Catherine can’t believe it: Russia is now formally under her control. The chopped head of her lover Leo, who is indeed quite dead, is the gift Peter has for her. As her supporters applaud, “Empress Catherine the Great, huzzah!” he presents it to her in a sack. But she doesn’t appear to be joyful.
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In The Great, Leo was murdered.
His new truffle-hunting dog is grabbed by Catherine, who storms off as her sadness turns to rage. Leo’s severed head was given to Catherine at the conclusion of the Season 2 opener, and up until this point, she had been holding out hope that he had lived.
What transpires to Leo in The Great?
Peter brought Leo to court as a gift for Catherine because he noticed that she was miserable. Leo was infertile, therefore Catherine felt free to have a sexual relationship with him. Leo hated Peter as a result of their romance. He enthusiastically joined Catherine’s plot. On the day of the revolution, nevertheless, Peter had plans to murder Leo. After failing, he instead kidnapped Leo and eventually used him as a bargaining chip against Catherine. Before carrying out the coup and killing Leo, Catherine paid him one final visit.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Die
The mechanic of the Argo II and the son of Hephaestus is Leo (a ship capable of sea and land travel, not a sequel to a hit Ben Affleck flick). Leo has the motivation that is both the simplest and the most complex. What a mess of demigod inconsistencies.
His major objective is to see Calypso again because they fell in love on the island of Ogygia, which he describes as “an island that no man ever found twice” (9.61).
His six other pals are all involved in romantic relationships, including Percy & Annabeth, Frank & Hazel, and Piper & Jason, so he feels a special sense of urgency to go back to Calypso. On the other hand, Leo was informed that he “would always be the seventh wheel” (9.60). (Shmoop claims that this isn’t all that horrible, but we don’t set the rules.)
Leo is a vital part of the team while they look for something known as the doctor’s cure, despite the fact that he is lonely. Examples? He programs a crazed statue of Hygeia to defeat itself and uses his devices to help destroy the goddess Nike.
But why do they initially require the treatment? A prophecy claims that one of them will pass away. But here’s the thing: Leo hides the cure once they find it because he wants to be the one to die. Unsurprisingly, Leo kills Gaea in a huge explosion after she is raised from the dead. Everybody laments his passing.
In the final chapter, we find out that Leo devised a mechanism to administer himself the treatment, and he survived. Plus, there turns out to be some type of loophole when it comes to Calypso. If a man is only able to locate her island once in his lifetime, he will have another chance when he is reborn. Together, they fly “into the unknown” when Leo swoops down to grab Calypso (58.58).
In The Great, is Leo sterile?
Yes! Peter says to Catherine in the show, “You will be my heir. No higher use exists (for you).” The majority of the couple’s mediocre romantic behavior is simply done out of obligation to produce the heir apparent. That fits with the couple’s actual chemistry as newlyweds. The couple had their first child, Paul I, in 1754. Paul II, Anna, Alexei, and Elizabeth were born later. The paternity of all four of Catherine’s children has been questioned, despite the fact that the youngest was the only one of her children to be born after Peter’s passing. Paul is unquestionably Peter’s because Leo (Sebastian de Souza), Catherine’s only other lover on The Great, is infertile.
Was the Emperor just as insufferable in real life as Hoult’s portrayal?
Peter is a bit of a mixed bag on the show as far as mercurial leaders go. He kills a bear that he gave Catherine at one point. Then, wearing his mother’s pearls, he exhibits a strangely compassionate side. While the given bear and mummified mother are not mentioned in history, Peter’s violent actions are clearly chronicled. Peter is referred to as a “drunkard,” “good-for-nothing,” and a “idiot” in Catherine’s own journals from the time. Peter was ugly and battled erectile trouble, according to historian Hilde Hoogenboom, who spoke to the New York Times. The king, however, is portrayed by Hoult as a wanted man-child with no (physical) issues in bed. Carol Leonard, an emeritus fellow at St. Antony’s College at Oxford University, expressed her reaction to Hoult as the Emperor in the Times as “Don’t tell me that handsome guy is Peter.”
In The Great, what did Catherine snort?
This Machiavellian scheming Catherine is up against from the opposing party is suggested by Peter’s friend Arkady, who advises undermining Catherine’s rule by giving her laxatives.
However, as Velementov notes by referring to Catherine, something is wrong with her “yelling in an unusual way. She begins the day by awakening from a bad dream, kicks Peter a surprising amount by ordering the guards to do so, prevents him from going truffle hunting, punches herself in the face (interesting), and banishes Georgina and Grigor to France. This last part is acceptable on its own because Georgina requested to be exiled. She then instructs Georgina to close her legs and open a book when she arrives, which is disrespectful, Catherine. I don’t care if feminism hasn’t been properly defined yet; these aren’t its guiding principles.
Peter is also kept in a room by her. Alone. alone, all by himself. With the exception of his mummified mother, who was brought in beside him and used to lock him in a room by himself when he hadn’t done anything wrong. Do you ever send someone ten emojis of the eyes? When Catherine said that she had locked her husband in a room with his deceased mother, that is exactly how my text conversation with her would proceed. In this circumstance, Peter does poorly. Outside the window, Grigor performs dances for him, but Georgina brings him inside to their exile in Paris. Elizabeth offers Peter a butterfly to talk to, but Peter accidently kills it during their conversation. In a predicament that is best described as Humpty Dumpty-esque, he smashes the case housing his mother, causing her skull to break apart in addition to her skeleton being broken. Despite the lessons learnt in that rhyme, Peter tries to put her back together again.
