The Musketeers – The Challenge Review

The Musketeers is close to ending its first season, and the show returned with a fantastic episode featuring Vinnie Jones. This episode featured many entertaining scenarios with Aramis and Porthos, but it also mixed in a blend of action and serious, depressing moments with other characters. In short, The Challenge was the best episode yet and a thankful return to pure entertainment after last week’s lackluster episode.

The Challenge is an episode entirely focused on, ironically, a challenge between the Musketeers and Cardinal Richelieu’s Red Guard. After a run in with Labarge (Vinnie Jones’ character) in which the captain of the Red Guard gets killed, Cardinal Richelieu and Captain Treville make a wager about who has the better soldiers. One chosen champion from each unit will fight—most likely to the death—and the winner will receive a lot of money from the king.

Of course, all of the Musketeers try to sign up for the challenge, including a money-desperate D’artagnan, but Captain Treville charges a large entry fee. Unfortunately, all of the Musketeers are poor, so they all set out to earn the entry fee in whatever way possible. D’artagnan finds a financial backer to provide his entry fee while Athos uses his family’s money, but Aramis and Porthos are a different story.

For Aramis and Porthos, the only way to earn an entry fee is to track down a rich widow at a funeral and earn the money through…various activities. Crashing a wedding may seem a little shady, but this was the absolute best part of the episode. Aramis and Porthos have a believable friendship, which is showcased when they are searching for female companions.

The only way to pick up women.

Strangely, The Challenge quickly changes the mood and creates an extremely tense and serious situation involving Cardinal Richelieu, Constance, and her husband. The change in tone was abrupt, almost to a fault, but it worked within the storylines of the episode. The Musketeers only has a few episodes left, so the show needs to quickly wrap up some of the minor stories while focusing on the larger plot of Milady and Richelieu vs. the Musketeers.

Of course, serious relationship problems and happy lady fishing aren’t the only storylines of The Challenge. D’artagnan’s training, temper, and history with Labarge are all major parts of the story. Apparently, Labarge had some unfortunate dealings with D’artagnan’s father, which is a major contributor to D’artagnan’s temper. In fact, this history is what causes D’artagnan pursue entrance into the competition. However, he does have to deal with all of the other Musketeers while trying to join the competition.

Don’t Mess With the Scowl.

D’artagnan is the main character in this episode, but he doesn’t hold up to the episode’s hidden star—Captain Treville. The Musketeers’ fearless leader has been featured in almost every episode, but his roles are normally smaller. Thankfully, this episode proved how awesome he truly is. Treville laid his life and reputation on the line simply to defend his troops, which is the complete opposite of Richelieu. The dastardly Cardinal was willing to sacrifice his troops and reputation simply to win a battle. What a jerk.

The Challenge is by far the best episode in The Musketeers’ first season, which is welcome after the last episode. I can’t share all of main details because of gigantic spoilers, but I can share that this episode is by far the deepest one yet. The storylines are ramping up as the season progresses, and the finale figures to be an epic battle between the four main Musketeers and Richelieu’s evil army. Hopefully, the last couple episodes will be just as great.