Review: Da Vinci's Demons s3e06
Jan. 7th, 2016 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meridian_roseSPOILERS and excessive feelings and over analysis.
Episode Six: Libertum Arbitrum - The ability or discretion to choose; free choice x
So I guess that Tumblr post *AGGRESSIVELY THROWS AWARDS AT BLAKE RITSON* refers to episode six and OMG yes. Blake knocks it out of the park in this episode.
I know there's make-up and contacts and possibly post-production work but his Sinner!Riario is scary as all hell, and the other facets we see are all well realised besides.
Tom got a BATFA last year and Blake deserves a nomination this year; hell, Tom has, I think, been even better this year himself.
My sister watched this episode before me and said I would enjoy it, and when I mentioned that post, agreed whole-heartedlyand she's not nearly as rabid a Ritson fangirl as I have become.
In fact we talked about how playing something very dark can have negative repercussions; an interview with Tom Riley talked about how he had an emotional scene, not necessarily the one fans might expect (and he's had a lot of those this season) and while the scene isn't real the emotions are still felt, and it left him feeling unwell for a couple of days after.
And it was a very intense episode for Blake in particular, but Leo is also heavily invested in saving Riario and Tom has some great scenes too. Blake seems, as seen in interviews where Gregg practically begs him to stop joking about, fairly light hearted and prone to joking, so maybe its easier to step back from the darkness if you're generally a positive person.
But I hope there were some forgetting about it all, maybe "no one eats alone tonight, we're all going down the pub this evening to be normal people and friends".
Maybe even some ice cream between takes :)
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And, given how all the cast are so close and touchy-feely in reality, some hugs, because dammit, Riario and Leo are barely allowed to touch, but I have more to say on that shortly.
Tom also has nice words to say about this episode: "Particularly episode six this season, Blake is magnificent. He gets to do some incredible sh*t. I just enjoy working with him." x - and given that both of them have worked with many of the actors involved in DvD beforehand, I hold out hope that Tom and Blake will work together again.and that they both again play bisexual characters but at the same time dammit
Also, remember when Tom got his BAFTA he said that you are only as good as the other actors in a scene allow you to be. So good job Tom and Gregg :)
Also there's a Tumblr post that says "The last show I saw Blake Ritson in was ‘Mansfield Park’ now I’ve just started watching ‘Da Vincis Demons’ and he’s fucking terrifying." which I reblogged saying it was the other way around for me, and how sweet Edmund is, especially by comparison! But s1 Riario has nothing on Sinner!Riario.
The "demons" in the title has never seemed so appropriate. It's like something out of "The Exorcist".
Interestingly, the run up to the final episode of Haven has had a similar theme, black eyed possession and desperate attempts by friends to reach the person they know is beneath it, the fact he won't hurt them only proving he's still in there. And it's touching but not nearly so well done. Plus there was angst which I don't know if it will be fixed in the final episode. Let's just say I liked that there were actual hugs but the rest was downhill, and I preferred DvD's take.
We begin the story with Riario hallucinating, seeing Leo as a demon and his bonds thus:
source which is possibly religious imagery, like a crown of thorns but here binding his wrists, and he feels he has been forsaken.
Everyone is hunting the Monster of Italy, but Leo assures Riario that he wants to cure him. We see, from Riaro's POV, what looks to be Leo brushing Riario's hair back from his face in a tender gesture, and you have to make the most of it because there's not nearly enough physical affection for my liking.
After the credits, Riario is the most lucid he's been in days. Leo had sedated him until the worst of the hallucinations had worn off. He suggests Riario was poisoned, as Leo was during the attempt to brainwash him. Leo had used charcoal to purge his system, and never really fell for the Labyrinth's vision, where Riario had no such luck and now Leo is trying to find an antidote.
"I am no longer your enemy," Riario protests desperately. "How many times must I prove it to you?"
And it's true, he's not. And Leo knows this, but it's not Riario he's worried about. It's the labyrinth!Riario, the Monster of Italy Riario.
Leo has a talk about faith and how awful it is when people use God as an excuse to do terrible things. He doesn't know if God exists, but says that if He does, He would be horrified:
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Much as I posited when I wrote fic before seeing this episode, Leo is done with the Sons of Mithras too, seeing that they and the Labyrinth and the false Pope are all the same, using faith to justify their own ends, including mass slaughter.
Back at the Palace, Laura is comforting Vanessa. She's wearing a really odd corset thing that I first took for a leather apron and I wondered if she was going to copy Leonardo (Be More Leo, Get More Riario, y/y?) and cut up Dragonetti's corpse. But no, she's just going to try and manipulate Vanessa into supporting the Crusade.
"No amount of money or power can guarantee one's safety," Vanessa wisely points out, "In fact, the more I have, the less safe I feel."
And then Laura comes out with: " As a mother, your life is no longer your own. It belongs to your child."
Bleergh. Don't make me hate you, Laura. I hope she's just being manipulative and doesn't actually believe that a once a woman gives birth she's nothing but a Mombie, that she can have no life or desires or ambitions of her own, that she has no individuality, no identity beyond Mother.
Leo and Riario have one of those conversations DvD excels at. This isn't just a show about action and boobs, this is a show unafraid to have deep philosophical dialogues. They talk about free will:
"so you are saying that we are capable of both great deeds and terrible acts?" Leo asks. He thinks that Riario has "become the physical manifestation of man's eternal inner struggle between good and evil" fighting between piety and killing. Leo names only those killed by Sinner!Riario; Rodrigo, the proprietor, Clarice, Dragonetti, and how that regret for those killings is expressed in the works of religious art.
Riario is in his own twisted way, an artist, and this is just another way he mirrors Leo.
Riario realises the truth of what Leo is saying, but can't understand why he murdered those people. I mean he's killed plenty of times before, but these crimes are different, I suppose.
He insists if was not at the behest of the Labyrinth, which "seeks to make all men pious to be of one mind before God". Good job on that guys, because you keep failing spectacularly. You didn't give Riario his lost faith back either, only fucking him up further. Something happened, because surely it was Labyrinth!Riario who captured Leo, and it was only his affection for Leo that broke that part of the brainwashing enough to rescue Leo – and I am still annoyed we didn't see that. But it was Sinner!Riario who did the killings of which Riario was not even aware.
Riario insists however that he was never one with the Labyrinth, which, okay, clearly he was able to shake their influence off to save Leo. He thinks is so damned, his "soul so riven with cruelty" that he was beyond even that redemption.
Leo is not going to give up.
"You saved me," Leo says. Riario says that after everything they've been through he couldn't watch Leo die, which persuades Leo that the Riario he knows is still in there.
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“There’s still time. I can heal you. Body and soul."
There are lot of these beautiful, tense, angsty but affectionate moments and it's wonderful. Leo's even wiping away a tear, overcome at the thought he can still save Riario.
But then the sinner comes out and hell it's terrifying.
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The Sinner blames Leo; because of his enlightened ideas Riario has come to feel guilt, shame, remorse.
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It also reminds me a little of Legend of the Seeker's Cara and her journey. Raised to be a weapon, she says: "Mord-Sith believe emotions must be governed. Sadness, remorse, love, these feelings make you weak. But anger, loyalty, pride, these feelings make you powerful." That TFLN applies just as much to Cara as Riario. Of course hanging around with her own Scooby Gang forces her to accept that all emotions have power and purpose.
Leo in fact has opened up Riario's world, the way he opens up everyone's. If he's shown Riario there's reason to feel guilt, Leo has discovered the same for himself – not about his sexuality, but how his actions have consequences. They've been on the same journey, but Leo has not been broken by it in the same way.
The Sinner seems like a separate personality, one that doesn't want Riario to feel guilt, but also revels in death. He says he won't be easy to dispatch and calls real!Riario a worm. This is where it looks like descriptions of possession, that something else has taken Riario's body and wants to crush the original owner out of existence. It behaves in very crude ways.
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Meanwhile Sophia and Lucrezia are still imprisoned. Sophia is talking to her imaginary friend, er, her mother. If Tumblr hadn't already spilled the beans, that she can read the book and talks to people who aren't there should be enough of a clue as to Sophia's identity, especially when she tells Lucrezia that maybe not dead mother wants Lucrezia to take Sophia to Leonardo da Vinci.
Sophia is the sister, then, that Lucrezia can save, because as we were reminded in the previous episode, she had Amelia, who she could not.
Leo obviously brought back souvenirs from America, including essence of poison arrow frog venom, because clearly what Riario needs is more drugging. Ok, when I wrote fic, I used drugs but in order for the deprogramming to take place, to take Riario back into his mind and relive events, not in an attempt to flush his system.
