Exclusive

Reign Bombshell: A Wedding Will Happen By Season's End! Get Scoop on What's to Come for Mary and the Royal Brothers

Exclusive! Laurie McCarthy previews Mary and Bash's engagement, Francis without the weight of a kingdom and Catherine's fight for survival on the CW breakout hit

By Tierney Bricker Jan 24, 2014 3:00 AMTags
Torrance Coombs, Adelaide Kane, Reign  The CW

Is it too late to change the name on the wedding invitations?

Reign returned with a roar tonight, completely shaking things up at French Court when Mary (Adelaide Kane), in an attempt to save both Francis (Toby Regbo) and Bash (Torrance Coombs), proposed a so-insane-it-might-just-be-brilliant plan to the king: legitimize Bash and allow them to be married, securing an alliance and Francis' safety. And guess what? It worked, much to Queen Catherine (Megan Follows) dismay as she stands to lose everything on the CW hit.

So how in the world will Reign top its midseason return? With a lavish affair. Yes, that's right—showrunner Laurie McCarthy exclusively told E! News that two characters will be swapping vows by season's end. "Yes, there will be a wedding." But before fans of any couple start freaking out, McCarthy would not reveal who will be saying "I do."

 But before Reign walks down the aisle, it's still has to deal with the fallout from Mary and Bash's new engagement. We chatted with McCarthy about Mary developing real feelings for Bash, Francis' without the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders and why Mary and Francis shippers shouldn't give up hope...

It was a major game change having Mary and Bash actually end up engaged, but up until now her heart has been with Francis. Will we see a slight shift there?
I think you'll see Mary and Bash investing in a relationship with each other, and there's good raw material there for something to grow.

So we'll see Mary start to develop real feelings towards Bash?
They will start to have real feelings together, because she's going to believe that that's her fate, and she's a practical girl. And I think again, there are genuine feelings there as well, I think she's truly torn. But I will say I think she has a deeper affection, a longer-lasting affection, for Francis. I've always looked at the show as,  because other girls will be married too, at some point, and when you're married in the sixteenth century, it can mean a lot of different things. What it usually means is your marriage is forever, but because your marriage is forever, there are plenty of different versions of a marriage, and when you look back at characters, you don't know if they loved each other deeply, but they grew estranged because of their obligations, or if they loved each other deeply and were able to stay together, or they never loved each other at all but lived their true relationship life with someone else. But I believe that Mary and Francis deeply love one another.

Give us something to give "Frary" fans some hope in the coming episodes.
Here's something – I love them as a couple. I love them. I believe that they love each other so deeply, and that you know, that they will overcome plenty of obstacles, but the tragedy of their love is the duty to their countries. They have jobs and responsibilities that are so much larger than their love for each other, so for me, the challenge is finding ways to navigate that, just like the challenge for them is to find ways to navigate that, all their conflicting interests, the way they're pulled in different directions, both before and after their marriage. It's a great challenge as a couple and I think it's a great challenge as a writer to see a couple who really love each other but there's a genuine obstacle between them, and that is that she is the queen of Scotland and he is the future king of France.

Christos Kalohoridis/The CW

It's going to be intriguing to see the role reversal between Bash and Francis. You told us Bash might end up liking his new position of power, but what does Francis look like without the pressure of one day becoming king?
I think he tries his hand at the life he imagines would be so great, at freedom, a lack of responsibility, and honestly just doing whatever the hell he pleases, only to find out that it's not really entirely what he's built for, and even if he were willing to do it, you know, duty calls. But he will have some travels and he will have some surprising encounters with longlasting encounters.

After this episode, we're not sure Bash and Francis' relationship can ever be the same. What's ahead for the brothers?
I think that they'll be torn apart. I think it's not just jealousy over Mary,; there will be true seeds of distrust sewn, because their goals are no longer aligned, and Bash will become more of a threat to Francis in every way, a threat to him in terms of Mary. Bash becomes a threat to him basically in terms of Francis's family, meaning his mother, his brothers, technically his little sisters, but we never see them. But kind of like Mary and Francis, they genuinely love each other. They have a real kinship, and I think they are always going to be looking, at some point, once the clouds of their rage clear, to find ways to be brothers again. I'm not sure that they will ever get back to an innocent, trusting place with one another, but they'll always be brothers.

Catherine seems totally screwed by episode's end, with her fortune, children's future and her own life in jeopardy. But we love seeing her backed into a corner, just to see how she gets out of it.
I love painting her in a corner. It's so fun. I think you can expect someone whose worst fears become realized, and that she does not go down without a fight. And you know, the more threatened she is, the more manipulative she becomes, and the more determined to not just save her sons but at some point to really and truly save herself. There's an episode coming up that we all sort of talked about as the inquisition. That's specifically for heresy, but it's sort of a trial. Imagine Catherine on trial, but she gets to walk around the castle and technically drum up her defense, and if you can imagine the sort of things she'll do to drum up her defense, it's not pretty.

Reign airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on the CW.