Line #78 Series/Reign


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/13818667131503_2795.png]]
2	->''"Since Mary, Queen of Scotland was a child, the English have wanted her country and her crown. She is sent to France to wed its next king, to save herself and her people, a bond that should protect her. But there are forces that conspire. Forces of darkness, forces of the heart. Long may she [[TitleDrop reign]]."''
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4	''Reign'' is a [[Creator/TheCW CW]] television series that premiered October 2013, and ended in June 2017, concerning the young adult life of [[UsefulNotes/MaryOfScotland Mary, Queen of Scots]]. After a would-be assassin discovers her hiding in a convent, Mary flees to the protection of the French court. She hopes that by honoring her childhood engagement to Francis, the future king, she'll be able to protect her country and herself.
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6	But it's not clear sailing at court. Queen UsefulNotes/{{Catherine\|de Medici}} has been warned of a prophecy foretelling her son's imminent death if he marries Mary, and she'll do anything to prevent it. Francis and King Henry are not keen to bind themselves to Scotland unless it benefits France. Henry's illegitimate son Bash is hiding something. And there's a mysterious woman called Clarissa haunting the castle, who seems to have Mary's best interests at heart...
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8	Now has a [[Characters/{{Reign}} character sheet]]. Please contribute.
9	----
10	!! ''Reign'' contains examples of:
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12	* AgeLift: Mary was 15 and Francis 14 when they married, but in the show they're in their late teens to early twenties. Nostradamus, meanwhile, was in his mid fifties during the period where the show is set, but is played by an actor of 36.
13	* AllTheOtherReindeer: Poor [[spoiler: Clarissa was demonized for her facial deformity.]]
14	* AnachronismStew: The show doesn't even pretend to be historically accurate.
15	** The names of Mary's four ladies are especially egregious: Greer, Lola, Kenna, and Aylee? Why not rename Mary 'Cher' while you're about it? (To be fair, at least two of those are actually Scottish, if Anglicized hard, but Scottish nobles were more interested in the Bible as a name source than Scottish dialects.)
16	** The guards stand around in poorly made replicas of 15th century armor and medieval cross-hilted swords, which would be dreadfully out of fashion especially in a royal court. All the nobles are depicted wearing their rapier suspended from a baldric across the shoulder, a suspension method that didn't become popular until the mid 17th century; Elizabethan and early Jacobean portraits invariably depict the sword suspended from a finely made hanger belt around the waist.
17	** All of the ladies are married in very modern-looking [[FairytaleWeddingDress Fairytale Wedding Dresses]], being all white with modern veils and tiaras, a style that was not popularized until the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert, only a full ''three hundred years'' after the show is set. [[note]]The real Mary did, in fact, wear a white wedding dress when she married Francis, so this is not wholly inaccurate.[[/note]]
18	** Speaking of the dresses, the costumers have taken inspiration from across several centuries and a bunch of modern fashion designers. ([[http://www.youknowyoulovefashion.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/reign28.jpg 16th-century court or 21st-century prom? You decide.]])
19	* AnachronisticSoundtrack: Of the Old Setting, New Music type. The show occasionally likes to use instrumental covers of popular 2010s songs, usually for dancing scenes, despite being set in the 1500s. The ballroom music playing in the background of 2x13 is an instrumental version of "Chandelier" by Music/{{Sia}}, Lola's wedding dance is to an instrumental of Music/{{Lorde}}'s "Royals", and at one point Greer and Leith dance to an instrumental of The Lumineers' "Stubborn Love".
20	* AndThisIsFor: [[spoiler: What Catherine says to Diane as she chokes her to death.]]
21	-->'''Catherine''': This is for [[spoiler:killing my babies]]. This is for [[spoiler:taking my husband]]. This is for [[spoiler:tearing my family apart]]. And this is for [[spoiler:turning my daughter against me]].
22	* ArrangedMarriage: Pretty much the only kind around. Lola and Colin try to break free of this trope, but fail.
23	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Has its own page.
24	* AsYouKnow: Mary's mother reminds her there is a Protestant threat to Scotland and she is a Catholic monarch.
