The Serpent Queen Part 6 is the sixth instalment of an American historical period drama TV miniseries revolving around the life of Catherine de’ Medici. Created by Justin Haythe, the miniseries is based on the 2004 non-fiction book Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda.
SP O I L E R S
Entitled “The Last Joust”, The Serpent Queen Part 6 finally begins to reveal why Catherine was known as the “serpent queen” as so far, she had been outmanoeuvred at every turn by her chief enemy, cousin Diane, the King’s mistress. Six episodes on, it seems that Catherine is a lightweight and nothing ever seems to go her way. Thus, the story was getting a bit confusing and circular. Would this episode continue to test our patience?
READ OUR ANALYSES OF THE SERPENT QUEEN.
Initially, The Serpent Queen Part 6 seems to indicate that Catherine’s position has not improved. While she attempts to stop the wedding between her son, Francis and Mary Stuart – cousin Diane ensures that it does happen after all. Again, Catherine seeks the assistance of Ruggieri – the fortune teller that utilised the dark arts – but he warns of a big price that Catherine has to pay to get what she wanted. What does Catherine want – to be rid of cousin Diane, of course. But even more than that, the death of Henri, whose love and acceptance she has finally let go of.
The centrepoint of Catherine’s grand plan revolves around a dream he has of the deaths of Henri and Diane – which would give her absolute power as Queen Regent as Francis would be too young to rule. In the present day, Catherine has to contend with Mary Stuart’s ambition as the widow of King Francis (keep up, now) and we see that Ruggieri continues to be Catherine’s advisor all these years later.
The Serpent Queen Part 6 demonstrates once more that strong ambitious women were able to wield power at the highest levels even during these ‘backward’ times. Two more episodes left… will that be enough to cover all that ground still to come? We shall see.
Watch The Serpent Queen on Amazon.
… still there’s more …