Rodrigo has made a decision, Lucrezia must marry. And if he has to shell out a huge dowry, he’s going to get a lucrative alliance in exchange. And so, he decides on a lucrative alliance with Giovanni Sforza, the cousin of Ludovico, Rodrigo’s vice chancellor. Giovanni has the money and strategic land holdings in Italy that Rodrigo hopes will prove useful in a coming war with France.
Della Rovere continues his mission to bring down the Borgias, making his rounds throughout Italy’s wealthy nobility: pushing his case. Most notably he goes to Naples, with its creep-tastic family.# Micheletto sends a spy to follow della Rovere and, no surprise, the spy fails (epically...with a knife through the eyes).
As the wedding fast approaches, Vannozza (Cesare and Lucreiza’s mother) is banned from the festivities, due to her scandalous past.* Meanwhile, Giulia is invited to everything. Cesare, in his new Cardinal’s robes, officiates the marriage and could not be more unhappy about it. Even though his mother was not allowed at the ceremony, Cesare runs home before the reception and brings Vannozza as his guest.
Juan produces a hugely lavish and inappropriate play in honor of his sister’s wedding, there’s a lot of drinking and dancing, and Cesare meets Ursula Bonadeo -- who will be his main love interest for this season (no, we aren’t counting Lucreiza in the love interest category. She’s a given). They have a longing-filled, soul-tortured dance, where at the end Ursula begs him to “liberate me” and then her husband shows up to take her home.
The night ends with Cesare—not Giovanni—taking Lucreiza to bed, she’s 13: she should be exhausted, and he wishes the best for her in this new marriage.
We soon realize, once Giovanni’s taken her home to Pesaro, how hopeless those wishes were. Giovanni calls their wedding shameless, professes his hate for the Borgia tainted blood, and proves extremely ungallant for his new wife.^
#And I’m talking UBBER creepy. This guy stuffs his dead enemies and sets them up like the last supper. His son’s voice: is like nails on a chalkboard, he has a ho for a bastard daughter, and on the whole: they’re nasty, nasty human begins. The duke of Milan is bad, but nothing compared to Naples.
*Scandal is putting it lightly. She’s known as the great whore of Spain. You would think Rodrigo actually stole her from a king or something. Alas no, she’s just a woman already married.
^And yet no dinner knife deaths ensues.
Summaries for Episode 1 & 2 | Episode 3