Paternity Doubts Plague 'Marie Antoinette' in “Treacherous Legacy”

After the queen’s indiscretions, Marie Antoinette’s third episode, “Treacherous Legacy,” finds Antoinette pregnant and questioning the paternity of her unborn child. She’s also trying to purchase the Saint-Cloud property to secure a safe place and legacy for herself and her children should something happen to the king. (She doesn’t know how right she’ll come to be.) But much to the queen’s dismay, the slimy Chartres is allowed back to Versailles after his father’s death, which makes him the Duke D’Orleans. Antoinette refuses to take part in his official welcome.

Chartres’ readmittance enables the crown to spy on him up close and to maintain sunny relations with the wealthiest family in France, whom Louis points out could easily create his own court. Back at the Palais Royal, Félicité is attempting precisely that, but Chartres obsessively focuses on Antoinette instead of royal ambition. They celebrate Beaumarchais’ release from the Bastille, who reports the king has many writers imprisoned for life. Chartres has spent the first three episodes acting like an abusive ex, and when it is he who commissions the printing of a scandalous new libelle (a million copies, no less), it feels like 18th-century revenge porn.

(To be clear, they never had sex – Antoinette rejected him and his rapey advances.)