Hugo knows he can’t get Bernat’s help in finding Mercé, because he can’t know her background. But Caterina thinks they can find out about Regina through slaves that are indebted to Barcha.
They find one who says he went from convent to convent with Regina. He helps them find out that Regina will soon be leaving for Escaladei. Hugo spies on her and her entourage on their journey. Before he can do anything, he sees Bernat’s men take hold of Regina.
Bernat interrogates and tortures Regina. The Bishop stops him to tell him that Mercé is the daughter of a nun whom Satan impregnated. He says she is the daughter of the devil.
The Bishop and the other clergymen are like the devil, Bernat thinks. He knows what they’re like because he’s been around them for years.
King Alfonso realizes that Regina has a hold over the Bishop. He also sides with the Bishop, who claims it is God’s will for Bernat to annul his marriage and perhaps even kill his grandson.
The Bishop assures Bernat that if he repudiates Mercé, he will ensure that their child will be safe.
Bernat invites Hugo to his palace. He says he has no choice but to repudiate Mercé because everyone believes Arsenda’s claims. According to Bernat, Hugo has ruined his life. He never wants to see him again.
Hugo goes to Regina right before she is imprisoned. She tells him coldly that Mercé died falling off a cliff. Caterina tries to convince Hugo that Mercé is alive and Regina was lying, but he shuts her out.
Bernat meanwhile bribed the Bishop for a favorable outcome in his son’s trial. When the Bishop granted him his son, Bernat then married Marta, the daughter of Baron Destorrent. At the wedding, she eyed Arnau with distaste. ..
Hugo gets drunk night after night and wishes he had died long ago, lamenting all he could not save.
Caterina decides to take action. She goes to see Regina in secret. Regina is on the verge of madness, so Caterina pretends to be Mercé and asks her to confess her sins. She tells her where Mercé is being held. ..
Hugo is still convinced that Mercé is dead, but Caterina yells at him to stop whining and act. He won’t know Mercé is dead unless he goes looking for her. So, Hugo goes to a festival at the Sabanell castle. ..
Meanwhile, Marta worries she won’t be able to conceive and have a child who can inherit the palace. Of course, Arnau stands in the way too. She later comes across some of Regina’s old herbs and ointments, discovering that some of them are poisons. ..
Hugo sneaks into the castle’s dungeons, freeing multiple captives and starting a riot. Hugo carries Mercé out in the midst of chaos. Back in Barcelona, Regina dies in her cell.
King Alfonso calls Bernat to Valencia just as Marta tells him of her pregnancy. She senses disappointment from her husband, which angers her. She heard Mercé is back in Barcelona and wants him to send his dispatches after her.
Mercé has a difficult recovery, unable to see Arnau. She also finds out she wasn’t born to Hugo. But she tells him she loves him and forgives him, crying in his arms. ..
While Barcelona prepares for war, Mercé goes to Bernat’s palace to see her son. Geurao won’t let her in, so Hugo and Caterina have to forcibly take her away.
Bernat leaves for battle, and Mercé stays behind to watch. She approaches her son and tells him she will come back for him.
Hugo Bernat is the target of a group of people who want to take him down. They rush to his tavern and steal everything they can, in order to cause chaos.
Marta calls for Arnau to give her as many treats as he can eat.
The Episode Review
Regina’s death is anticlimactic, as the focus instead shifts to Lady Marta Destorrent.
In this episode, Marta’s intentions toward little Arnau are revealed. She wants to poison him so that he will die.
In a religiously and politically polarized setting, there could be more interesting conflict than a woman seeking to get her husband’s illegitimate son out of the way. Especially in such a politically and religiously polarized setting!
The clergy’s corruption is a major issue that drives conflict in the episode, but it takes a backseat to other more important issues. The Bishop has been negatively portrayed, but mostly in his relation to Regina. There was a missed opportunity for dynamic conflict not to frame the morally corrupt men of the church as the evil obstacles to overcome–instead of plucking a random character out of thin air.