Also the way Riario meekly submits to Leo injecting all sorts of substances is telling. Riario trusts Leo implicitly, and Leo is probably the only one who can save him. It's a bit of a wrench to see Riario brought so low, but the devotion it implies on both sides is worth it.
The Sinner continues to taunt Leo that Riario admires him, envies his conviction, "the ease with which you make your choices."
Hell, yes. I actually wrote this about Riario's musings on Leo:
Leo was conceited and talented and demonstrative. Yes, to be so free with his emotions; Riario was partly disgusted while being partly impressed, as well as experiencing a touch of envy for the ease with which Leo moved through the world as if the rules barely applied to him. x
Nothing makes me happier than feeling I've got it 'right', not least because it bolsters my hopes that my reading of the characters and dynamics are valid even when the show writers refuse to ultimately follow through on the Leario.
The Sinner delights in talking of "a righteous kill, enjoy the sight of a gutted soul, still alive, heart beating lungs inflating" and watching the death occur. Leo is an anatomist and it must hold some curiosity for him. But no matter how crude the Sinner becomes, Leo is calm and resolute. Possibly more calm and in his own right mind than we've seen him all season. Taking care of Riario has given him a purpose and focus.
Leo insists the Sinner is just a mental aberration (suggesting a split personality?) a product of twisted chemistry (suggesting it's purely drug induced?).
"Am I too much the dark mirror to your own war within? I never fear the truth," the Sinner says. That's been Riario's position as antagonist since the start, the other side of the coin. And the Sinner is not afraid to use the truth for his own ends.
"Leonardo Can I call you Leo?"
In that same fic I mentioned, I have a whole section about why Riario still calls him Leonardo, even after they're in a relationship, reserving 'Leo' for specific occasions. It's a good thing to call attention to here, because in canon it's usually Leonardo, and often "artista".
(And for me, artista means "my darling artist"or it did in the fic, which is the same as "I love you.")
But it's not normally "Leo". The Sinner is seeking a personal connection beyond what Leo has with Riario. He continues to argue morality with Leo, about what his designs, his weapons have done.
"What manner of man can dream up such efficient devices of mass murder?"
Leo's a genius. He can't help but have ideas.
"I am a mere apprentice," the Sinner taunts. "You are the master, Da Vinci.You kill the many."
Plus there's the whole running after Carlo to seek vengeance for Andrea. Leo insists he wanted justice, but we all know Carlo was going to die in Leo had anything to say about it. And that's fair; Carlo betrayed Florence, betrayed Clarice, killed Andrea, tried to kill Leo. He would have it coming.
Zo shows up then to warn Leo about the Monster of Italy, and while Leo tries to send him away, Riario cackles and suggests it is Leo's lover, "come for his morning knob slob" which is one hell of a line to have to say, and says a lot about Sinner!Riario and his attitude to sex. Riario clearly has issues with internalised homophobia and that may be why he's pushed his attraction to Leo so far down that maybe the Sinner doesn't know about it, but again, I'll come to that…
Zo wonders what the hell Leo is doing. It looks like either Leo is keeping Riario chained up as a prisoner which will bring Rome down on their heads, or possibly for kinky times and Zo would Not Approve, not least because he'd be jealous.
"Riario's the Monster of Italy," Leo says, outlining his crimes and adding, "But it's not his fault. He's ill. I'm curing him."
He doesn't sound entirely convincing even though I believe him, so what Zo thinks I can't begin to imagine.
At the Palace there are concerns about the chaos in the streets as everyone hunts for Dragonetti's killer/The Monster.
It's said that Leo let the killer escape his grasp; clearly this is from a "missing" scene where Leo lied to Vanessa, got her safely home, and then dragged Riario back to his studio.
The Crusade festival is coming but no one wants to hang around in a city on the verge of a riot.
It's suggested that Singh nominates one of her men to be the new captain. I'm not sure why they're more trusted than the current Officers. There is cause for concern that Vanessa and her son are protected, again by Singh's men.
"This treatment should, in time, revert him back to the old Riario," Leo insists.
"I say we excise both of them," Zo retorts, possibly still angry about the time Riario threw him overboard.
Riario is temporarily lucid again. Worse than his nightmares is waking to the reality of knowing what he has done; though he doesn't remember his acts as the Sinner, he knew when he was told of them that they were true.
Leo and Zo argue a bit but Leo is never going to abandon Riario so it's moot.
"It was a consequence of the Labyrinth conditioning. His mind couldn't handle it. It broke in two," Leo says (suggesting a psychotic break. Make up your mind, show).
"I think because he was already compromised."
Now this is where I take issue with the explanation. Of course Riario was compromised. Not just because he killed his mother but he only spoke of that to Leo because he'd just killed Zita. It was too close for comfort, to kill a woman he loved, and it brought back the memories.
On his return to Rome he was refused redemption by the True Pope, shattering his faith. He was fished out of the river by the Enemies of Man, having cut his wrists and tried to drown himself.
Of course he was compromised, but it wasn't just about that early kill.
Can we not erase Zita and her importance to Riario, her sacrifice, her death leading him to confess his matricide to Leo?!
Can we also appreciate that Leo barely survived the Labyrinth despite his clever mind and stubborn determination to survive and good health when he was taken, and that a broken in mind and body and spirit Riario somehow survived at all?
Anyway, the show only cares about the matricide, and how it irreparably damaged Riario, or so he now believes; "Then there is no hope for me."
Leo can still heal his body, but his mind will require something else. "To release you from this internal struggle. To wake you up. As I had to - in my alternate reality."
I still think there ought to be more effort to deprogram Riario here but what do I know?
Zo is listening to all this and being Not Impressed.
"May I remind you that everyone in Florence is hunting this man right now," he points out. "Listen, they want him dead."
"I need him," Leo says, and a thousand shipper hearts break (in the best way!) at the admission. It's slightly ruined when he adds, "The crusade needs him."
DON'T QUALIFY IT!
I suppose we have to allow it's for Zo's benefit, but still.
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Pope Sixtus is coming to Florence as part of the Crusade prep, trying to secure the allegiance of the city states, and to witness the demonstration of Leo's weapon. Which given that Riario only handed over the coin just before going mad and taking up Leo's time, hasn't given Leo much chance to work on anything.
It will be a small miracle if Leo's weapon works at all!
Riario comes over self-sacrificing, self-destructive again, suggesting that for the good of Italy and the success of the Crusade, they should hand him over and collect the bounty. Zo thinks this is the best idea he's heard all day, but Leo disagrees.
"Riario is the face of the Crusade," he says and thanks to zephfair for the mental image of Riario on billboards like a fashion model being The Face of the campaign :)
"Let me pay for my sins," Riario begs, "Let my death serve Italy." Oh, Riario, bb.
Leo is stubborn as usual. "We can't give them Riario. But we can deliver a monster to the people of Florence. And Nico's gonna catch him."
Which will cement Nico's position, and by connection, Vanessa's, as leaders of Florence.
Leo's grand plan turns out to be simply Zo running about and then dumping a corpse that is supposed to be the Monster.
Now I'm fine with Nico as hero and Madam Singh's knowingly calling Nico Vanessa's "Little Prince" (totally his nickname now!), and Zo being the bait. I'd rather Leo have set the might of Florence on Carlo Medici/The Architect/any other Enemy of Man who is still alive after Riario's offscreen rescue of Leo.
But what bothers me most is where did they get the corpse from; since they're blaming this on the Turks and needed a Turkish body. Did Gothic!Laura have one lying around in her stash of creepy motivational tools or something? Also did they plant evidence on the corpse or just shout "Look, there's the Monster!" at Zo in costume and everyone believed them?
Meanwhile Sophia is terrified that Lupo is coming to take her away. Lucrezia tries to calm her. She says she knows Leonardo and that it means that Lupo really is looking for Sophia; I guess she's figured out the relationship, though it's not mentioned yet. She promises she'll save Sophia. She makes sure that when Lupo closes the hatch, she jams it a little so she can escape.
Leo's pleased that his serum seems to be "holding" which rather suggests it needs to be continually administered rather than a cure, but whatever.
"What I still fail to grasp is my true motive," Riario says and they discuss that all of the victims were a threat to Riario in some way. Rodrigo had replaced him as the Pope's right hand. Clarice was hunting Carlo, putting the Enemies of Man in danger, which Leo calls Riario's 'new found faith' – tell me again, was Riario brainwashed into the Labyrinth's faith or not, because the show can't make up its mind and I see evidence both for and against.
That leaves Dragonetti who spoke against the Crusade. "Your saint was threatened, retreated into a nightmare world, and let your sinner reign free," says Leo in an overdramatic moment that mixes mental breaks with religion and spirituality.
