'Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light' Recap: Episode 3

Wolf Hall airs Sundays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes.
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King Henry VIII is dead, and the devil Thomas Cromwell is running the kingdom in his place, aiming to destroy the true religion of Catholicism. Or Henry is alive and Cromwell wants to marry his daughter Mary in order to claim power. Or Cromwell is simply the puppetmaster behind the king, just like his mentor the cardinal before him.

Those are the rumors circulating amongst rebels in the north of England who want to restore England to the Roman Catholic Church. Henry wants to ride out to fight them and prove his vitality, but his council vociferously objects. In his rage against the rebels and rumors, Henry defends Cromwell and even declares that Cromwell’s heirs will rule after the king if he so decides.

But the king refuses to send the Duke of Norfolk, one of his most intimidating fighters, to put down the rebels – or even to come to court. After his niece, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded and his half-brother, jokingly referred to as Tom Truth, was alleged to have married the king’s niece without permission, Norfolk is on the outs with the king. When this is relayed to Norfolk by Cromwell and the up-and-comer Wriothesley, he erupts. He tells Cromwell that people in the north use Cromwell’s name to frighten their children.

Cromwell musters what men he can to help put down the rebellion, sending his nephew Richard to lead them but keeping his son Gregory safe at home. Richard worries that Cromwell will be attacked in the street and warns him to keep a guard; one of his servants has already been violently attacked in the north.

But Cromwell fears not for his own safety but that the rebels, who want Mary restored as Henry’s heir, will rally around Mary. So he asks Henry’s current wife, Jane Seymour, to request that Mary be allowed to return to court – away from the rebels. Jane takes the opportunity to warn Cromwell that Henry is once again seeing his late brother reproaching him in his dreams.

Jane later approaches Henry and kneels before him. He happily agrees to let Mary return to court – but turns bemused and then defiant when Jane starts to defend the rebels and their wish to have the Pope and their old rituals. Cromwell tries twice to intervene, but Jane is stupidly persistent. So the king “instructs” her and defends himself, to cheers. He might listen to her pleas after she gives him a son, he says bitterly.

Cromwell dreams of Anne Boleyn’s execution that night.

When the city of York falls to the rebels, who are led by a lawyer whom Cromwell has met a few times, Cromwell goes to see Henry while he prays. The king is in a dark place. He believes that old, rival families like the Poles and Courtenays are behind the rebels and want to marry his renegade cousin Reginald to Mary. He decides to send Norfolk against the rebels after all, and pointedly muses about bringing Cromwell’s rival Stephen Gardiner back from France.

There are other signs of disapproval of Cromwell, like the loud laughter at jokes against Cromwell made by the king’s fool at a feast during which Mary is welcomed back to court. That evening, she calls Cromwell to meet her alone. The meeting is intimate, and she tells him that he saved her, and has cared for her – like a father. That’s a warning to Cromwell, he tells his son: Mary has heard the rumors that he wants to marry her.

The rebel forces have grown greater than the king’s own, so a truce and some concessions are proposed – with the idea of slowing the rebel progress until winter hits and ruins their morale. The plan works. Richard returns home after the rebellion disperses.

Things begin to look up: at a gathering celebrating the birth of Jane Seymour’s nephew, Jane herself drops a hint that she is pregnant and her lady-in-waiting Jane Rochford confirms it to Cromwell. The news, once told to Henry, is greeted by raucous cheers in his council.

Cromwell decides it is a good time to secure a marriage for Gregory, and approaches Jane’s brother Edward about his widowed sister Bess Oughtred. The two men see mutual benefits in joining their families – but Edward thinks Cromwell is offering himself as a husband. The misunderstanding comes out embarrassingly when Cromwell walks with Bess to begin planning a wedding. She is piqued but still resigned to do her duty for her family. You should be clear about who you will or will not marry, she warns Cromwell, referencing Mary.

At the wedding, Rafe recalls another confusion of potential Cromwell brides: when Cromwell added the Seymour home of Wolf Hall to the king’s summer progress, perhaps hoping to grow close to Jane, but the king swept in and took her for himself. Having learned of the misunderstanding between Cromwell and the Seymours, Gregory quietly asks his father to leave his wife to him. Cromwell has everything – is everything – and Gregory would like this one thing to himself.

Hans Holbein, an artist patronised by Cromwell and others at court, is working on a portrait of the king’s family. He has already drawn Jane for it, and is now conducting sessions with Henry. But Henry nearly faints while standing for it. Cromwell catches him before he falls. The king sends everyone – including Cromwell – away.

When the king finally allows Rafe to let Cromwell in to see him, the king begins listing grievances. Why does Cromwell plead forgiveness for Norfolk’s half-brother? Why has he not killed the king’s scheming cousin Reginald Pole in Europe yet? Henry works himself into a rage and roars at Cromwell. It’s always you with the bad news, he complains.

Back home at Austin Friars, Cromwell notices a young woman present two days in a row amongst the crowds that gather at his gates asking for aid or favor. He has her brought in to see him. She is startled to recognize her mother, a woman in Antwerp, in a tapestry on the wall. Cromwell cherishes the tapestry, once owned by his patron the cardinal and then the king, because he once loved that woman. Now he is shocked to learn that Jenneke, the woman visiting him, is his own daughter.