for so long, he outlived his grandsons, too. When he died, the throne was inherited by a GREAT-grandson.
I had always heard Louis15 was Louis14’s GRANDSON and this was the first time I heard what you said and YOU GAVE ME NEW INFO. Thank you.
Very disappointing season 3.
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