When it comes to any TV series, an episode that revolves around one subject and issue can be so important and occasionally one of the strongest episodes. The importance of A Discovery of Witches season 2's sixth episode was all about emotional connections to family and repairing those relationships, focusing particularly on Phillipe de Clermont and the mark he left on his family. This episode has the anger and heartbreak as well as the love and joy that comes from these kinds of family relationships.
Being the most important character of the episode, Phillipe goes through a whirlwind of revelations that changes the way he thinks about everything - his own future, his family, and Diana and Matthew's union. Whirlwind revelations tend to show us exactly what a character is like and it shows Phillipe to be someone who (mostly) sensibly deals with his emotions and thinks ahead of what he needs to do. As the patriarch of the de Clermont family, throughout the episode he takes steps to ensure the security and safety of his family's future and finding ways to share these things with them at the right time, even if it is after his death.
It is quite heartbreaking when Phillipe sees Ysabeau's ring on Diana's finger and realises that it can only mean he is dead. The screen version of Phillipe proves to react a lot more emotionally to this than the Phillipe on the pages of the book. It's interesting that rather than keeping him relatively calm and composed in light of this news, he lashes out at Matthew provoking him into a somewhat awkward and badly performed sword fight across Sept Tours just to find out some detail from his son's reactions about his future demise. It was interesting to see Phillipe, someone who is so accustomed to his immortality, be so desperate to find out what leads to his demise so he can hopefully find a way to avoid it. Though the result of it was effective, I was disappointed with how the fight played out and was performed as in the book it was one of the most important moments in breaking down the barrier between Phillipe and Matthew, and by extension the one between Phillipe and Diana.
I really enjoyed seeing the way Phillipe and Diana bond in this episode, I think more than I enjoyed reading it in the book. When he sees that Matthew's blood rage didn't push her away and he realises she's the witch in an old prophecy, you see how much hope it gives him and he is nothing if not resourceful and ahead of the curve when he enacts his blood vow and makes Diana his daughter and a true de Clermont. He finds ways to protect his family across time and beyond the grave. Nothing Phillipe does is without reason. The part I feel really sealed their bond was when he took her to the temple dedicated to her namesake goddess, Artemis or Diana, goddess of the moon and the huntress. What I liked about it was that it was something uniquely shared between the two of them (despite Matthew's presence there) due to his own Ancient Greek origins. One of the things I always appreciated that Harkness did with the wedding Phillipe proposes between Diana and Matthew is that both their religions - the Pagan and Christian - are espected in their marriage ceremonies and I was glad to see it here.
I felt that the episode was almost entirely about Phillipe in order to put focus on such a hugely important character that is largely absent throughout the series. It was important to focus on him as much as possible in the little time he had on screen. As a result, I feel that the only part of the episode that was important to Diana and Matthew alone was that they finally consummate their relationship sexually on their wedding night, and Phillipe even had a hand in that. And this comes after Matthew reveals the circumstances leading up to and surrounding Phillipe's death to Diana. Unburdening himself of this secret and having the chance to see Phillipe one last time resolved many issues Matthew had with his father's memory and legacy, making his final memory of him a positive one. And even though he doesn't know what happens, Phillipe preemptively offers his forgiveness to Matthew for what happens in his future.
My favourite parts of the episode was the contrast between Phillipe attempting to write his letter to Ysabeau about Diana and Matthew to hide for her to find overlapped with Ysabeau looking through all the books they used to hide their letters in with Sarah and Emily. As Diana and Matthew set off for Bohemia, the episode ends so beautifully with Phillipe writing his letter at last and Ysabeau finding it, the last message tying them together across centuries.
Reasons to Recommend:
- A Phillipe centric episode
- That's it, that is the reason to watch it. Everything else is just a bonus.
I'd rate the episode an 8/10. It loses two points for the underwhelming sword fight between Matthew and Phillipe as it has the desired effect emotionally but performatively was quite weak. This was also one of those times where in a TV show, I found that the lead characters - that being Diana and Matthew - were a hindrance to the real heart of the episode. Not to say that the development in their story wasn't important, it's just that here I was definitely more concerned with the actions and fate of one of my favourite de Clermont vampires - Phillipe.
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