Episode 5
Season 1
Episode 6
Editor’s Rating
5 stars
*****
Frances is doing so much work to keep things dramatic, including enlisting a bowler-hat-wearing butler-spy to keep tabs on Jol and Louisa.
Photo: Sean Gleason/Mammoth Screen/Masterpiece
Did you notice the beginning credits say this series is “inspired” by the Forsyte novels? This gives me hope that we’re just gonna go completely off the rails from the canon story line. “Inspired” usually means “yeah, someone else created these characters, but we’re taking them off this track and deep into our own territory.” Exciting.
Everyone on this show is with the wrong person. They need to let me step in and rearrange them. Jol and Louisa can go off together; Irene can get with Phil (you know it’s coming); James can get with Alexandra whenever she turns up; June can marry Hannah, who needs more to do anyway; Frances should get with Bill from True Blood; and Soames needs to be by himself for a while and think about what he’s done. As for Emily, she and her dog can live happily ever after.
Speaking of Frances, she is doing like 90 percent of the work regarding the creation of drama. Give her a raise. She’s making threats, hosting events, getting people evicted, and having sexual tension with her father-in-law, a thing I can never support, but both actors are over 35, so whatever. Frances’s scenes alone with Jol are responsible for some of this series’ best moments. Maybe if he leaves, she’ll get with Bill, and the new drama can be them crushing their business competitors like Succession, but in the 1880s. (I have never seen Succession.)
I love that they don’t let Irene linger in ignorance regarding Soames’s lies. She’s already suspicious, and his immediate switch to “Well, start looking around the house and figure out what you want to change, my happy homemaker” does not suggest that he’s eager to return to Paris. Then he immediately moves to “So, I haven’t told you this, but my father has a terrible heart condition, and I think we should just put Paris on hold. Also, don’t mention the heart thing to him or anyone, because it will upset them.” At drinks with his family later, Emily mentions that James is “a fiend for the polka.” When Irene asks, isn’t that rather boisterous? James replies, “Not for an athlete like myself,” and Soames says, “WELL, WE HAVE TO GO.” He gives Irene a massive locket with their portraits inside. Sir. Give your wife better and less symbolic jewelry.
At home, Irene calls in the household servants, learns their full names, and tells the housekeeper, Connie, that she wants to treat them all with respect. Connie is bewildered but happy about this. Irene and Frances go shopping, and Frances tells her that as a Forsyte woman, she’ll be expected to avoid scandal and controversy, and she should always let the men think things are their idea. I know we’ve been hit over the head a bit with this idea of Irene as a caged bird, but you can see her fading, and you want her to break out of there immediately. Go, Irene! Go to Paris and be with your annoying bohemian friends!
Frances knows something is up with Jol and Louisa, because last she knew, he said they were his past and he was focused on Frances and June. But then he keeps going back! I’m not saying he shouldn’t have a relationship with his kids, but Louisa never wants him there, and he hasn’t updated Frances on this change. So Frances, our aforementioned Chief Director of Drama, engages Wiggins, the butler, to spy on them. I am enchanted. The writers could have named him anything, and they said, “You know what, let’s just give the audience an extra treat.” I love you, Wiggins. Wiggins wears a shifty bowler hat and takes notes on Jol and Louisa, then reports back to Frances. This is the best.
We see an overwrought Frances tell Wiggins, “Yes,” then pull back and change her mind, then say, “Yes. Make the arrangements.” Make the arrangements. You see what she gives us? What she’s giving us is an eviction notice, and Louisa and her kids are kicked out of their home and business. She evicted them!! It’s so evil! This is exactly what I want out of a Victorian soap opera. It’s even better that she was torn about it and did it anyway. You fully know this is wrong, Frances! But here you are, hoisting yourself on your own petard, because Jol finds out and moves them into one of his properties in the country, and now he’s even more involved in their lives. Jol: 1, Frances: 5,097.
Later, Jol confronts Frances about the eviction, an accusation she calls “outrageous” (love it), and when he says she is destroying the lives of innocent children, Frances insists he’s having an affair, and if he’s not, he can prove it by sending Louisa to another country for the rest of their lives. What an insane request. It’s so good. Jol says “no” and leaves. Frances, you are too good at scheming for this man. He hates schemes. Just let him go off with his seamstress girlfriend and draw pictures while you rule London society, newly married to his father. Yeah, it’ll be weird, but people will deal. She and Bill from True Blood chat on a bench later, and I’m like, look at them, fully aligned on their priorities.
At the brokerage, everything is chaos. There’s been an explosion at the mine in Ceylon, and 200 people are dead. Everyone is going to lose their money. Soames makes a calm speech about how the investors chose to put money in and knew there weren’t guaranteed returns. Jol says that it’s the company’s fault for not emphasizing the risks, and you can’t depend on people to read the contract. I don’t know about this, Jol. Later, Bill from True Blood tells Jol that his instincts about the investment were right. I mean, yes? I guess? But not because Jol is good at investing. He just cared about the actual people working there. He’s also not stepping up at all to recommend a course of action. I’m sorry that Jol is boring and also not suited for his job. He looks pained almost every time he’s onscreen. Make other faces, sir!
Meanwhile, June pulls something I would and tries to stick her nose where it doesn’t belong and into salacious gossip. She goes to Louisa’s and is like, So, I thought I was an only child, but ehhhh? Louisa completely shuts her down, which is one of several reasons Louisa would not be fun to hang out with. During June’s visit, Louisa gets the eviction notice, and she and her helper, Hannah, have to figure out what to do. Louisa tells June she doesn’t want Jol’s help and not to mention this to anyone. June obviously tells Jol immediately, which leads to his aforementioned move of installing the family in his spacious and empty house in the country.
Ann gets her one big scene a week when Monty comes in complaining that he was frog-marched out of his club because of the gold-mine disaster, and Dizzy Carswell threatened to thrash him. Monty, I love you. He also says that Harry Faulkner has lost his entire fortune. Ann is aghast and summons her sons. We learn that Harry Faulkner salvaged James’s and Bill from True Blood’s reputations after that business with Alexandra (another Alexandra mention!). She insists they cover Harry’s losses. Fascinating.
We end the episode with Irene learning that James has never been sick a day in his life. When Soames comes home from work, she starts massaging his temples and then softly monologues like she’s about to pull a Sweeney Todd. She asks Soames if it was the day in the café with her friends that changed his mind, or their trip to the ballet? Did he really receive a telegram from his father, who apparently is completely well? Soames’s reply is essentially, “Well, look at how rich you are now!” Irene doesn’t want it, and Soames counters that she should learn to want it.
An understandably distraught Irene walks to the park and tries to avoid June and Phil. Unfortunately, June runs over and insists Irene meet her fiancé. The second Phil and Irene are across from each other, you’re like, they’re gonna bang.
Jol goes to stay at the Coles’s house, Louisa says good-bye to her old shop and home, and we’re almost at the season finale! Will we finally meet Alexandra? Will Irene make out with Phil and crush June’s easily crushable heart? Will Frances throw over Jol for Bill from True Blood, or is her thirst for vengeance not yet slaked? We shall see!
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