Meanwhile Lupo is insistent that the page from the Book of Leaves showed him the convent where he took Sophia from. Clearly others can read the book when it wants them too, though was his madness the price he paid?
"It showed me you," he says. So what was with all the other girls you took and questioned and slaughtered?!
Sophia says she cannot decipher it.
Now Lupo says "one of you can," so maybe the "you" was generic to the girls? Any way she's the last one alive. Which probably won't be for long if she doesn't comply.
Vanessa is Not Impressed that Sixtus himself is coming; Nico says that's why they weren't told, or they'd have refused to host.
Vanessa reluctantly kisses the Pope's ring. He's in her bad books now.
"I expected Count Riario among my welcomers," Sixtus says and they give him the false story they've concocted. I still don't know how much of the truth Nico and Vanessa know about Riario, but the false story is that Riario is back in Rome gathering troops.
Sixtus and Vanessa argue about Florence needing Rome's protection. He says that is took all their might to capture one Turk, and soon it will be hordes.
He too tries to use her son against her. "My dear would you rather your son grew up to be ruler amongst the dead or amongst the living?"
Lupo is still urging Sophia to read the page.
Lucrezia dispatches him and tells Sophia she is safe now.
Leo has left Riario behind so he can oversee preparations for his demonstration. He's looking the neatest we've seen in a long time with a nice new jacket.
Laura confesses her concerns about Riariobecause she knows he's Riario's boyfriend
"I'm at my wits' end. Where could Count Riario be? I fear the worst." She didn't get or didn't believe the story about Rome?
Leo tries to assure her that "The monster has been vanquished" which is partly true and follows the official story.
Laura's not convinced. "Every time an Officer appears, I expect to hear they've found Girolamo's body crucified." She calls him Girolamo, again, noting a personal connection.
Leo tries to reassure her. "Riario is a warrior at heart. It would take more than an Ottoman assassin to stop him." Then he has to go and see to things before it all literally blows up.
In fact Laura is so concerned she's used her influence to send men out looking for Riario, house by house. They've reached the studio.
Zo stares at Riario, don't you dare. Which is the wrong thing to do with any version of Riario, who loves to wind Zo up. He really ought to have knocked Riario out or tried to gag him or something. Because Sinner!Riario is back and screaming the place down.
The officers burst in and try to release Riario. Of course he then murders them, another horror trope where the supposed innocent turns on their rescuers.
Zo is lucky to be left alive as the Sinner leaves.
You had one job, Zo. Leo is going to be pissed.
Leo is talking about the new cannon he has designed, and somewhat basking in the adoration.
Then Riario shows up. Laura is thrilled. Leo is shocked.
"Where has the Count been?" Leo asks carefully.
"Oh, as I was telling the Signora, I was gravely ill, being tended to by a dear friend," Sinner!Riario says, using the truth as a weapon.
We can see it's not Riario because his eyes have been bleeding again and Laura is rightfully concerned. "Perhaps Da Vinci has encountered such a phenomenon before," she asks hopefully. Leo can fix anything, apparently, and she'll gladly trust him to take care ofhis boyfriend Riario.
Leo jumps at this chance. "Yes. Come back with me to my studio. I may have a salve or a solution that can help ease your pain."
Riario declines because he can't miss – have Leo miss? – his triumph.
Zo shows up and Leo is relieved because Riario could have killed him. He's so relieved he doesn't even call him out for letting Sinner!Riario loose.
Zo thinks Riario can't cause trouble in such a crowd but Leo is concerned because the monster goes after anyone threatening Riario; "Vanessa. Look, take her somewhere safe. Just keep her close. And keep a sword closer."
Leo gives his demonstration. It actually works perfectly first time. Leo is just getting lost in one of his imaginings when Zo tells him that Riario is gone.
Initially I blamed Zo for letting Riario get away a second time – you are never going to be asked to babysit Giulio – but I'd forgotten that he'd been put on Vanessa duty. It's probably for the best Riario didn't go after her, because Zo wouldn't hesitate to kill Riario, or to die trying. On the other hand, shouldn't Zo be with Vanessa at this point? Maybe I missed something.
ETA: on a rewatch I realise it's Nico who is sent to watch Vanessa, but seriously, couldn't Leo have loaded the cannon himself or had anyone but Zo do that, so that Zo could have been watching Riario?
They split up to hunt for him. Leo finds him in the Vatican, with a blade at Laura's throat.
"The fellow artist," the Sinner taunts. "Come to critique my work."
Leo pulls off another amazing display of emotion in this scene. He agrees that he is like the Sinner. He struggles with himself. He acknowledges that for "one ugly dark moment" he revelled in awe at the carnage at Ottranto, "the glorious bloodshed that my creations had wrought."
He goes on that he hates that part of himself, and sometimes wishes he could open up his veins to drain the evil. I guess he's being truthful, or thinks he is. But without the darkness, he would not be the same man. His creations would not be the same. And Riario's attempt to open his veins only made things so much worse, letting the evil win.
Also Leo is totally going to hook up with another Captain General of the Holy Roman Church years later and become Cesare's war engineer, so I take his whole speech with a pinch of salt.
The Sinner disagrees that he revels in the carnage, he only wishes to express himself. A dark art indeed.
Leo begs him not to hurt Laura. He doesn't want to see her die and he knows what it would do to Riario, possibly destroying him for good. He tries to reason with him.
"She's tempting you. Isn't she? Her obvious affections, they're stirring up feelings inside you. Feelings you have forbade yourself to feel."
All the times Riario has said no-one sees grace in him, all the times he's felt unworthy of affection, this is really at the root of his issues.
"She loves you as your own mother did," Leo says, because no-one remembers Zita and killing his mother is the only thing Riario has apparently ever done wrong, and all love is exactly the same kind or something. And heteronormativity is apparently important. Mother/Son, Woman/Man.
The more I work through this episode the more I'm eye rolling at the heavy handedness of the Mother symbolism. Leo and Riario both have mother issues, absent mothers at best to begin with, they've both been complicit in the deaths of their mothers by now assuming Leo's mother is dead. I've talked elsewhere about how important Vanessa is to Leo, and zephfair mentioned that maybe Leo listens to her because she is a woman and in some respects he responds to her in place of a maternal influence, which I totally accept :D But this whole sacrificial mother trope is grating now.
Anyway Leo says, "That's a love you cannot allow yourself to return", even though Zita as sexual partner would make more sense here, though Laura is older, older than Riario himself, in keeping with 'mother' symbolism. "And that's why she must die. Because she reminds you of the origins of your broken soul. Of what started it all."
I'm still not even convinced this was Riario's very first kill but okay.
"But you are too much of a coward to face it, so go on, finish it."
Laura is probably reconsidering all the trust she's previously put in Leo.
Leo urges Riario to re-enact the murder as he did then, not with a blade but to choke Laura. It's a good ploy because even if he does just that there's a chance for Leo to disarm him.
"Or you can choose. There's free will, Girolamo," Leo says, the title and theme of the episode. He urges him to wake up, that it is the only way to defeat the Sinner.
Riario apparently does choose. He releases Laura, drops the blades, sinks to his knees.
my edit; original source
First, I don't think it's that easy. I'd like to see some actual deprogramming, some evidence the Sinner is gone, even a dream in which Riario confronts the Sinner side of himself and kills him or embraces him/consumes him, acknowledges those dark fearful parts of himself and accepts them so that they are no longer a threat.
But the show doesn't think we need that.
Or, from what I'm trying not to look too hard at but have seen mention of, Riario is still broken in some way. Can he never be allowed to be himself, whole and in charge of his own choices, responsible for his own actions? Given that you won't give us season four and fiveand six can't you at least give Riario his sanity and autonomy back?!
Also, someone hold Riario. Leo, at least go and put your hand on his shoulder. You've broken him again, in saving him. Show him some affection.
I like to think at the end of final take, after all the raw emotion they've been through there was hugs after the director called cut. "Let me hold you", "I'm all right", "Well I'm not! I'm crying again here!"
I have one further issue with all this but I'll wrap up the episode recap first.
It's a two day ride to Florence and Lucrezia and Sophia are preparing to leave when Francesco and friends show up. Lucrezia sends Sophia to the house to hide and make her escape as soon as she can, take the page to Florence and find Leo.
Francesco notes that the soothsayer was right, Lucrezia found the page. She tells him that Lupo is dead, fed to his dog, and that he was insane (true) and that he destroyed the page in front of her. He doesn't believe her.
The end.
