When Rodrigo has a man executed for his homosexuality, Della Rovere comes up with a perfidious scheme to eliminate Rodrigo's secretary, Gacet.

By the end of Lent, torrential rains have flooded Rome. Furthermore, the ordinary people feel threatened by a mythical creature with a mule's head.

In Florence, Savonarola has a Dominican friar stand in for him in the ordeal by fire, while Cesare's place is taken by a Franciscan.