‘The Serpent Queen’ Episode 3 Ending Explained: Liv Hill Breaks Down Catherine’s “Ruthless” Choice

The Serpent Queen Episode 3 “The Price” on Starz could very well be considered Catherine de’ Mecidi’s origin story. She is faced with a horrific decision between her future and protecting the life of one of her staunchest allies, the atelier Sebastio (Adam Garcia). After the Dauphin (Louis Landau) dies suddenly, the court believes he has been poisoned. Sebastio is offered up as a scapegoat and Catherine does nothing to stop it.

So why does Catherine betray Sebastio? And what does this mean for the future of The Serpent Queen?

While Queen Catherine (Samantha Morton) is a cunning and ruthless woman in the “present day” Serpent Queen storyline, so far the younger Catherine (Liv Hill) is a rather powerless pawn. She is from a common family, wed to a foreign king’s second son, and unable to produce an heir. Worse than anything, though, she does not have her husband Prince Henry’s (Alex Heath) full heart. That has already been conquered by the scheming older socialite Diane de Poitiers (Ludivine Sagnier).

Catherine is up against a wall. After enduring the arrival of Prince Henry’s new mistress and bastard — and being almost murdered by hired ruffians — she turns to the only person whom she thinks can help her, the Italian mystic Ruggeri (Enzo Cilenti). She explains to Ruggeri that she must get pregnant. He tells her that when the time comes, she will be faced with a choice. “A price you may choose not to pay,” he says, “but if you do choose to pay, you will get what you want.”

Ruggeri then gives her a warning about poison mushrooms and gifts her a book on the subject, saying, “It might come in useful.”

What eventually happens is that Catherine leaves the book by accident in her dressmaker Sebastio’s studio. Shortly thereafter, the Dauphin dies suddenly of natural causes while playing racquetball with his now stronger younger brother, Henry. Two things implicate Sebastio, though, in the Dauphin’s death. One, a bored Catherine asks him to fetch the prince some wine shortly before the event. The other? Ruggeri’s book on poison mushrooms is found in Sebastio’s studio.

Sebastio begs Catherine to speak out for him, but she does not. While leads to the dressmaker being pulled apart by four horses, a traditional medieval penalty for regicide.

So what does it meant that Catherine would betray her first true ally? And how did Hill feel about the scene itself?

“I think it was the first act she probably did that was a reason why she earned her ruthless reputation,” Liv Hill said, adding that her reputation remains “debatable.”

Hill added that she shot that sequence — watching Sebastio’s death — twice.

“The first time we did it, it was more vulnerable and it was coming from a place of desperation. And the second time we did it, it was a little bit still upsetting, but also a bit more detached. I felt like she was able to put her emotions aside. This was about survival. This was about doing what needed to be done,” Hill said, noting it was interesting that they could flit between the two in the edit room.

“I think for me, that would have been an incredibly hard decision. But again, I mean, there’s that line, isn’t it? You know, can you excuse her for wanting to survive? Would you have done the same thing? And that’s the big question throughout the whole series…understanding her.”

As it happens, immediately after Sebastio is killed, Catherine learns she is finally pregnant. So was that the price she had to pay? Or was it all a horrific coincidence?