25	* AttemptedRape: Mary, by Colin. Foiled by the fact that [[spoiler: Clarissa]] warned her not to drink the [[SlippingAMickey drugged wine]].
26	** And then again [[spoiler: by Count Vincent of Italy, who wanted his revenge for having lost his son to dysentery in a French prison.]]
27	* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Henry and Catherine, of all people.
28	* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: [[spoiler: Francis and Mary are officially crowned as king and queen of France in 2.03.]]
29	* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler: Diane's reappearance in season 2 ends with Catherine strangling her at the end of the episode.]]
30	** [[spoiler: The Duke of Guise returns in "The End of Mourning" only to end up assassinated by the end of the episode.]]
31	* BastardAngst: Sebastian, the king's bastard, is usually caring and supportive of his legitimate siblings. But when he becomes attracted to Mary, Francis's betrothed, who plots to make him king for other reasons, he seizes the opportunity. Later, in an attempt to prove himself beyond his familial connections, he seeks to defeat the Darkness ravaging the countryside. In a moment of introspection in the series finale, he admits that he fell into this trope, telling Kenna that he continuously needed to feel like he was "enough."
32	* BastardBastard: [[spoiler:Tomas.]]
33	* BetaCouple: Greer and Leith.
34	* BigBrotherInstinct: Bash towards Francis and Francis towards his younger brothers.
35	** Also Bash toward [[spoiler: his young cousin Isabelle. Unfortunately Catherine tries to use this connection against them.]]
36	** [[spoiler: Clarissa toward the young princes, until she decides to kill them in revenge against Catherine.]]
37	* BitchInSheepsClothing:
38	** [[spoiler: Tomas of Portugal.]]
39	** Nicole appears to be a quiet farm girl who meets with Charles when he runs away from court and seems to care for him. However, Narcisse finds her waiting naked in his bed as she states that she likes Charles all right but now she knows where the real power lies and can use her sway over Charles to get him to do what Narcisse wants. Even Narcisse is impressed at how this "farm girl" is an instant player in the court.
40	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: In the SeriesFinale, Mary is arrested by John Knox and is imprisoned in England for 21 years, and eventually gets executed; she wakes in the afterlife with Francis, who tells her that he's been waiting for her, and the ensuing montage implies that they will be together forever and happy. Back on earth, Mary's son King James VI is named Elizabeth heir, uniting the Scottish and English thrones.]]
41	* {{Blackmail}}: [[spoiler: Queen Catherine]] to [[spoiler: Aylee]]. See StickyFingers below.
42	* CartwrightCurse: Lord Narcisse's wives keep dying. [[spoiler: In contrast to the rumors that he's TheBluebeard, that's not the case. [[HiddenDepths And he does seem to genuinely miss them]].]]
43	* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: Kenna is engaged in this when caught by an aroused Henry in the first episode. They move on from there to making out.
44	* CharacterDeath:
45	** [[spoiler:Tomas is killed by Francis in the fourth episode.]]
46	** [[spoiler: Poor Aylee, poisoned to death by Clarissa.]]
47	** [[spoiler: Clarissa in episode 13, at Mary's hand.]]
48	*** Except [[spoiler:not really]]...
49	*** [[spoiler: At least not until Season 2, when she gets poisoned by Bash.]]
50	** King Henry dies from a jousting injury. Not a spoiler, since this actually happened in history. [[spoiler:The twist is that his son Francis in disguise dealt the fatal blow.]]
51	** [[spoiler: Diane gets strangled to death by Catherine when Catherine figures out that she killed her twin daughters years earlier.]]
52	** Francis gets killed [[spoiler: by Scottish rebels]] in 3.05, echoing his historical death after less than 18 months as king.
53	** [[spoiler: Lola gets beheaded for participating in an attempted assassination of Queen Elizabeth in the third season finale.]]
54	** [[spoiler: Mary and Darnley in the SeriesFinale.]]
55	* ChekhovsGun: The forks in "Left Behind".
