'The Borgias' review: Plots thicken in season 3

Sunday's episode begins with a death watch -- and not everyone is hoping for a speedy recovery. The cardinals circle the prostrate pope, while Della Rovere whispers sweet nothings in their ears. But clever Lucrezia (Holliday Grainger), daughter of Rodrigo, has a plan, and Della Rovere suddenly finds himself on the losing end of his plot. Of course, there's another plot: Catherine Sforza (Gina McKee) might have something to do with this one.

The snakes are about to multiply with the third season. The Sforzas have a particularly lethal ally in Rufio (Thure Lindhardt), and Della Rovere probably isn't going anywhere either. But it's also probably a good idea to remember (impossible not to) that the biggest snake of them all is Rodrigo. Here's a spoiler alert but it's certainly not a shocking one: The stricken pope, that dissolute old blackguard, awakens from his brush with mortality and is aghast, even angered, that God did not present Himself. Not to worry, Rodrigo -- God has no place in "The Borgias," which is about lust, greed, sex, violence, betrayal and death. That may be ironic -- or perverse -- for a series about the Catholic church, but this is about as secular as TV gets.

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