‘Reign’ Season 1 Spoilers: Top 8 OMG Moments From The Midseason Premiere, Episode 9 [RECAP]

The CW’s freshman drama “Reign” returned on Thursday, Jan. 23, and boy, was it full of drama. The midseason premiere, episode 9, was filled with lies, betrayal, fistfights … and a possible murder. Check out our breakdown of the top 8 moments from “For King And Country”:

1. Mary And Bash’s Betrayal

The midseason premiere kicks off with Mary and Bash on the run and the castle up in arms about their stunt. Queen Catherine tells King Henry that Mary’s probably been involved with Bash for months, but the King doesn’t believe his wife and warns her that she’ll be executed if she had anything to do with Mary’s departure.

Mary and Bash initially manage to escape the King’s guards, but an innkeeper betrays their trust and reveals their location -- sending them back to the castle with Bash in trouble for treason.

2. Henry’s Threat

Francis, who has been searching for Mary, is glad that his fiancé is home but now wants answers. “My friend died,” Mary tells him, referring to Aylee. “My heart broke.” But Francis knows that's not an honest answer. However, Mary won’t tell him about the prophecy, instead just telling him that “I can’t marry you.”

Henry, on the other hand, is hungry to obtain the English throne and doesn’t accept Mary’s refusal. “You were a bride overcome by nerves,” Henry tries to pass off her stint at running away. But Mary still says no -- and the King doesn’t take no for answer. Henry drops the kind and understanding act and comes up with a second option to force Mary into marrying his son -- he’ll tell the world that she slept with Bash.

Furious by his lies, Mary stands her ground. “Go ahead, ruin me,” the Queen of Scotland fires back, believing that Scotland will stand by her side. But that only infuriates Henry even more. Realizing that Mary has a soft spot for his bastard son, Henry tells the defiant Queen that he’ll execute Bash and “you can watch him bleed to death on your wedding alter.”

3. Catherine’s Plotting

While Mary is thinking that she’s doing the right thing by keeping Francis alive, Catherine is still livid. “You should have never come back here,” she yells at Mary. But Mary didn’t have a choice in the matter.

“Say that you and Bash are already married,” Catherine suggests. Yet Mary knows that he’ll probably kill Bash upon anger of hearing it.

Believing that Scotland and her mother will stand by her side, Mary is given a game changer when Catherine hands over letters between Henry and her mother. It turns out that her mother and Scotland’s advisers want her to take claim of the English throne and that they want Mary to wed the next King of France immediately.

Mary decides to try one last thing before taking drastic measures -- tell Francis about the vision of death brought on by the wedding. However Francis doesn’t react the way Mary had hoped, and thinks that Nostradamus’ prophecy is madness. Finally realizing that his mother was behind all of the plotting since Mary’s arrival, Mary is forced to defend Catherine. “All her crimes against me were because she loves you,” she tries to explain to Francis. “She would do anything for you and I would to.”

And that gets Mary thinking about Catherine’s suggestion about Bash …

4. Mary’s Bold Move

Mary realizes that she must marry the next King of France but devises her own conditions. Approaching King Henry, Mary tells him that she’ll marry his son and take the throne of England … but not Francis.

“Only with Bash at my side,” she says of her condition. Arguing that the Vatican wants her to make the move on England, Mary demands that Bash, Henry’s first born son, must be legitimized and made the next King of France.

Mary leaves Henry and Catherine to think about her offer, and Catherine is furious. Blaming Diane for Mary’s actions, Catherine reveals that she blackmailed Diane and sent her off to Paris. Finally understanding why his mistress left, it also leads Henry to realize that Bash and Mary aren’t a “great love story,” instead his son ran out of fear.

5. Francis vs. Bash Showdown

Upon finding out about the idea to hand Bash the throne, Francis goes to confront his brother in his prison cell. “Why did you steal Mary?” he demands as things get physical between the two. As fists fly, Francis accuses Bash of taking advantage of Mary, but Bash insists that he was trying to save his life.

Mary breaks up the fight and reveals to both brothers that everything was her idea. “I proposed I marry him,” she tells the pair. “I proposed he be the new heir to the throne.”

Francis is angry and tells Mary that he won’t forgive her and that she’s throwing everything they had away for superstition. And Bash isn’t that happy either. “I never wanted my brother’s crown despite my mother’s plan,” he tells Mary. “Can I have more than a heartbeat to think about it?”

6. Catherine’s Plan And Henry’s Approval

Afraid that she’ll lose everything (including her head), Catherine meets with Nostradamus to plot the deaths of Mary and Bash. Meanwhile, Mary has a secret meeting with Bash and Henry, who reveals that he’ll agree to Mary’s terms. Bash won’t be the legitimate heir until the Pope agrees, but Henry promises he’ll go to Rome and do his best. As for Catherine? Henry promises Mary that he can “handle” his wife … and he does so by hanging the guard that Catherine hired in her chambers. “You’re next,” he tells his wife.

7. Francis’ Threat

Despite Henry’s warning for Catherine, the Queen is still a threat to Mary and Bash. The King warns his wife that he has planned for every possible loophole she could come up with, and promises that she’ll be executed if she tries to kill any of them in order to get Francis on the throne. However, Francis takes it one step further. “My first order of business as King would be to execute you if you kill anyone in this room,” he tells his mother. “This has to stop.”

8. A Possible Death

After aiding in Aylee’s death, Nostradamus has the “monster” Clarissa locked up. However Clarissa wants to be free and uses a knife she had hidden in her doll to stab Nostradamus in the throat and run off into the castle.

What did you think of midseason premiere of “Reign”? Are you happy that Bash and Mary are together? Let us know in the comments section or send a tweet to @AmandaTVScoop.