Join or Sign In
Sign in to customize your TV listings
By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.
Medici Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
8 Episodes 2016 - 2016
Episode 1
Original Sin
Fri, Dec 9, 201652 mins
Cosimo Medici reminisces about how he and his brother Lorenzo were introduced to politics 20 years earlier by their domineering father, self-made banker Giovanni, as the old man's death means Cosimi must stand for his seat in the Signoria, the formal ruling body of the Florentine republic. The Medici state must decide whether to go to war, as other noble families want, to defend Lucca against mighty Milan. The trio sets out to Rome at the papal election to support an unlikely candidate, 'condottiere'-admiral -virtual pirate- Cossa, by bribing his fellow (venal) cardinals. In the process, hedonistic Lorenzo satisfies his carnal lust serially. Cosimo rather indulges in taking painting lessons from master Brunelleschi, but in the process falls in love with a peasant model - which Cosimo plots away - and discovers illicit gay love, ideal blackmail ammunition.
Episode 2
The Dome and the Domicile
56 mins
A bitter war by the duke of Milan against small ally Lucca threatens to exhaust Firenze, where rival Albizzi tries to blame the Medici, until Cosilo arranges a semi-honorable peace. Alas the city is affected by the Black Death, compromising the economy as well as public health. Marco hurries to search for the killer of Giovanni now suspects may be dying, and not just from the pest. Cosimo decides to give the poor an income by commissioning the lacking dome on the cathedral, which only master architect Bruneleschi can properly design, and as he keeps the Panteon study-inspired secret must supervise in person. Twenty years ago, a cash problem allowed patriarch Giovanni to marry off heir Cosimo to an aristocratic 'contessina' whose broke father can't afford to turn down a complex dowry deal which really profits the Medici family twice.
Episode 3
Pestilence
51 mins
Florence suffering from the Black Plague, Cosimo barely manages in time to move his family -like most rich- to their safer ancestral vineyard estate outside the city, but the epidemic still kills his mother, who finally reconciles with him over the absurd blame for his twin's childhood death and her and Giovanni's heartless manipulations. Albizzi turns the people against Cosimo and even the workers against his dome by blaming the plague on God's wrath at the Medici's usury. Cosimo returns to Florence and turns the cathedral into a hospice for plague victims to save the dome. Lorenzo overrules Contessina and sells the family's wool business making their financial problems public. Albizzi has Cosimo arrested after Marco breaks into a house to gather evidence on Giovanni's murder. Twenty years earlier, Cosimo and Contessina struggle to trust each other and make their marriage work. .
Episode 4
Judgement Day
55 mins
After Cosimo's arrest, his wife tries to buy a Signoria member's help. Piero seeks to refute the charges, whilst Lorenzo takes a more drastic approach.
Episode 5
Temptation
55 mins
In Venetian exiles, the Medici depend on their cousin Mario's branch and the doge Foscari, who appreciates a lavish library donation and sympathizes, promising to plead to shorten their banishment, apparently to no avail as the ruling council has other interests, so Lorenzo is inclined to accept an offer from the Milanese Visconti duke to send the Sforza army to Firenze, but Cosimo duly mistrusts that. While Piero gloomily waits and writes home and disapproves of his wife Luvrezi partying with the duke's mischievous son Jacopo, Cosimo confides into a courtesan 'courtesy of the duke' who becomes his lover, yet isn't duped by the middleman's dirty game. The Albizzi reign of terror needs ever more expensive mercenaries but faces an uprising, while marrying off his cousin is sabotaged by Cosimo brilliantly after his wife Contessina passed on secrets from her first love, Mantovese prince Ezio Contarini and talks into swing nobles like Pazzi.
Episode 6
Ascendancy
53 mins
Cosimo returns to Florence while Rinaldo is held for trial on treason and tyranny. Cosimo is visited by an unexpected guest, the Pope. Cosimo convinces the Signoria to exile Rinaldo. The night before his exile, Rinaldo confesses to Giovanni's murder.
Episode 7
Purgatory
52 mins
Cosimo, "in the shadow of two murders" and the imminent election of a new member of the Signoria in order to undertake Rinaldo's position, is also confronted with suspicions upon his own brother. Suspicions and rumors are what dominate in Florence. To whom will these suspicions turn to?
Episode 8
Epiphany
53 mins
Rumors of Cosimo's hand in Albizzi's murder result in the Pope transferring the church's banking to Pazzi. Cosimo heads to Rome with money to pay for an army to retake Rome for the Pope. Marco helps Lorenzo to capture Pazzi's assassin and obtain a letter that proves Pazzi's complicity. Pazzi's men kill Lorenzo and free the assassin but Cosimo gives the letter to the Pope and the Medici retain the church's banking. Maddelena is pregnant with Cosimo's child and Contessina decides that Cosimo will acknowledge and raise the bastard. Ugo murdered Giovanni, Cosimo's father, because he ordered him to take Rosa away and she and her child ultimately died in the home to which he had taken her.
