The Last Czars (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Chosen One - full transcript

The past... it is a dangerous place.

So many decisions that can't be undone.

So many ghosts.

In 1905, I accepted a job
with the Romanovs,

Russia's royal family.

I saw their incredible wealth.

The palaces, the balls,

the jewelry.

And then I saw the madness.

The revolution.

It all ended here...



in this house

The richest family in the world,

the Emperor and the Empress of Russia,
Nicholas and Alexandra...

their five children...

vanished...

without a trace.

Now there are rumors of a survivor...

...a deeply troubled girl in Berlin
who claims to be Anastasia,

the Romanovs' youngest daughter.

It is my task to see
if she is telling the truth.

I understand
they want you to identify her.

I worked in the family for 13 years.

I was the children's tutor.

Please.



Ana. You have a visitor.

She has retrograde amnesia.

Her memories are confused.

It's a common symptom.

Do you remember me?

In 1894...

Czar Alexander III died suddenly
at the age of 49.

Russia was in shock.

His heir, Nicholas, was just 26.

Jesus, he's fucking rotting.

Sh!

You can't silence this, sweetheart,
they've botched the embalming.

He stinks.

She already looks like an empress.

Let's just hope she's a good breeder.

Are you all right?

I'm sorry there's been no time for us.

- Mother.
- Oh!

- Ah, thank you, Alix.
- I'll take her outside.

- I'll come.
- No, no. You stay.

You'll be all right. I should go back.

Nicky.

I worry about you so.

The wedding, on top of all this.

The young Nicholas II
is quiet, indecisive,

and very much living in the shadow

of his great, imposing Grand Duke
Uncle Sergei.

To be czar is to be...

field martial, emperor,

prime minister, all of these things,

pope, all rolled into one.

This is like a medieval monarchy

where the czar has ultimate control
over everything.

And what man in the world is qualified
for such a post?

Get you through the next few hours, eh?

What am I going to do, Sandro?

I'm not ready to be czar.

You were born for this.

I can't run a country.

I have so much more to learn.

And who will teach me now?

You don't need a teacher.

Trust yourself. God chose you.

Divine bloody right.

The Russian Empire
that Nicholas II inherits

is one of the largest empires
the world has ever seen.

It was colossal,
it was a sixth of the world's surface.

There were over 146 nationalities,
many languages.

And the Romanovs have ruled Russia
for almost 300 years.

Their wealth is beyond computation.

An embarrassment of riches.

Land, gold mines, diamond mines,

the famous Fabergé eggs.

There are palaces everywhere.

Marrying into this world
is Alexandra of Hesse,

a shy, religious girl

brought up in a tiny German principality.

Ow.

If Catherine the Great wore them,
so can you.

There.

Smile, Sunny.

Mother and father would have been
so proud of you.

It's all right.

It's been a hell of a few weeks.

Are you sure it's not bad luck?

Having the wedding
while we're all still mourning?

The people say I come to them
behind a coffin.

Well, that's not true.

I don't know the customs of this country.

I can't even speak Russian.

I can help with that.

I feel such an outsider.

I was a foreign princess once.

Head up.

Neck straight.

Carry the weight, proudly.

Welcome.

Czarina, and Empress of all Russia.

Now, you're one of us.

Alexandra of Hesse
is a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

She is deeply religious,
and this obsession with religion

plays a key role
in her marriage to Nicholas

and in her role as Czarina of Russia.

This marriage is unusual
as a Romanov marriage,

and for a royal marriage in general
in this time period.

And that's because
it's very much a love match.

They're one
of the only royal couples in Europe

that share a marital bed.

Well, Mrs. Romanov.

Got it.

There.

Sorry.

You know, my father was a great leader.

The people adored him.

It's not the people I worry about.

It's your family.

You need to be strong.

Hm.

You're the Czar.

Master of the land.

The leader of all Russia.

The god-given one.

Nothing will ever come between us.

Yah!

Yah, yah!

Come on.

Come on.

Yah, yah!

You're either on my side...

or in my fucking way.

Rasputin is one of the most
remarkable figures of the 20th century.

Okay, we can talk.

But his background is sort of shrouded
in mist and and legend.

Shit.

His parents were farmers
and church elders.

He was one of eight or nine siblings,

but it would seem that all of them died
in his childhood.

Rasputin, he drinks,
he fights with his father.

He chases girls.

But, above all...

he's ungovernable. He's fearless.

Quiet!

The horse is safe.

Back in his stable.

I only borrowed it.

You stole it!

Thieves must be punished.

Banish him!

I don't want to be a thief.

But we got to eat. Huh?

You've got to eat. You need to eat.

I did a bad thing.

But I did it...

for my wife...

Mm?

and my son.

What do you want to do with him?

Banish him!

