S02.E07: What's All That Got to Do with Jesus Though?

[TexasGal]

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With the backing of an elite York lawyer, Anne and Ann press on with the proposal for a division of the Walker land, meeting Captain Sutherland's every obstruction head-on. But Ann's determination to secure her share of the family estate sends shockwaves through her family. Soon it isn't just the Priestleys who suspect Anne of being behind the proposal.

Airdate: 05/22/2022

Season 2 episodes are airing in the UK a few weeks earlier than in the US.  Anyone waiting for the US airing - don't enter if you don't want to be spoiled!

[natyxg]

Well, I found this episode to be kind of... there. I don't think that the division of the estate should've been chosen as the main conflict? I guess? of the season? Or at least the second half of the season? I mean it was always increasingly obvious that they were stretching it out so there could be some sort of climax related to it in the finale, but much like the politics, coal, canals, business stuff, it's just not interesting enough. It's made worse by the fact that Sutherland isn't even physically there. They had the same problem with Mariana and her letters. People writing letters just isn't that dramatic or interesting, no matter how intense the music we get in the background. I felt like this season suffered from not following the diaries enough at times, and following them too closely some other times.

Having said that, and though I wish they had more memorable scenes like that great one at the end of 2x06, I liked that the Ann(e)s seem to be working well as a team, even finishing each other sentences at times.

The bit with the school was fun, though a bit pointless if that was all they were going to do with it. I loved teacher Anne though, and Eliza W. crushing on her, though I still don't know what the point of the kids catching the Ann(e)s was. Will this come up in season three?

Spoiler

I think I read somewhere that at some point some poor ladies burned effigies of Anne and Ann in relation with I don't know what... are they gonna tie that to rumors of their sexuality and that's ultimately the point of this whole thing? I think it was tied to Christopher Rawson, too, like the egged them on, maybe? I'm not sure, my memory sucks.

I don't know. I wish the season felt more cohesive, like season one did.

I was frustrated by the Matthew and Eugenie scene and I can't believe we've had TWO sex scenes with these two, even though we don't care about them at all because they've barely even spoken to one another. Who cares about how things will turn out for them? It's get another thing that was in the diaries that didn't need to make it to the show at all, imo, or at least it should've gotten less focus.

I was also frustrated by the SUTHERLAND VOICE OVER WHILE ANNE AND ANN KISS! COME ON!!!

[DanaK]

Why is Captain Sutherland so uptight about the division of his wife’s estate with her sister? Is he hiding some misdeeds or does he just want it all for himself?

Matthew is in for a world of hurt with that girlfriend of his, unless she settles down and just wants him

[sugarbaker design]

On 6/6/2022 at 11:43 PM, DanaK said:

Why is Captain Sutherland so uptight about the division of his wife’s estate with her sister? Is he hiding some misdeeds or does he just want it all for himself?

Main course of greed, with a side of misogyny and a dash of homophobia.

Sutherland ostensibly wants his wife's family inheritance for his son, but he also wants to take it away from his sister-in-law and her companion.  His actions are supported by state and church, so one could add a dollop of self-righteousness to the mix.

[pasdetrois]

Is there a chance that Sutherland pulled some financial shenanigans back when he received the settlement? Or since he received it?

[sugarbaker design]

44 minutes ago, pasdetrois said:

Is there a chance that Sutherland pulled some financial shenanigans back when he received the settlement? Or since he received it?

According to Miss Walker, he withheld some vital information.  Maybe that's the tip of the iceberg.  

Edited June 8, 2022 by sugarbaker design

[tennisgurl]

The little girl calling the Levite who left the guy by the side of the road in The Good Samaritan a bastard is my new favorite character, or at least second to Marian. The Anne's teaching was cute, especially Anne's extremely technical discussion about Gods plan contrasted with Ann demurely reading the bible. 

I like some aspects of the "politics/business/land ownership" things, they do add some interesting day in the life aspects to the show that get glossed over in a lot of period dramas, but I mostly find myself getting bored whenever lots of time is spent watching people dramatically read letters about property while narrating about a lot of legal jargon. I am still not totally sure why they are dividing assets or what that actually means, except a lot of people are apparently getting kicked out, which doesn't exactly endear me to anyone involved in this mess. I think Anne wants Ann to use her land better? Run more efficiently? I think I would be way more interested if they focused more on how these things are affecting the characters, which is when things get more interesting. Anne seems to be coming into her own more, and I suspect that Anne might have mixed feelings about her sweet girlfriend suddenly wanting to become more assertive. 

This is why having sex in the woods is a bad idea, especially when you work in a time and place where you can get fired for banging your fellow help during your off hours. 

[natyxg]

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I like some aspects of the "politics/business/land ownership" things, they do add some interesting day in the life aspects to the show that get glossed over in a lot of period dramas, but I mostly find myself getting bored whenever lots of time is spent watching people dramatically read letters about property while narrating about a lot of legal jargon.

I think they should be in the show, but in the background, never on the foreground unless the show decides to change things enough to turn them into a proper plot that's about interesting drama between people.

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

I am still not totally sure why they are dividing assets or what that actually means, except a lot of people are apparently getting kicked out, which doesn't exactly endear me to anyone involved in this mess.

I think the Walker Estate has a number of properties and it was run as a single one. Dividing it means making a list of the properties and deciding which ones belong to Ann and which ones belong to Sutherland, specifically, and after that they would have nothing to do with the other. Ann would have her own estate and Sutherland would have his own estate. Eventually it would all go to Sutherland's son anyway, unless Ann were to marry and have her own children, which is part of the reason why he's been against the division, because he doesn't see the point.

