'Marie Antoinette' Recap: Episode 2

Marie Antoinette airs Sundays at 9:00 pm on WTTW and is available to stream. WTTW Passport members can stream the whole show. Recap the previous and following episodes.
Keep up with your favorite dramas and mysteries by signing up for our newsletter, Dramalogue.  

It’s clear that the women of Versailles run the court—and the country. Marie Antoinette just needs to learn how. 

She’s eagerly taking lessons from one master of feminine power, the Madame du Barry, mistress to the King. Du Barry is teaching Antoinette the art of seduction—Antoinette has been married four months, and has yet to have almost any interaction with her husband, Louis-Auguste, let alone carnal relations that would produce an heir. When she tries to approach his room, where he is rough-housing with another boy, the door is slammed shut. 

But Antoinette knows she must produce an heir, and so excitedly accepts du Barry’s help. The older woman assures her it is a good thing when she has her first period. But the fact that Antoinette was not sexually mature when she was married off to produce an heir heightens tensions between France and Austria. 

Indeed, without the treaty represented by the Austrian Antoinette’s marriage to the French Louis-Auguste being “ratified”—that is, without an heir—there is danger that the two powers will once again go to war. France, the Duc de Choiseul advises the king, may have to attack Austria if it grabs some Polish land. The king bristles at Choiseul’s suggestion that his grandson Louis-Auguste is to blame for the lack of an heir—and at complaints about du Barry’s spending. 

The king does take it upon himself to try to teach his grandson, however, grotesquely illustrating his lessons with a supposedly aphrodisiac “love apple” from Spain—a.k.a. a tomato. The intent is lost on Louis-Auguste. 

The king’s lessons with Antoinette are more fruitful. The young dauphine’s mother forbade her from riding horses, so the king teaches her to ride on a donkey. Du Barry begins to fear that the king’s attention is wandering to Antoinette.  

Louis’s daughters are indeed trying to draw his attention away from du Barry, but not towards Antoinette. They have chosen Antoinette’s widowed Italian friend Lamballe as a suitable next wife for their father, in order to make him get rid of the wily du Barry. Lamballe is shocked by their proposal. The princesses ask Antoinette to help convince the king to marry Lamballe. 

Antoinette is beginning to pick up on the rivalries of Versailles, and turns away from her admiration of du Barry when the king’s daughters and Louis-Auguste’s brother Provence reveal that du Barry was once a prostitute—helpfully and graphically explaining to the naive girl what that means. Antoinette flees, tripping and inspiring gales of scornful laughter in the process, and confronts Louis-Auguste in her humiliation. Why don’t you like me? she asks him—but he can’t even make eye contact with his wife.

Even when Antoinette has tried approaching Louis-Auguste with praise he has ignored her. She finds an illicit thrill in watching a royal hunt where he faces down a stag and stabs it in the throat, but his avoidance of her and her compliments only inspires more laughter from the family. 

During that hunt, Antoinette fawned over the striking du Barry as she rode, but now that she knows du Barry’s past, the dauphine rejects her as an ally and teacher. She also realizes that du Barry is spying on her: Antoinette has a letter from her mother placed in a drawer while du Barry is in the room; later, it disappears. Provence and du Barry enjoy reading it together and mocking Antoinette.

Lamballe tells Antoinette that du Barry only looks out for herself, and Mercy, Austria’s ambassador to France, advises her to avoid conflict and not pick a side. But Antoinette decides to be against du Barry, and asks Lamballe to meet with the king to try to convince him to marry her. Lamballe is struck dumb and terrified by the attention of the king, however, ruining any possible match. The king’s daughters are disappointed.

So is du Barry, at Antoinette for choosing the princesses over her. She gives Antoinette a chance to change her mind, but the dauphine refuses, so du Barry sets about getting rid of Antoinette. The king responds to her animus by agreeing to let Louis-Auguste decide on whether Antoinette should stay at Versailles, especially as war with Austria grows ever more possible. 

Mercy’s male informant, masquerading as one of Antoinette’s maids, tells the ambassador all of this. Mercy writes to Antoinette’s mother in invisible ink. The empress decides to remove troops from near Poland, thus preventing the chance of war, and writes a prodding letter to Antoinette. Mercy delivers this to Antoinette along with news of du Barry’s scheming. The letter angers Antoinette. She flips it off and marches off to find her husband.

He flees to his hiding place on top of a tower of Versailles, but she determinedly follows him and their hide-and-seek quickly turns into a laugh-filled game. She asks about the doves he keeps in the tower, and he lets her hold one. You’ll be a good king, she tells him. Let me help you.

Meanwhile, du Barry tries to form an alliance with Choiseul to make up for her loss of Antoinette. He rejects her, having witnessed her public humiliation by Antoinette’s pointed ignoring of her. He runs the country; du Barry just pleases the king.

She proves him wrong. She cuts herself with his shaving razor and tells the king that he attacked her. Choiseul is sent into exile and one of du Barry’s other lovers is installed as prime minister in his place. Du Barry also sends a new ambassador to Vienna and begins to search for a wife for Provence, in order to secure an heir to the throne. She is in charge.

But she can’t win every battle. Louis-Auguste decides to let Antoinette stay at court, to du Barry’s surprise and Antoinette’s delight. Antoinette presses her advantage and searches du Barry’s room for her stolen letter, finding it and sniping at du Barry without fear. 

In his first sign of warmth towards Antoinette, Louis-Auguste manages to retrieve her dog, sent back to Austria when she arrived in France. Antoinette is overjoyed—and shows it by standing up to her frightening mistress of the house, Madame de Noailles.