Okay, one more rant about the Sinner debacle. You can accuse me of over analysing, but hear me out.
Sinner!Riario went after those who made Riario feel threatened, including those who stirred up strong feelings of affection. But he didn't go after Leonardo. If he doesn't have strong feelings for Leo, then there can be no Leario.
How is everyone else handling this? Ignoring it? It hasn't occurred to you?
Are his feelings for Leo so "sinful" that Riario buried them so deeply even the Sinner side of him couldn't find them?
Does the Sinner think that because Riario wouldn't dare act on the feelings and/or because no version of Riario thinks he's worthy of Leo's affection, that it's not worth destroying Leo over?
Something else I haven't thought of?
(I crossposted this section to Tumblr)
ETA: Also I want to rec Sinner or Saint by zephfair/zeph317 as a somewhat fixit fic that draws on Riario's deeply buried affection for Leo that the Sinner wasn't previously aware of, and also gives a wonderful example of how to obtain consent throughout a sexual encounter, not just once, but with regular, gentle, checking in with your partner and using verbal and non-verbal cues as acknowledgement.
I'm also glad I wrote my fic about Leo saving Riario before I got to this episode, without being bogged down by canon and all these additional feelings I have. I wouldn't have written it otherwise.
I certainly explored how I think things could (should?) have gone, with the Leario more prevalent, the affection undeniably present, Riario's devotion to Leo proving the keystone in breaking the compulsion.
I watched this episode nine days ago and it took me this long (including three days of on-off writing) to deal with my feelings and actually write this review. I couldn't even bear to watch it again yet, relying on the episode script to get the details right. I did however detour to check out some Tumblr posts and write semi-crack fic :)
When I talked to my sister about how I'd finally watched the episode and how good it was despite my concerns she agreed and said, mostly joking, "Can I stop now?" Because this felt like the high point, especially after episode four. Everyone's alive and mostly okay now, and from my perspective this was probably the closest we'll ever get to Leario, especially now the show has been prematurely cancelled. And it was still unsatisfying. And so while we will both find the energy to finish the show eventually, there's a sense of sadness at this being a downhill slope instead of a potential lead up to the next season, a feeling that it will be hard to top this episode :/
Episode Six: Libertum Arbitrum - The ability or discretion to choose; free choice x
So I guess that Tumblr post *AGGRESSIVELY THROWS AWARDS AT BLAKE RITSON* refers to episode six and OMG yes. Blake knocks it out of the park in this episode.
I know there's make-up and contacts and possibly post-production work but his Sinner!Riario is scary as all hell, and the other facets we see are all well realised besides.
Tom got a BATFA last year and Blake deserves a nomination this year; hell, Tom has, I think, been even better this year himself.
My sister watched this episode before me and said I would enjoy it, and when I mentioned that post, agreed whole-heartedly
In fact we talked about how playing something very dark can have negative repercussions; an interview with Tom Riley talked about how he had an emotional scene, not necessarily the one fans might expect (and he's had a lot of those this season) and while the scene isn't real the emotions are still felt, and it left him feeling unwell for a couple of days after.
And it was a very intense episode for Blake in particular, but Leo is also heavily invested in saving Riario and Tom has some great scenes too. Blake seems, as seen in interviews where Gregg practically begs him to stop joking about, fairly light hearted and prone to joking, so maybe its easier to step back from the darkness if you're generally a positive person.
But I hope there were some forgetting about it all, maybe "no one eats alone tonight, we're all going down the pub this evening to be normal people and friends".
Maybe even some ice cream between takes :)
sourceAnd, given how all the cast are so close and touchy-feely in reality, some hugs, because dammit, Riario and Leo are barely allowed to touch, but I have more to say on that shortly.
Tom also has nice words to say about this episode: "Particularly episode six this season, Blake is magnificent. He gets to do some incredible sh*t. I just enjoy working with him." x - and given that both of them have worked with many of the actors involved in DvD beforehand, I hold out hope that Tom and Blake will work together again.
Also, remember when Tom got his BAFTA he said that you are only as good as the other actors in a scene allow you to be. So good job Tom and Gregg :)
Also there's a Tumblr post that says "The last show I saw Blake Ritson in was ‘Mansfield Park’ now I’ve just started watching ‘Da Vincis Demons’ and he’s fucking terrifying." which I reblogged saying it was the other way around for me, and how sweet Edmund is, especially by comparison! But s1 Riario has nothing on Sinner!Riario.
The "demons" in the title has never seemed so appropriate. It's like something out of "The Exorcist".
Interestingly, the run up to the final episode of Haven has had a similar theme, black eyed possession and desperate attempts by friends to reach the person they know is beneath it, the fact he won't hurt them only proving he's still in there. And it's touching but not nearly so well done. Plus there was angst which I don't know if it will be fixed in the final episode. Let's just say I liked that there were actual hugs but the rest was downhill, and I preferred DvD's take.
We begin the story with Riario hallucinating, seeing Leo as a demon and his bonds thus:
source which is possibly religious imagery, like a crown of thorns but here binding his wrists, and he feels he has been forsaken.Everyone is hunting the Monster of Italy, but Leo assures Riario that he wants to cure him. We see, from Riaro's POV, what looks to be Leo brushing Riario's hair back from his face in a tender gesture, and you have to make the most of it because there's not nearly enough physical affection for my liking.
After the credits, Riario is the most lucid he's been in days. Leo had sedated him until the worst of the hallucinations had worn off. He suggests Riario was poisoned, as Leo was during the attempt to brainwash him. Leo had used charcoal to purge his system, and never really fell for the Labyrinth's vision, where Riario had no such luck and now Leo is trying to find an antidote.
"I am no longer your enemy," Riario protests desperately. "How many times must I prove it to you?"
And it's true, he's not. And Leo knows this, but it's not Riario he's worried about. It's the labyrinth!Riario, the Monster of Italy Riario.
Leo has a talk about faith and how awful it is when people use God as an excuse to do terrible things. He doesn't know if God exists, but says that if He does, He would be horrified:
sourceMuch as I posited when I wrote fic before seeing this episode, Leo is done with the Sons of Mithras too, seeing that they and the Labyrinth and the false Pope are all the same, using faith to justify their own ends, including mass slaughter.
Back at the Palace, Laura is comforting Vanessa. She's wearing a really odd corset thing that I first took for a leather apron and I wondered if she was going to copy Leonardo (Be More Leo, Get More Riario, y/y?) and cut up Dragonetti's corpse. But no, she's just going to try and manipulate Vanessa into supporting the Crusade.
"No amount of money or power can guarantee one's safety," Vanessa wisely points out, "In fact, the more I have, the less safe I feel."
And then Laura comes out with: " As a mother, your life is no longer your own. It belongs to your child."
Bleergh. Don't make me hate you, Laura. I hope she's just being manipulative and doesn't actually believe that a once a woman gives birth she's nothing but a Mombie, that she can have no life or desires or ambitions of her own, that she has no individuality, no identity beyond Mother.
Leo and Riario have one of those conversations DvD excels at. This isn't just a show about action and boobs, this is a show unafraid to have deep philosophical dialogues. They talk about free will:
"so you are saying that we are capable of both great deeds and terrible acts?" Leo asks. He thinks that Riario has "become the physical manifestation of man's eternal inner struggle between good and evil" fighting between piety and killing. Leo names only those killed by Sinner!Riario; Rodrigo, the proprietor, Clarice, Dragonetti, and how that regret for those killings is expressed in the works of religious art.
Riario is in his own twisted way, an artist, and this is just another way he mirrors Leo.
Riario realises the truth of what Leo is saying, but can't understand why he murdered those people. I mean he's killed plenty of times before, but these crimes are different, I suppose.
He insists if was not at the behest of the Labyrinth, which "seeks to make all men pious to be of one mind before God". Good job on that guys, because you keep failing spectacularly. You didn't give Riario his lost faith back either, only fucking him up further. Something happened, because surely it was Labyrinth!Riario who captured Leo, and it was only his affection for Leo that broke that part of the brainwashing enough to rescue Leo – and I am still annoyed we didn't see that. But it was Sinner!Riario who did the killings of which Riario was not even aware.
Riario insists however that he was never one with the Labyrinth, which, okay, clearly he was able to shake their influence off to save Leo. He thinks is so damned, his "soul so riven with cruelty" that he was beyond even that redemption.
Leo is not going to give up.
"You saved me," Leo says. Riario says that after everything they've been through he couldn't watch Leo die, which persuades Leo that the Riario he knows is still in there.
source source“There’s still time. I can heal you. Body and soul."
There are lot of these beautiful, tense, angsty but affectionate moments and it's wonderful. Leo's even wiping away a tear, overcome at the thought he can still save Riario.
