After a tense face-off with Panin during the council meeting, it becomes increasingly clear that Potemkin will have his way — if only so that Catherine can get some peace and quiet. The strain on their relationship comes to a head when Potemkin goes out and gets drunk, returning to find an anxious Catherine at her daughter-in-law Natalia’s (Georgina Beedle) bedside. Paul’s wife has gone into labor, and it’s not going well. Instead of supporting the woman he loves, Potemkin heads to Countess Bruce’s (Gina McKee) room to vent about how she’s not taking care of him, and the two hook up for old time’s sake. Meanwhile, Natalia and her son are pronounced dead, and Catherine is left alone to comfort her distraught son, and preside over an autopsy. In a graphic and somber moment, Catherine hands Paul his dead son so that he can say goodbye, shielding him, for now, from the news that the real father was probably his best friend. Their shared grief signals a very temporary rapprochement between mother and son. “There is so little time,” she says. “Let us at least try to love one another.”