56	** Diane [[spoiler: gets strangled]] with the huge necklace she spent that episode wearing.
57	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Mary's dog Stirling appears in the pilot but is never seen or spoken of afterwards, except for one brief appearance in season 2, episode 12. Mary does occasionally have a dog with her once she returns to Scotland, but it's unknown whether this is Stirling or another of the same breed.
58	* CostumePorn: Everyone to varying extents, Mary and her ladies in particular.
59	* DeadpanSnarker: Mary, Bash, Catherine, and Francis most notably. Everyone at some point.
60	* DeathByChildbirth: [[spoiler: Bash's cousin Isabelle hemorrhages to death the morning after delivering her daughter.]]
61	* DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler: Nostradamus helps Catherine fake her death so she could escape her prison.]]
62	* DefiledForever: If the rape attempt on Mary had succeeded, she would have been deemed unfit to marry the French prince--and possibly any prince.
63	** Olivia, Francis's first girlfriend.
64	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: While sexism certainly exists in modern culture, most modern Westerners wouldn't consider a rape victim [[DefiledForever unmarriageable]], treat it as normal for a married, middle-aged man to [[{{Squick}} hook up with his future daughter-in-law's teenage friend]], or accept that love has nothing to do with marriage.
65	** Also the whole thing with the teenage friend, part of the hooking up has to do with him catching her masturbating, which back then was a serious sin in Catholic nations. Today, it's at least tolerated even among more conservative Catholic nations.
66	* DirtyOldMan: Henry. In addition to treating his mistress better than his queen, he finds one of his future daughter-in-law's teenaged ladies-in-waiting pleasuring herself in a supposedly-private stairwell... and takes the opportunity to hit on her.
67	* DomesticAbuse: [[spoiler: It's implied Tomas would treat Mary like this. After their engagement is finalized, Tomas suddenly becomes cruel and domineering toward Mary.]]
68	* DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent: [[spoiler: Aylee]] was blackmailed into being a spy for Queen Catherine [[spoiler: ...except this was a plot by Mary to give the Queen false information]].
69	* DoubleStandard: Queen Catherine notes that if a queen is unfaithful, her children will face challenges to their place in the succession. By contrast, the royal men sleep around with merry abandon -- especially Catherine's lecherous husband. Francis also makes remarks about the double standard in one conversation with Mary.
70	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Nostradamus does this.
71	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Lord Narcisse is a ''huge'' {{Jerkass}}, but a good part of it is because [[spoiler: Mary]] had his son killed.
72	* EvilMatriarch: Catherine tries to have Mary drugged and raped, rendering her unfit for marriage, because of a prophecy that Mary will cause Francis's death. She goes to even more desperate lengths as the season continues.
73	* ExplainExplainOhCrap: When in season 3, [[spoiler: Robert's wife Amy dies under suspicious circumstances]], Robert and Elizabeth briefly accuse the other of being responsible. Elizabeth says she would never have done it, as she knew that if [[spoiler: Amy]] died in any suspicious way, Elizabeth and Robert could never be together. They then both realize that [[spoiler: Amy killed herself and made it look like murder, knowing the scandal would prevent the two from ever being married.]] (Some historians have speculated that this is in fact ''exactly what happened'' in RealLife.)
74	** In the Season 1 finale, Mary and Catherine work out that Henry is planning to marry Mary, but can't work out how he plans to convince Francis to annul their marriage. Then they realise [[MurderTheHypotenuse that's not what he's planning]]...
75	* EyeScream: Henry dies from a jousting mishap when a broken lance splinter stabs through his eye socket into his brain. One of the rare instances of TruthInTelevision on this show, as the real King Henry II actually died that way.
76	* FakePregnancy: [[TheMistress Penelope]] attempts this so she wouldn't fall out of favour with King Henry, but Queen Catherine quickly gets rid of her.
77	* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Smart, sensible Lola and her gambling addict brother.
78	* ForegoneConclusion: Because of how history played out, the series ends on Mary's execution.
79	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Mary wonders if she can rely on anyone except her dog, Stirling. In real life, Mary later used her [[PimpedOutDress full skirts]] to smuggle her little dog with her to her execution.
