Showtime’s The Borgias: Top 5 Lucrezia Borgia Moments
2. Lucrezia Borgia Moment: Lucrezia Chooses Love
One of the most notorious rumors, spread by their enemies, surrounding the Borgia family was that they committed incest. Naturally, the show ran rampant with that rumor and decided to have the relationship between brother Cesare and sister Lucrezia evolve.
The two were close from the beginning, as she was the little sister. As Lucrezia grew older, she realized she was having feelings for Cesare that went beyond that of a sibling love.
Cesare, at first, refused her advances, no matter how persistent she became, even though he began to also feel them. After Lucrezia’s first failed marriage to Giovanni Sforza, who Cesare thankfully later killed, she hesitated from getting married again, until she meets Alfonso of Aragon.
Things seem to be going well at first, until she and Cesare notice that he’s not a tough and reliable man. He loves Lucrezia no doubt, but his actions including wanting to wait until marriage to sleep with Lucrezia and his horrid uncle’s, Ferdinand II of Naples, views on Lucrezia’s baby, prove that he doesn’t fight enough for her.
But the one person who always has Lucrezia’s corner is Cesare. Alfonso’s indecisiveness causes Cesare to question him and so when it comes to the seating arrangements for the wedding, he writes a big question mark under his, soon to be, brother-in-law’s name.
The night of the wedding, as Lucrezia and Alfonso are trying to be intimate, he notices the question mark and storms out of the room. Completely fed up with being unhappy, even with her new husband, Lucrezia decides to choose love, which means going into Cesare’s chambers.
She even leaves a trail of her jewelry, hairpieces and even shoes to his chambers. I can still hear the sound of her jewelry being thrown firmly onto the floor, echoing in the room.
The two siblings make love for the first time that night and begin their very complicated and hidden relationship.
3. Lucrezia Borgia Moment: Lucrezia’s Opinion
Troubles arise when it’s discovered that Lucrezia did not consummate her marriage to Alfonso the night of her wedding. No one is aware she had slept with Cesare, in fact, they are never officially caught.
We briefly mentioned that Alfonso’s uncle is already a, to be put it lightly, horrible human being. He does not value love nor marriage and blatantly dislikes his nephew’s views about the whole situation.
But when he finds out his nephew didn’t even consummate his marriage to Lucrezia, his already previous distaste for the family becomes uncontrollable. He demands that he and a member from Lucrezia’s family, be present to witness the intimate act or else he deems the marriage insufficient, and their alliance destroyed.
Naturally Cesare is the one to tell Lucrezia the news and she outright loses her mind, rightfully so. While Cesare is trying his best to dampen the blow of the situation, Lucrezia let’s him have it!
It’s one of the saddest yet most powerful scenes in the entire series, and yes, I know every line in this scene, word for word. Lucrezia is right to be angry and upset, but what she doesn’t realize is that this kills Cesare just as much.
Lucrezia is the last person, regardless of their current relationship status, he ever wants to see hurt or upset. He has proven, repeatedly, how devoted and loving he is of her.
But the pain of knowing that this deed must be done, “for the good of the family”, is enough to make her scoff in response. She accepts that there is no way out of the situation and demands that Cesare be the witness in her family, knowing just how painful it will be for him to watch.