DISCLAIMER: This recap of The Great Season 3 Episode 7, “Fun,” contains spoilers. Proceed at your peril.
Huzzah! “Fun” is all about fun, dammit—well, more like “deep denial masking crushing grief.” The Great is doing something with grief and trauma that I haven’t seen on TV yet: it’s exploring the lengths we’ll go to to avoid grieving without imbibing. Catherine busies herself to stave off the inevitable pain that accompanies loss. It finds her eventually; from a performance standpoint, it’s nothing short of jaw-dropping.
Written by Tony McNamara and directed by Matthew Moore, “Fun” deals with the fallout from Peter’s death beautifully, balancing the right mix of The Great‘s trademark dark and cheeky humor with profound drama. I wanted to punt Georgina and the others across a football field for how insensitive they were toward Catherine.
Ready to delve into “Fun”? Let’s get to it.
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We open with Catherine (Fanning) and Georgina (Charity Wakefield) playing a competitive, spirited game of badminton. They’re both sweating profusely. Catherine reveals she didn’t know Georgina could be so “fun.” George admits to the same. Are they becoming besties, or does George have something nefarious up her sleeve? Catherine and Georgina craft a way to make enlightenment fun. They could have a party, a train (which hasn’t been invented yet), jokes, a play, games, music and more. It’s time to Make the Palace Fun Again! Once Catherine walks away to bathe, it’s abundantly clear that George is playing along as her demeanor shifts.
Meanwhile, Petra (Emily Coates) wakes Grigor (Gwilym Lee) to ask him about his wife. How does she woo Georgina? Bold of her to ask the husband of the woman she wants to win over. Georgina kicks out Petra and comforts Grigor, who still can’t believe Peter’s gone. They grieve together over their loss. Georgina slips something in his tea that causes him to pass out. She locks him in their apartment and orders Petra to keep watch over Grigor. However, Petra wants something in return. Georgina kisses her and hopes that’s payment enough. Petra looks utterly smitten after that smooch.

Then, Catherine sits in her bathtub and ruminates aloud. She orders her guards to carry her bathtub to another location in the palace. Even though she won’t admit it, staring at the bed reminds her of Peter, at least subconsciously. They carry her tub through the corridor as Arkady (Bayo Gbadamosi), Tatyana (Florence Keith-Roach), Aunt Elizabeth (Belinda Bromilow) and the others watch on. She demands everyone tell her a joke. Watching stand-up while bathing? That’s luxury, baby.
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Later, Marial (Phoebe Fox) and Maxim (Henry Meredith) get the scoop re: Pugachev’s next speaking location. Catherine is back in her and Peter’s old quarters (not Peter the Great’s apartments). She sits in the bathtub while shooting arrows at her map. Honestly, unimaginable grief aside — Catherine’s living my life. Archie (Adam Godley) and Elizabeth watch her. Archie wants to discuss the Pugachev ordeal, but that’s not fun, is it? Petrov (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) reveals he found Pugy and can bring him to the palace by force. Meanwhile, Marial sneaks into Pugachev’s (Nicholas Hoult) speech.
He spots her in the crowd and tells the audience her story without mentioning her name. Pugachev brings the effigies of Catherine onto the stage and urges his followers to go wild on them. Georgina spots Katya (Jane Mahady) and persuades her to perform her play for Catherine. The empress will love it. She needs to bear witness to Katya’s revolutionary ideas. Elizabeth broaches the subject of grief to Catherine without outright mentioning the term. She knows why Catherine’s behaving erratically.
Next, Catherine and Georgina gather everyone in the salon for their day of fun and activities. The empress has her guards release birds into the air. She shoots one of them. They all start by playing Marco Polo, including Catherine. Catherine also presents a plan of attack for taking down Pugachev to Archie and Petrov. Everyone’s in agreement. Meanwhile, Marial climbs into her carriage and tells Maxim she couldn’t go through with killing Pugachev. Maxim saves the day by barging into Pugachev’s space and shooting the latter in the shoulder.
Then, Catherine and Georgina sit down to enjoy Katya’s play. Georgina really persuaded Katya to put on her play as a means of hitting Catherine where it hurts. The production is a loose retelling of the events on the show thus far. And I mean loose. It portrays Catherine as a vapid, mercurial and sex-crazed young woman who, according to Katya, f*cked a horse. Catherine’s face turns more dour with every line of dialogue. Unfortunately, everyone in the theater laughs at the farce and the empress’s expense. Catherine, unable to stand it any longer, orders the theater to dance until they throw up. Georgina emphasizes that nobody can leave until they do. She’s eating this up, the little snake.
Georgina asks Petra to unlock her apartment so she can check on Grigor. Grigor’s snoozing on the floor. Next, we see everyone in the palace dancing until they puke. Tatyana vomits, so Arkady tends to her like the good husband he is. Georgina implements the next phase of her plan: she presents Peter’s death as a “rumor” to Arkady and Tatyana. She claims she heard Peter died on the way to Sweden. Now, to let the (very true) gossip spread like wildfire. Elizabeth, who’s been unbearably cold the whole episode, thus resorting to multiple layers, heads outside to her glass case in the woods.
Georgina urges Catherine to “smash back” at folks like Katya who challenge her rule. Oh, and she needs to tell the public that the rumor of Peter’s death is a lie. Oh, she’s good. Vile and conniving, but good. Archie stops by, and Catherine, feeling the weight of her grief pressing, notes that “something’s rushing up” into her, and it will kill her. Uh-oh. Maxim marches into Catherine’s apartment and reveals he killed Pugachev (he didn’t). We see Elizabeth meditating in her glass case in the woods, sitting in her underclothes while her butterflies swarm around her. Admittedly, this looks like paradise. I sense she’s trying to connect to Peter.
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Marial visits Grigor, who informs her of Peter’s demise. She doesn’t entirely absorb the weight of his statement until she departs, where we see her smile. Catherine tells Katya she has arranged for her to travel to Siberia for a writers’ residency so the regents can see her “lolly” of a play. Uh-oh. While everyone cheers, Katya knows what getting sent to Siberia means. Our empress also clears the air regarding the nasty rumor about Peter. It’s not Peter who’s dead; it’s Pugachev. Maxim’s declaration made her believe she subconsciously thought her husband was gone. Well, he is. But Catherine is still in deep denial.

Then, one of Peter’s chefs unveils the late former emperor’s latest invention: salty desserts. Catherine is about to taste it when a vision of Peter right before he died plays out. The chef puts it in her mouth as the tears start to fall. The realization hits her hard. Grigor storms into the room and starts sobbing, screaming that Peter’s dead. Catherine cries quietly as the camera stays focused on her. It’s so compelling while completely taking the wind out of you. All hail Elle Fanning.
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Give all the awards to Elle Fanning right forking now. Just hand them over. They belong to her. Her work here is a tour de force and easily her best. She’s a swirling hurricane of gut-wrenching grief and white-hot anger. I love how it looks like she’s fighting against the tears at the end, as if she’s putting up a valiant fight to protect herself from what was rushing into her. That’s why the scene works so well.
Gwilym Lee has impressed me these past few episodes. I’ve always thought he was a strong performer, as is the whole cast, but his exploration of Grigor’s grief is a beautifully heartbreaking thing to behold. I’m glad he, too, gets a chance to shine.
I’m willing to bargain (that’s my current stage of grief) with The Great creative team to bring Peter back. Please? With a cherry on top?
The Great Season 3 is now streaming on Hulu.
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