‘Reign’ Season 2 Spoilers: What Happened In Episode 1? Francis Meets Lola's Baby [PREMIERE RECAP]

“Reign” returned to the CW on Thursday for its Season 2 premiere. Episode 1 picked up where the Season 1 finale left off – with Francis (Toby Regbo) fleeing the castle grounds to go to Lola (Anna Popplewell) and his newborn baby. The twist? The Black Plague was sweeping the country.

The Season 2 premiere of “Reign” revealed that the French castle was not immune to the plague. While Francis ran into it in the countryside, Mary (Adelaide Kane) had barely got done warning the castle when the first signs of the illness began to show. But the plague wasn’t the only concern for Greer (Celine Sinden). Mary’s lady-in-waiting and Lord Castleroy’s (Michael Therriault) bride-to-be, was not happy to discover that her future husband’s daughter, Yvette (Sarah Winter), was in the arms of her ex, Leith (Jonathan Keltz).

After Greer and Leith’s last encounter, it was easy to imagine why Greer was not happy to see Leith with Yvette. Leith had threatened Greer that she would regret not choosing to be with him, and that he’d be sure to rub his next romance in her face. So needless to say, she thought that Leith was with Yvette for the sole reason of torturing her.

Fortunately for Greer, Leith was not that cruel. He was equally surprised to discover that Yvette was the daughter of Lord Castleroy, and had no plans on pursuing a relationship with her. But Yvette had other ideas about their relationship, and wasn’t willing to let him get away simply because he used to have a relationship with her future stepmother. Yvette set up a secret meeting with Leith and told him to meet her while everyone quarantined themselves. But Greer got to him before he could go to her – warning him not to pursue a relationship with Yvette or they would be forced to stay in each other’s lives forever. Greer’s words seemed to have struck a chord with him because he decided against meeting Yvette.

Outside of the castle walls, Francis finally found Lola and discovered that he was now a father to a baby boy. Without touching the baby, Francis angrily berated Lola for keeping the child a secret from him. However that didn’t mean that Francis didn’t agree with Lola’s reasoning for keeping his child hidden. He too wasn’t sure what Lola and the baby meant for his marriage to Mary, the woman that he loves.

Meanwhile, Catherine was suspicious of Francis’s absence from court and couldn’t understand why her son, the king, would rush to the aid of one of Mary’s ladies-in-waiting. Quarantined with Mary behind fire to burn the air clean (a mechanism that supposedly worked for the Pope), Catherine was determined to break her daughter-in-law. But Mary proved to be stronger than Catherine believed, refusing to yield to her questioning and pressure.

One person wasn’t expecting Mary’s strength – Lord Edward. With panic and death spreading rapidly, Lord Edward wanted – no, demanded – that the queen throw his enemy, a man who slept with his wife, in with the people infected by the plague. Lord Edward, whose family supplied grain and meat to the entire region, threatened to withhold food to the country if Mary didn’t agree to his wishes. But Mary wasn’t willing to give in to his demands – even if Catherine was.

Things became tenser between the pair as the body count grew. Desperate to have their king back at the throne, Nostradamus (Rossif Sutherland) volunteered to retrieve Francis, believing himself to be immune to the plague after having his life spared twice. But Nostradamus was unsuccessful in finding Francis. Instead he discovered that the cottage the king and Lola had been staying at had a red “X” across the door and was burned to the ground – all signs of the plague.

Fortunately Francis and Lola weren’t inside the cottage at the time. The two managed to escape with the baby when they discovered that one of the inhabitants had contracted the plague. On the road, they ran into a group of men. One of them turned out to be a gentleman named Louis, a cousin of Francis’s.

Louis let Francis, Lola, and the baby stay at their camp. It was at the camp that it was revealed that Louie had access to a ship that was going to take his mistress far away from the plague. He offered Francis to allow his Lola and the baby to take passage, and Francis took him up on his offer. But after Francis held the baby in his arms he realized that he couldn’t let her and the baby leave.

Back at the castle, Kenna (Caitlin Stasey) and Bash (Torrance Coombs) ran into their own problem. Their ward, Pascal (Lucius Hoyos), became infected by the plague after being forced to aid a man that had symptoms. When Kenna went searching for Pascal and found him, she was locked inside the infected room by the castle guards. Bash went searching for his wife. But instead of finding Kenna, he ran into a woman infected with the plague. The woman grabbed him and tried to escape, forcing Bash to use his sword to kill her.

The Season 2 premiere of “Reign” concluded with Mary and Nostradamus teaming up to drug Catherine to believe she was infected with the plague. They used that time to warn Lord Edward that they weren’t going to act on his threat. But Lord Edward told them that it was already too late – he had poisoned a well of water and killed an entire household … including Leith’s girlfriend and Lord Castleroy’s daughter, Yvette.

With this knowledge, Mary ordered the guards to throw Lord Edward in the cell with those infected with the plague. Lord Edward begged her to reconsider, warning her that Francis would not be happy with her decision. But Mary was not backing down.

What did you think of the Season 2 premiere of “Reign”? Tweet your thoughts to @AmandaTVScoop.