"Bloody Mary" Makes Up for Wet "Gunpowder" in 'Lucy Worsley Investigates' Season 2 Finale

Thanks to the oddities of PBS scheduling, the second season of Lucy Worsley Investigates has aired sporadically throughout the last three months. We reviewed the first two episodes when they aired in January 2025, and with the final episodes now out, we’re back to wrap up the season.

The concept behind Lucy Worsley Investigates is that historian and author Lucy Worsley sheds new light on some of the most infamous moments in British history. The episodes’ standalone documentary format means the strange airing schedule doesn’t detract from the season’s flow. The first two episodes tackled Jack the Ripper and William the Conqueror but focused more on the victims of their violent acts than the notorious men themselves. Episodes 3 and 4 are about Guy Fawkes’s Gunpowder Plot and Mary Tudor, AKA Bloody Mary.

At first glance, “The Gunpowder Plot” seems like a natural fit for this season, an episode that seeks to understand the background and motivations of Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators. However, this episode is a major stumbling block for the season because Worsley doesn’t know exactly what she wants to say about Fawkes and his impact on British history. The episode has its work cut out, covering enormous swaths of political and religious history in Britain and internationally. Worsley does her best to lay out the roadmap for this complex history but, in doing so, loses the thread of the social history that makes her storytelling so compelling.