The Musketeers Marathon - S3E2: The Hunger

 

Something tells me this episode was influenced by the Syrian Refugee Crisis.

With the Musketeers now stationed in Paris, d'Artagnan is looking forward to spending time with Constance. Unfortunately, their shopping trip is interrupted: A harvest has been stolen from the Duke of Beaufort's granary, his granary keeper is found murdered, and the blame is pinned on a refugee settlement in the area. As d'Artagnan and the Musketeer cadets hold the rioters at bay, the Red Guards arrive and arrest several prominent refugees. When d'Artagnan attempts to intervene, he's arrested too. The theft is part of a scheme cooked up by Ferron and Grimaud to drive up the price of grain so Beaufort can settle his debts. It's up to the Musketeers to find the missing grain before the refugees are sentenced to hang.

This episode has a sinister plot, involving unscrupulous nobles seeking to profit from misery and scapegoating innocent people. To be honest, that hits close to home these days. Anyway, their teamwork is definitely with clenched teeth; Beaufort is incredibly pompous and looks down on Grimaud, and Ferron is just barely able to talk Grimaud out of killing Beaufort outright. When Treville is able to convince the magistrate to grant a stay of executions over a lack of evidence, they hatch a plan to fabricate such evidence.

This episode sees the introduction of Sylvie Baudet, a refugee and political radical played by Thalissa Teixeira. One of the residents of the settlement, she is caught by Athos trying to hide a set of pamphlets from an old rebel group dating back to the reign of Henry IV. She later spots planted evidence and helps Athos fight off a bunch of Red Guards who have been dispatched to seize it.

There is one particularly funny moment which I might adapt for a Kestrel and Scar story at some point. One of the Musketeer cadets discovers somebody selling some of the stolen grain. Porthos and Aramis question the vendor using their "special brand of tact and diplomacy": Aramis smashes up the vendor's stall while the much larger Porthos tries to exhibit restraint until the vendor confesses to buying the grain from somebody else.

All in all, it's a pretty good episode.