Seeker heads into a two-week break on a light-hearted note. “Princess” reminded me a lot of the first season episode, “Puppeteer,” because it involves the heroes infiltrating a frou-frou court ruled by a self-absorbed, dastardly monarch, who is in cahoots with one of the show’s villains (in “Puppeteer,” it was Queen Milena and Darken Rahl; in “Princess,” it’s the Margrave of Rothenberg and Sister Nicci). I loved the comedic parts of this episode, but not the scenes involving the Sisters of the Dark or the Margrave’s imprisoned wife, Arla.
This episode did a fantastic job of spotlighting all four of our main characters. Although the promos made this out to be a Cara-centric story, Zedd and Richard also had plenty of hilarious moments, and Kahlan got most of the dramatic material.
Cara played the demure princess very well for a Mord-Sith (her needlework leaves something to be desired though). I thought the whole speaking in rhyme thing was ridiculous, but the gimmick led to Cara’s awesome torture poem, which was twice as funny because it was probably true. When Cara finally starts playing the game by her own rules, she shows how easily she can handle men — during the hunt, did you see the Margrave’s face when she made the kill and then offered him a bite of the heart? Oh my.
Richard, disguised as the blond-haired Roderick the Golden, accepted his part in the scheme with surprising willingness. When Zedd told him he had to charm the Margrave’s sister Millicent, Richard seemed pleased with the task (especially when he thought Millicent was a hot girl). Even after discovering that his target was, in fact, a giant powdered doughnut of a lady, he winked and wooed his way into her heart. Those first flirtatious looks that passed between Richard and Millicent had me dying of laughter. I also loved it when Richard tried to talk his way into the dungeon by revealing that he always wanted to do the Mother Confessor. Like Cara’s poem, this was hilarious because of its truthfulness.
Zedd appeared to enjoy dressing up as a duchess and speaking in verse — perhaps he likes the challenge of solving a problem without using his magical powers. In any case, two very predictable things happened: 1) his gown was too short; 2) he acquired an ardent male admirer (this inevitably happens to any man disguised as a woman on TV or in film).
Speaking of predictable, guess who came back this week? Okay, you don’t have to guess since you’ve probably seen the show already. Sister Nicci returned to us from the Underworld, but as I jokingly predicted in my review of “Perdition,” they reincarnated her as a blonde! At the beginning of the episode, the Sisters of the Dark performed a ceremony that I found very weird because they had a Mord-Sith with them, who gave the Breath of Life to Nicci’s new body. In Stone of Tears, there are a couple of scenes depicting the Sisters’ ceremonies — and those scenes are very, very nasty. I’m glad we didn’t see what the Sisters actually do at their wild parties. At the same time, I think these Sisters are a huge cliché, what with their matching robes and veils and the chanting and mystical mumbo jumbo. What do you think?
In general, I loved this episode because it kept me laughing, but I have just one more gripe to air. I’m talking about the whole “Law of Right and Good” subplot. I suppose Arla is representative of women subjugated in oppressive societies around the world, and while I appreciate having a “moral to the story” when it fits seamlessly with the plot, I think in this case, the moral was poured onto the story like too much salad dressing. It annoyed me mostly because I liked this episode so much.
A few other brief observations:
What did you think of “Princess”? Leave a comment, and share your thoughts.
Clacked by Ruby T.
on Feb 28, 2010 @ 09:36 EST5EDT
Cara carved out the liver not the heart. I believe the line was the liver of the something beast is a great aphrodisiac.
Thanks, Darryl! I couldn’t remember if it was the heart or the liver, so I just guessed it was the heart.
I forgot to mention something that I found interesting about this episode – Zedd is applying the Wizard’s First Rule: “People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. … People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.”
I loved the ep! I could look past making nicci a blonde bc she’s blond in the books but I was confused with the mord sith helping the sisters of the light. I guess since Richard hasn’t technically assumed the title of Lord Rahl the bond means nothing, LOL. Love the reviews.
Well actually a Mord-Sith working with the “enemy” is quite possibile because the fact the Richard is alive is not enough. You have to be loyal to a Rahl in order to get the “link” back.
In book #3 Richard had to show some magic skill to convince the D’Haran army in Ayndril that he’s a Rahl.
Anyway thanks to Cara and Zedd. They’re keeping this show alive (especially Cara).
Love the show. Though, this episode needed more Kahlan.
Great recap.
Like you, this was one of my favorite episodes. I love comedic episodes, my favorite from season 1 was Mirrors, and this was even funnier. I loved Cara’s very apparent disdain at having to dress up and be the complete opposite of herself. I also loved how she and the Countess ended up in real competition, like when they were bowing and they kept stooping lower than each other. Cara’s little poem was so hilarious, as was Richard wooing the Margrave’s sister (the little eyebrow-raises had me laughing out loud). I’m sure they used the Mord’Sith with the ceremony because, like you said, they could NOT get away with the book version on TV. I liked Sister Nicci although now that Jolene Blalock’s gone I kind of miss her, just because she’s ‘show Nicci’in my mind. But the new one more closely resembles book-Nicci. The whole chanting mumbo-jumbo and the red veils and all that is strictly show material and kind of cheesy but that’s not really a big deal to me. I like that Nicci’s back because hopefully Richard gets back his magic. He HAS to get his magic back, and maybe that’s the whole reason the writers resurrected Nicci. The Zedd and Richard cooking stew open in the beginning did throw me back to Richard’s spice soup in the books, we seem to think alike, Ruby :)
Anyway, I’ll end my really long comment now. 2 weeks without a new episode!! :(
Another great review and I’ll definitely be back for the show vs. book post coming up.
I like Nicci being back but the actress playing her now is pretty bad (especially when compared to Blalock’s very evil portrayal). Yes, the scenes in the dungeon were painful to view. I’m not a big fan of morality jammed won the viewers throat. I especially enjoyed that, once the plot was set up, there was much less exposition from the characters this week. They let the visuals and the actors carry the show and I thought Cara was great.
Cara was hilarious! I think it was “Where I come from the royal liver of a shadrin is considered a powerful aphrodisiac. Would you like some?”
“Do you know how many laws of right and good you have just broken?”
“It’s your choice, Margrave. An eternity of right and good, or an eternity of me.”
*Countess gets pissed*
And at the end when the Margrave doesn’t get a wife after all. Well, apart from his old servant.
And Zedd is hilarious! Richard, too.