Before we get to that juicy gossip, let’s talk about what’s actually going on in Russia at this juncture in history. With war raging against the Turks, Catherine has to put some of her more lofty reforms on the backburner. In other words, her plan to free Russia’s enslaved serfs, which made up so much of her royal speech in the premiere, has been all but forgotten. As a result, rebellions are popping up all over the country. The most serious one is led by Yemelyan Pugachev, who between 1773 and 1775, organized a series of uprisings designed to overthrow Catherine in favor of her son, Paul. When Potemkin first notices him speaking to a crowd near the front, he’s claiming to channel the spirit of Catherine’s late husband, disgraced Tsar Peter III. And while his main complaint — that noblemen literally own the people who work their land -- is actually quite reasonable, he uses rumors of Catherine’s corruption, specifically tales of her voracious and unnatural sexual appetite, to diminish her in the eyes of the people. (Later, when he kidnaps a governor and his wife, he uses that rhetoric once more, suggesting that the terrified noblewoman in front of him would “fuck a horse,” a rumor long attributed to Catherine.) Translation: It takes a man to rule a country like Russia.