- Punish him!
- What about my family?

You can't do this.

Give me a chance, hm?

Give me a chance.

Send me on a pilgrimage, hm?

Come on.

This is my judgment:

go on a pilgrimage, turn to God,

but leave the village, now.

Will you really go to the monastery?

I don't know.

I won't let you down. Promise.

I love you.

Rasputin's wife, Praskovya,
is a very long-suffering figure.

It's hard to say
if Praskovya loves Rasputin or not.

But she's a constant figure,
a supportive figure.

When Rasputin picks up
and leaves home as a pilgrim in 1897...

he enters what might be considered
his university.

He sleeps out of doors,

he becomes infinitely aware
of the beauty of the Russian landscape,

of Russian life, of folk ways.

He walked through all weathers,

being soaked, being frozen,
being sunburnt.

It was a really hard,
strange, lonely life.

But one that got him closer to God.

Away from the Siberian plains,

Russia is changing ever faster.

The telephone replaces the telegram,

cars replace carriages,

electric lights replace lamps.

Nicholas becomes Czar
at the dawn of the modern age.

Russia is industrializing
at breakneck speed,

hundreds of thousands of workers
flock to the big cities,

creating huge social change.

They're building railways,
building factories.

Conditions there are appalling,

workers' rights are nonexistent.

So there was a great hunger
for new political institutions.

Nicholas' first speech as Czar

is a great opportunity for him to show
what kind of ruler he wants to be.

In the early part of his reign,

Uncle Sergei is probably
Nicky's most important advisor.

He's very dogmatic, extremely right wing.

He's highly religious.

He's the ultimate Romanov hardliner.

What Nicky is about to say is critical.

He can either embrace democracy
and modernity like Western Europe,

or he can choose to remain
an absolute monarch.

I'm aware...

that recently in some zemstvos...

the people have been
carried away with senseless dreams

of taking part
in the business of government.

Let everyone know...

that I will retain the principles
of autocracy...

as firmly...

and unbendingly...

as my unforgettable late father.

It's Sergei who tells him
to give the speech,

and he encourages Nicholas
to embrace sacred autocracy

as the only way to rule Russia.

Good speech.

It's a terrible mistake.
He stamps out any possibility of reform.

By showing he has no intention

of sharing power democratically,

Nicholas lays the foundations
of his own demise.

Rasputin visits various monasteries,

including Verkhoturye, which is
one of the great monasteries of Russia.

And he meets with the monks,

and he learns the gospels
practically by heart.

And he becomes steeped
in Russian Orthodoxy.

But there's too much control,

there's too much order, there's too much
discipline, there's too much routine.

I can't find God here.

Come with me.

Rasputin is a free spirit,
and he seeks out some of the cults

who have a different
and much more instinctive,

and much more passionate
approach to religion.

Be full of joy and gladness,
for Christ has risen!

Be full of joy and gladness,
for Christ has risen!

Be full of...

Oh, God! We feel you!

Oh, God! Oh, God!

We feel your Spirit, God!

We feel you!

We feel your Spirit!

We feel your spirit!

The Khlysty,
which means "whips" in English,

are one of the most notorious
of all Russian sects.

They're illegal, they operate in secret,

and they engage in all sorts
of wild orgiastic rites and rituals.

There's even talk
that they cut off the breast of a virgin

and eat it at the end of their rites.

But there is a logic under lies it all.

If one does not sin, one cannot repent.

And without repenting,
one cannot be saved.

And this suits Rasputin
right down to the ground.

He's a man of enormous sexual appetite,
he's a heavy drinker,

he loves women, and he adopts this idea

of sin leading to redemption
as the essence of his own faith.

Rasputin has a true religious experience.

And this launches him
into becoming a holy pilgrim,

a new man imbued with religious fervor,

traversing across vast expanses
of the empire for many years.

For Nicky's coronation
at the Khodynka Field,

people are invited to participate
in a public feast

for anyone that wants to come.

There will be food
and little commemorative gifts

from the Czar to his people.

The gifts include
a kerchief, a commemorative mug,

sausage, gingerbread, so it sounds
wonderful to a regular Russian peasant.

They flocked to the field even before dawn

and some even walked on foot from Siberia
in their Bass shoes.

That's fine, I'm done.

Looking good.

Feeling shit.

Couldn't sleep.

You know, you're lucky, you'll never know
responsibility like mine.

I'll never know money like yours either.

Or power.

Are you ready?

As I'll ever be.

- Are you?
- You wanted to see me?

How are the plans for Khodynka?

A fucking nightmare.

Too many peasants in one place,
all wanting free food and drink.

You should send more Cossacks
for crowd control.

I don't want to waste time and money
on Cossacks.

It will be fine.

Do you want me to go after him?

You'll only aggravate him.

