Caterina, a free woman, greets Hugo at his bed that night. She declares she would suffer every hardship again if it would lead her to him. She tells him she loves him, and they sleep together.
Hugo meets with Mercé, who tells him that she is not impressed by any of the suitors Bernat has found her. She does, however, enjoy dining with Bernat and reading poetry with him.
After disappearing to Tortosa for a while, Regina comes back to Hugo. Being Hugo’s wife, she has every right to stay in the house, so she kicks Caterina to the shed.
Elena is a former slave girl who was freed by the Bishop. She is in distress and needs to hide from the city law. Barcha allows her to sleep with him in order to help her.
Hugo sees Caterina in the night and she tells him about all the abuse she herself suffered as a slave. Today, he sees that in Elena’s eyes.
Regina listens in on their conversation and learns about Elena. The next morning, the bailiff comes to the house, demanding the fugitive slave. They take her away.
Hugo and the others try to keep Caterina from being hanged, but the law dictates that she must be punished with death. Hugo has to hold her back as they draw the rope around her neck.
Regina waits for someone to call her a murderer and traitor, but no one does. Hugo tells her to run away or the men outside will kill her.
Caterina is walking out of the restaurant when she is hit by Barcha, so he grabs her and points a knife at her throat, claiming she must pay for what she’s done. She only lets her go at Hugo’s urging.
Hugo is summoned to announce that Mercé has chosen a husband: himself. They will marry in the spring, despite Hugo’s reservations.
Barcha wants to go to Mercé’s wedding, but Hugo forbids it. Bernat would never allow a slave to attend. They have an extravagant wedding, which Barcha attends anyway. When Regina sees her, she whispers to the priest. Guards then take Barcha away.
On their wedding night, Mercé cries. She asks Bernat to intercede for Barcha, but he yells at her. According to him, anyone who tarnishes the sacred temple his father helped build must be punished. ..
Hugo and Caterina flee to Barcha’s jail the next day. Barcha tells them she has had a happy life because of Hugo. She doesn’t regret any of her twenty years with him.
The Bishop seized Barcha’s possessions. Hugo has been made homeless. He thinks Bernat needs to regain Merce’s affection, so he convinces him to let Hugo visit and arrange for a new house for him, where he can start another business.
Hugo is seen in 1416, sitting at a wine tavern with Jucef. They discuss Hugo’s new project, which is a novel about a magical kingdom that is being threatened by an evil empire.
Bernat has to leave to be with King Ferdinand in his final hours. He leaves a pregnant Mercé. While the king dies, Mercé gives birth. Berant rushes back to see her, and finds her holding their son, Arnau, in her arms. He promises Mercé anything she wants but she says he will deny her the one thing she desires most, Barcha’s freedom.
Barcha now has a dangerous enemy. The new Bishop is a convert to Judaism, and a friend of Regina’s.
When Hugo returns to the tavern, he finds men surrounding a drunk Caterina. He goes into a rage and sends them all away before turning on Caterina. He demands to know why she would degrade herself, but she only responds that his family already degrades her. ..
Mercé goes to see Caterina, but she disappears on the way. Bernat searches for her, to no avail.
Since Mercé’s disappearance, Barcha has been behaving differently. She started praying for forgiveness. The Bishop heard her, baptized her, and made her his personal servant. She’s now able to spy on him and finds out from him that Regina is behind Caterina’s kidnapping.
Bishop’s men later come and take Hugo away. They take him to Barcha, who is holding the Bishop at knifepoint. She tells Hugo that Mercé is the daughter of a nun. The mother’s name is Beatriz, and she’s the abbess. ..
The Bishop feared that the nun would talk about the corruption in the church, such as the Bishop’s own sins. To make sure she wouldn’t, Regina kidnapped Beatriz’s daughter to threaten her.
The Bishop tells Hugo where the nun is, but can’t say where Regina holds Mercé. Barcha tells him to go. Her life is already forfeit.
Hugo goes to see the abbess, leaving Barcha behind to die. He says Mercé is in danger and he needs her help. The abbess insists she doesn’t have a daughter. Hugo then finds out that Beatriz is his sister, Arsenda. ..
He tries to convince her of Mercé’s worth. But Arsenda confesses that she told Regina to keep the promise she made when Mercé was born: to kill her.
The Episode Review
The show’s producers had been working on a plan to bring about a revolution for months before finally airing it. The show’s main focus was on Arsenda, the city that was in the middle of a civil war.
Heirs to the Land is desperate to provide interesting conflict. While it delivers high-stakes scenarios in this episode, it offers no believable reasons to back up these plot points. For one thing, Regina has become a completely one-dimensional, purely evil, unbelievable villain. It’s hard to believe someone who acted as a mother to Mercé would seek to harm the woman. Yet we are to believe she acts based on the petty reason that Hugo doesn’t love her.
There are several holes in the plot of this episode. First, how did Barcha know the Bishop would have any information about Mercé? Second, why did the writers choose to focus so much on Barcha’s interaction with the Bishop and not on any other potential sources of information? Finally, what impact does this lack of plausibility have on the rest of the episode? ..
I thought Heirs did a disservice to Barcha by only using her for sacrifices throughout the entire show. She is an important character and deserves more than just being used for plot devices. ..
