I’ve loved watching this show and I can’t wait for season two. It was great getting to watch a historical period drama set in France. We get a lot of period dramas on television in Britain but usually they are set in England, so it was nice to have a bit of a change.
I thought Henriette would be all right and safe from harm after the palace was able to stop the attempt being made on her life a few episodes ago, but obviously I was wrong. Henriette arrives in the King’s bedchamber in the middle of the night throwing up blood, much to the horror of Louis, Marie-Thérèse, and Bontemps. Philippe, discovering that his wife is missing and their bed is covered in blood, runs through the palace to find Henriette and sits cradling her while Louis is still stood in shock. I liked how in this episode we got to see how Philippe truly feels about Henriette, because although he has humiliated her by flaunting his relationship with Chevalier around, he does love her, and sticks by her side while she is dying. Philippe of course blames Louis for Henriette’s poisoning as he was the one who sent Henriette as an ambassador abroad even though everyone begged him not to. 
I think Philippe will always blame Louis for Henriette’s death, and I can’t see when they’ll ever be reconciled again. When Henriette dies Philippe defies Louis’ orders about nobles staying at court, and he takes Chevalier with him. Though in the scene Louis consents and makes the guards move so they are no longer holding Philippe back from leaving, I don’t think he did it because he wanted to. I think in that moment Louis realised there was nothing he could do to stop Philippe leaving, so Louis did what he always does, he chooses to keep face and let Philippe leave, so no one could say Philippe disobeyed the King’s orders.
Marchal realises that Henriette has been poisoned so immediately begins to interrogate everyone at court, including his newly acquired spy, Sophie. I must say Sophie has changed quite a bit since the death of her mother, she has no fear of Marchal while he is interrogating her even though she could die if Marchal thinks she is guilty. He doesn’t however believe she is guilty, even though Sophie was the one who made the chicken soup which ended up poisoning Henriette. 
He is more suspicious of Louvois who has constantly been a critic of Louis. It is only when Louis reveals that he pays Louvois to criticise him, in order to draw out other critics, that Marchal drops his line of enquiry against Louvois. His next suspect, however, is a lot closer to the mark. Through his interrogation Marchal realises that Montcourt was behind the murder of the Parthenays, and he gives Louis the opportunity to kill the man who murdered his guests. However they both wrongly believe that Montcourt is responsible for the death of Henriette so let their guard down after they kill him.
When they find out that Henriette has been poisoned the palace goes into lock down with Louis ordering that no one is to enter or leave. Unfortunately he allows his best friend Rohan to bend the rules by letting him take the Dauphin out riding. It is only right at the end of the episode that Marchal realises his mistake, that it has been Rohan who has been behind all the plots against the King. But by that time Rohan has successfully kidnapped the Dauphin and we will have to wait until season two to find out what will happen to him.
I’ve really enjoyed watching Versailles and I think visually it is really a very beautiful show. My favourite scene, even though I really loved her character, was when Henriette was dying and was upset that she couldn’t die in the gardens surrounded by all the flowers that she loved because it would be too painful for her to be moved. Louis therefore decides to have the flowers brought to her, and the garden is dug up and moved into the royal bedchamber so that Henriette could have her wish. I’m looking forward to next season to see how Henriette’s death impacts on Louis and Philippe. We already saw a bit of it in this episode when Louis is told that Henriette’s death removes some of the power that Louis possessed and passes to Philippe as Philippe becomes one of the most eligible bachelors in Europe, especially to those who want to overthrow Louis as the monarch. But does Philippe realise he now has this power?
Ruminating Rosie 