‘Reign’: Megan Follows On Clarissa’s Revenge

Earlier in the season, “Reign” producers promised that fans would get the real story about Clarissa, the mercurial force in the walls of the castle. And now that her identity has been revealed (she’s Queen Catherine’s firstborn, secret daughter), Clarissa will become a major source of drama.

“I think what you’ll see is that Clarissa’s dangerous to me because I don’t understand her and I don’t control her, and she brings up something that I don’t want,” Megan Follows, who plays Queen Catherine, told AccessHollywood.com. “And I think that’s the difference that you’ll see between myself and Mary, is Mary’s ability to have an empathy that, in certain instances, [is] greater than mine.”

Rejected in the most recent episode by her mother, this Thursday night at 9/8c, Clarissa will be seeking a revengeful family reunion of sorts, by kidnapping her half-brothers – the King and Queen’s little princes.

“You’re going to see a fierce maternal instinct that she has for those children with Henry,” Megan teased about how the kidnapping will affect the royal mama bear.

“I think we can all say that there’s a healthy sense of self that Catherine has in terms of putting herself first, but I think it’s interesting when she makes certain choices for the good of others, particularly if those others are her children, are her blood, and that’s her dilemma,” Megan said.

But, with Queen Catherine facing a death sentence for her recently exposed adultery with King Henry’s former BFF Richard de la Croix, her power to make moves is limited, especially with Francis (Toby Regbo) away from court.

“Her power is in a precarious place,” Megan said.

And, going forward, Queen’s Catherine’s head is also in a very precarious place. After attempting to expose Bash (Torrance Coombs) as the son of a pagan, and get Francis back into the line of succession, Catherine was outsmarted by Henry, and pushed closer to the chopping block.

“I think she thought she had him trumped with the information on Diane and she thought she had him check-mated, so that even if he had that on her, she had something politically much stronger and more dangerous, because I think personal aside, I think she’s deeply political,” Megan said. “And she misplayed that, because he was one step ahead of her, which he’s not often, but he was in that one.”

— Jolie Lash