Special 'Da Vinci's Demons' Pilot Recap
by Shannon Keirnan
If you missed last week's pilot, here is a special recap to catch you up. You can pick up the series Friday at 9 pm ET on Starz.
RECAP:
Leonardo da Vinci sits with a mysterious man who offers him a pipe, which will evoke visions that summon demons. Leonardo says he doesn’t believe in either.
“Why do you struggle so hard to keep both at bay?”
He tells him that history is a lie.
A man pees in a chamber pot. He kicks a naked boy out of his bed, tossing money at him. Outside, soldiers check a man’s book, belongings. He wears a cross, and enters.
The naked man calls for someone, who reminds him it is Palm Sunday, and that his wife, the Duchess, and their children are already at church waiting for him. He dresses and goes, but as he goes down the aisle, the man, who has taken his cross apart and fashioned it into a weapon, stabs him in the neck. Everyone in the church flees as he falls.
A beautiful topless woman sits, a field behind her, as Leonardo da Vinci sketches her.
“Tell me a secret, Leonardo. What was your earliest memory… or better yet, your greatest fear?”
He tells her he was 6 months old. He was put in cradle, and a falcon flew down and perched on his basket. His mother chased it away. He says he can remember that, but he can’t recall his mother’s face. He can draw anything he sees, even fleetingly, but he can’t his mother. He says she disappeared that night. The girl, Vanessa, asks what he fears and he says only imperfection.
His friend Nico comes, and Leonardo straps him into an invention—a kite that can hold his weight. The ribbons in Vanessa’s hair will help him calculate the wind. He hits the horses, and the cart begins to move. The wings life Nico, and he begins to fly… however, the rope is soon out too far. The reel breaks, and Leonardo has to stop it with his sword. Nico soars.
Florence. Leonardo is thrilled to be there.
“Here, I’m just another freethinking heretic!”
He spots a beautiful woman in fine dress, but Nico warns him away. She is Lucrezia Donati and he can be killed just for looking at her. A man on horseback rides through—bad news, Leonardo predicts. The man goes into and delivers the paper. Lorenzo Medici begins screaming for everyone to get out. The duke of Milan is dead in an honor killing for deflowering his nieces. The balance of power is dangerously upset.
They need public support. Someone suggests the carnival for Easter, but Lorenzo says they needs teeth behind it.
A man in pool with son, knife to his throat, discussing his impending death. Men open the door and interrupt, telling him they succeeded. He explains he has a man in Medici’s ranks. They must act quickly now--the Turk has arrived. He is after the Book of Leaves. The older man goes off at once, and the man who entered goes into the pool. He tells the boy he is truly sorry, but he can’t have heard this. He stabs him.
The Medicis demand of a man the plans for the Colombina, but he says he has them but can’t produce them. He tells him they’re in the chest, but it is locked. A man takes his sword to break it open but is stopped—the chest is rigged to explode. Leonardo comes in, and says he designed it to protect his ideas. He explains that every year at the carnival, a mechanical dove is flown from wire, and then ignites into fireworks.
He opens his chest and shows them the model. He demands much more than the contact offered, but he tells them this dove is unrigged, and does not need wire to fly. He shows them that it flies on its own, and everyone applauds. They say his work is impressive but price is too steep, but give in and pay half down. Leonardo asks about the commission he has heard of to paint Lucrezia—Lorenzo’s mistress. The tells him to stick to his tricks.
Leonardo smokes a pipe, works on drawing. The whispers in mind still and he falls into a vision, of a boy herding sheep. Water in a cave. Blood on the boy’s hand.
He wakes screaming. Andrea comes in to check on him and suggests he put away the opium. Leonardo is frustrated with his dove--once he scales up the dimensions the calculations don’t work.
“I need to dull my thoughts or I will be eviscerated by them.”
Andrea tells him people will always seek to destroy him because of his gifts. Don’t aid them.
In the market, Leonardo buys starlings. He has Nico open the cage, and watches them as they emerge, sketching them. He sees the Medicis, and his father—who is Lorenzo’s Notary. He goes to “stir the pot.’ He tries to tell Lorenzo of the new devices he has designed but is told to move along. Lorenzo tells him another time.
He decides he needs wine. At a tavern, he talks with friend, who says he can get two-headed cow and teases Leonardo for being vegetarian. The male prostitute from earlier asks if he can model again, but Leonardo sends him off. Zoroaster, the friend, produces Tarot cards. Nico gets the fool. Leo draws the hanged man—sacrifice.
It seems to click in his mind. The men here are mercenaries, because there is no official army. He needs to promote himself as a military engineer not a painter. The Officers begin bothering a Turk—the man who gave him the pipe in the first scene. Leo decides to get involved, and wins the fight against the Officers as he is ambidextrous. He tells Captain Dragonetti to bully someone else.
