The Musketeers Marathon - S3E5: To Play the King

 

The King is throwing a lavish party while Paris is mired in poverty. Kinda like the Jubilee.

Anyway, it's the Dauphin's birthday, and King Louis has nothing else on his mind other than making it a memorable experience. But while that's going on, a prison riot breaks out at the Chatelet. While the Red Guards secure the prison, the Musketeers are charged with rounding up a number of inmates who managed to escape. In reality, the riot is a cover for a scheme cooked up by Ferron and Grimaud to steal gold from the Royal Vault beneath the Chatelet. Grimaud seeks out an inmate, Victor Joubert, who had designed the door to the vault. He forces him to build a new key, threatening his wife Annabelle if he refuses. Meanwhile, d'Artagnan takes pity on one of the escaped inmates; a soldier named Borel who went insane and believes himself to be the king. But the eccentric turns out to be a lot more dangerous than he appears to be.

There's a lot going on in this episode, but the tension and dramatic irony run through it very well. Marcheaux tells the Musketeers to hold the escaped inmates at the Garrison until noon, ostensibly so the Red Guards can secure the prison, but it's really to keep them out of the way so Grimaud can access the vault. But he soon has to arrange for the prisoners to be returned at the evening. Elsewhere, Van Laar attends the Dauphin's party as a proxy to the Dutch ambassador, and informs Treville that Ferron's loan is due.

We get some good action as the Musketeers subdue the escaped inmates, including several who disrupt one of Sylvie's meetings. Aramis and Constance rescue Annabelle, and learn about her husband, prompting them to race to the vault.

It's odd that the main plot is about the vault, but the episode's title references Borel. The episode shows d'Artagnan's caring side and idealism as he tries to humour Borel in order to place him the care of a convent. The rest of the Musketeers assure him that he did the right thing, but the outcome affects him quite deeply. Although I do wonder how he managed to learn of Borel's war record, which he discusses with Porthos and Brujon; he was the survivor of a siege which lasted over a year, during which time the defenders were rumoured to have resorted to cannibalism.

The moment at the end where d'Artagnan is expressing self-doubt is quite profound. This is probably the lowest point we've seen him at. We also get a moment in which Ferron reveals to Treville that he knows the king is dying, which prevents Treville from exposing Ferron's loan from Van Laar.