Isn't that the point?

Today is about us.

Uncle Sergei is in charge
of the public event

and he really is expecting
2- 300,000 peasants.

In fact, 800,000 peasants turn up.

The problem is that this feast has been
very badly organized by Uncle Sergei.

The field has been torn apart
by military exercises,

and only a few planks have been put down
to cover deep trenches.

There are very few policemen
to keep security.

The people in the stalls start panicking.

They start hurling
those packages into the crowd.

Everyone starts to rush towards where
they believe the presents are being given.

People start falling to the ground,

human dominos,
other people trample upon them.

This scene is horrible carnage.

The coronation
of a Russian Czar was magnificent,

majestic, jewel-infested, exquisite,
the cost was extraordinary.

The rituals were complex and ancient.

Everything was designed to project wealth,

power and the glory of the dynasty.

The coronation really defines the emperor

as a ruler whose power comes from God.

And Nicholas completely believes this
and embraces it.

It doesn't mean anything.

Oh, Lord, God of our fathers.

You have chosen me
as sovereign and judge over your people.

I confess to your inscrutable providence
in selecting me.

Inspire and enlighten my path,

and direct my actions
in this awe-inspiring mission.

May the wisdom that descends always
from your throne...

abide with me.

How many dead?

It is yet to be confirmed.

A hundred?

- More?
- As I say, it is yet to be confirmed.

- How many hundred?
- Unfortunately, we are talking thousands...

Thousands?

It is yet to be confirmed.

- We must cancel the celebrations.
- I would advise against that.

But surely
we must acknowledge the tragedy.

It is only a tragedy...

if you make it one.

Where you lead, others follow.

2000, 3000 bodies of peasants

lie on this coronation field,
where soon there are to be festivities,

the Czar, the Grand Duke,
the Royal Family are to arrive.

And some of the bodies,
they just pile into carts.

So that as the royal family
are going out to the Khodynka field,

they pass carriages where they think
the people are waving at them

and suddenly, as they get close,
they realize

that these are all dead people,
crushed to death.

Nicky should have done
what a modern politician would do,

go to all the hospitals, and be seen...

to be visiting and showing love
for his people.

What he, in fact, does is to make
a decision against his better judgment,

to go to the party of the Marquis
de Montebello, the French ambassador.

I can't. It's not right.

Just this one,
then we'll have done our duty.

This will come back to haunt us.

There's no room for sentimentality
in politics.

You should have sent more Cossacks
to manage the crowds.

The people won't forgive him.

Grow up.

This blood will stain his reign.

Fucking kids.

In the first day of his reign,

the Czar and his German wife

were dancing and drinking,

even as hundreds and thousands
of Muscovites had been killed.

And from this point onwards,
he is known as Nicholas the Bloody.

It's a disastrous beginning
to Nicholas' reign.

Friend.

Would you have food
and a bed for the night?

- Of course.
- Thank you.

Very nice, thank you.

What's all this shaking, old man?

Hm?

Too many seasons.

Hm.

Feel God flow in you again.

That's it.

Breathe his spirit.

Hm.

Hm.

Remember how they ran.

The hills they climbed.

It's all still there.

Good.

- Uh?
- Good.

Rasputin becomes more and more
convinced of his own abilities,

of his power as a healer...

his insight into human nature.

He's superb at getting close
to people. He has empathy.

He has a feral charisma.

And then he has those eyes.

And he knows the effect that these eyes
have on people.

Especially women.

It's alright to sin.

Brings us closer to God.

How can you be redeemed
if you haven't sinned?

He's a man who emits electricity
from his fingertips.

His physical presence is something
that overwhelms people.

And people are transfixed by this.

By 1901,
Nicky and Alix have three daughters;

Olga, Tatiana and Maria.
And when Alix gets pregnant again...

...of course, everybody is longing
for the much-needed son and heir.

Oh, Lord, forgive us our sins.

May our prayers be answered.

We thank you for our daughters,
but may you bless us now with a son.

Push! Push it!

Tell me.

We have a beautiful, healthy baby.

I'm sorry.

Oh.

A son would belong to the people.

This little girl is ours.

Hello, Anastasia.

In Greek,

the name Anastasia means,
"the one who is reborn."

Now I had to ask
if she truly had been resurrected.

The eyes are the same.

But not the face.

There may be good reasons for that.

Her jaw's been broken.

She has missing teeth.

She's been through serious emotional
and physical trauma.

I don't know if anyone
could have survived that massacre.

One thing that is certain,

is that the birth of Anastasia
was both a blessing and a curse.

More than ever, Nicholas and Alexandra
needed a son and heir.

Come back to bed.

We need help.

And their desperation would open a door...

There must be something we can do.

...to a darkness
that would destroy their world.

There must be someone.