#10: Who’s that guy?
There is a faction of people who really want Victoria’s attention, and they decide to go about it by brandishing guns and trying to shoot her with them, even though they are unloaded. She wants to go back into the public after an assassination attempt to try to draw the assassins out to be caught. He’s not happy, but the best part is that Albert makes Victoria a purple armored parasol, because she loves purple and he loves her. #relationshipgoals
#9: Where’s my invitation?
Because she’s tired of being cooped up in the palace for security reasons, Victoria decides she’s going to take the court to Scotland. Lehzen is excited but it turns out she isn’t invited. Francatelli has to stay at the palace, too, and Skerrett covers him in shade when she tells him she’s sure he can find something to “occupy himself.” Burn.
#8: What is in the Scottish air?
Victoria really loves Scotland. The bagpipes make her happy, and she feels like she is more free than she’s been in years. It seems that being in Scotland makes her feel especially attentive to Albert, and he to her. The intimate, one-on-one moments between them in this episode were spot on. Tom Hughes as Albert is just superb at balancing Jenna Coleman’s feisty Victoria with quiet strength and touching displays of love. They have lots of sexy times in this episode, too – it was GREAT! Favorite one: when they are awakened from a sound sleep by bagpipes and Albert isn’t impressed, but Victoria finds them “bracing.” Wink wink.
Don’t you love the sound of bagpipes in the morning?
#7: Love. Love is in the Scottish air.
Drummond and Paget remain two of my favorite characters in this show. They make puppy dog eyes at each other All. The. Time. I don’t think they are fooling anyone, and when Miss Coke asks Paget if he thinks the scenery is amazing, she should be able to tell that he isn’t talking about the heather when he looks across the stream at Drummond and says “Divine.” There is a lot of UST between the two, and we finally get a smidge of satisfaction in this episode. After the Queen and Prince are returned to Blair Atholl and get stuck in the stuffy poetry reading, these two decide to party with the servants. They get drunk, leave the party and have a passionate kiss…which Miss Cole sees. Time to face facts, Wilhelmina! #SpinsterCity
#6: Watch out Harriett
Oh Ernst. He is still in love with Harriett. She is cold to him because she thinks her love of another caused her husband to commit suicide. Ernst tells her its not her fault, and she calls him deluded. But before the party returns to England, Harriett is thawing (literally thawing…she’s in front of a fireplace and Scotland is cold, y’all) towards Ernst, and they hold hands. I think this storyline needs to die, like the real-life Ernst did of syphilis. It makes me feel gross to think that he knows better and is still going after her.
#5: Hot guys in kilts really do exist.
Skerrett has a mild flirtation with a really good-looking Atholl Highlander, but she turns him down later because she says she has a sweetheart at home. He says he doesn’t care. Guys…this man is seriously every trope-y, generalized, stereotypical kilt-clad Scottish character we’ve ever read about, and it is the BEST. We don’t get to see him much, but he is super charming, and Skerrett needs a little fun. She obviously enjoys it, because once they return to England, she glides through the palace singing a song about her heart being in the Highlands. Francatelli joins in and we get to see their relationship warm up a bit. Can’t wait to see what’s in store!
#4: The Duchess is my spirit animal.
The Duchess is unimpressed when Victoria and Albert are missing. (more on that below) She would like to know “Who loses a Queen!?” and accuses the Duke of incompetence. When Drummond says he shouldn’t have let them go, she tells him he’s right, even though Paget says its not his fault because Victoria does what Victoria wants to do. Favorite Duchess moment: when she says “They are probably at the bottom of Glen something-or-other with their necks broken!” She has no time for anyone’s ridiculousness. Crotchety old ladies – may we all live to be them!
#3: Victoria and Albert’s day off
Freedom is something that a lot of people probably think goes hand in hand with the monarchy. That isn’t quite the truth though. Victoria and Albert decide to veer away from the group date and ride their horses along a trail that turns out not to be a trail at all. After they’ve been lost for forever, they find a crofter’s hut, and after an embarrassing introduction where Victoria behaves like she owns the place, they have a really nice evening with the crofter and his wife. There’s a meal of fish cooked over the fire, Victoria learns to darn socks, and they get to share a teeny tiny bed where like all married couples everywhere, they fuss about who is taking up more of the bed. In one of my favorite moments of this episode, Victoria dreams aloud of freedom, and Albert says that whatever makes her happy could never be wrong. I swear my face makes heart-eye emojis every time he tells her stuff like this. They are found the next morning, and the crofter’s wife gives her a darning needle as a parting gift, after she tells her she is sorry she had to be found, and if she’d known she was coming, she’d have made her oatcakes. #love
#2: Victoria’s got it going on
Once Victoria and Albert’s unintentional getaway is over, the Duke and Victoria speak about her childhood love of Bonnie Prince Charlie. She tells him that she has Stuart blood in her, and she always wanted to be a Jacobite when she was a child. He tells her that King James wasn’t a good man – he was selfish and a good monarch puts country over themselves, and that he’s glad the Jacobites lost – otherwise they’d never have had her as a Queen. We also get to see her talking to Harriett about how at Buckingham Palace, she can never escape responsibility. Harriett tells her she believes in fairy tales when she sees Victoria and Albert together. Me too, Harriett!
#1: Victoria and Albert…
When they return to London, Victoria has to open Parliament, so she dresses in state robes and does her duty. But when she returns home, she throws off the frippery of being Queen, and asks Albert to cook their supper on the fire while she mends some socks. The relationship between these two is almost a character in and of itself in this series. Every week, I look forward to seeing them interact, and this was by far my favorite episode.
I’d rather do that than mend socks, too.
.
What are your thoughts on The King Over the Water? Did you enjoy this episode as much as we did?
.
Read all our Victoria coverage here!
*All production photos courtesy of ITV Studios.
