caburrito

But but but... Mr. Crowther showed him a booklet! I think I'd like it better if Maud and Crowther were just figments of Oscar's imagination, like some sort of Tyler Durden situation (after all, like Crowther said, "The first rule of the Casterbridge Pacific Company is you do not talk about the Casterbridge Pacific Company.") Or maybe ghosts. edit- Come to think of it, if Oscar has the booklet, maybe he can find out who printed it and the printer can give him a lead if Maud/Crowther didn't cover their tracks well enough with the printer.

I really wish we didn't already know John's last name is Trotter because then the last shot of the season finale could be a dramatic closeup of John signing the patent application as John Timex That's just about the only way a season-long story arc about a guy inventing an oilless escapement could be justified. Now please don't anyone go to wikipedia and tell us that Timex was founded in 1854 and ruin the joke.

They already gossiped about one of the ladies who was in Bertha's carriage when Edison turned on the lights at the Times building. She was supposed to be a niece of Henry Flagler who was a founder of Standard Oil and gave her a huge allowance, but no one could work out how she could be his niece. Yeah, that's definitely a problem. When Oscar meets her, he's like "Why haven't we crossed paths before?" She uses her travel to Europe as a reason, but has she been there so long that a young eligible Stuyvesant/Gould would be an unknown in New York? And when she name drops the Drexels, Oscar is like "Oh I love the Drexels! Are you staying with them in Newport?" she tries to shut that down with, "No, just staying with friends."

I think there is a ton of evidence that points to Beaton and Crowther scamming Oscar, but what gives me slight pause is Beaton visiting Aurora to feel her out to see if Oscar is just a gold digger and Crowther laying on the whole "Are you sure you want to do this to poor little Maude? She's so innocent, she doesn't deserve to be used" angle so thickly. So I am wondering if maybe this isn't a scam, but a test devised by Maud/Gould to determine if Oscar really is worthy of her and her fortune. I mean, at every turn, Crowther is saying "don't do this," but Oscar just keeps going ahead with it. Maybe Crowther is a Pinkerton? That would make a lot of the evidence it's a scam red herrings, though, and this doesn't seem to be a show that does red herrings. Scam or test, a lot of work has gone into it. Who is Maud's "paid companion" Aurora mentioned? That's another monkey wrench because there have also been a few hints that Maud is looking for a beard just like Oscar is.