80	** Tomas's reason for proposing to Mary - [[spoiler: so the Pope will speed up his legitimization and allow him to become the heir to his native throne]] - later becomes [[spoiler: Bash's reason for doing the same.]]
81	** Francis warns Mary that claiming the English throne could cost her head... and it eventually does, as it did in RealLife.
82	* FourGirlEnsemble: The ladies-in-waiting are four friends. Lola is the strongest one, not afraid of death or speaking out, even to a queen. Greer is ambitious for her family's sake even though she does believe in the power of love. Kenna is a real firecracker which makes her unpredictable and totally captivating. Aylee is the most reserved, acting as the voice of caution out of concern for her friends.
83	* GambitPileUp: It takes some time, but the plot thickens considerably due to politics.
84	* GenreShift: After "Left Behind," the love story, although still strong, takes a backseat to politics.
85	* GoneHorriblyRight: When they find that Charles has run off from the throne and settled with a peasant family, Catherine and Narcisse decide the family he's with is a good influence on him and agree to let the elder daughter accompany Charles back to court. They're happy to see him taking back his crown and encourage him to step up and be his own man... until he announces that, just like the family, he's going to become a Protestant, which means France can kiss goodbye the support of the Catholic Church and Spain.
86	** Henry tries to prove to Nicole that Narcisse is just using her by having her leave him a medallion and then hiding behind a wall to watch. Finding it with Catherine, Narcisse mocks how stupid it is and how he hates having to put up with her. Henry smirks until he sees Nicole's distraught face and realizes he's truly hurt her. Then the duo have to watch as Narcisse and Catherine have sex right in front of their hiding place.
87	* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Lola goes off to have one, but is stopped by Mary at the last minute before the operation.
88	* {{Gorn}}: While not to the extent of fellow [[Creator/TheCW CW]] show {{Series/Supernatural}}, there are some moments like this, such as episode 7 [[spoiler: where Count Vincent's death consists of being stabbed in the neck by Mary and then his dagger-armed hand being cut off by Francis.]] Or when Henry [[spoiler: shockingly beheaded one of Catherine's witnesses, spattering the room with blood.]]
89	* GrayingMorality: Oh yes. Mary, Francis, Bash, and several other characters start doing some downright horrible things the longer the series goes on, but often with the best intentions.
90	* HatesBeingTouched: [[spoiler: Mary]] develops a fear of being touched by men after her rape. Her holding [[spoiler: Conde's hand as his mark is being burned off]] is therefore a big deal.
91	* HeroicBastard: Bash.
92	* HiddenDepths: Queen Catherine
93	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Too many to list (or explain), but Mary, Henry, Catherine, Francis, UsefulNotes/{{Nostradamus}}, and Diane were definitely real.
94	* HistoricalBeautyUpdate:
95	** Many critics have complained that the show does this with Mary, but, because RealityIsUnrealistic, she actually averts this trope. The historical Mary was known for her beauty. However, she was also six feet tall and auburn-haired, unlike Adelaide Kane, the medium-height brunette who plays her on the show. Lampshaded in season 2, when Princess Claude says of their childhood, "You seemed so tall in those days."
96	** However, the show ''does'' indulge in this trope with regard to Francis, who was much shorter than his wife; he was also physically weak due to various health problems. Here he's played by Creator/TobyRegbo, who is tall, blond, and athletic. This is also lampshaded in episode 4, where Francis complains that a bad portrait of him as a child made him look like a dwarf and that half of Europe thinks he's sickly because of it.
97	** Many characters get a dose of this, including Catherine de Medici, whom nobody called beautiful despite the praise lavished on royalty at the time, and Princess Claude, who had a club foot.
98	* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: In the show Mary advocates toleration of Protestants, and is upset by persecution. The real Mary encouraged rounding them up to be tortured and burned as heretics, largely on the advice of her Guise relations (though she abhorred violence and didn't like to watch the proceedings). However, it is actually mostly TruthInTelevision, as Mary was tolerant to Protestants in her own country when she returned as an adult.
