Medici The Magnificent Recap 'Standing Alone'

Season 2 Episode 2

The second episode of the second season of this Medici saga was very much focused on Lorenzo's efforts to save his family from ruin, yet it was Piero, Piero who failed, Piero who made what could have been a catastrophic decision to allow the Duke of Milan to sack Florence, Piero who knew he never measured up in the eyes of his father and now of his own son, who was this tale's beating heart. Once upon a time, Piero stood in the shadow of the brilliant Cosimo de Medici, a son who was learned, who was dutiful, but who did not quite have the vision that his father had which allowed their family to triumph and to transform Florence into a bustling, prosperous city alongside their own continued accumulation of wealth. Piero inherited an empire that he struggled to maintain; it took men like Cosimo, and now Lorenzo, to build a legacy that was greater than simply being wealthy. Piero lay dying with the knowledge that he had a son who could fight for the family, but also with the realisation that his life was ending without ever having scaled the heights his father did, and his son could.

Yet Piero was loved, by the son who betrayed him, by the wife who was not at his side when he passed away. Lucrezia went to Rome with Lorenzo, who hoped to persuade the Pope to extend the Medici credit and save them from ruin. There, Lucrezia sprung her son a surprise --- she had been in negotiations for Lorenzo to marry the well-connected, beautiful Clarice Orsini. If Lorenzo and Clarice were to marry, and Clarice's brother were made the Archbishop of Florence, Clarice's uncle Cardinal Orsini would persuade the Pope to side with the Medicis, against the whisperings of the a Pazzi cousin who was an aide to the Curia.

Clarice, however, was determined to enter the holy order and dedicate her life in the service of God and the less fortunate. Lucrezia pressured Carlo, Cosimo's son by Maddalena and who was now a well respected priest, to persuade Clarice to accept Lorenzo as her husband. Clarice bowed to Carlo's persuasion, which appealed to her duty to help Lorenzo build a better world, and Clarice and Lorenzo were married by proxy in Rome.

The surprise was that Piero knew of Lucrezia's plan. At a time when it was as though his entire family was taking hold of the future of the Medici without him, it was revealed that his wife Lucrezia did let him know of her plan to marry off Lorenzo. It was a small thing, but it was a mark that for all of Piero's failings, he was loved, not just by his children but by his wife who made an effort to include him in the plans for the future of the family. It softened, a little, Piero's banishment as head of the family.

Alas, Piero died before Lorenzo could tell him that the bank was saved, that the Pope had agreed to extend their credit, that he was married to Clarice Orsini, that he won the joust just as he promised his father he would. Piero may not have been a Medici who changed the world, but the affection for him by his family was real. That was a form of success, in a family whose decisions necessarily must be about more than their feelings, but for the security of the Medici for generations.

Lorenzo, for his part, was not as successful in keeping an eye on his family. Giuliano knew of his sister's secret relationship with Guglielmo de Pazzi, but Lorenzo had no idea. Bianca was furious when she learnt that Lorenzo had agreed to her betrothal without speaking to her. Lorenzo's equivocation that he, too, was marrying a woman he did not know nor love was a false one, for in his relationship with Clarice, he as the man in the 15th century was the one with power. As uninterested as I am in the relationship between Bianca and Guglielmo, her anger at Lorenzo for marrying her off without her consent was understandable.

Giuliano was secondary to his brother Lorenzo, but Bradley James was delightful in all his scenes. From the time he forced Lorenzo to admit that he did have a choice when it came to pushing their father aside, to his casual Medici namedropping upon meeting the beautiful Simonetta Vespucci, to letting Guglielmo know that he opted for a draw during their joust rather than possibly killing him because it would upset his sister Bianca, Bradley James embodied the wealthy golden boy who was also, for the most part, a good man.

Lucrezia told her son Lorenzo via a letter that as the head of the family, he necessarily must stand alone, but that the family would be behind him. The second episode of the second season continued the focus on Lorenzo's journey, but it was also a portrait of what it meant to be a Medici. Earlier in the episode, when Carlo spoke of the Medici family, it was with much fondness, for he was the son of a slave who was nonetheless raised a member of one of the most powerful families of the age. Yet when he dared say no to Lucrezia's request that he persuade Clarice to marry Lorenzo, Carlo felt, perhaps for the first time, what it was like when the Medici decided to flex their power on someone's direction. With a few choice words, Lucrezia broke Carlo's resolve, and the marriage between Clarice and Lorenzo went through. Power is power, though it may be wielded gently, or rarely. 

Strays

♕ After Lorenzo made promises to Clarice ('Because it you give me your heart, I promise before God, I will take care of it.), he then made promises to his mistress Lucrezia. Men.

♕ We keep being shown that Lorenzo's brilliance was evident to everyone since he was a child.

♕ During the joust, Jacopo de Pazzi had Lorenzo's saddle cut off to ensure Franceso de Pazzi's victory. Francesco was displeased when he realised what Jacopo did. He would kill Lorenzo if that was what Jacopo wanted, he declared, but he would kill him in a fair fight.