But then the sinner comes out and hell it's terrifying.
sourceThe Sinner blames Leo; because of his enlightened ideas Riario has come to feel guilt, shame, remorse.
sourceIt also reminds me a little of Legend of the Seeker's Cara and her journey. Raised to be a weapon, she says: "Mord-Sith believe emotions must be governed. Sadness, remorse, love, these feelings make you weak. But anger, loyalty, pride, these feelings make you powerful." That TFLN applies just as much to Cara as Riario. Of course hanging around with her own Scooby Gang forces her to accept that all emotions have power and purpose.
Leo in fact has opened up Riario's world, the way he opens up everyone's. If he's shown Riario there's reason to feel guilt, Leo has discovered the same for himself – not about his sexuality, but how his actions have consequences. They've been on the same journey, but Leo has not been broken by it in the same way.
The Sinner seems like a separate personality, one that doesn't want Riario to feel guilt, but also revels in death. He says he won't be easy to dispatch and calls real!Riario a worm. This is where it looks like descriptions of possession, that something else has taken Riario's body and wants to crush the original owner out of existence. It behaves in very crude ways.
sourceMeanwhile Sophia and Lucrezia are still imprisoned. Sophia is talking to her imaginary friend, er, her mother. If Tumblr hadn't already spilled the beans, that she can read the book and talks to people who aren't there should be enough of a clue as to Sophia's identity, especially when she tells Lucrezia that maybe not dead mother wants Lucrezia to take Sophia to Leonardo da Vinci.
Sophia is the sister, then, that Lucrezia can save, because as we were reminded in the previous episode, she had Amelia, who she could not.
Leo obviously brought back souvenirs from America, including essence of poison arrow frog venom, because clearly what Riario needs is more drugging. Ok, when I wrote fic, I used drugs but in order for the deprogramming to take place, to take Riario back into his mind and relive events, not in an attempt to flush his system.
Also the way Riario meekly submits to Leo injecting all sorts of substances is telling. Riario trusts Leo implicitly, and Leo is probably the only one who can save him. It's a bit of a wrench to see Riario brought so low, but the devotion it implies on both sides is worth it.
The Sinner continues to taunt Leo that Riario admires him, envies his conviction, "the ease with which you make your choices."
Hell, yes. I actually wrote this about Riario's musings on Leo:
Leo was conceited and talented and demonstrative. Yes, to be so free with his emotions; Riario was partly disgusted while being partly impressed, as well as experiencing a touch of envy for the ease with which Leo moved through the world as if the rules barely applied to him. x
Nothing makes me happier than feeling I've got it 'right', not least because it bolsters my hopes that my reading of the characters and dynamics are valid even when the show writers refuse to ultimately follow through on the Leario.
The Sinner delights in talking of "a righteous kill, enjoy the sight of a gutted soul, still alive, heart beating lungs inflating" and watching the death occur. Leo is an anatomist and it must hold some curiosity for him. But no matter how crude the Sinner becomes, Leo is calm and resolute. Possibly more calm and in his own right mind than we've seen him all season. Taking care of Riario has given him a purpose and focus.
Leo insists the Sinner is just a mental aberration (suggesting a split personality?) a product of twisted chemistry (suggesting it's purely drug induced?).
"Am I too much the dark mirror to your own war within? I never fear the truth," the Sinner says. That's been Riario's position as antagonist since the start, the other side of the coin. And the Sinner is not afraid to use the truth for his own ends.
"Leonardo Can I call you Leo?"
In that same fic I mentioned, I have a whole section about why Riario still calls him Leonardo, even after they're in a relationship, reserving 'Leo' for specific occasions. It's a good thing to call attention to here, because in canon it's usually Leonardo, and often "artista".
(And for me, artista means "my darling artist"
But it's not normally "Leo". The Sinner is seeking a personal connection beyond what Leo has with Riario. He continues to argue morality with Leo, about what his designs, his weapons have done.
"What manner of man can dream up such efficient devices of mass murder?"
Leo's a genius. He can't help but have ideas.
"I am a mere apprentice," the Sinner taunts. "You are the master, Da Vinci.You kill the many."
Plus there's the whole running after Carlo to seek vengeance for Andrea. Leo insists he wanted justice, but we all know Carlo was going to die in Leo had anything to say about it. And that's fair; Carlo betrayed Florence, betrayed Clarice, killed Andrea, tried to kill Leo. He would have it coming.
Zo shows up then to warn Leo about the Monster of Italy, and while Leo tries to send him away, Riario cackles and suggests it is Leo's lover, "come for his morning knob slob" which is one hell of a line to have to say, and says a lot about Sinner!Riario and his attitude to sex. Riario clearly has issues with internalised homophobia and that may be why he's pushed his attraction to Leo so far down that maybe the Sinner doesn't know about it, but again, I'll come to that…
Zo wonders what the hell Leo is doing. It looks like either Leo is keeping Riario chained up as a prisoner which will bring Rome down on their heads, or possibly for kinky times and Zo would Not Approve, not least because he'd be jealous.
"Riario's the Monster of Italy," Leo says, outlining his crimes and adding, "But it's not his fault. He's ill. I'm curing him."
He doesn't sound entirely convincing even though I believe him, so what Zo thinks I can't begin to imagine.
At the Palace there are concerns about the chaos in the streets as everyone hunts for Dragonetti's killer/The Monster.
It's said that Leo let the killer escape his grasp; clearly this is from a "missing" scene where Leo lied to Vanessa, got her safely home, and then dragged Riario back to his studio.
The Crusade festival is coming but no one wants to hang around in a city on the verge of a riot.
It's suggested that Singh nominates one of her men to be the new captain. I'm not sure why they're more trusted than the current Officers. There is cause for concern that Vanessa and her son are protected, again by Singh's men.
"This treatment should, in time, revert him back to the old Riario," Leo insists.
"I say we excise both of them," Zo retorts, possibly still angry about the time Riario threw him overboard.
Riario is temporarily lucid again. Worse than his nightmares is waking to the reality of knowing what he has done; though he doesn't remember his acts as the Sinner, he knew when he was told of them that they were true.
Leo and Zo argue a bit but Leo is never going to abandon Riario so it's moot.
"It was a consequence of the Labyrinth conditioning. His mind couldn't handle it. It broke in two," Leo says (suggesting a psychotic break. Make up your mind, show).
"I think because he was already compromised."
Now this is where I take issue with the explanation. Of course Riario was compromised. Not just because he killed his mother but he only spoke of that to Leo because he'd just killed Zita. It was too close for comfort, to kill a woman he loved, and it brought back the memories.
On his return to Rome he was refused redemption by the True Pope, shattering his faith. He was fished out of the river by the Enemies of Man, having cut his wrists and tried to drown himself.
Of course he was compromised, but it wasn't just about that early kill.
Can we not erase Zita and her importance to Riario, her sacrifice, her death leading him to confess his matricide to Leo?!
Can we also appreciate that Leo barely survived the Labyrinth despite his clever mind and stubborn determination to survive and good health when he was taken, and that a broken in mind and body and spirit Riario somehow survived at all?
Anyway, the show only cares about the matricide, and how it irreparably damaged Riario, or so he now believes; "Then there is no hope for me."
Leo can still heal his body, but his mind will require something else. "To release you from this internal struggle. To wake you up. As I had to - in my alternate reality."
I still think there ought to be more effort to deprogram Riario here but what do I know?
Zo is listening to all this and being Not Impressed.
"May I remind you that everyone in Florence is hunting this man right now," he points out. "Listen, they want him dead."
"I need him," Leo says, and a thousand shipper hearts break (in the best way!) at the admission. It's slightly ruined when he adds, "The crusade needs him."
DON'T QUALIFY IT!
I suppose we have to allow it's for Zo's benefit, but still.
sourcePope Sixtus is coming to Florence as part of the Crusade prep, trying to secure the allegiance of the city states, and to witness the demonstration of Leo's weapon. Which given that Riario only handed over the coin just before going mad and taking up Leo's time, hasn't given Leo much chance to work on anything.
It will be a small miracle if Leo's weapon works at all!
Riario comes over self-sacrificing, self-destructive again, suggesting that for the good of Italy and the success of the Crusade, they should hand him over and collect the bounty. Zo thinks this is the best idea he's heard all day, but Leo disagrees.
"Riario is the face of the Crusade," he says and thanks to zephfair for the mental image of Riario on billboards like a fashion model being The Face of the campaign :)
"Let me pay for my sins," Riario begs, "Let my death serve Italy." Oh, Riario, bb.
