‘Mary & George’ Episode 2 Recap: “The Hunt”

When last we left our dear Mary (Julianne Moore) and George (Nicholas Galitzine) in Episode 1 of Mary & George on Starz, they were scheming about how to get George back in front of (and perhaps under) King James I (Tony Curran). For Episode 2 (“The Hunt”), we start off with Mary visiting a local brothel not as a client, but to meet up with her inside man, Sir David Graham (Angus Wright). 

Together, they’re discussing how to get ahead in their own ways, and it’s decided that George will stand by the side of the road as James and the queen travel to Newmarket. The hope is that James will catch a glimpse of George and that’ll be enough to win him over, despite James’ preference for his current side piece, a young, handsome fellow known as Somerset. 

As James rides by, the crowd waves and cheers, and George is passed over without so much as a glance from the king. Instead, he ends up face down in the mud and his pride pretty bruised. Ah well, it was worth a try. 

Mary and George go on a “hunting” trip, during which Mary says that John isn’t very well. By this, she means that he appears to have killed the family dog by choking it. Mary, of course, doesn’t want this getting out or else no one will want to marry John (though George is quick to point out that no one wants to anyway). Together, they shoot the dead dog to make it look as though the pet was accidentally killed, and George repeats that story when he carries the animal’s body back to the house. 

Unfortunately, one of the housemaids recognizes that the dog has been dead for a while and the wounds on its body are all wrong for a hunting accident. She agrees not to tell anyone, but warns him and his mother against lying as she’s a bit too old to fall for such obvious BS. 

Not long after, the Villiers receive a visit from Sir Edward Coke (Adrian Rawlings), his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Hatton (the glorious Nicola Walker), and their daughter,  Frances Coke (Amelia Gething), whom Mary hopes she’ll be able to convince to marry John. Lady Elizabeth is aware of this and calls it out at dinner, comparing Mary to a “streetwalker,” insulting George’s “gallows eyes” and his obsession with his own, ahem, manhood, and basically saying the entire family is dark. To be fair, it’s an epic read that deserves a mic drop, but she just walks out of the room and calls her daughter to come with her after she’s done. You have to imagine that it’s not often Mary Villiers was struck speechless, but this seems to have done the trick. 

Mary and George head back to the brothel for another meeting with Sir David. Mary wants him to secure a private meeting with Queen Anne, but Anne hates David, so he’s not sure he can make it happen. However, it does indeed, and Mary promises her that she can control George and that he’d be a great replacement for Somerset as well as a good knight. 

So, how do they make this happen? Mary tells Queen Anne that George will be placed “center stage where he cannot be unseen” during a ball held at the palace. That’s exactly what transpires, and it works perfectly. James is clearly transfixed by George, much to Somerset’s chagrin. The king and George are then given an opportunity to meet privately, in a carefully orchestrated meeting that sees George knighted. And just like that, it’s done. Needless to say, Somerset isn’t particularly pleased. 

While all this is happening, Mary is visiting the woman from the brothel, Sandie Brooks (Niamh Altar), who informs her she’s been followed by a strange hooded man. She brings a fair bit of money and, after insisting “bodies are just bodies,” they have some very chaste sex for pay TV. The following morning, the man who followed Mary is still outside the brothel, waiting. Together, she and Sandy discuss what he might be after, and both agree it’s dirt of some kind. 

The following morning, George wakes up pantless among an orgy of similarly naked men, all of whom are ordered out of the room by Somerset, who is very much resistant to being replaced. The king has gone out for a hunting trip, and Somerset makes some veiled threats about the stags being in rut and likely to attack. 

When Mary goes to visit her bookkeeper, Xander (Ankur Bahl), the man who followed her had already visited, breaking Xander’s finger and roughing him up a bit. Scared for his life, Xander spilled all of Mary’s secrets, including the contents of all the documents she previously burnt, which he swore to in a signed statement. Oopsies! 

The hunting trip brings James and George closer together, with the king being impressed by George being able to speak French. However, James wants him to be careful as they recently lost a boy who fell from his horse. George follows suit, though he’s thankfully uninjured… well, at first. He then runs headfirst into a tree and knocks himself out. Clever really, as James finds him and puts him on his own horse and brings him back to the hunting party. He even gets to be the one to deal the final blow to the stag they all capture, a gesture that makes it clear to Somerset that his time has passed. 

Mary’s back at the brothel in Sandie’s quarters to have a meeting with Sir David. She describes Sandie as her “wearstrap” and they pass around prunes (?), which I guess counts as a 16th Century bar snack. Together, they go for a drink, where Sir David reminds her that Somerset still does share the king’s bed. However, he wants to continue pushing George forward. 

Sir David reveals that he was behind the information-gathering, and he’s since discovered that she’s not of noble birth whatsoever and that he’s got written proof. In other words, Mary is at his mercy — or not. She and Sandy have poisoned Sir David and his men, so that shouldn’t be a problem moving forward. The problem is that one of the men survives and delivers the documents to someone at the palace, so that may become a problem… 

Later, an injured George seduces the king in a tent, cementing his place in the court (and licking his fingers thoughtfully before doing so). 

Jennifer Still is a writer and editor from New York who cares too way much about fictional characters and spends her time writing about them.