Reign Review: 4x05 "Highland Games"

In this episode, Darnley gets challenged to a boxing match in replacement of a duel. I liked Mary's insistence that Darnley approach the duel fairly, but it felt a little hypocritical when she helped him cheat later on. It's not that I don't get the position she's in, and for sure, it's no more than countless other things that characters have done in the past. My problem is more that Mary lectured Darnley on fighting fairly considering what she then does.

Emily Knox is one of those characters where you know something bad is going to happen to them and that they certainly won't deserve it. Every time she's on screen I'm worried that it'll finally be the moment when everything falls apart for her. It's only a matter of time.

Clearly, she has feelings for James now, but I'm uncertain as to how James feels about her. After what we've seen so far, I could see his feelings as being anything from "she's a good person who deserves better than all of this" to "I'm falling in love with her". Based on what we've seen so far, I don't know which side I should be leaning towards.

There seems to also be some hints of something between Greer and James, which makes me wonder even more what they're going to have play out between James and Emily.

Charles's storyline is going differently than I expected. I am happy that they're exploring the ways that becoming the ruler of a country while still a kid would be immensely stressful and even harmful. Charles has had a lot of responsibility put upon him at too young an age, and it happened to him after the shocking, tragic death of his brother.

While I did wonder if he was hurting people before, even then it was clear that he needs help, which makes it frustrating to watch the other characters, particularly Catherine and Narcisse, continue to push him.

Claude discovers that Leith is alive in this episode, and it's rather heartbreaking. Despite still considering myself a Leith/Greer shipper, I care enough about both Claude and Leith that I hate watching them go through this.

I do appreciate Luc though. He's trying to help. He was willing to get an annulment, even though it meant lying, until Narcisse made that impossible, and once that option was out, he was willing to do whatever else he could to help both Claude and Leith. He could have easily been made into a villain along the lines of his father, and I think that would have been the easy way out. I much prefer this, and while I want Claude and Leith to both be happy, I'm hoping Luc continues trying to help them and doesn't turn into a villain.

This is another storyline where I can't guess how it'll end. Will Luc somehow die, allowing Greer and Leith to be together? Will the open marriage arrangement work out? Will Leith find someone else? (Is there a part of me hoping that Leith and Greer somehow magically end up back together despite being in different countries? Yes, but I'm not actually betting on that outcome. It lives purely in my fantasies, and if it were to happen, I'd hope that Claude found happiness too.)