I think Francis is going to last one or two more seasons. First of all: they gave us a timeline in 1x13 and second of all: they're doing a pretty significant time jump in 1x14. Which means Henry will probably die in the season finale as we all expected.

Torrance seems very unconcerned with the marriage...and he mentions the happy ending thing again. I'm really thinking things with Mash continue to develop in future episodes. He said it on twitter and again in this interview. Either way, I'm looking forward to this storyline with Bash. Bash is fiercely protective of the people he loves but Francis crossed a line. And Bash has every right to be angry. It's like he doesn't care about his life anymore though, he's willing to tell Mary he'd kill Francis, his future king even though it's treason. I love that Bash is loyal but this episode kind of ripped everything away from him and he didn't do anything to deserve it. I hope Mary feels some guilt over what he suffered over a choice she pushed him into.

And on a random note, is it just me or is it strange that FM are on a honeymoon for months?

I know that, but I would think they'd go to Paris or something. Being out of the country doesn't seem like a good idea.

Poor guy. He's pretty resilient though. That promo shows us that he'll come out fighting...I think the betrayal from his brother and father have really messed him up. He was always content to be on the sidelines, loyal to a family who might kill him any day. And now...because he fell in love and agreed to protect his brother from a future death, he's getting all the hate/threats/blame and no compassion or understanding. I hope we see Mary take on some of that responsibility since she is the one who forced Bash's hand and she was even sorry for it in 1x10.

