S02.E07: Wonders Never Cease

[Sarah 103]

On 12/10/2023 at 10:38 PM, quarks said:

3. I've been asking this for two seasons now and I will continue asking: why does John Adams continue to be friends with Oscar? John Adams, my dude, I realize that dating men during this era was tricky, to say the least, but still. Have better standards for yourself.

Because love and lust makes you stupid.

On 12/11/2023 at 2:22 PM, meep.meep said:

We can thank our lucky stars that no plucky servants have been accused of murder yet.

I am mad/annoyed at you for even putting that out into the universe.

On 12/11/2023 at 6:31 PM, BeatrixK said:

I am so invested in Jack's Clock Saga and I have no earthly idea why - but i love the ingenuity and his hopefulness.

Same here. I think because it's a very American story.

On 12/11/2023 at 7:14 PM, Fake Jan Brady said:

She is Mrs Bruce, so somebody must have hit on her at least once.

Mrs. was used for the cook and the housekeeper even though she was single/never married.

On 12/12/2023 at 4:44 PM, AntFTW said:

Oscar is a banker, but we don't know what kind of banker he is. He's clearly not a banker that deals in acquisitions.

This makes sense to me and is a logical explanation for his stupid behavior. There are different kinds of bankers.

[oceanblue]

In our bank one person is always the Greeter, no many how many people are in line.  maybe that's Oscar here.

But this little fiasco is not going to help him work his way up to teller!

[ferjy]

On 12/11/2023 at 9:59 AM, ofmd said:

He is an idiot imho, but Agnes isn't necessarily.

No, I didn’t think she was either. Not one of her wisest moves, however, when she well knew that Oscar is an idiot. I was really surprised when she said Oscar has always taken care of her financial affairs. Oh Agnes, Agnes… Still shaking my head. 

[Roseanna]

8 hours ago, ferjy said:

No, I didn’t think she was either. Not one of her wisest moves, however, when she well knew that Oscar is an idiot. I was really surprised when she said Oscar has always taken care of her financial affairs. Oh Agnes, Agnes… Still shaking my head. 

I don't think it was curious in the the last analysis. At the time it was natural for  women to give the taking care of them to a male relative. When Agnes became a widow, she had no knowledge about the matter, nor did she know any professional who she could have given the task. Oscar had done well for years, not that there was much to do but f.g. collect the interests. 

Let's remember that in the first season the men of City Council, including Aurora's husband, begun speculation to ruin George, after they had taken bribes from him. In the series the whole NY elite, whether of the old or new money, is both utterly corrupt and keen to speculate. 

[AntFTW]

18 hours ago, ferjy said:

No, I didn’t think she was either. Not one of her wisest moves, however, when she well knew that Oscar is an idiot. I was really surprised when she said Oscar has always taken care of her financial affairs. Oh Agnes, Agnes… Still shaking my head. 

Oscar is an idiot socially. We have not been shown, at least up until the scam, that Oscar was a financial idiot. Oscar is a banker, and he's being trusted to safeguard assets that will be his inheritance. Perhaps that was the one thing Oscar was good at, maintaining the family fortune.

Agnes couldn't foresee that her son's fortune-hunting would drive him to risk the family fortune on an investment in which he had done no due diligence.

Edited December 26, 2023 by AntFTW

[jenn31]

On 12/26/2023 at 1:24 PM, AntFTW said:

Oscar is an idiot socially. We have not been shown, at least up until the scam, that Oscar was a financial idiot. Oscar is a banker, and he's being trusted to safeguard assets that will be his inheritance. Perhaps that was the one thing Oscar was good at, maintaining the family fortune.

Agnes couldn't foresee that her son's fortune-hunting would drive him to risk the family fortune on an investment in which he had done no due diligence.

Completely disagree with that. Parents know their children better than that, even if they don’t want to admit it. Agnes is not dense. She knew what Oscar was like, and that it would affect his business practices too. It was out of character for her to trust him with all her money, especially after what she had to go through to get it, as she keeps telling us. With her money, she could have easily looked into finding someone more savvy to take care of her financial affairs. I put it down to bad writing. Julian Fellowes isn’t the best at getting from a to z. 

Edited December 28, 2023 by jenn31

[peeayebee]

I think parents often ignore what they know about their children in order to give them a chance to prove themselves. Parents also want to think the best of their children even if all previous evidence shows they probably should not.

[AntFTW]

4 hours ago, jenn31 said:

Completely disagree with that. Parents know their children better than that, even if they don’t want to admit it. Agnes is not dense. She knew what Oscar was like, and that it would affect his business practices too.

Ok. Before the scam, what are the traits in Oscar that Agnes would have seen to suggest he's not a good money manager?

[Roseanna]

On 12/29/2023 at 4:52 AM, AntFTW said:

Ok. Before the scam, what are the traits in Oscar that Agnes would have seen to suggest he's not a good money manager?

Agnes believes that she is a good judge of people, but is it rather that she is prejudiced towards all new acquaintances (Peggy is the only exception) and always waits the worst possible. 

However, that doesn't mean also she couldn't be fooled, only in the different methdos Oscar was.

 

[Camera One]

It's taking me forever to get myself to watch an episode of this.  

The episode was fine, but there was a little bit of everything, so nothing got any real depth and it didn't come together coherently despite the fireworks.

We hardly even knew Aunt Ada's husband, so it was hard to feel much of anything.  

Peggy never kept in touch with any of her childhood friends?  

I'm annoyed with Oscar for investing his mother's money.  At first, I thought he invested to help his "girlfriend".  Did he get greedy after that?