| “ | I punish this world for not being as I want | „ |
| ~ Micheletto Corella |
Micheletto Corella is a character in the 2011 Showtime series The Borgias. He is an assassin, military adviser, and bodyguard for Cesare Borgia. He is played by Sean Harris, who also played Solomon Lane in the Mission Impossible franchise.
Biography[]
Micheletto was born in Forli to Isabella Corella and an unnamed father. He killed his father "for many reasons" (in his words). He later left Forli, telling his mother that he was leaving to study to become a doctor.
Season 1:[]
Some time after his arrival in Rome, Micheletto was hired by Rodrigo Borgia's rival Giuliano della Rovere. He disguised himself as part of the kitchen staff for a banquet at Cardinal Orsini's palace to celebrate Rodrigo's ascension to the Papacy as Pope Alexander VI. Della Rovere has him poison Alexander's wine in the kitchen. Cesare Borgia walks in, and the two briefly duel. Micheletto offers his services to Cesare as "God's Own Assassin" and at Cesare's orders poisons Orsini's wine. Drinking the wine, Cardinal Orsini dies within moments.
Micheletto soon became a trusted confidant of Cesare. He seduces and murders a maid in della Rovere's staff, causing the cardinal to flee. He pursues della Rovere to Naples and tries to garrote him in the bathhouses, but is detected and forced to fight his way out past guards. He then hires another assassin to stab della Rovere in a confessional, but the cardinal kills the assassin himself.
Cesare angrily confronts Micheletto about his failures, but the assassin declares he will serve Cesare till death.
Season 2:[]
While della Rovere was in hiding, disguised as a parish priest, Micheletto and Cesare bribed an altar boy to poison the wine della Rovere used at Mass. This made della Rovere ill for several days, but did not kill him. Micheletto killed the altar boy a short time later, drowning him in the village well.
While going to Forli with Cesare he revisited his mother and a friend of the family, Augustino. Micheletto and Augustino later made love in a local graveyard that night. He is upset to hear that Augustino has been betrothed to a local baker's daughter.
Micheletto helps Cesare in the murder of his brother Juan Borgia. He is impressed with Cesare's evilness.
Season 3:[]
Micheletto thwarts the Sforza plot to assassinate the Borgia family after Rodrigo was poisioned.
Later he would meet a man named Pascal in Milan. The two begin a passionate romance. Pascal followed him back to Rome and moves in with Micheletto on the condition that Pascal never ask him what he does or where he is going. Micheletto is forced to kill Pascal after discovering that Pascal was an informant of Catherina Sforza. This broke his heart, and for the first time in the show he breaks down crying as he asks Pascal "how do you wish to die?"
In his last appearance, Micheletto came out of the shadows as Cesare was preparing to attack the Sforza stronghold in Forli. Still suffering from a broken heart, he was unwilling to return to Cesare's service, but did assist him in pointing out a weakness in Forli's defenses. After saying goodbye to his master, Micheletto disappears into the night.
Physical Appearance[]
At the start of Season 1, Micheletto has trim hair and a short beard (presumably as part of his disguise as a kitchen worker.) As the show progresses, his hair and beard grow out, and by Season 3 he has long curly hair and an unkempt beard.
He usually wears a tunic with a leather covering, a common outfit among the lower classes in Renaissance Italy.
Personality:[]
Micheletto is a cold, sociopathic killer who is skilled in the art of death. He killed his own father at a young age and has strangled babies in their cribs for some of his contracts. He is fiercely loyal to the Borgias and will do anything to keep them in power. He is an extremely close confidant of Cesare Borgia, and his devotion to him borders on romantic.
However, he also has a softer side. Separating a baby from its parents is the one action that disgusts him. He is ironically good at caring for Lucrezia's baby, and he brutally kills the King of Naples when the king refuses to let Lucrezia see her child.
Unlike his employers, Micheletto is homosexual. It is implied that death and sexuality are intertwined for him, since he makes out with a man in a graveyard and seems to get off of stabbing a French prisoner slowly up close. His hidden sexuality contributes to his aggression and desire to "punish the world" for being cruel to people like him.
Trivia[]
- Micheletto's character could possibly be a nod to the Assassin's Creed franchise, which also takes place in Renaissance Italy and features the Borgias as the main antagonists.
- In real life, Micheletto was from Valencia, Spain, and he and Cesare were friends since childhood. They attended the University of Pisa together. Micheletto also stayed by Cesare's side till his death, and allegedly killed Alfonso of Aragon, Vitellozzo Vitelli, and other characters that the show has Cesare kill.