99	* HistoricalRelationshipOverhaul: Granted, this is a show which openly admits to being historically inaccurate on purpose, but in particular it drastically alters the reality of the marriage between UsefulNotes/MaryQueenOfScots and her first husband, Francis II of France. In the show they are married as adults after spending several years apart; both are unfaithful to each other, and Francis fathers a child with another woman. In reality, Mary and Francis grew up together from the time that she was five years old; they were married in their early teens and, by all accounts, completely adored one another. The marriage may have never actually been consummated (some historians believe that his various health issues rendered young Francis impotent), but it was extremely happy. One aspect that the show did depict accurately was that Mary was genuinely devastated when Francis died only a few years into their marriage.
100	* HollywoodCostuming: The show doesn't even attempt to have accurate costuming, which sometimes helps sell the anachronistic tone the showrunners intended. However, some of the costumes--the dresses of Mary and the Ladies in particular--often look more like the result of a prom dress clearance sale than actual Tudor fashions. There are notable exceptions to this though, such as Mary's red dress in "Kissed" or her dress in the picture above. Sometimes mixed with GorgeousPeriodDress. Also, not a single man is seen wearing trunk hose, one of the most fashionable male garments of the time. That's like showing the 1940s without any men wearing hats or smoking in public; it's as if they thought that real 16th-century fashion would look too silly for modern viewers.
101	* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Averted in one particular instance. [[spoiler: Francis is without question jealous of Tomas forming a relationship with Mary, but that's not the only thing driving his dislike of the man. Tomas really ''is'' an asshole.]]
102	* HumanSacrifice: The pagans in the woods struck a bargain with some beast that demands human blood.
103	* [[IHaveNoSon I Have No Daughter]]: [[spoiler: Catherine rejects Clarissa's attempt to save her and screams at her to go away.]]
104	%%* IllBeInMyBunk: The infamous sequence in the pilot episode in which Kenna masturbates is a version of this trope.
105	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Mary does this twice in "A Chill in the Air." First, after discovering Kenna's affair with the king, and again after her argument with Francis.
106	--> '''Mary''': I could use some of that [wine]. holds out hand
107	--> '''Bash''': Everything all right?
108	--> '''Mary''': No, it isn't.
109	* JerkAss: King Henry seems determined to teach his son that to be an effective king you need to be one constantly.
110	* KangarooCourt: An attempted rapist is ordered beheaded, Nostradamus and other men are condemned to be torn apart by horses, all without a trial.
111	* LawOfInverseFertility: Francis and Mary try for a baby multiple times with no luck. Olivia desperately tried to conceive with Francis in the hopes of him marrying her or keeping her around as his mistress. [[spoiler: Lola and Francis sleep together once and end up pregnant with a baby neither wants.]]
112	** Catherine tried desperately for years to have a baby with Henry, up to using several crazy medicinal treatments. They ended up having several children, but at the cost of their once loving marriage. Meanwhile, [[spoiler: Catherine has an affair and ends up pregnant with the other man's child (long before she has one of Henry's) and has to secretly give the baby up.]] There is some historical accuracy to this; it really did take several years for Henry and Catherine to have a baby. However, this was not because of fertility issues, but because he preferred the company of his mistress Diane, who finally had to ''tell'' him to start sleeping with his wife in order to sire heirs.
113	* LonelyAtTheTop: Mary realizes she is this when Lola tells her, "You're not our friend. You're our queen." The other ladies don't disagree.
114	** [[spoiler: Bash doesn't even want to be heir to the throne, but agrees to take the position in order to save Francis's life, at the cost of Francis's friendship and his own personal freedom. Fortunately, things change.]]
115	* LongingLook: Bash has looked several times at Mary this way, with both longing and something else, undefined.
116	* LoveTriangle:
117	** Mary is in one with Francis and Sebastian for the first several episodes. Although Mary has technically been engaged to Francis since the age of 6, it doesn't stop her feelings for Sebastian (Bash). She later falls for Francis also. Given that Francis and Mary did get married in real life history (and Bash didn't actually exist), you'd expect them to be endgame, but that's not so certain given the show's historical fantasy elements.