Leo is stubborn as usual. "We can't give them Riario. But we can deliver a monster to the people of Florence. And Nico's gonna catch him."
Which will cement Nico's position, and by connection, Vanessa's, as leaders of Florence.
Leo's grand plan turns out to be simply Zo running about and then dumping a corpse that is supposed to be the Monster.
Now I'm fine with Nico as hero and Madam Singh's knowingly calling Nico Vanessa's "Little Prince" (totally his nickname now!), and Zo being the bait. I'd rather Leo have set the might of Florence on Carlo Medici/The Architect/any other Enemy of Man who is still alive after Riario's offscreen rescue of Leo.
But what bothers me most is where did they get the corpse from; since they're blaming this on the Turks and needed a Turkish body. Did Gothic!Laura have one lying around in her stash of creepy motivational tools or something? Also did they plant evidence on the corpse or just shout "Look, there's the Monster!" at Zo in costume and everyone believed them?
Meanwhile Sophia is terrified that Lupo is coming to take her away. Lucrezia tries to calm her. She says she knows Leonardo and that it means that Lupo really is looking for Sophia; I guess she's figured out the relationship, though it's not mentioned yet. She promises she'll save Sophia. She makes sure that when Lupo closes the hatch, she jams it a little so she can escape.
Leo's pleased that his serum seems to be "holding" which rather suggests it needs to be continually administered rather than a cure, but whatever.
"What I still fail to grasp is my true motive," Riario says and they discuss that all of the victims were a threat to Riario in some way. Rodrigo had replaced him as the Pope's right hand. Clarice was hunting Carlo, putting the Enemies of Man in danger, which Leo calls Riario's 'new found faith' – tell me again, was Riario brainwashed into the Labyrinth's faith or not, because the show can't make up its mind and I see evidence both for and against.
That leaves Dragonetti who spoke against the Crusade. "Your saint was threatened, retreated into a nightmare world, and let your sinner reign free," says Leo in an overdramatic moment that mixes mental breaks with religion and spirituality.
Meanwhile Lupo is insistent that the page from the Book of Leaves showed him the convent where he took Sophia from. Clearly others can read the book when it wants them too, though was his madness the price he paid?
"It showed me you," he says. So what was with all the other girls you took and questioned and slaughtered?!
Sophia says she cannot decipher it.
Now Lupo says "one of you can," so maybe the "you" was generic to the girls? Any way she's the last one alive. Which probably won't be for long if she doesn't comply.
Vanessa is Not Impressed that Sixtus himself is coming; Nico says that's why they weren't told, or they'd have refused to host.
Vanessa reluctantly kisses the Pope's ring. He's in her bad books now.
"I expected Count Riario among my welcomers," Sixtus says and they give him the false story they've concocted. I still don't know how much of the truth Nico and Vanessa know about Riario, but the false story is that Riario is back in Rome gathering troops.
Sixtus and Vanessa argue about Florence needing Rome's protection. He says that is took all their might to capture one Turk, and soon it will be hordes.
He too tries to use her son against her. "My dear would you rather your son grew up to be ruler amongst the dead or amongst the living?"
Lupo is still urging Sophia to read the page.
Lucrezia dispatches him and tells Sophia she is safe now.
Leo has left Riario behind so he can oversee preparations for his demonstration. He's looking the neatest we've seen in a long time with a nice new jacket.
Laura confesses her concerns about Riario
"I'm at my wits' end. Where could Count Riario be? I fear the worst." She didn't get or didn't believe the story about Rome?
Leo tries to assure her that "The monster has been vanquished" which is partly true and follows the official story.
Laura's not convinced. "Every time an Officer appears, I expect to hear they've found Girolamo's body crucified." She calls him Girolamo, again, noting a personal connection.
Leo tries to reassure her. "Riario is a warrior at heart. It would take more than an Ottoman assassin to stop him." Then he has to go and see to things before it all literally blows up.
In fact Laura is so concerned she's used her influence to send men out looking for Riario, house by house. They've reached the studio.
Zo stares at Riario, don't you dare. Which is the wrong thing to do with any version of Riario, who loves to wind Zo up. He really ought to have knocked Riario out or tried to gag him or something. Because Sinner!Riario is back and screaming the place down.
The officers burst in and try to release Riario. Of course he then murders them, another horror trope where the supposed innocent turns on their rescuers.
Zo is lucky to be left alive as the Sinner leaves.
You had one job, Zo. Leo is going to be pissed.
Leo is talking about the new cannon he has designed, and somewhat basking in the adoration.
Then Riario shows up. Laura is thrilled. Leo is shocked.
"Where has the Count been?" Leo asks carefully.
"Oh, as I was telling the Signora, I was gravely ill, being tended to by a dear friend," Sinner!Riario says, using the truth as a weapon.
We can see it's not Riario because his eyes have been bleeding again and Laura is rightfully concerned. "Perhaps Da Vinci has encountered such a phenomenon before," she asks hopefully. Leo can fix anything, apparently, and she'll gladly trust him to take care of
Leo jumps at this chance. "Yes. Come back with me to my studio. I may have a salve or a solution that can help ease your pain."
Riario declines because he can't miss – have Leo miss? – his triumph.
Zo shows up and Leo is relieved because Riario could have killed him. He's so relieved he doesn't even call him out for letting Sinner!Riario loose.
Zo thinks Riario can't cause trouble in such a crowd but Leo is concerned because the monster goes after anyone threatening Riario; "Vanessa. Look, take her somewhere safe. Just keep her close. And keep a sword closer."
Leo gives his demonstration. It actually works perfectly first time. Leo is just getting lost in one of his imaginings when Zo tells him that Riario is gone.
Initially I blamed Zo for letting Riario get away a second time – you are never going to be asked to babysit Giulio – but I'd forgotten that he'd been put on Vanessa duty. It's probably for the best Riario didn't go after her, because Zo wouldn't hesitate to kill Riario, or to die trying. On the other hand, shouldn't Zo be with Vanessa at this point? Maybe I missed something.
ETA: on a rewatch I realise it's Nico who is sent to watch Vanessa, but seriously, couldn't Leo have loaded the cannon himself or had anyone but Zo do that, so that Zo could have been watching Riario?
They split up to hunt for him. Leo finds him in the Vatican, with a blade at Laura's throat.
"The fellow artist," the Sinner taunts. "Come to critique my work."
Leo pulls off another amazing display of emotion in this scene. He agrees that he is like the Sinner. He struggles with himself. He acknowledges that for "one ugly dark moment" he revelled in awe at the carnage at Ottranto, "the glorious bloodshed that my creations had wrought."
He goes on that he hates that part of himself, and sometimes wishes he could open up his veins to drain the evil. I guess he's being truthful, or thinks he is. But without the darkness, he would not be the same man. His creations would not be the same. And Riario's attempt to open his veins only made things so much worse, letting the evil win.
Also Leo is totally going to hook up with another Captain General of the Holy Roman Church years later and become Cesare's war engineer, so I take his whole speech with a pinch of salt.
The Sinner disagrees that he revels in the carnage, he only wishes to express himself. A dark art indeed.
Leo begs him not to hurt Laura. He doesn't want to see her die and he knows what it would do to Riario, possibly destroying him for good. He tries to reason with him.
"She's tempting you. Isn't she? Her obvious affections, they're stirring up feelings inside you. Feelings you have forbade yourself to feel."
All the times Riario has said no-one sees grace in him, all the times he's felt unworthy of affection, this is really at the root of his issues.
"She loves you as your own mother did," Leo says, because no-one remembers Zita and killing his mother is the only thing Riario has apparently ever done wrong, and all love is exactly the same kind or something. And heteronormativity is apparently important. Mother/Son, Woman/Man.
The more I work through this episode the more I'm eye rolling at the heavy handedness of the Mother symbolism. Leo and Riario both have mother issues, absent mothers at best to begin with, they've both been complicit in the deaths of their mothers by now assuming Leo's mother is dead. I've talked elsewhere about how important Vanessa is to Leo, and zephfair mentioned that maybe Leo listens to her because she is a woman and in some respects he responds to her in place of a maternal influence, which I totally accept :D But this whole sacrificial mother trope is grating now.
Anyway Leo says, "That's a love you cannot allow yourself to return", even though Zita as sexual partner would make more sense here, though Laura is older, older than Riario himself, in keeping with 'mother' symbolism. "And that's why she must die. Because she reminds you of the origins of your broken soul. Of what started it all."
I'm still not even convinced this was Riario's very first kill but okay.
"But you are too much of a coward to face it, so go on, finish it."
Laura is probably reconsidering all the trust she's previously put in Leo.
