Tonight on CBS The Dovekeepers airs with an all new Sunday March 31, season 1 premiere and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, the series premiere chronicles the lives of four Jewish women during the Romans’ siege of the fortress of Masada in A.D. 73
Dovekeepers stars Cote de Pablo, Rachel Brosnahan and Kathryn Prescott – in the title Dovekeeper roles, Sam Neill as first-century Jewish scholar and historian Josephus, and Diego Boneta as a star warrior of the Jewish army at Masada. The series is based on Alice Hoffman’s bestselling, critically acclaimed historical novel about a group of extraordinary women whose lives intersect in a fight for survival at the siege of Masada.
On tonight’s episode as per the CBS synopsis,“the series premiere chronicles of the lives of four Jewish women during the Romans’ siege of the fortress of Masada in A.D. 73, when more than 900 Jews were able to hold out there for months.”
This is definitely one series that you don’t want to miss. Don’t forget to stay tuned to Celeb Dirty Laundry where we will be live blogging every episode of Dovekeeper’s first season.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
Tonight’s first installment of Dove Keepers kicks off with two women in ancient Rome, they are brought by guards to Josephus. He invites them to sit down and tell him what really happened in Masada and warns them that their lives depend on it.
Shirah goes first – she explains that she originally is from Alexandria, Egypt and was raised by her mother, a holy woman. Shirah has no idea who her father is. She goes on to say that her story begins in Jerusalem, her mother sent her there because she thought that Shirah would be safe. A distant cousin of her’s allowed Shirah to stay with him in exchange for her watching his children.
The second woman explains that her name is Yael and her mother died giving birth to her – her father Joseph Bel Elhanan hated her and blamed her for her mother’s death. Yael is one of the children that Shirah took care of while she was in Jerusalem and she raised Yael as if she was her own child.
In Jerusalem Shirah began sleeping with a married man named Eleazor – and became pregnant with his child. His wife was furious when she learned that Shirah was carrying her husband’s baby and she told Yael’s father Joseph. As Joseph was throwing Shirah out of his house and calling her a whore – she gave a trinket to Yael and promised her that one day they would see each other again. Shirah was banished from Jerusalem and sent to the desert to die – which was the punishment for adultery.
Josephus asks Yael about her brother Amram. She insists that Amram was a beautiful soul. Josephus snaps that her brother and her father Joseph Bel Elhanan were both ruthless killers and members of the Zacchary Group. They were rebels fighting against Rome. Yael argues that the Romans were trying to take everything from them, including their freedom. When the Roman soldiers came to the market in Jerusalem, Amram, Josephus, and the rest of the Zacchary group attacked the and there was a bloody sword fight in the center of town – after the attack one of the Roman soldiers that survived vowed to make the Judi y once and for all.
After Amram and their father Josephus attacked the Roman soldiers in the square, Amram rushed home to tell Yael that he is in danger. He is travelling to Masada where he will be safe – if he stays there Yael will be in danger too. She gives him a necklace with Solomon on it and swears that it will protect him. He apologizes for leaving her home alone with their father and promises that they will see each other again one day.
Joseph points out that Amram abandoned her and her father and left them to deal with the Romans themselves. Yael doesn’t want to hear it – as far as she is concerned her brother Amram was fighting for their faith.
After the attack on the Romans – they were infuriated. They vowed to kill all of the Jews in Jerusalem. Yael and her father Josephus had no choice but to flee to the desert with the rest of the Jewish people living in Jerusalem before the Romans murdered them. While the Roman soldiers were destroying their village, they fled via underground tunnels and out of town and in to the desert.
Josephus asks Shirah where she was when Jerusalem was burning to the ground. She explains that a wealthy man named Sa’ adallos found her and her baby in the desert and saved them. Sa’ adallos married her and got her pregnant with another baby – and she was greatful for everything he did for her and her children. But, the entire time that she was married to Sa’ adallos, she and her loved Eleazor kept in contact and sent each other messages with their doves.
Even after Shirah’s sons grew in to teenagers, the Romans were still fighting the Jews – and while they were off fighting with their father Sa’adallos – Shirah was still sending messages to Eleazor. One day Sa’adallos returned from battle and informed Shirah that their village was packing up and moving deeper in to the desert and farther away from the Romans. Shirah took her two sons and ignored Sa’adallos’s plans and took them down the Salt Sea to Masada to be with Eleazor – even though she was travelling straight in to danger and could be killed by the Romans.
After leaving Jerusalem, Yael and her father Josephus travelled alone through the desert for days with a man named Ben Simon and his wife – in search of Masada. Every night Yael had nightmares about a lion and scratched scars in to her legs to keep track of the days. One night she asked Ben Simon about the scar on his face and he said it was the “mark of the lion.” While his wife and her father were asleep they slipped off in to the darkness to have sex – but his wife heard them. The next day Ben Simon’s wife kicked her out of the cave and wouldn’t let her sleep inside with them. But Ben Simon followed her out in to the desert and continued to have sex with her. Afterwards he told her that it was wrong and went back inside to sleep with his wife.