The Turk tells him tomorrow he returns to Constantinople, but is staying at an inn. He invites Leo to come see him before he leaves and gives him a coin.
Zoroaster is drunk, Nico taking him home. Zoroaster tells Leo he didn’t deal hanged man, it was purely Leo. He thinks it was an omen. Dragonetti, with a mask, is waiting in the darkness as they leave. Men come out from the side.
Leo is chained, beaten, in some dungeon. His father comes and tells them enough. People are talking about him. He cares that Leo is tarnishing family name. As the first born, he can’t disown him.
But, his wife bore him a son last week. A legitimate heir. He tells Leo to stay away from the Medicis.
Leo says his nature to see things as they are. His father hits him, and tells the men to beat him for an hour and toss him on the street.
The next day, Zoroaster tells him they are executing a Jew as Leo sketches with one hand. He is watching for Lucrezia purchasing flowers. He sketches her and tells Nico to run it to her. Nico comes back and wants to speak with. He says to tell her he is busy.
They go to watch the Jew, hanged for breaking into a book shop. He says something to Leo that worries him before he dies. It was similar to what the Turk said to him earlier. He goes to find the Turk at the inn, but is redirected to Roman ruins. He goes down.
It is the scene from the intro. The Turk asks him to smoke with him.
“History is a lie that has been honed like a weapon.”
He says that time is a river—circular. One’s man death is doorway to birth. Leo mentions what the dead man said, “Son of earth and starry heaven. Please give me something to drink from the Fountain of Memory.” The Turk says it is a way for members of the fraternity to recognize one another. Leo says he is not a member but the man asks if he is sure?
He says the temple they are in was the Sons of Mithras. They fought to remember what was forgotten. He mentions the Book of Leaves. The executed man was following clues looking for the book. They believe it is in a secret archives the Vatican has arranged. A man named Lupo Mercuri seeks to alter and suppress knowledge.
He asks about his mother, but Leo only knows she was a servant. The man said she was a slave taken from Constantinople against her will. He asks about the incident in childhood Leo has suppressed. Leo says he remembers as a boy going to fetch sheep that had wandered off. He found a cave. Then all he remembers is stumbling out, covered in blood that was not his own.
The Turk says one day he will sip from the Fountain of Memory and learn what occurred. They will meet again. He tells him to search for Book of Leaves. Fate has chosen him. He blows powder at him and Leo goes into a trance.
Nico calls him and he wakes, alone in the morning. The large statue is missing, the altar. It must have weighed a ton, how was it moved? Zoroaster reminds him this place has been empty for centuries. The Officers of the Night are looking for Leo--Lorenzo Medici wants to speak with him.
Leo goes. As he enters the room, a man puts a paper down beside Lorenzo. It is the portrait of Lucrezia. Lorenzo tells Leo she has insisted he paint her, but his man warns him Leo has a reputation for taking commissions, but finishing few. Leo wants to show his other designs. Weapons. Tank. Guns. Boats. Flying machines. He says he wishes to be employed as a military engineer. Medici says he is a Humanist and has no interest in waging war. Leo tells him with no standing army, war will happen. He needs weapons of his own. Medici agrees to give him a modest stipend to see whether they can be realized. He observes Leo used Lucrezia to gain access to him.
“But I’d caution you not to be too clever around me.”
Behind him, Leo sees a small statue—the same figure as the altar.
At his workshop, he greeted by friends who congratulate him. He asks Zoroaster to unearth the Jew so he can examine him.
The carnival. People are costumed, dancing in the streets. Medici has everyone gather for the Colombina about to fly—it bursts out and soars. The dove comes back down and burst into fireworks. Lucrezio goes into the crowd and Leo follows.
They have sex. He tells her he knows who she is and she takes off her mask. He tells her she sought him out because she felt the sketch captured aspect of self hidden from husband and lover. She is surprised he has done this knowing it would make her want to find him.
“You manipulate.”
She tells him Lorenzo is taken with his designs and asks to see a marvel. She says she has risked her reputation, but he has risked death. Is it love? She is the forbidden fruit.
“You’re the third person this week to lecture me on fate.”
Sex again.
“You’re not the only one capable of manipulation,” she warns him.
The man who stabbed the boy, Girolamo Riario, greets a hooded figure. He presents payment—a box with a finger sporting a ring. He opens doors with crosses on them—a library.
He tells the man, Lupo Mercuri, that a new player has entered stage, employed to design weapons. He tells them his agent in Florence has revealed this. It is Lucrezia. She tells them he has made contact with the Turk.
They decide they will continue watching, to see if he can co-opted, or if he must be killed.