118	** Francis briefly hooks up with Olivia and later [[spoiler: Lola]] when on the outs with Mary.
119	** King Henry has one between his two mistresses, Diane and Kenna, despite the fact that he is married to Catherine.
120	* MadwomanInTheAttic: Clarissa, lurking in the secret passageways.
121	* MamaBear: Catherine, and also Diane.
122	* MasterPoisoner: Catherine.
123	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Whatever's going on in the woods. Someone or ''something'' seems to be very interested in human blood. [[spoiler: As it turns out, it's a bit of both. The "Beast" turns out to be a man but one who has visions like Nostradamus.]]
124	** Played with in the matter of ghosts. [[spoiler: Henry's visions of his brother seem to be a combination of guilt and encroaching madness, brought on by poisoning. The "possession" of a servant woman by Henry turns out to be a scam. Whether or not the ghosts of Henry and Catherine's twin daughters are real or poison-induced insanity is never fully clarified. Could be a bit of both in each case, that the poison opened their minds to seeing spirits.]]
125	* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Catherine tries to poison Claude to spare her from being horribly killed by her vengeful ghost sisters.]]
126	* TheMistress: Diane de Poitiers to Henry. He later replaces her with Kenna. Olivia makes a similar offer to Francis, but once he and Mary are married, he never strays.
127	* TheMole: [[spoiler: Subverted. The queen tries to blackmail Aylee into spying on Mary for her, but it turns out to have been a plot by Mary to feed the queen false information.]]
128	** [[spoiler: Conde was sent to spy on the French court, but fell in love with Mary.]]
129	* MsFanservice: Kenna, what with her naughty anachronistic nightie and having the most bed scenes.
130	* MumLooksLikeASister: Anna Walton, who portrays Diane de Poitiers, is less than three years older than Torrance Coombs, who plays her son Sebastian, and it shows.
131	* MysteriousProtector: Clarissa.
132	* NoPeekingRequest:
133	** In "Kissed", while playing ball with Prince Charles, Mary kicks the ball too hard and it gets stuck on a tree, and she climbs it to retrieve it, and Greer and Tomas walking on her, with Tomas teasing her being a noble girl who strolls in trees. She asks him to turn around so she can get down without them [[SkirtsAndLadders getting a peek under her skirts]], and just as they turn, Mary ends up slipping and falling right on top of Tomas instead.
134	** In "For King and Country", Mary and Sebastian are hiding from the royal guards in an inn. They are both drenched from their HighDiveEscape, so Sebastian suggest they let their clothes dry in the fireplace for the night, and Mary asks him to turn around while she disrobes, but he points out he'll have to look away the whole night since she'll [[SleepsInTheNude have nothing else to wear for the night]], but she gives him a look and he gives up and turns. She only gets to discard her cloak before French soldiers end up finding and capturing them.
135	* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Many of the Scottish characters are played by English actors who don't even attempt the accent. In the case of Mary and her ladies, this may be {{justified}}, as they spent most of their lives in France and would have had accents reflecting this. The real Mary was in fact fluent in both French and Scots Gaelic, but during her years in France she almost always spoke (and wrote in) French as it was considered more refined.
136	* NoWomansLand: Exploring the woods? Looking too long at a handsome guy? You may never be forgiven.
137	* ObnoxiousInLaws: When you try to have your son's fiancée drugged and raped, you've probably gone a little past this trope's limits. Catherine's animosity toward Mary has a [[GeniusBonus historical basis]]: she resented Mary for being an anointed queen and therefore taking precedence over Catherine's own daughters from day one of her arrival at court.[[note]]She also, according to most accounts, never entirely forgave Mary for the way she spoke when they first met; six-year-old Mary, unaware of Catherine's identity, asked why she did not curtsey in the presence of the Queen of Scots.[[/note]] After Francis died, Catherine forced Mary to return the crown jewels and leave France almost immediately (once the traditional period of deep mourning was over).
