Marie Antoinette season 2 episode 7 recap: France is thrown into turmoil and Orleans' popularity grows

Marie Antoinette season 2 marks the return of the thrilling BBC historical drama telling the tale of the Queen and her life in the court of Versailles.

Focusing on the real-life events of the time, Marie Antoinette depicts the eponymous Queen as she navigates her life by the side of King Louis XVI.

In season 1, she moved from Austria to France as a young girl, meeting Louis for the first time. She birthed his children and, most importantly, a son and heir to the throne. And they took the throne themselves as King and Queen of France. But, there's plenty more of their historical tale left to tell in season 2.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Marie Antoinette season 2 episode 7.

The penultimate episode begins with the official portrait being painted. The artist adds in the Crown’s new baby daughter, Sophie, as the Dauphin enters in a wheelchair. Louis is trying to get the Queen to go outside as she’s not left her room in months. She’s worried for her safety. Yolande comes to take the baby to the nursery, but the Queen dismisses her. Louis argues that he asked Yolande to keep the secret about the Dauphin’s health. She says she’s angry with both of them.

Felicite comes to visit Jeanne in prison. She offers to help her with the infection in her wound from being branded. Jeanne asks what she wants and Felicite reveals the presses they have to discredit the Crown at Palais-Royal. She says if Jeanne writes her story, they’ll print it. She says in return, she’ll help her escape prison. She asks her to lie in her writing.

At Versailles, Breteuil brings a blackmail letter from England to the Queen who is in bed with Fersen. It’s from Nicolas la Motte and he says he has the Queen’s private letters, the ones she wrote in lemon juice to Fersen while he was away. Breteuil offers to go to London to negotiate, but she forbids him. Fersen tells the Queen that she can’t dismiss it because of the wider implications it will have on her other son’s legitimacy and parentage. He offers to go to London and deal with it. The Queen promises when he returns, she’ll be herself again.

Vergennes and Calonne are unwell. But Calonne tells Louis that he’s managed to draft the tax reforms for the Notables. Louis is worried they’ll go against him like Parliament did, but Calonne says they’ve been chosen carefully. They cheers, but realise that Vergennes has died sitting at the table.

Louis summons the Notables alone to discuss the new taxation plans, but the crowd are upset. Provence and Orleans talk afterwards and Provence is worried that the church and nobility will hate them both as well if the taxes get passed. Josephine says someone should assassinate Louis. She’s drunk and upset that Marguerite has stopped sending letters. Malherbe comes to see them from Parliament and Provence dismisses Orleans. He wants to know if the tax reforms are getting approved. Provence assures him he won’t let Louis do it.

Elsewhere, Lamballe strokes Marie’s hair as she lies on the floor. Marie admits she should’ve listened to her. She asks Lamballe if she knew about the Dauphin, but she says she didn’t. Though, she says, she has kept something from her. She tells her about how she saw Yolande notice Marie had collapsed in the hallway and how she left her there because she was trying to get Calonne approved as financial controller. But, that Lamballe saved her. At the prison, Jeanne begins to write her story.

Louis returns in front of the Notables. A man stands and says they’re broadly in favour of the taxation. But Provence stands, quoting Mr Necker’s report, wrongly stating how much profit the Crown makes to serve the country. He asks instead why the Crown requires more money. To this, the Notables want to see the accounts. Afterwards, Calonne is furious that they’ve covered up the deficit for nothing.

Provence enters and says he didn’t expect anyone to ask to see the accounts. Louis tells him that there is no surplus and that Necker was wrong. He tells Provence of the debts, six billion livres worth. Then, Louis goes to tell the Queen. She’s furious at his lies about their financial state. That evening, Orleans has arranged a meeting with Malherbe. Madame de Rohan arrives. They discuss the tax reforms, but Madame de Rohan says the rich pay in blood shed during war on the battlefield, but then questions the fact she knows Orleans abandoned his post.

Yolande continues to try and win Marie back. She goes to dismiss Lamballe, but Marie asks for her to stay. Then, she tells her she knows about the evening of the miscarriage. Yolande calls Lamballe a liar. Yolande begs Marie not to abandon her, but Marie says she can stay in court, but Marie is not looking after her anymore.

