S02.E03: Labyrinth/S02.E04: Gilded Cage

[TexasGal]

5 hours ago, ctlady said:

Question - can we please have separate threads for each episode, even though they're aired back to back?  We finished Labrynth last night, but couldn't get to Gilded Cage.  I can't peruse comments on Labrynth without getting spoiled with what happens in Gilded Cage

Hey @ctlady, thanks for the thought.  I was putting them together so we wouldn't have to worry about spoilers from the second episode ending up in the thread from the first episode.  Since (I think?) there are only 2 more weeks left I'm inclined to be keep it that way.  

[EyewatchTV211]

3 hours ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

The only issue I have is Dakota Fanning's over pronounciation of certain words that begin with the letter W - it's a bunch of hwhere, hwhich, and hwhens.  Even if it is "proper", it's annoying because nobody else does it.

Even though hers is definitely more noticeable and seems strange, Luke Evans also pronounces words starting with W that way on the show. My family was talking about it with Dakota from the start, but I started to notice that he does also. His is just a bit more subtle/natural.

[emma675]

I've avoided this thread until I could watch both episodes and I'm glad I did.

I loved Laszlo's drunken bachelor toast to John and that the little group got together at the bar where Cyrus and Joanna work. Who knew drunk Laszlo was so fun?

The wedding party/shower was so gaudy and gauche, especially compared to the scenes at the maternity hospital. Talk about an abundance of excess. I was hoping Sara or Laszlo would make a scene but the mistress patient did alright. Although I think she's a goner.

I'm glad Bitsy is alright and Lucius saved her. Those two need to get together, I think Marcus would be happy for his brother (I love the relationship between them). 

The scene at the end of the second episode will haunt me. Crazy Libby cuddling up to the body of the matron and covered in her blood was shocking. 

[pezgirl7]

4 hours ago, EyewatchTV211 said:

Even though hers is definitely more noticeable and seems strange, Luke Evans also pronounces words starting with W that way on the show. My family was talking about it with Dakota from the start, but I started to notice that he does also. His is just a bit more subtle/natural.

Yep, they both do it, and it annoys me! They talked about it during interviews for the first season. Apparently that's how upper class people in that region, at that time, spoke. I find it pretty distracting.

 

Edited July 30, 2020 by pezgirl7

[Pachengala]

A girlfriend of mine does it—I was under the impression, probably because of her, that it was a southern thing—and while we give her shit for it constantly, I find it kind of endearing, probably because of her. 

[Morrigan2575]

12 hours ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

The only issue I have is Dakota Fanning's over pronounciation of certain words that begin with the letter W - it's a bunch of hwhere, hwhich, and hwhens.  Even if it is "proper", it's annoying because nobody else does it.

I haven't noticed it before but, now I will pay attention

4 hours ago, pezgirl7 said:

Apparently that's how upper class people in that region, at that time, spoke. I find it pretty distracting.

 

Is that why Stewie Griffin pronounces it cool hwhip? 🤣

 

[ferjy]

13 hours ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

The only issue I have is Dakota Fanning's over pronounciation of certain words that begin with the letter W - it's a bunch of hwhere, hwhich, and hwhens.  Even if it is "proper", it's annoying because nobody else does it.

I was going to bring that up. It stands out so much. I’ve never seen it stressed in other period dramas. Actually, not only does Luke Evans do it too, but Daniel Brühl does as well, at least in this season (listen for it), so the director must have insisted on it, I’m not convinced it’s Dakota Fanning’s choice. It does sound odd to our modern ears! I too feel it’s overdone and even takes away a bit from their acting, as if they’re concentrating too much to not miss doing it, afraid of provoking the wrath of the director. “Cut! Cut! You didn’t ‘HHHWH’!” 😄

 

Edited July 30, 2020 by ferjy

[iMonrey]

What kind of hospital is this supposed to be? There's a mental ward, and there's a bunch of women having babies. Also, Señora Liñares took her baby there when she dropped her. Is it just a regular hospital? It's seems rather obviously sketchy, and you'd think after enough women came out of there saying their baby had mysteriously died and/or disappeared, word would get out.

There are too many actors that look similar on this show. The actresses playing Señora Liñares, her nanny, Helen, and now this new love interest for Kreizler all have a very similar look. So do the actors playing Hearst, the doctor, and Osgood (although at least he has a beard).

Speaking of which . . . Bye Helen! She's a goner I guess, and apparently nobody cares. After the doctor led her off to what was assuredly her death, the next scene had the Scooby Gang back at HQ examining more clues without a mention of poor Helen. Will no one think of Helen??

I'm having a hard time believing John would get engaged to such a ditz. I don't care how "lonely" he is or how much he's pining for Sara. It feels like such an obvious contrivance, as does this new female alienist counterpart for Kreizler. The romantic elements of this show play like a Hallmark TV movie and cheapen the overall story IMO.

I think Libby is a red herring and someone else took Señora Liñares's baby. Much like the first half of Season 1 was spent chasing down Van Bergen only to find out he wasn't the killer.

