While Lucrezia chooses to marry Alfonso d'Aragona, Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake with a fake confession of heresy.
The episode begins with Savonarola (Steven Berkoff) being tortured, while Rodrigo (Jeremy Irons) demands of Cesare either a confession from the friar or his brother Juan.
That afternoon, Machiavelli (Julian Bleach) is a guest of Cesare's and they discuss the difficulty of extracting a confession from the rebel.
Cesare (François Arnaud) knows that a confession is needed to recant all that was preached but Savonarola has proven stronger than he thought over the lengthy torture.
In the hallway of the papal suites Lucrezia (Holliday Grainger) encounters her latest suitor, Alfonso d’Aragona (Sebastian de Souza).
Cardinal Sforza (Peter Sullivan) tells Rodrigo that he has ordered the searching of mortuaries, as he doesn't want to rule out any possibilities.
Later a pleased Cesare enters Rodrigo's chamber in order to hand him the friar's confession but he's shocked to see Juan's body lying there.
In an explosive scene, Cesare and Lucrezia tell Rodrigo that they will not mourn his death, because Juan had no respect for anyone, including his family.
In the ballroom, surrounded by well-wishers, Cesare brings Lucrezia and Alfonso's hands together to signify their betrothal and the festivities begin.
The Pope's taster, Cardinal della Rovere's assassin (Jesse Bostick), meanwhile pours some wine for Rodrigo.
"[2] Arnaud remarked that the finale contained elements from Game of Thrones and Dawson's Creek, a reference to the combination of power and politics in tandem with Lucrezia's romance.
[4] TV Fanatic columnist Dan Forcella praised Cesare and Lucrezia's character development as well as Grainger's performance.
Club thought that Irons' reaction to Juan's death was his strongest of the season and said of the burial scene: "Certainly Irons conveys a terrific sense of blind grief in the moment, and the scoring by Trevor Morris as always matches the mood of the scene perfectly, but there’s a fantastical sense to it—particularly the way that Alexander imagines Juan as the boy he once was, before his demons consumed him—that feels out of place with the show’s aesthetic.
Far more effective is what he does afterwards, walking into the wedding reception in mud-stained robes, taking Cesare aside and finally admitting the role his favoritism played Juan’s death.