138	* OhCrap: When [[spoiler: Nostradamus tells Catherine of Clarissa, who is later revealed to be her daughter.]]
139	** Also when [[spoiler: Mary and Catherine realize they've accidentally killed the Prince of Spain and his father will wipe France off the map in retaliation. And then they turn around to find he's not quite dead, but wandering the hallway to be found by others, so they have to worry about him recovering to reveal the truth.]]
140	* OneDrinkWillKillTheBaby: [[spoiler: Mary [[DeliberateValuesDissonance drinks wine]] in the early stages of her pregnancy and ends up suffering a miscarriage. It's not said explicitly that her drinking caused the miscarriage, but the scene of her and Lola sharing wine the evening before may have been put there to give a modern viewer the idea that this was what caused it.]]
141	* OneSteveLimit:
142	** While Mary had four ladies-in-waiting in real life, they were actually known as "the four Marys," since they all shared her name. The show has renamed them Greer, Lola, Kenna, and Aylee.
143	** Played straight with Dauphin Francis and the historical Francis, Duke of Guise, who was renamed Christian.
144	** Averted with Mary Stuart and Mary Tudor, although the latter is always referred to by her full name.
145	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: [[spoiler: As of season two, the castle is haunted by ghosts of those who died in the plague.]].
146	* PerfectPoison: One kills Mary's poison taster, quickly and with a lot of blood.
147	* PetTheDog: An almost-literal case, when Bash returns Mary's lost dog to her.
148	* PimpedOutDress: Not as ubiquitous as in some works set during this time period, but Kenna definitely favors them.
149	* PluckyGirl: Mary.
150	* TheQueensLatin: The characters are basically all either French or Scottish. So naturally, they all speak English with English accents (you know, to sound foreign).
151	** Played with regarding Olivia. She is the only French character with even a trace of French accent (due to her actress having been born in France), which just makes her stand out.
152	** Averted with the Scottish noblemen whom Mary invites to court. They all speak in Scottish accents.
153	* QuestionableConsent: While Kenna doesn't obviously object to Henry's advances, it seems unlikely that his future daughter-in-law's teenage lady-in-waiting would feel comfortable refusing him, particularly given her queen's shaky status in the court and the fact that he had caught Kenna in an already-compromising position (since authorities of the day considered masturbation a terrible sin).
154	** We later find out that she did refuse him, stopping the encounter before it went beyond kissing. The two don't actually have sex until he has officially made her his mistress.
155	* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler: Catherine, who was gang-raped at the age of eight when her family was on the losing side of Florence's politics.]]
156	* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler: Mary is raped by one of the Protestants coming to assassinate Francis in "Acts of War."]]
157	* ReallyGetsAround: King Henry. Francis, until he commits himself to Mary. Catherine.
158	* ReligionOfEvil: The pagans, although according to Diane it wasn't always like this.
159	* RevealingCoverUp: When she's exiled in season three, Catherine uses a body double to take her place as she secretly travels to England to offer support to Elizabeth. However, the double ends up in an... awkward... position that ends up cutting a priest's manhood up and, overwhelmed with guilt, kills herself. Hearing of "Catherine's" death, Mary and Francis instantly realize this was an impostor as the real Catherine would never be guilt-stricken enough to take her own life.
160	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler: After Mary's rape, both she and Francis indulge in this. Francis uses draconian methods of imprisonment and interrogation. Mary is, with Louis, Prince of Conde's help, more successful tracking down her actual rapists and killing them.]]
161	* RuleOfSymbolism: In universe - there's a harvest tradition of releasing a boat with a list of regrets tied to the end. [[spoiler: Mary and Francis's boats drift very far from each other, at a time when both discover the other has been unfaithful.]]
162	* SacrificialLamb: [[spoiler: Aylee.]]
163	* {{Seers}}: Nostradamus. [[spoiler: It turns out that The Darkness, while quite human, is also one of these and that his atrocities, or at least some of them, were committed in the name of avoiding disasters he'd foreseen.]]
