The Great season 2 episode 3 recap: Has Peter gone mad?

This episode of The Great season 2 sees Catherine reach her breaking point over the death of Leo — though thankfully, Marial and Elizabeth are there to help her through it. Meanwhile, Peter goes a bit mad after Catherine uses rather ruthless measures to contain him, and Georgina and Grigory both make bold choices.

Read on to find out what happened in The Great season 2 episode 3, “Alone at Last.”

The Great season 2 episode 3 recap: Has Peter gone mad?

Catherine is (unsurprisingly) angry to see that Peter has killed Tarzinsky over an insult. When Peter defends himself, saying that violence is the only language everyone can understand, she has the guards beat him up so he listens to her. She takes it a step further, refusing to let him go hunting for the first truffle of the season — one of the fondest memories he has with his father.

Instead, she locks him in a room by himself, even putting the corpse of his mother in there with him to make the imprisonment worse. Elizabeth has sympathy and knows this is a huge trigger for him, as he used to go mad when his mother would hide him away. She gives him a butterfly under his door to keep him company — one he unfortunately accidentally kills under a glass cup. This makes Peter go crazy, and he starts talking to his mother’s body, getting so worked up he shatters the glass she’s encased in and breaks the corpse. He begins crying, frantically trying to put it back together.

To make matters worse, Georgina devises a plan to have Catherine exile her and Grigory to France so the two of them can finally be alone without Peter. She is frustrated that nobody is taking her plan to destabilize Catherine’s rule seriously. Though this is good news for Arkady and Tatyana, who see an opening to become closest with Peter now, their plan ultimately doesn’t come to fruition. Despite Georgina and Grigory having passionate sex in the carriage, Grigory ultimately doesn’t have it in his heart to abandon Peter. He’s the only one who comforted Peter during the spells he was locked away, and he can’t bear to leave him alone.

The Great season 2 episode 3 recap: How is Catherine coping with Leo’s death?

Catherine is in a particularly bad mood — and not just because she’s horrified to find out that Peter killing Tarzinsky was technically legal. It’s clear she’s still in deep mourning for Leo, and her punching herself whenever she gets emotional about him isn’t really working anymore. She has a dream about how she could have saved him, and though Marial encourages her to let herself feel her sadness, she refuses.

Instead, she makes the doctor give her something to help her not sleep, and she grows manic. Not only does she stay up all night working, but she forces everyone else to stay up and learn with her — much to their dismay. Marial gently tells her that Leo would want her to forgive herself and go on with life, which seems to soften her up.

Though she is originally going to permit Peter to go truffle hunting after all, when Peter speaks too casually of Leo and his death, her mood darkens again, and she locks him back up. Peter, however, finds a way to slip past the guards and into the woods. There, he sees Velementov having sex and makes fun of him — a fact that makes Velementov furious.

He attempts to shoot Peter, leading the two of them to have an unexpected heart-to-heart. It’s revealed that Velementov is the one who actually went truffle hunting with Peter — not his father like he remembers. Velementov gives Peter some tough love, saying that Catherine won because she inspires people while he is an idiot who doesn’t care for anyone. While it is sad that his parents treated him badly growing up, he needs to move on since they’re dead now.

Meanwhile, while truffle hunting in the woods, Catherine has flashbacks to when she betrayed Leo in that same forest. She finally breaks down sobbing, and Marial and Elizabeth both comfort her, saying there was nothing she could have done. Catherine eventually sees some girls from the school studying with their teacher in the woods, which gives her some hope again.

The Great season 2 episode 3 recap: Is Orlo asexual?

Orlo is having a few revelations of his own. After having sex with a woman for the third time, he still doesn’t see the hype. He decides to try being intimate with a man instead, but he’s equally disappointed. He realizes he would rather be reading a book than having sex.

Orlo’s Uncle Varnya catches him with the man and tells him not to forget where he came from. Now that he’s in a position of power, he needs to help the community that brought him up. Orlo pitches the idea of building a 400-mile road into his town to Catherine, and she agrees.

The fight to replace Archie also amps up in this episode. Although Archie desperately wants Father Basil to go home and get out of his hair, Catherine has other ideas. She names Father Basil the archbishop of her court, vowing to make the church about the people instead of wealth and power.

What did you think of the episode? Comment below!