Edited July 30, 2020 by iMonrey

[Tachi Rocinante]

17 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I think Libby is a red herring and someone else took Señora Liñares's baby. Much like the first half of Season 1 was spent chasing down Van Bergen only to find out he wasn't Silver Smile.

I agree, except Van Bergen was Silver Smile.  He just wasn't the killer.

[pezgirl7]

3 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

What kind of hospital is this supposed to be? There's a mental ward, and there's a bunch of women having babies. Also, Señora Liñares took her baby there when she dropped her. Is it just a regular hospital? It's seems rather obviously sketchy, and you'd think after enough women came out of there saying their baby had mysteriously died and/or disappeared, word would get out.

A Lying-In Hospital is a maternity hospital, but I guess it also treats babies as well as mother's with mental conditions. I think we're meant to believe that society doesn't care about the women and children because they are lower class. I read a review that said although the doctor definitely has sketchy practices, he's also one of the only doctors actually trying to save the women's lives.

[libgirl2]

9 hours ago, Morrigan2575 said:

I haven't noticed it before but, now I will pay attention

Is that why Stewie Griffin pronounces it cool hwhip? 🤣

 

I never noticed it either! Now it will probably drive me crazy! 

[iMonrey]

Quote

I agree, except Van Bergen was Silver Smile.  He just wasn't the killer.

Oops! Thanks - correction made.

Quote

A Lying-In Hospital is a maternity hospital, but I guess it also treats babies as well as mother's with mental conditions.

Thank you! Maybe I should watch this show with closed-captioning. Every time they said "Lying-In" I thought they were saying the name of the hospital, like "Linghen" or something.

[Morrigan2575]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Thank you! Maybe I should watch this show with closed-captioning. Every time they said "Lying-In" I thought they were saying the name of the hospital, like "Linghen" or something.

Same. I didn't realize that until it was posted here. 

[eejm]

On 7/30/2020 at 11:59 AM, pezgirl7 said:

A Lying-In Hospital is a maternity hospital, but I guess it also treats babies as well as mother's with mental conditions. I think we're meant to believe that society doesn't care about the women and children because they are lower class. I read a review that said although the doctor definitely has sketchy practices, he's also one of the only doctors actually trying to save the women's lives.

Bitsy said to Sara that the ward she was in (with the mistresses of high society men) was the “research” ward.  That’s what makes me think the doctor is into eugenics - he’s experimenting on unwed mothers with secret babies.  That would explain why so many of the women are sterilized.  I do think he’s doing even more sinister things to them as well.

Are Violet’s parents dead?  I know Hearst is her godfather (and maybe biological father) and hosted the party, but is she his ward too?  Marriage was one of the most important events in a society woman’s life back then yet there’s been no mention of her parents, unless I totally missed it.

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by eejm

[paigow]

Not going to create a super soldier if that dumbass Osgood is the sperm donor of a master race. More likely Doc Bolton was selling babies but Libby has ruined that by killing the inventory.

[eejm]

2 hours ago, paigow said:

Not going to create a super soldier if that dumbass Osgood is the sperm donor of a master race. More likely Doc Bolton was selling babies but Libby has ruined that by killing the inventory.

Eugenics was more than creating the master race at the end of the nineteenth century.  There was a big push to sterilize those considered “undesirable” in physical or mental abilities or in behavior - in this case, the mistresses would be considered loose women and thus sterilized.  I’m convinced there’s more to it, though.  

[paigow]

2 hours ago, eejm said:

Eugenics was more than creating the master race at the end of the nineteenth century.  There was a big push to sterilize those considered “undesirable” in physical or mental abilities or in behavior - in this case, the mistresses would be considered loose women and thus sterilized.  I’m convinced there’s more to it, though.  

That would lead to a big reduction in the working class population segment...who would remain to be exploited by Hearst et al???

[Vermicious Knid]

Margaret Sanger was a proponent of eugenics, which included sterilization. She was publishing a few decades later than the show but would have grown up at the same time (born in 1879).

Quote

As an advocate of Birth Control, I wish to take advantage of the present opportunity to point out that the unbalance between the birth rate of the "unfit" and the "fit", admittedly the greatest present menace to civilization, can never be rectified by the inauguration of a cradle competition between these two classes. In this matter, the example of the inferior classes, the fertility of the feeble-minded, the mentally defective, the poverty-stricken classes, should not be held up for emulation to the mentally and physically fit though less fertile parents of the educated and well-to-do classes. On the contrary, the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.

Birth Control is not advanced as a panacea by which past and present evils of dysgenic breeding can be magically eliminated. Possibly drastic and Spartan methods may be forced upon society if it continues complacently to encourage the chance and chaotic breeding that has resulted from our stupidly cruel sentimentalism.

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 7/30/2020 at 12:16 AM, Morrigan2575 said:

Is that why Stewie Griffin pronounces it cool hwhip? 🤣