164	* SerialHomewrecker: Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, has a habit of sleeping with other men's wives and is never seen with the same woman twice. That includes sleeping with [[spoiler: Mary Stuart -- ''the queen''. King Francis, her husband, reluctantly allows it due to the [[RapeAsDrama events which led to it]]]]. Their affair drives a lot of the conflict in season 2.
165	* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler: The main plot began because Nostradamus told Catherine that "Mary would cost [Catherine her] firstborn". Mary later hears of the prophecy and goes out of her way to avoid marrying Francis, even going as far as to petition for Bash's legitimization so Henry will break her engagement and let her marry him (Bash) instead. That way, Francis will be safe and Mary can still wed the next king of France for Scotland's sake. Then it's revealed that ''Clarissa'', not Francis, is Catherine's firstborn and Mary is forced to kill her to save Catherine's youngest sons. As a result, it's deemed safe for Mary and Francis to marry... only for Nostradamus to have ''another'' vision which reveals Francis will die regardless. Clarissa is also still alive, although she doesn't stay that way.]]
166	* ShipTease: Bash and Lola indulge in some.
167	** As do Lola and Francis, including [[spoiler: the two sleeping together in 1x12]].
168	* SlippingAMickey: Colin tries this (at Catherine's behest) on Mary in the pilot. Luckily, Mary's MysteriousBenefactor had warned her not to drink the wine.
169	* StickyFingers: [[spoiler: Aylee]] is a kleptomaniac. [[spoiler: Queen Catherine]] uses this as leverage [[spoiler: to get her to spy on Mary. But it turns out that this is actually a ploy by Mary to feed Catherine false information.]]
170	* StrongFamilyResemblance: Surprisingly, this applies. Francis and Bash both have light eyes and are passable as half-siblings. Meanwhile, Francis has the same blond curls as Queen Catherine, and Bash and Diane both share dark straight hair.
171	* TakeTheThirdOption: Said almost word for word in episode 10 when [[spoiler: Mary, faced with the choice of marrying Francis and letting him die or letting Henry execute Bash for costing him the English throne, asks Henry to legitimatize Bash, make him the next king of France, and let her marry him]].
172	* TogetherInDeath: The series ends with Mary and Francis reunited in the afterlife and reaffirming their love.
173	* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler: Queen Mary, who stabs Count Vincent (after he attempted to rape her) in the throat with a fork when he's distracted in his blind rage. In the same episode, [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Greer attacks an Italian guardsman who was trying to kill Leith, and quite possibly kills him]].]]
174	* UndyingLoyalty: Nostradamus toward Catherine.
175	* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:The Darkness begs to be able to make a successor, as his sacrifices to the gods have been keeping a terrible plague away. Bash is sure it's just a cheap excuse and kills him, but soon afterward a plague does indeed appear.]]
176	* WhamLine: From episode 1x11.
177	--->[[spoiler: '''One of Queen Catherine's former servants''': I saw how scared Catherine was, because it was the lover's child, you see, not Henry's.]]
178	** Worse, [[spoiler: in the following scene, the same woman describes the child and its history, and the story matches what Nostradamus told Catherine of the infant Clarissa.]]
179	** Henry's rant at the end of "Long Live the King" ends with this: "[[spoiler: I must kill my son and wed his wife.]]"
180	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:Francis and]] Lola's son John. He returns to France with Narcisse and is never seen or mentioned again.[[note]]This may have been because of the series being canceled and the finale having to be sped up. The character also didn't actually exist in RealLife, so the writers had no historical plot to give him.[[/note]]
181	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Tomas tries to kill his servant because he knows about Tomas's plan to frame England for the ambush of French soldiers. Francis and Bash save him, though.]]
182	* YouKnowTooMuch: Francis and Bash's reason for killing Montgomery.
183	* YourCostumeNeedsWork: In "Three Queens," Mary and Catherine are left on their own, coming to a village where an impostor of Mary is bilking the inhabitants. Catherine decides to tell the imposter they know she's a fake... as Mary and Catherine are "mother and daughter" ''pretending'' to be Mary and Catherine, accepting some jibes on their "bad" impressions.

Context Series / Reign