Leo urges Riario to re-enact the murder as he did then, not with a blade but to choke Laura. It's a good ploy because even if he does just that there's a chance for Leo to disarm him.
"Or you can choose. There's free will, Girolamo," Leo says, the title and theme of the episode. He urges him to wake up, that it is the only way to defeat the Sinner.
Riario apparently does choose. He releases Laura, drops the blades, sinks to his knees.
my edit; original sourceFirst, I don't think it's that easy. I'd like to see some actual deprogramming, some evidence the Sinner is gone, even a dream in which Riario confronts the Sinner side of himself and kills him or embraces him/consumes him, acknowledges those dark fearful parts of himself and accepts them so that they are no longer a threat.
But the show doesn't think we need that.
Or, from what I'm trying not to look too hard at but have seen mention of, Riario is still broken in some way. Can he never be allowed to be himself, whole and in charge of his own choices, responsible for his own actions? Given that you won't give us season four and five
Also, someone hold Riario. Leo, at least go and put your hand on his shoulder. You've broken him again, in saving him. Show him some affection.
I like to think at the end of final take, after all the raw emotion they've been through there was hugs after the director called cut. "Let me hold you", "I'm all right", "Well I'm not! I'm crying again here!"
I have one further issue with all this but I'll wrap up the episode recap first.
It's a two day ride to Florence and Lucrezia and Sophia are preparing to leave when Francesco and friends show up. Lucrezia sends Sophia to the house to hide and make her escape as soon as she can, take the page to Florence and find Leo.
Francesco notes that the soothsayer was right, Lucrezia found the page. She tells him that Lupo is dead, fed to his dog, and that he was insane (true) and that he destroyed the page in front of her. He doesn't believe her.
The end.
Okay, one more rant about the Sinner debacle. You can accuse me of over analysing, but hear me out.
Sinner!Riario went after those who made Riario feel threatened, including those who stirred up strong feelings of affection. But he didn't go after Leonardo. If he doesn't have strong feelings for Leo, then there can be no Leario.
How is everyone else handling this? Ignoring it? It hasn't occurred to you?
Are his feelings for Leo so "sinful" that Riario buried them so deeply even the Sinner side of him couldn't find them?
Does the Sinner think that because Riario wouldn't dare act on the feelings and/or because no version of Riario thinks he's worthy of Leo's affection, that it's not worth destroying Leo over?
Something else I haven't thought of?
(I crossposted this section to Tumblr)
ETA: Also I want to rec Sinner or Saint by zephfair/zeph317 as a somewhat fixit fic that draws on Riario's deeply buried affection for Leo that the Sinner wasn't previously aware of, and also gives a wonderful example of how to obtain consent throughout a sexual encounter, not just once, but with regular, gentle, checking in with your partner and using verbal and non-verbal cues as acknowledgement.
I'm also glad I wrote my fic about Leo saving Riario before I got to this episode, without being bogged down by canon and all these additional feelings I have. I wouldn't have written it otherwise.
I certainly explored how I think things could (should?) have gone, with the Leario more prevalent, the affection undeniably present, Riario's devotion to Leo proving the keystone in breaking the compulsion.
I watched this episode nine days ago and it took me this long (including three days of on-off writing) to deal with my feelings and actually write this review. I couldn't even bear to watch it again yet, relying on the episode script to get the details right. I did however detour to check out some Tumblr posts and write semi-crack fic :)
When I talked to my sister about how I'd finally watched the episode and how good it was despite my concerns she agreed and said, mostly joking, "Can I stop now?" Because this felt like the high point, especially after episode four. Everyone's alive and mostly okay now, and from my perspective this was probably the closest we'll ever get to Leario, especially now the show has been prematurely cancelled. And it was still unsatisfying. And so while we will both find the energy to finish the show eventually, there's a sense of sadness at this being a downhill slope instead of a potential lead up to the next season, a feeling that it will be hard to top this episode :/
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Date: 2016-01-29 04:08 am (UTC)I have SO MANY thoughts about episode 6 and I honestly don't know if I can express them all! I watched it the whole way through twice the first day it was up, and I can't tell you how many more times I've watched parts of it since. The first time I watched the whole season, I honestly tried to watch it objectively without my fangirl or “slash goggles.” But that ended when I saw this ep because it really seemed as close to an actual bi relationship that Goyer would allow for Leo.
From Leo's perspective, I think it's so obvious that he has actual, real feelings for Riario. He is never, ever that calm and helping toward anyone, even Zo. He even loses it a couple times in the S1 ep when he's helping Vanessa. But here he is the epitome of quiet, caring, and while some of it could be written off as his curiosity to see whether he can heal Riario, there are those two moments when he's talking to Riario and his eyes well up with tears and that says it all. But, then he comes out and tells Zo—the Zo that they're playing he's in love with—that he needs Riario, and that was as much a declaration as anything.
It was interesting to me that he even allowed Riario to continue his lie at first, without pushing him on it. In the previous ep, he purposely fires a warning shot when Riario comes in the workshop and he lets him give a false explanation for how the Labyrinth got Leo. But here, when Leo accuses him and Riario lies again, Leo lets him and then Riario changes his story when he gets all flustered and Leo never says a-ha or accuses him or tries to get retribution. Again, for me that's as good as Leo giving him flowers and chocolates.
I have to disagree that Riario didn't show any attraction to Leo here. I got the completely different impression that he did see Leo as a big threat. First when Leo triggered his idk what to call it, switch? The Sinner tried hard to get at him but was stopped by the chains. And then he spent hours goading him, hitting Leo where it hurt, verbally attacking him, telling him exactly what he knew would cause Leo pain and make him doubt himself. Since he couldn't reach a blade, this was the most attacking he could do, but he did it ruthlessly.
And when Riario is in control, he too put himself fully in Leo's hands which he had even hesitated to do back in ep 3, in that beautiful scene that you really called my attention to when Leo says give me your hand and Riario does hesitate a second causing Leo to take his hand. In this entire episode, he gives in to Leo 100 percent without hesitation, even when he was hallucinating and afraid, once he realized it was Leo, it was okay.
Even the Sinner outright telling Leo, he admires you, the Sinner spoke only truth—perverted, twisted, one-sided truth, but it was all true nonetheless. I believe Riario does admire Leo but if canon Riario did have sexual thoughts about him, he would have to bury them so deeply, fighting against his church training as well as the Labyrinth's conditioning rather than expressing them. I think the Sinner/Labyrinth side may not have viewed Leo as an ultimate threat to “the plan” because overall Leo was actually obeying the plans to make war engines and force things along, so the Sinner was okay with him up until he said he was going to help Riario, the worm, be free.
This brings us to the whole confusing part of the ep to me which we've discussed before: what is the Sinner? Is it another personality? A psychotic break? Something undefinable by modern medicine because it was created for a fantasy show? A demon possession? I think that however that is defined means a lot about its interpretation, and I'm still not satisfied that I understand it completely. I really don't think the show writers understood what they wanted and so hand-waved it to make it whatever they needed. How else would Leo's mystical concoction of charcoal, toad hallucinogens and heaven-knows-what-else have worked? I don't know of any modern psychiatric meds that are close to this.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-29 11:10 am (UTC)I really don't think the show writers understood what they wanted and so hand-waved it to make it whatever they needed. IKR. There was no actual explanation, just lots of competing theories.
I think I was more surprised that Riario didn't attack Zo when he got free Yes, he went to all the trouble of murdering his resucuers but he left Zo alive and I don't why, aside from the fact that no-one wanted to see Zo dead.
but WHY is Leo the ONLY ONE who compares it to a motherly relationship? Because plot. The show insists that (1) Riario's first kill was his mother and (2) this killing 'broke' him leaving him vulnerable to the Labyrinth but in a way that let the Sinner free and (3) to banish the Sinner means Riario must refuse to commit a similar murder therefore (4) older woman who loves Riario must stand in for his mother.
It's all faintly ridiculous but what do I know? :P
I'd prefer to think Leo wants Riario for himself of course :D
he can want Laura and Leo at the same time, together or separately, for different or the same reasons. Absolutely!
he likes her strength and I think he likes the way she looks at him and, other than Leo, is the only one who compliments him and tries to take care of him. True, because Zita was the only other, but the writers don't remember her.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-29 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-29 04:10 am (UTC)The thing that irritates me to this day about this episode—the one thing I would ask the show writers if I ever got the chance—the ONE THING that still irks and riles me like a stone in my shoe is Leo's comments to Riario when he is threatening Laura.
