A Rebellious Woman is the latest episode in an entertaining first season of The Musketeers, but this episode has a pacing issue while aiming for a more serious tone. Religion, education, and sexism are all key storylines used to craft a more serious episode. This resulting episode wasn’t as successful as intended, but it was well worth watching.
A Rebellious Woman begins with a tragic death that derails an otherwise entertaining parade in the King’s honor. However, this tragedy isn’t the only surprising event that happens during this parade. A secret visitor from the Vatican arrives in town to visit with Cardinal Richelieu while also investigating a troublesome woman. Unfortunately, this visitor is mugged on the street, so Aramis and Athos have to rescue him from danger and figure out why the stranger was being mugged.
This intro is quite exciting, but unfortunately it leads to a longer portion of the episode that is basically a drawn out character introduction. Normally, character introductions are essential and potentially entertaining, but this one in particular is split between religious figures and ladies of the night. In addition, these introductions last longer than needed before the episode transitions to a trial about a potential witch.
The mysterious visitor.
Thankfully, the rest of the episode is very entertaining, starting with the witchcraft trial. This trial results in a key figure being mysteriously poisoned, which sends the Musketeers on an investigation to discover the assailant. The Musketeers also uses this trial as the moment when Athos discovers that his murderous wife is still alive and is posing as a key witness in the trial. Athos loses his patience and begins screaming in the middle of the courtroom, essentially causing havoc and mass confusion.
A Rebellious Woman was a different style of episode than the previous six, but that is mostly based on the pacing. Most of the other episodes had a bunch of action sequences mixed with humor, and serious moments. A Rebellious Woman was mostly centered on serious discussions of religion, witchcraft, and women’s rights. Of course, some action sequences and humorous moments were still incorporated, but they were few and far between. This episode was more focused on being serious, almost to a fault.
One of the better serious moments was the previously mentioned instant that Athos discovered his wife was still alive. The Musketeers has been building to this moment for the entire season, and it was a relief to see the result. Of course, Athos had to discover this fact right when he was starting to fall for another woman, but that is how the world works. Now, The Musketeers needs to build off this momentum and work back to Milady and Richelieu’s evil plan to destroy the entire Musketeer order. This story can’t be left unattended for another few episodes.
She is super evil.
The Musketeers has been a very entertaining season so far, but A Rebellious Woman was a slight misstep. Granted, the episode wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t up to the quality of the others. A Rebellious Woman started slowly and suffered from some pacing issues, but the second half of the episode was quite fantastic. Hopefully, the final few episodes will maintain the higher quality level.
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