The Muskeeters capture Spanish General, Tariq Alaman (Colin Salmon) and he tells Treville (Hugo Speer) he needs to see the king urgently. At the palace Louis (Ryan Gage) is angry he's been woken at this time, people talk of seeing the sunrise when it happens everyday anyway. Tariq sets a charge and the statue blows up with the head rolling by Louis's feet. He will give them the powder if they rescue his kidnapped daughter, Samara (Antonia Thomas) from Baltasar (Finbar Lynch) who has taken her hostage. Also involved is a cipher which he promises he'll give to them in his fight against the Spanish. Showing them how he was badly treated by them and tortured as he's also a Moor.
They plan to meet in the market to make the exchange, with Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) as the sharp shooter who will take out his man. As they make the exchange, Aramis is distracted by a woman carrying a baby and he hesitates, then is unable to take his shot as Tariq obscures his view. A moment's lapse in hesitation and being emotional is what Athos (Tom Burke) told D'Artagnan he shouldn't do all the way back in season 1, that he was too emotional and he needed to set his emotions aside, which is what Aramis didn't do. This is cos he learns from Constance (Tamla Kari) that the dauphin is gravely ill and could die. Anne (Alexandra Dowling) is beside herself, as is Louis and he gets in a Swiss doctor, Lemay (Ed Stoppard) to help. Though he proves useless.
They fight and Porthos (Howard Charles) is hit by an arrow in his leg, as Samara tries to escape but is taken away along with Porthos. She tries to help him but gives up as she's not a nurse but a poet and goes back to reading her poems. Porthos doesn't read Arabic, but she reads to him cos it's better than anything else they have. She asks him where he's originally from as he says he's French, but African on his mother's side. Samara is from Morocco and she tells him his country will only let him down, so he should find his roots. He needs to get the arrow out and tells her to pull the belt tight and hold it whilst he pulls it out. They have a weapon now.
Treville tries to renegotiate with Perales (Will Keen) again and Tariq tells them if they get her back he will give them the cipher and show them how it works. D'Artagnan gets onto his carriage and ends up where they're holding them hostage. Tariq tells Perales and Baltasar he'll give them the cipher if they let Samara go. Gunfire is heard as D'Artagnan is unable to hod them off and after a fight, they still haven't managed to get Tariq free or Samara either. But Tariq says he'll give them the cipher if they release her and they can have him too. Which they'll have to agree to. When they leave, Tariq tricks Baltasar into giving him the cipher which was in Samara's book and he throws it into the fire, then sets off the explosive.
Constance kidnaps the dauphin but to make him well again and she's stopped by Rochefort (Marc Warren) who just gets everywhere and tells him she's been summoned by her husband. She takes him to the laundry where the steam will clear his lungs, or at least she hopes so. Rochefort also gets Anne's attention when she asks him to sit with her and he tells her he loves her, "like a subject." Well that was convenient after his 'role playing' with a prostitute dressed up as Anne, clearly he's delusional and dangerous. Milady (Maimie McCoy) gets to see Louis but he sends her away as he's concerned with the dauphin's health, but he then decides to have dinner with her after he sees her in her 'alluring dress.' Where she seduces him and gives him back his ring, of course he can't have been that worried about the dauphin if he had time to indulge in pleasures of the flesh.
Next day they find the dauphin's gone and Anne finds them together under the table. so much for her having to be faithful and loyal. After searching, Rochefort finds Constance at the laundry and tells her she'll be charged with treason. When they take him back, they find he has recovered and Lemay tells her she was right on this occasion, but leeches do work. The king rescinds his order for her to be hanged. As Aramis prays and Porthos says goodbye to Samara. She tells him she's returning to Morocco and he should think of doing the same. She misses her father and he tells her she can grieve for him and have her memories but he didn't know his father, he abandoned them.
Here was a topical episode if ever there was one, so many connotations and allusions to the real world in many ways. Well there was racism, with Tariq saying he's treated like he is cos of his colour, Samara saying only his own country will be his home, not the garrison as Porthos tells her, oh and there was Tariq (the Moor) blowing himself up to save the cipher.
Tariq: "I have never understood irrational hatred. It stifles every decent impulse, destroys common sense and reason. The moment a man says, 'all Moors are this or all white men are that.' He has abandoned his sanity and revealed his weakness."
Baltasar: "yet it is not me who is weak, not me who will die on the scaffold." What's weakness got to do with it, he wasn't talking about being weak but how people are treated on the basis of who they are and their skin colour, where they come from, etc.
Louis tells Treville and the Musketeers they've let him down yet again and he takes comfort in Rochefort who doesn't let him down. Treville telling him they don't have the cipher, but neither do the Spanish. Bonacieux (Bohdan Poraj) being shocked at seeing Constance with a baby, then asking if it's D'Artagnan's, I mean if he's been with her every minute, how could she have had a baby! ha. Can't help but think the title was an allusion to Rochefort, though he's far from good!
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