We have every other character assuming that Laura and Riario are having sex, and if they are, fine, I am perfectly okay with that, but WHY is Leo the ONLY ONE who compares it to a motherly relationship?! It just doesn't make sense to me, no matter how I turn it around in my mind. Leo is so perceptive, scarily sometimes, so why would he miss this or be so wrong about it?
OR why would he have wishful thinking that Riario sees her as a mother and she sees him as a son—which she so obviously doesn't. Is it wishful thinking? Is it to irritate the Sinner into making a fatal mistake? Does Leo really believe their relationship is strictly platonic and only motherly feelings? Did the writer just need Riario to attack someone else so they could stage the final confrontation and Laura fit???
Riario rightly should have gone after Vanessa next, to try and sway Florence, it seems more like a plot device for him to attack Laura at that very moment. She was handy and literally the only one who would still go off in private with him, so okay, whatever, but that entire speech from Leo just does not ring true for me! I hate it! My fangirl heart wanted to believe that Leo is convinced that Riario only feels familial affection for Laura for some reason, but none of it makes sense.
If Leo really believes Laura loves Riario like a son, why? Does Leo know that Riario has other feelings for her? Does Leo know or hope that Riario has sexual feelings for Leo instead and so doesn't have those feelings for Laura? Is the show just reaching for parallels between Laura and Riario's mother so they could set up the confrontation?
I think that Laura is definitely interested in Riario sexually. She all but comes out and says it in the early episodes and again later. It's perfectly acceptable to me that she's in love with him and wants him sexually. Now that you've seen ep 7, I'm going to say that maybe he wants her, maybe he doesn't, but he rebuffs her advance then allows her to kiss him in the same breath. I have room in my head canon to believe that he can want Laura and Leo at the same time, together or separately, for different or the same reasons. And the more I've pondered this, the more I think that he is attracted to her for reasons that he says: he likes her strength and I think he likes the way she looks at him and, other than Leo, is the only one who compliments him and tries to take care of him. If that translates into sexual love, great. If he considers it like a mother's nurturing...I'm not as okay with it because they didn't set that up.
I still want to know what Leo meant!
As far as the Vanessa/Florence/political stuff...all I can say is wait until ep 8. This season really cemented my vehement dislike for Lorenzo and that's all I want to say right now. Except (because I obviously cannot be silent lol) I guess I subscribe to the whole “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” theory and I favor alliances rather than trying to be a tyrant, so I had a hard time accepting Vanessa and Lorenzo's political strategies which to me work out to be “bury our heads in the sand and hope really hard that the Turks don't make it here.” It frustrated me, to be honest, and then I realized this was all a fantasy show and I needed to take a breath and make a cup of tea. Lol
no subject
Date: 2016-01-29 04:11 am (UTC)And Vanessa proves throughout S3 that she is willing to go to any length to protect her son, just not all of Florence.
It's a bit of a wrench to see Riario brought so low, but the devotion it implies on both sides is worth it.
THIS! This is exactly how I felt after I saw the ep for the first time. I was literally clutching a pillow and cooing disgustingly, wanting to help make Riario better.
That entire name bit gave me shivers, and like you said, it totally reminded me of how we treat the naming convention in fic, with Artista being the pet name, da Vinci the default, Leonardo only used sparingly. When the Sinner did that, and in a voice so creepily alien to Riario's, it threatened to give me nightmares. I thought it was almost a nod to fandom, that they acknowledge what we knew all along.
The “morning knob slob” scene...I have no idea how those three got through that on camera. I think that's the most OOC Riario is and the Sinner is filled with such obvious glee from Leo and Zo's reactions. He laughs so hard, it almost makes him choke. And I know I shouldn't chuckle, but that part reminds me of some of the friends I have babysat when they are uproariously drunk and spouting all kinds of things that shouldn't be funny but are and which they will never remember in the morning but make me never look at them the same way. Leo just has that exasperated look on his face while the Sinner cackles and is so crude. I'm a horrible person.
I felt like the conversation with Zo was very important, and not just because Leo admits his deepest feelings because that “slip” of the tongue was a confession. It also shows that Leo never once considered turning Riario over to the authorities. He can't play it off as mere curiosity to see if he can fix Riario, but he gets vehement with Zo that they cannot let Riario take the blame for the murders. I see that as another demonstration of his feelings. Because of course, Riario is so broken and self-sacrificing that he would do it.
Also A++ use of gifs and graphics in your posts! I don't know how long it takes you to put a post together, but I really love reading and re-reading them and thinking about the issues you bring up. And also, I love the comparative lit, well, comparative media references because it piques my interest in other sources!
no subject
Date: 2016-01-29 11:25 am (UTC)"As a mother, your life is no longer your own. It belongs to your child.
But you are also the new Mother of Florence."
She's definitely playing the motherhood angle before trying to use it as leverage to make Vanessa sign up for the bloody Crusade.
But yes, I wondered where the girls were. Bastard male heir, okay, but no-one seems to know or care where Clarice's daughters are. Given how Florence was taken over during s2 and Clarice was enslaved at the palace, I hope she managed to send them away before then to relatives outside of the fighting.
"some of the friends I have babysat when they are uproariously drunk and spouting all kinds of things that shouldn't be funny but are and which they will never remember in the morning but make me never look at them the same way." In Vino Veritas. I'd rather know who I'm dealing with and it's one reason why sanctimony rubs me up the wrong way. I'll bare my soul, because no matter how drunk I am, the n-word, cunt, tranny or retard as a insult never pass my lips, though I'll overuse bitch/whore/fuck/bastard.
"but he gets vehement with Zo that they cannot let Riario take the blame for the murders. I see that as another demonstration of his feelings. Because of course, Riario is so broken and self-sacrificing that he would do it." So true. "I need him" is the closest we'll ever have onscreen for Leo admitting feelings for Riario, and his desire to protect Riario speaks of his affection.
I also think Leo sees much of himself in Riario, knows he's caused deaths, would want to be protected himself, and so of course he'll shield Riario - as Zo would shield Leo in this situation.
It probably takes about a 4-5 hours work thinking, writing, editing, finding the gifs. Excessive, but I feel it's worth doing, so I don't mind putting the time in :)
no subject
Date: 2016-01-29 08:19 pm (UTC)Oooh, this is a very important thought! Thank you for bringing that up and putting it into words better than I can! They have that two sides of the same coin thing going on but each one has developed so differently because of the people around them. Thank you for reminding me of this!
missing children, addendum
Date: 2016-01-29 12:39 pm (UTC)By season three he's yelling how Cesare is his only son.
Fandom: ???
Fandom: Gioffre?
Fandom: Little Gioffre who everyone loved? There was a whole plot point in season 1 about marrying him off to improve relations with Naples. Juan's dead and he had it but coming but what happened to Gioffre? Did he die in the plague that hit Naples and you didn't mourn him like you're whining about Juan?
Fandom: You just forgot about him, didn't you?*
Fandom: ....
*fandom makes a milk carton graphic with Gioffre's pic on it*
Fans pay attention to these things!
Re: missing children, addendum
Date: 2016-01-29 08:22 pm (UTC)Also I'm chortling over the thought of a milk carton with the poor kid's picture on it! Way to go, fandom! xD
Re: missing children, addendum
Date: 2016-01-29 08:38 pm (UTC)"Generally, if writers want to remove a character from their ensemble, they will either kill that character off or 'put him on a bus' (or both) to explain their absence. Sufferers of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, on the other hand, simply disappear into limbo. They will often be retconned right out of the story's history, while, of course, everyone still left on-screen will simply carry on as if 'Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia' and 'Greedo had always shot first'. This is sometimes caused by the writers gradually losing interest in the character and, without making a conscious decision to remove them, eventually forget about them entirely. More often, complications behind the scenes drive the decision to remove a character. "
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChuckCunninghamSyndrome
Luckily fandom has a sense of humour :D
Re: missing children, addendum
Date: 2016-01-29 09:13 pm (UTC)I can understand in TV that actors will leave or want out or get fired, and that's life, but yeah, there are ways of writing them off that can make sense. Not just forgetting them and pretending ~they never existed~
Teen Wolf has brought out the ire of a LOT of fans by doing this. With a young cast, they were losing a bunch of actors to "better" jobs or potential pilots, and that's understandable. But then the creator started just killing them off and literally forgetting them, with no funeral scenes, no more mention they ever existed, even though they were huge parts of S1 and 2. It was somehow better when one of his favorites jumped ship to Arrow and the creator wrote him off in two sentences. One kid who hates him asks his ex-gf something like "Where's Jackson?" and the girl shrugs and answers "Still in London with his parents." And that was it. He was the big bad in S2 and his fate was tied up that briefly. I actually preferred that to mindlessly killing half the cast! ;_;