[gingerella]

I actually enjoy all the division of the estate and the business dealing, be they coal, canals, railways or otherwise. Why? Because those are the sole domain of men during this time period and I enjoy seeing Anne run roughshod over the men, who barely read one iota of anything related their dealings. They just seem to gossip like hens whilst making big business decisions and Anne is one of the only ones amongst them who actually reads reports, assessments and such, and thus appears to base her business decisions on reality and not gossip and heresay. I like watching how that world unfolds. Plus it is challenging to everyone around them that Anne is so involved in business dealings, and that the two Ann(e)s are seen to be not only dividing up Ann's property, but perhaps folks are seeing where it's all headed - towards one larger co-mingling of both the Ann(s)s properties, and that is both perplexing to others because it forces them to see these two as a couple, and also because their joint properties make them very powerful in this man's world they live in.

[Llywela]

On 6/8/2022 at 11:01 PM, natyxg said:

I think the Walker Estate has a number of properties and it was run as a single one. 

That's how all such estates worked. There would be the family's primary seat - in this case, Crow Nest - with its big manor house and park surrounded by farmland and villages, all owned by the estate, but there would also be other properties, brought into the portfolio usually by marriage or inheritance, sometimes by purchase. For some estates, those other properties might be scattered across the county - for others, they might be scattered across the entire country. And all of that property generated income, mostly via rent.

We've seen a lot of how that worked in action through Anne's storylines this season - constructing mines on one bit of her land, which should in time generate additional income rather than just being a stretch of land left to lie fallow, and turning another of her properties into a hotel. That house would originally have been a separate manor house with its own parkland and estate, but it was joined to the Lister estate at some point in the past, probably through marriage. The family isn't living in the house, so rather than leave it empty or rent it out, Anne is turning the house itself into a hotel and also building a commercial complex on what was once the grounds of that house, rather than leave it as formal garden and parkland.

The Walker estate seems to be quite large, larger and richer than the Lister estate, and encompasses numerous separate pieces of property, which seem to be quite scattered, from what we've been told of how the division is working. There might be other big houses like Crow Nest, which would be rented out if the family wasn't using them. There would be farms, probably entire villages and all the houses and businesses in them, all paying rent, maybe other properties like mills or quarries here or there. Washington's job, as steward, was to divvy them all up into two equal lots, so that each sister received exactly half of the estate's overall value. We've seen from the discussions that Ann wanted the lot that formed an unbroken stretch of land around Crow Nest, giving her sister the lot containing scattered properties elsewhere, since Elizabeth is in Scotland anyway and won't be actually living on her share of the estate, so for her what matters is income rather than location.

11 minutes ago, gingerella said:

I actually enjoy all the division of the estate and the business dealing, be they coal, canals, railways or otherwise. Why? Because those are the sole domain of men during this time period and I enjoy seeing Anne run roughshod over the men, who barely read one iota of anything related their dealings. They just seem to gossip like hens whilst making big business decisions and Anne is one of the only ones amongst them who actually reads reports, assessments and such, and thus appears to base her business decisions on reality and not gossip and heresay. I like watching how that world unfolds. Plus it is challenging to everyone around them that Anne is so involved in business dealings, and that the two Ann(e)s are seen to be not only dividing up Ann's property, but perhaps folks are seeing where it's all headed - towards one larger co-mingling of both the Ann(s)s properties, and that is both perplexing to others because it forces them to see these two as a couple, and also because their joint properties make them very powerful in this man's world they live in.

Me too, I've been enjoying the storylines and haven't found them difficult to follow. It probably helps, though, that I know quite a lot about the history of this era, which is right in the teeth of the industrial revolution, so that I knew going in what they are all talking about!

[gingerella]

5 hours ago, Llywela said:

That's how all such estates worked. There would be the family's primary seat - in this case, Crow Nest - with its big manor house and park surrounded by farmland and villages, all owned by the estate, but there would also be other properties, brought into the portfolio usually by marriage or inheritance, sometimes by purchase. For some estates, those other properties might be scattered across the county - for others, they might be scattered across the entire country. And all of that property generated income, mostly via rent.

We've seen a lot of how that worked in action through Anne's storylines this season - constructing mines on one bit of her land, which should in time generate additional income rather than just being a stretch of land left to lie fallow, and turning another of her properties into a hotel. That house would originally have been a separate manor house with its own parkland and estate, but it was joined to the Lister estate at some point in the past, probably through marriage. The family isn't living in the house, so rather than leave it empty or rent it out, Anne is turning the house itself into a hotel and also building a commercial complex on what was once the grounds of that house, rather than leave it as formal garden and parkland.

The Walker estate seems to be quite large, larger and richer than the Lister estate, and encompasses numerous separate pieces of property, which seem to be quite scattered, from what we've been told of how the division is working. There might be other big houses like Crow Nest, which would be rented out if the family wasn't using them. There would be farms, probably entire villages and all the houses and businesses in them, all paying rent, maybe other properties like mills or quarries here or there. Washington's job, as steward, was to divvy them all up into two equal lots, so that each sister received exactly half of the estate's overall value. We've seen from the discussions that Ann wanted the lot that formed an unbroken stretch of land around Crow Nest, giving her sister the lot containing scattered properties elsewhere, since Elizabeth is in Scotland anyway and won't be actually living on her share of the estate, so for her what matters is income rather than location.

Me too, I've been enjoying the storylines and haven't found them difficult to follow. It probably helps, though, that I know quite a lot about the history of this era, which is right in the teeth of the industrial revolution, so that I knew going in what they are all talking about!

Ah well my friend, all of this back and forth talk about business and division of estates is child's play compared to trying to follow all the various dealings in GoTs!

ETA: I too love the Georginan era! So much change towards what we know today in terms.of industrialized progress.

Edited June 11, 2022 by gingerella