‘Reign’ Q&A: Adelaide Kane On Mary’s Newest Threat

There will be little time for Mary, Queen of Scots, and her ex, Bash, to process their emotions over his surprise wedding to Kenna in the last episode of “Reign,” as this week there is some serious political drama and treachery in focus.

Adelaide Kane’s Mary is about to find out that there is a secret clause in her marriage contract (to Prince Francis) that could threaten not only her royal power, but her beloved Scotland.

It will test the strength of the young newlywed, as she has to figure out how to handle not only French monarchs Henry and Catherine, but her own sneaky, power-hungry mother, Mary de Guise.

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Adelaide told AccessHollywood.com about what’s ahead on Thursday’s new “Reign” episode, and she also shared her thoughts on the recent Bash/Kenna marriage surprise.

AccessHollywood.com: What did you guys think when you read that Bash and Kenna were getting hitched thanks to King Henry, because that was definitely a moment that I don’t think a lot of people saw coming?
Adelaide Kane: That’s great when you can surprise an audience though, because so many different plots of storylines are so predictable. When we read that, I know Caitlin [Stasey] did a little happy dance because she loves Torrance [Coombs] to pieces. She was like, (sings) ‘I get to spend all my time with you!’ which was hysterical and those two are such goofs, like I can only imagine how much fun they have on set together. But we were all like, ‘What?’ But it did make kind of like beautiful sense. It was sort of a perfect pairing when you think about it.

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Access: I remember the episode earlier in the season where the two of them were watching the fireworks, and everyone thought those two characters had chemistry.
Adelaide: Yeah! That was a little bit of ‘shipping’ going on there and I don’t know if it was the writers’ intention to sort of like put that in the back of everyone’s minds, but I think that’s going to be a very interesting relationship to play out, because they’re both very strong minded, independent characters, and they’re both very smart and to throw them together like that was really quite brilliant.

Access: It sounds like Adelaide, the actress, is down for that pairing, but how does Mary feel?
Adelaide: Mary’s… not particularly impressed that Bash is married. I don’t think she resents Kenna having a husband and getting married and sort of salvaging what little of a reputation she has left in French court. [She has] bigger fish to fry in the upcoming episode, so the reckoning for that particular relationship hasn’t quite hit the bend just yet. I think everyone’s decided to shelve their disagreements in light of much, much bigger events coming up later in the season. But, initially, there is a reasonable amount of tension caused by interaction between Bash and Mary, in Mary’s marriage and in Sebastian’s marriage to Kenna. There’s a bit of adjusting that needs to happen.

Access: It sounds like your character’s marriage also has some adjusting because they find out there is a secret clause in the marriage contract this week. That is not a nice thing to find out when you are a young newlywed.
Adelaide: No, no, it’s horrifying, because there’s always that moment of, ‘Did he know about this?’ Mary and Francis discover this clause and are horrified because it essentially sells out Scotland out from under her. Her mum has – and this is actually historically accurate – for her own personal gain, made this agreement and slipped this clause in with Queen Catherine that if Mary did not bear an heir to the throne, that Scotland would lose its independence and become a sovereign country. So, some pretty, pretty heavy, serious political clusterf***, if you’ll excuse my French. If Mary dies without an heir, Scotland will no longer be a free state, which is a pretty, pretty big deal and they have to kind of plot together.

Access: How does this episode change her as a person? Apparently she grows up more…
Adelaide: She does. She sort of realizes exactly how far she’s willing to go for her country. … She gets ahold of some extremely sensitive information that could potentially cause huge, huge unrest across the European global political landscape, and essentially kind of draws her line in the sand and says you meet here or I’m going to screw you all. … She has to make this really big decision over what’s more important to her.

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Access: In the previews, the Scotsmen are declaring their allegiance and kneeling in front of Mary, it looks like. What can you hint at about what’s going on with her mother, Mary de Guise?
Adelaide: Her mother has not only betrayed her country, but she has betrayed Mary, and she’s betrayed them for no good reason — for her own personal gain, for her wealth or power, individual power, which is such an obscene concept to someone like Mary who lives her whole life for her country, and who gives up her own freedom… for her country. To do something so incredibly selfish is really beyond Mary’s comprehension and she also has to make a decision like, is she gonna sell out her mum? Is she going to reveal her to be the unpatriotic traitor that she essentially is? And so that’s kind of what that is about. She’s kind of rallying Scottish forces to her side so that she can oppose her mother, who in betraying Scotland, is also betraying its Queen, which is Mary. So that’s some heavy mummy/daughter [stuff] that she has to take care of.

“Reign” airs Thursday at 9/8c on The CW.

— Jolie Lash