While Yael was sleeping with Ben Simon in the desert, Shira was travelling through the desert with her children. It turns out that one of her sons is actually a girl – and Shira had forced her to live as a boy to protect her. Once they are far away from Sa’adallos and the village, Shira forces her daughter to take off her warrior clothes and put on a dress. She tells her daughter that she is “born today as a woman.” Her daughter sobs that she doesn’t want to be a woman – but Shira names her Aziza. Eleazor sent men to meet up with her in the desert and bring her and her two women to Masade. Joseph interrupts Shira’s story and tells that she is a mad woman to take her two children straight in to the path of the Roman army. AYael defends Shira and tells Joseph that she was following her heart.
Yael, her father, and Ben Simon hit a road block on the travel to Masada. Ben Simon’s wife became very ill and was dying from a fever. On her death bed Ben Simon’s wife Sia begged Yael to take care of her husband. Yael risked her life and ran off in to the desert to find a purple flower that she knew would cure Sia’s fever and save her life. She returned to the cave the next day with the flower – when Yael arrived Ben Simon and Sia were both dead. Yael’s father snapped at her that it was her fault they were dead and God was punishing her for adultery. He buried Ben and Sia while Yael sobbed for seven days straight and couldn’t eat or drink. After Ben Simon and his wife were buried, Amram’s friends found them in the desert and took Yael and her father to Masada.
Amram rushed to greet Yael and Josephus and he gave them a tour of Masada. Amram gushes that Eleazor is their leader and informs Josephus that he won’t be fighting in the war because he was too old and he would be in charge of weaponry. Once they were settled in to Masada, Yael and Shirah found each other. Shirah’s daughter Aziza found Yael and brought her to their tower – they recruited her to work as a dovekeeper and clean the bird cages. While they are working and caring for the birds, Shira notices that Yael is ill and sends her home and tells her to get some rest.
The Romans sent out scouts of soldiers looking for Jews hiding in the deserts and Amram and the other warriors used to attack their camps and steal their supplied. They took a Roman slave and sentenced him to working in the dove coves with Shirah and Yael. After her affair with Ben Simon and the way her father treated her for her entire life, Yael felt invisible. And, the Roman slave seen her and understood her. Yael was the only person he would talk to and they bonded while they worked. Shirah tried to warn Yael, and told her to do as she pleased, but she would never be able to make the Roman slave one of them.
The warriors left Masada for a raid, and they were gone for days. Yael was sure that her brother Amram was dead – he finally returned with wounded warriors and was devastated because one of his childhood friends were killed. Yael was afraid that she was losing her brother, so she revealed to him that she was with child and pregnant with Ben Simon’s baby. As Yael got farther along she began having nightmares of Sia’s ghost killing her unborn baby. One night she woke up and was bleeding, she rushed to Shirah’s room and she fixed her a potion. Shirah realized that Sia’s ghost was haunting Yael and trying to take her baby to the other side with her. She ordered Yael to go out in the desert and cut a lock of hair and chew the leaves of regret – Yael followed her orders and Sia emerged in flames and forgave Yael and let her keep the baby. The next morning Yael woke up and was shocked to see that her unborn baby was okay and the bleeding had stopped.
Soon after Josephus learned that Yael was pregnant with Ben Simon’s child and kicked her out and Shirah took her in. She gave birth to her baby and named her Livia The Lioness. Shirah’s real daughter Aziza watched Yael and SHirah bond over the baby, obviously jealous of their connection. After the baby was born Yael went back to work caring for the doves, and she fell in love with the Roman slave. Josephus interrupts and asks Shirah why she didn’t use her magic to stop them from falling in love – Shirah explains that it was too late, the damage was already done. Yael snuck a knife in to the slave so he could escape. He begs her to come with him and promises to raise the baby as her own, Yael turns him down. She pleads with him to just go and not tell her when or where he is going. Later that night the slave tried to escape – the guards caught him and killed him before he ever made it out of Masada.
Before Yael’s boyfriend was killed he worn her that Rome was coming for Masada. And, he was right. A few days later the entire Roman army arrived at Masada and surrounded their walls. Joseph interrupts Yael and Shirah and shouts that they are mad – all they had to do was pay homage to Rome. Shirah shouts at Joseph that he isn’t allowed to judge them, she knows who he really is, he used to be a Jew just like them but he sold his people out and betrayed them and paid homage to Rome. She sneers that he is a traitor and tells him to just kill them now.
To Be Continued next episode…
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