MJ Frog

Yep. I was hoping the same. When she showed up to sit next to Blackthorne, that hit really hard for some reason. All I could think was what a welcome sight she would be in that awfulness. I really liked Lady Fuji.

Agree. Plus, it was him or nobody. Nothing says love like a well-timed beheading.

He was the king of the miniseries in those days. His naughty priest follow-up The Thorn Birds was an even bigger hit, I think. I also watched Shogun when I was a kid and don't remember a god. damn. thing. So I have no idea where this is going.

It absolutely was not a ruse. She fully intended to do it, she wanted to do it, and that was the whole reason Toranaga sent her there. Which made Blackthorne's acting as her second all the more moving -- he wanted her to suffer as little as possible, as well as earnestly believing that this would keep her from commiting a mortal sin, even as he committed one himself (and had probably done so many times before). I don't know that the show did the best job of showing this, but I always felt that Mariko was drawn to him because, as uncivilized as he seemed to her, he was still far kinder to her than any of the other men. And while cultural differences may have kept him from fully "seeing" her -- I think even when he offered to be her second he was not capable of really understanding why she was doing what she was doing -- he respected and fully accepted her as she was. Even without fully understanding. And that goes a long way towards getting behind that eightfold wall. Got my copy of the book today. Looking forward to starting it.

This was my impression also. I'm sticking by it.

I don't think he's paying her. It may be that someone else is as a means of influencing him, or it may be she's working for free with her own motivations. Either way, he thinks she's his girl.

Kiku was very well cast. Her fake smile and dead eyes during her time with Blackthorne creeped me out. She gave every impression of the cool competence combined with a mask of politeness that are the mark of any great servant.

I agree. And I heartily disagree with the notion that Blackthorne killed the gardener. They did, because of a custom so grotesque he couldn't imagine it happening that way. They didn't even consult him -- they just murdered the poor man. His disgust with the whole thing was more than warranted. Switching topics, if I understand things correctly, Mariko's father was basically the Jaime Lannister of this world (without the sister stuff, of course). He is despised because he killed his lord, one whose death they probably wanted, but couldn't bring themselves to make happen. So her father, and by extension his family, serves as their sin eater.

I am not the expert on this, but I believe partying that late was not uncommon back then. I think it was fairly routine at these big affairs to wrap things up around dawn or a little later. Which seems crazy, looking back on it. But you'll notice going back even further, in some Austen stories, they have people coming home from big society parties around daybreak. ETA: this was already answered a couple of times by other posters who did a better job of it.

Yeah, she doesn't creep me out either -- she just seems like a basically sweet kid who has become very attached to a new mother figure. I had forgotten she was in Station Eleven! I think a lot of people on this board might enjoy The Age of Innocence (both the movie and the book written by Edith Wharton), which takes place in New York high society at about exactly the same time as The Gilded Age. The movie has an outstanding cast (which includes Reverend Dead Poet himself, Robert Sean Leonard in a small role) and is really beautifully done. Highly recommended.

This. It was far worse than anything they are showing us here. This show takes place only a few years after Grant’s presidency, during which he was compelled to send federal troops into the South several times to quell widespread violence and intimidation, the details of which truly are the stuff of nightmares. So I think it was fine to spend an episode having the city gal getting a taste of just how bad things could get down south.

I think this is an excellent point and can be applied to all of the cultural norms where there is a huge gulf between our time and theirs -- sexism, racism, homophobia. No period drama is ever going to fully portray those realities. This is, in the end, a TV show and it has to be palatable to the sensibilities of modern audiences. Period dramas have always been pretty anachronistic in this way, and are only getting more so.

And Beau Gadson as young Margaret had quite a resemblance to Vanessa Kirby. Outstanding casting.

Everything that I've heard about Charles paints him in a good light as a father, so I don't find him particularly unbelievable here. At least, no more unbelievable than Prince Philip (a character I actively hated for long stretches of this show) suddenly being a font of fatherly wisdom. Charles has faults aplenty, and we have seen many of them. There are no shortage of reasons to be angry with him. But he isn’t Snidely Whiplash either -- few people are. He can be childish and selfish, but he has also been shown to be capable of genuine sensitivity and depth of feeling. In the context of this drama he is a complicated fellow, as are many people, and that complexity is a hallmark of good writing.

Exactly. And knowing what I know about Nazis and WWII, it really wasn't over the top. This was a regime that attracted the worst of the worst, and brought out the worst in those who weren't already terrible. They really were that bad and more. I have many of the same objections others do, but not to that. Speaking of, a younger Colin Firth would have been great in the role of the father, or any number of other distinguished male British actors, but not Mark (love you buddy, but no). Also, in his first scene, the bad guy reminded me a little too much of Hans Landa (Inglorious Basterds), although that was mostly the writing. And I suppose Landa does cast a big shadow when it comes to movie Nazis. One last thing is that it seemed a blind girl in a small town would be pretty easy to find. She was out and about enough that there would be a pretty good chance of just spotting her in the street. And failing that, a house to house search would find her in short order. Apparently big diamonds can't get no love these days. People always throwing them in the Atlantic. Otherwise, it was reasonably enjoyable. Good cast, minus a certain exception, and an enjoyable enough, if often implausible, story (the diamond thing felt like something out of a young adult novel). It's just that I am always up for a good WWII story, and I'm glad people are out there trying, I just wish they were trying a little harder.