“Reign” raised the stakes with its Season 1 finale on Thursday night.
(Spoiler Alert: This story contains major details from the show’s finale.)
“The darkness” that made its bloody presence known all season long was finally explained. In Thursday’s finale, Torrance Coombs’ Sebastian, killed the shadowy figure that had been sacrificing victims to appease the pagan gods and stave off the plague.
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While his act saved the life of his beloved wife, Kenna (Caitlin Stasey), and the young child who was being groomed for that “darkness” role — Pascal (Lucius Hoyos) — the evening ended with falling stars, a sign that the plague is now officially on its way.
A plague and a new monarch: King Henry (Alan van Sprang) was killed by his own son, Prince Francis (who was in disguise) during a joust. On his deathbed, Henry revealed a truth that immediately impacted his royal spawn. Confessing, Henry told a tearful Francis that he poisoned his own brother when they were young, and after the King took his last breath, it prompted France’s new King to end the discord with his own brother, Bash. In one of the episode’s most touching moments, Francis and Bash hugged each other close.
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In an interview with AccessHollywood.com, Torrance Coombs addressed some of those Season 1 finale twists, and raised some interesting questions to ponder during the wait for Season 2.
AccessHollywood.com: How did you feel about ending the season that way in the Francis Bash story line, with the brothers hugging?
Torrance Coombs: Well, it’s a beautiful way to end it. There’s a lot going on in that moment. On the one hand, our father’s dead, on the other hand, he was crazy, on the other hand, now Francis is King, so now I am his subject. So previously, I’ve been at court because my father allows me to be, or because he forced me to be, take your pick, and now my place there is really uncertain. Does my brother accept my presence there? What’s my role now? My mom’s obviously not gonna be welcome anymore. Catherine’s running the show. I’m possibly even a threat to Francis’ rule as long as I’m around. Is Catherine going to tolerate me? There’s so many questions, but in that moment, it’s just two brothers hugging it out, ‘cause man, has it been a tough year.
Access: What did you think of the darkness reveal?
Torrance: I love the darkness reveal. I like that they went with something gentler. Philosophically, there’s kind of a Nostradamus parallel going on there, because if you believe that Nostradamus’ prophecies are true, which Bash does believe because they’ve all been born out — what the darkness is saying — if he’s been doing all of this to stave off the plague, now, like you suddenly have to go, ‘All right, if I believe in anything, I maybe have to believe this guy too and what have I done?’
Access: Where do you think Bash’s heart is at the end of the season?
Torrance: It’s all over the place. A lot of it is just a feeling of being uprooted, this thing that’s been — weirdly enough, the darkness has been a grounding force for him. It’s been something for him to channel his energy into, regardless of what’s going on in his personal life, he’s got this thing. Now that’s gone and the new enemy is something a bit more ethereal. How do you fight something like a plague? There isn’t really anything to cling to any more so he’s going to have to lean heavily on his new wife.
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Access: Bash and Kenna — we’re you surprised that they were brought together and ended up in love?
Torrance: The interesting thing is… much in the same way Bash and Mary bonded over their adventures in the woods, now Kenna and Bash have shared this darkness adventure in the end. He never meant to share it with her, but it turned out that way, and now they’re still left with this child, who is being groomed to become the new darkness. So what happens to him? What happens to them? I don’t know. It hasn’t been written yet.
Access: How excited are you that you get to go back to your show for a Season 2? There’s been such a great fan response to this.
Torrance: It’s super exciting because I’ve done a number of shows before that I’ve really believed in that just never caught on, nobody cared, and to have a critical mass of people care about what you’re doing and be passionate about it and engage with it is a real treat, and also, it happens to be a lot of fun to make too. I’m not just doing it for everybody else. There’s a selfish aspect to it where I really have a lot of fun making the show.
Access: And the fans that you interact with, including ones that take your name and make up Twitter handles…
Torrance: That’s right. I’m going to give a shout out right now to [my Twitter follower called] ‘FartOnMeTorrance,’ [@sighcoombs] because I think she’d appreciate that. She’s become somewhat famous now and she’s about to get a few more followers if you print this.
“Reign” returns Thursdays, this fall, on The CW.
— Jolie Lash
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