"All happiness comes with a price. You paid yours with another’s broken heart". Many people say that Mary was acting OOC in the episode, but I didn’t really see it, with the exception of two particular scenes, but that I will discuss later. Was she cruel in an episode? Was she insensitive? Was she wrong? In a way all of the about, but I have to add that she would be inevitably cruel/insensitive/wrong whichever brother she would choose.
So why Francis? There is this saying that it is better to do something and regret later if things didn’t work out, than do nothing and wonder your whole life what might have been if you did. For Mary, Francis and relationship with him was an accumulated fantasy of her hopes and dreams, that she was bearing in her heart for years. This relationship was looming over her and created a massive unfinished business effect. And trust me, it’s an enormous psychological pressure to have something this big remain unresolved. You think about it day and night, you go to sleep with these thoughts, you wake up with them and you CAN’T shut them down, because you’ve already wasted too much energy to create them.
And that was the biggest reason, why she chose Francis. She wanted an ending, a resolution to it, heck she wanted a consummation (not the physical one). She wanted to be free from this load of what might have been. And it is understandable and it makes sense for her.
And now lets throw here all the other factors. She thinks the English Queens is dead, so she needs to react quickly. Henry is forcing the matter. Her mother is all for Francis, Catherine is all for Francis, heck she even was ready to die in front of Mary so she could make the choice she wanted, admittedly Francis would be a better king, so we could make a conclusion that Scotland would better have Francis. And now the cherry on the top: FATE is ALL FOR FRANCIS. We’ve already seen that Mary is really effected by all the prophesies. And now the new one is telling her that she will live happy and long life with Francis and have many children. Basically, she is told that they were meant to be and all her child dreams may come true. Bash had NOTHING to strengthen his position except for the general fact that he is a great man, in many ways better than Francis and has some attractive torso Mary admitted to her mother that she was beginning to love Bash and that’s way Marie begun to act quicky - so there won’t be any time for Mary’s feelings to develop any deeper and even at this stage she was already torn. But Bash was playing an a-priory losing game now - everything was against him. After listing all this aspects do you really wonder why Mary acted the way she did? I’m not justifying her actions, but I understand them.
Now I want to talk about two scenes that kinda bothered me. And in both cases I blame it on Adelaide’s acting and not writing. I appreciate the fact that she came clean about why she won’t be marrying Bash, I thanked all gods that exist and existed that she didn’t lie to him. Also I don’t think that she was intentionally cruel, saying that she loves Francis more, mostly because Bash wanted her to be sincere and because in my opinion she was trying to give Bash the closure she never had with Francis, so he would never think of what might have been. What bothered me was Adelaide’s delivery of the scene, especially in comparison with Torrance’s, who nailed every word, who made every phrase leave an aching emptiness. Adelaide was just… indifferent I think? I didn’t feel any emotion coming from her. Hell, she was much more distressed in the hall AFTER she talked to Bash, then during the actual scene.
And now THAT icky scene. I don’t think that she could have pushed Francis off or demand Bash to be escorted out - it was not the time, it was not the place. I think that she made the only thing she could do in that situation - get the **** over with. But again Adelaide’s performance was kinda indifferent, like she was there and at the same time she wasn’t. Especially with Torrance giving his best. I had half a day to think about it and in the end came to the conclusion that in both scenes we saw a classic case of cognitive dissonance. In the first scene she didn’t want to hear his words how he would always put her first, how she would be free and wild with him, because those words were ruining her happy Francis-bubble and because in her subconscious she feels that Bash is a better choice, but her past and her fantasies and her dreams won’t allow her to act on it, so she just want to shove that little voice in her head as far as possible. Same with the consummation - she wanted to save this fragile bubble of hers, wanted to make it seem like nothing is wrong, she wanted to live this fantasy. That’s why it was her solace to try and ignore Bash’s presence, to try and go through with it. That’s what I’ve got story-vise, but not acting-vise.
"So should you return, you have sealed it in your memory what is yours and what is not". What this episode sealed for me though is that Bash is the hero of the story. He is the tortured soul, he’s an underdog, he’s the oppressed, the damned, the pariah. Show continues to write Bash in an extremely sympathetic way and after this episode only a stone-hearted person or an ultimate Fracistan will not feel empathetic towards Bash. From this all around messy episode he came out intact and, I would argue, gained a few extra points characterization-vise. He’s understanding, knows his place, feels the spirit of the moment, knows how to let go for the sakes of the others, he’s stoic, doesn’t cause the unnecessary drama, he swallows his pain like the most honored man would - quietly, alone. And even in his most emotional moment, he lose control only when Francis really crossed the line ("You are nothing!" really Francis, ugh). Speaking of Dauphin of France, I think they really set him as an antagonist to Bash. And most of Francis’s greatest flaws was shown in an episode: entitlement, tendency to be judgmental, unforgivingness, revengefulness, passive-aggressiveness, manipulativeness, secrecy. It has to be intentional, because I can’t find any other reason why they would paint one character heavily sympathetic and the other heavily flowed in the same episode. And now I’m really wondering if they really could make Francis hire the guards to kill Bash? Somehow I don’t think that he would do it, or rather that writers would allow it because it is unnecessary demonization of a character and if they want to make this love triangle still be viable and believable all sides must be redeemable and trying to kill a brother is not something I consider so.
Going back to Bash, I believe that now he is entering the "belly of the beast" stage. This is a very old trope and this development marks a turning point for the hero, who is sent into the “unknown.” It can correspond to death and entering the Underworld. Typically, the hero will face something in the abyss and return with a boon — literal or figurative — necessary to complete his overall mission. It is also what causes the hero to accept the inevitability of his overall mission — the “event horizon,” “crossing the Rubicon” portion of his quest. There is no going back. Right now Bash is at his low, he is in the darkness, abandoned by everyone. And judging by the next episodes he will be heavily involved with the evil of the woods so this trope kinda works. And yes by this I assume that Bash is probably the ultimate male hero of the story.
So not gonna lie, I’m exited for Bash’s upcoming storyline and I don’t feel all that traumatized by the episode as i originally thought I would be. To me it felt like an inevitable step for Mary to let go of her Childhood Fantasy and face the Reality, for Francis to show his darker persona and for Bash to figuratively “die to be born again” tougher and stronger than ever before.