Catherine is on the ground in a scene straight out of a 2021 film. He’s drinking wine from what appears to be one of those novelty group margarita glasses the size of a punch bowl when her entourage rushes to fetch the doctor (another 2021 move). When Catherine’s purple bile turns back to yellow, he believes she will be OK. However, she has to stay awake because she has been having distressing dreams about rescue Leo (WHY?). He offers her a powder including “I seem to recall lavender, powder, some plant oils, and other things. It is coke. Cocaine use by Catherine.
It’s midnight right now. She wants to read every one of the 16,000 law codes right away. Additionally, she requests that the teacher wake up the students, assign them Sophocles to read, and bring in all the scientists to conduct various scientific experiments with them. Orlo is being pressured into constructing a road by someone from his village. She acknowledges it and responds, “Great, let’s build a road,” before calling Father Basil (yay!) and having everyone applaud him. I would clap for Basil. They send Marial a note that simply reads, “They conclude this very long night.” “She offers assistance and fulfills her role as Catherine’s best friend by calming her down and encouraging her to reconsider subjecting her husband to solitary confinement with a corpse.
Let’s take a moment to examine Orlo. What is happening to Orlo? He first claims that after having sex with a woman, he realized that he wasn’t into it. He then attempts to have sex with a man but declines, saying he’d rather be reading a book (been there). Maybe Orlo is asexual. I’ll keep a watch on this intriguing development of his persona.
I’m not sure what would prove Catherine and Peter are the right couple if this episode didn’t accomplish it. He finds it endearing that Catherine doesn’t perceive herself as being ruthless. Because he used to go truffle hunting with his father, who was lousy 98 percent of the time, Peter values the activity greatly (not like Ivan the Terrible terrible, but still pretty bad). Despite learning three semesters of Russian, he acquires a fantastic truffle-sniffing dog whose name I can’t for the life of me figure out. Catherine grabs the puppy again after returning it to him because she is upset because he doesn’t care enough about Leo passing away. She leads the dog outside and promises to burn the first truffle in front of Peter after she finds it. It is astounding.
In the end, we see Catherine escaping through the woods with the dog, Peter pursuing Catherine and the dog while wearing a fur hat and dressing robe, and Velementov pursuing Peter while attempting to kill him for fleeing. Peter learns that Velementov, not his father, was the one who used to accompany him on truffle hunts. So I believe we can increase his dad’s awfulness to the maximum.” He asks Velementov, “My parents did not like me very much, did they?” Velementov answers wisely and appropriately, “Screw them.
Grigor makes a comeback after much soul-searching! He adores Georgina, but could he possibly adore Peter more? The amount of love that Peter and Catherine inspire is something that stands out. Although Velementov, although attempting to shoot Peter, loves him, there are many individuals who just care for Peter because of his power, including Grigor, Georgina, and Elizabeth. While Orlo and Velementov are uneasy, they prepared a coup because of how much they believed in Marial. Marial is entirely Team Catherine (forget the whole betrayal section of season one; it was complex). You can see these connections getting more difficult this season as more characters feel something for both Peter and Catherine (especially Elizabeth and Velementov) (particularly Elizabeth and Velementov). What a multi-layered performance.
Marial and Elizabeth find Catherine sitting alone in the woods, having grieved about Leo and punched herself once again. In the most 2021 move of the whole hour, she says, “I guess, to be perfectly honest, I’m very, very sad. Who would have imagined a near-nonsensical interpretation on the 18th-century Russian monarchy would seem so relatable?
In The Great, why is Catherine eating sand?
Catherine repeatedly eats dirt in the first several episodes of The Great season 2, but the cause is never revealed. It is said that The Great is “a factual story that occasionally pushes the boundaries of that claim. While some of the showrunners’ inclusions are merely parodies, many of them have historical precedent, and there is a compelling reason why Catherine consumes dirt in season 2 of The Great.
Season 2 of The Great begins four months after season 1 ended, with Catherine (Elle Fanning) clearly pregnant. The season follows the months leading up to Paul’s birth and beyond. The reasons for Catherine’s actions are frequently ambiguous, but they are never fully addressed when she eats dirt. The Great season 2, episode 1 is where it first appears “In the movie Heads It’s Me, Catherine is seen secretly removing dirt from the side of her tent in one shot. As things develop in the ensuing episodes, Elizabeth’s (Belinda Bromilow) affinity with Catherine is demonstrated by the fact that she serves Catherine with dirt.
Will Leo return in season 2 of The Great?
Phoebe Fox, who plays Catherine’s maid and confidante Marial, Sacha Dhawan, who plays Orlov, Catherine’s go-to guy for coup planning, and Belinda Bromilow, who plays the eccentric Aunt Elizabeth, are some of the other cast members that are anticipated to return. Sebastian de Souza, who played Leo Voronsky, the aristocrat with whom Catherine had an affair, is not anticipated to return because the season 1 conclusion hinted at his demise. He might return, though we didn’t see it on film.
Does Catherine ever develop feelings for Peter?
She mistakenly believes it to be Peter when he appears to have stabbed Pugachev to death; as he enters the room, she rushes to give him a bear hug. In the end, Catherine had grown to love Peter throughout season 2 of The Great. In order to avoid having to see the face of the man she loves while she kills him, she attacks Pugachev while he is facing away. Having to kill him was something Catherine really didn’t want to do, but she had no choice; as soon as the act is done, she starts to sob. She actually feels happy that she has a second chance until Peter walks in and she knows what has happened, so she hugs him. They convey that Catherine is aware of the nuanced difficulty of the position, confirming Peter’s suspicions that she is both ruthless and profoundly in love with him. This will complicate matters for Russia in The Great season 3.
