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Sisi: Austrian Empress Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
6 Episodes 2021 - 2021
Episode 1
Folge 1
Sun, Dec 12, 202153 mins
Duke Max in Bavaria and his wife Ludovika enjoy a quiet life with numerous offspring on their rural estate Possenhofen. Then her sister, empress-mother Sophia, invites mother and both adult daughters to Ischl, where the young emperor Franz Joseph I will officially get engaged to eldest daughter Helene 'Nene', to prevent diplomatic rifts with other candidates, while he needs to fight internal autonomy/independence activists and face a Russian threat. Her tomcat sister Elisabeth 'Sisi' must come along as cover, as even Mac isn't informed, but her headstrong temperament appeals far more to the emperor. He follows her on horseback with his confident general and saves her from rebels who laid a trap to murder him. By the time of the gala ball with half the European aristocracy, the sister-mothers have agreed to abide by the will of the emperor, who chooses an initially unwilling headstrong bride.
Episode 2
Folge 2
53 mins
On Sissy's birthday, the emperor visits as fiance. Father Max, who sympathizes with modern revolutionary ideas, can barely be persuaded to great him properly, unwilling to give his daughter away to such an 'outdated war monger'. After a scene, he just implores Sisi to keep questioning if it's right even at the altar. When Franz leaves, she follows his coach at distance on horseback, to a city brothel. There she pays for advice from his favorite harlot on how go please her groom in bed, having only had scanty sexual education from sister Nene, and hires the mouthy fox as her personal maid, who immediately comes along when she moves into Hofburg palace with the whole Bavarian wedding guest party.
Episode 3
Folge 3
51 mins
Finally married, Sisi has her harlot maid found a fake countess and thrown out instantly. The emperor spares her actual consummation on their wedding day, dismissing the protocol-conform audience. Sisi must take a multi-lingual crash course in etiquette from sour countess Esterhazy, but Franz and she enjoy dismissing all domestic staff at the start of their honeymoon in his Laxenburg castle near Vienna, canceling the banquet and making love. Yet when the military staff reports the czar withdrew his troops, Franz abandons her to personally take a victory parade, which is spoiled by a soldier throwing away his fresh medal, for which his commander, Franz's military right hand Grün, also suffers the gauntlet, which sight shocks shocks Sisi, who arrived on the marvelous white horse Franz gave her, unwilling to be left alone. Having passed the etiquette exam, she charms the Vienna public by reaching out to ordinary folk, notably in Hungarian, and partakes in the very formal reception for all the crown lands (Habsburg monarchy provinces), where her flattering reception of the 'rebellious' Hungarian delegation turns the feared clash into a reconciliation, which Franz needs now his diplomatic position is insecure.
Episode 4
Folge 4
51 mins
Back at the immense Hofburg in Vienna, Franz enjoys his dynastic duty of siring an heir, 'naive maiden' Sisi is spotted by her chaperon trying to reconnect with harlot-mentor Fanny for fertility advise, but soon gets pregnant and delivers a girl assisted by her. A new autonomist uprising in Lombardy requires a bloody crushing after the governor-general is murdered, Sofie convinces Franz to cancel the pardon for the earlier Hungarian rebels, whose leader count Andrassy secretly meets Sisi to pass a message to the emperor offering peace for respect and autonomy. At the grand christening, Franz is wounded in the cathedral by an armed rebel.
Episode 5
Folge 5
51 mins
The war in Lombardy against the French-supported insurgence goes terribly, despite Franz Joseph personally taking command. Graf Grünne and he save each-others lives on the bloody battlefield, where the count is badly wounded, requiring a left arm amputation. When Sisis visits him at the front, pregnant again, to plead count Andrassy's peace overture, the overwhelmed emperor openly suspects her of adultery. Back in Vienna after the defeat, they make up and agree to pacify the Hungarians. Mother Sophia loses control over the imperial children by Franz's decree. A visit to the capital Buda allows a grand speech and pardon to clear the way for a treaty with the Hungarian nobility, despite Sisis false suspecting Franz's wine to be poisoned. The murderer tries to strike again, but is eliminated by Grünne, his guard and Andrassy's knife.
Episode 6
Folge 6
51 mins
The imperial family rushes back to Vienna as firstborn princess Sofie got sick and died in desperate Sisi's bed. The imperial marriage comes under even greater strain, as Franz switches to the future and urgent matters of state, Sisi is obsessed with mourning. Grünne's investigation succeeds in linking the would be regicide to Sisi's hand-picked maid, granting Sisi one more day before her arrest, destined for the gallows, and goes fetch her bastard daughter from brothel days. Franz gets desperate near debauchery and lethargy, wanting to reopen the North Italian war against invader Napoleon, but finding the military situation proves hopeless. Sisi's Bavarian royal family discretely uses all her dynastic connections to assure a threat from the German League, sufficient to deter the French.
