The Musketeers S1E4 - "The Good Soldier" Overview

The King is waiting for a visit from the Duke of Savoy but upon his arrival, an unknown assailant attempts to kill him. Aramis catches up to him and finds that it is Marsac, an old friend of his who used to be a Musketeer. Marsac tells Aramis that the Duke was responsible for a massacre of twenty Musketeers, of which only Marsac and Aramis were the survivors. D'Artagnan catches up to the two of them and Aramis fills him in.

They eventually reveal Marsac's return to the other Musketeers and have him set up at Constance's home. Aramis tells D'Artagnan that he feels guilty about allowing Marsac to feel such guilt over deserting the Musketeers. Constance discovers that Marsac is a would-be assassin and deserter and is angry at the Musketeers for bringing him into her home. Surprisingly, she allows Marsac to stay when he apologises and offers to leave but tells D'Artagnan that he must move out. Marsac brings the Musketeers to a place where he has a man held captive, after hearing him bragging in a bar about killing Musketeers. He claims he worked for the Duke of Savoy five years prior and slaughtered the Musketeers under the Duke's orders. He also claims the Captain Treville supplied information that led to the massacre. Porthos is highly skeptical of the information but the others are intrigued enough to seek evidence to support this claim.

Constance allows D'Artagnan to stay and he promises to never lie to her again. She says that they need the money but also admits that she'd miss him.

After a tremendous amount of investigation, the Musketeers grow more and more certain that Marsac is right about the the Duke of Savoy and that Captain Treville was indeed responsible. Aramis confront Treville but decides to turn him over to the proper authorities. Marsac would rather take justice into his own hands and against the wishes of Aramis, goes after him on his own. When Marsac reaches him, Aramis in not far behind to try to stop him. Marsac demands Treville explain why he would order the massacre of the Musketeers and he drops a bomb - it was done under the orders of the King. The King was trying to protect the Duchess who was acting as a spy in Savoy. Aramis demands Marsac lower his gun but Marsac refuses, shooting his guns so that Aramis will shoot him. As he dies in Aramis' arms, he says, "Better to die a Musketeer than live like a dog."

The treaty between Savoy and France is successfully put into place.

This is perhaps the best episode of The Musketeers yet. There's character development, more back story revealed, and with D'Artagnan agreeing to help train Constance to shoot and sword fight, the show gracefully addresses the fact that female characters have been largely underdeveloped and under-utilised. JJ Feild gives a powerful, moving performance and it's almost a shame that he was only on for just one episode. This was an excellent day to break the news that The Musketeers has been commissioned for a second series. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the Cardinal's arc plays out since Peter Capaldi will not be present for the second series, having been cast as the 12th Doctor on Doctor Who. Tune in two weeks from now for the next episode of The Musketeers, as they will be taking a week off as the BAFTAs air.

The Musketeers airs on Sundays on BBC One at 9PM.