As Provence tries to convince the Notables that they don’t need to see the financial reports, Calonne enters and starts throwing papers sharing all the secret loans that Necker took out to hide the war expenditure and all of France's debt. Louis walks in and he's furious. He calls Calonne a traitor and throws him to the floor. He starts grabbing the papers from the Notables and Provence stops him, telling him he looks mad. Marie goes to find him and he’s curled up under the staircase. She says they must leave together.

That evening, Calonne leaves Versailles. He tells Louis if he’s made to leave, their work will be for nothing, but Louis stares blankly and Calonne departs. At the prison, Felicite brings Jeanne clothes and tells her a carriage will be waiting outside for her. She says she bribed the guards and she’ll kill another. Jeanne escapes.

Provence tries to see the King, but Marie says he can’t. He insists, saying that France is angry. He barges in to find Louis lying on the floor across a map. Marie comes in and tells Provence to leave. She holds Louis and he tells her he can’t rule. She meets with Breteuil and tells him she needs to know about everything going on, so that she can rule while Louis isn’t well. He tells her they need money, around 500 million. She asks to speak to Malherbe. Before he leaves, he tells Marie that Jeanne has escaped from prison.

Josephine writes a letter to Marguerite. Provence comes to tell her Louis has gone mad, but she doesn’t care anymore. Elsewhere, Malherbe arrives to speak to the Queen. She asks for 500 million livres from the Parliament and in return, she’ll drop the tax reforms. He says they’ll debate it. While the King and Queen wait as the men debate, Louis loses his patience and demands they give him the money. Orleans says to demand from Parliament is illegal. But Louis says he wants it, so he should get it. To this, they deny the loan.

The King calls them all traitors and leaves. To this, Orleans says that Parliament needs the power and that the Crown must be held accountable for its actions or they’ll rule with tyranny. On return to Palais-Royal, Orleans’s followers carry him through the streets. Here, he’s met by Breteuil and the King’s guards to deliver a letter. He’s been banished from Versailles again.

At Versailles, Josephine is angry at Marie for Marguerite’s banishment and Marie informs her that Provence and Adelaide were the real reason she was banished. She tells her to pick her side carefully. Josephine storms to their rooms and finds the letters Provence has been hiding from Marguerite.

The next day, Mr Necker returns and the Queen offers him the position of financial controller. The Queen tells him the people of France still love him, but not the King. Necker says he doesn’t want it, but she says it's a demand that he gets France out of the mess he left it in. Elsewhere, Jeanne arrives to see Nicolas and he’s in a trashed office with a beaten-up face. He tells her Fersen has been.

At Versailles, Lamballe is in the nursery with the children. She goes to check on the baby and looks shocked. She calls for the nurse to move the Dauphin and the nurse also looks at the baby and gasps. The official portrait artist paints over the baby, removing her from the picture and the King and Queen mourn. When Fersen returns there’s a hailstorm. With Marie, he says at home the father would build the coffin and she reveals the doctor said the baby slipped away in her sleep.

Breteuil interrupts to tell her the situation in the country has gotten worse. The peasants are starving and it’s only increased by the hailstorm wiping out their crops. They are heading to Paris for food. Marie wants to send more aid. Breteuil thinks that Orleans is storing grain for himself. He hasn’t taken the news to Louis. That evening at Palais-Royal, Orleans wonders why he doesn’t hear from Saint Georges anymore. There’s peasants begging for food, but Orleans sees it as an opportunity for political capital. He thinks the public will turn their allegiance to him, if he feeds them. Saint Georges doesn't like what he hears and leaves. Orleans calls to the room and says to tell the peasants to come to his kitchen for bread.

Mr Necker tells the Queen that he can’t do anything about the deficit. He says he lied because the King wanted him to. Marie demands the truth. He says the King must enact his tax reform immediately and the only way to do that is to call an Estates General. He explains it’s an old institution made up of clergy, nobility and commoners. They haven’t gathered for over 100 years. Mr Necker says she must convince the King to summon them.

Before she does so, she meets with Fersen to tell him that Louis needs her. She says she can’t have a private life when she’s so busy with France and the King. Fersen is angry and leaves. Meanwhile, Felicite delivers a book of Jeanne’s printed story to Orleans. She speaks out against the Crown. At Versailles, Marie sits down at Louis’s desk and begins to work.

All episodes of Marie Antoinette, seasons 1 and 2, are available on BBC iPlayer.