S04.E05: The Calling

[Door County Cherry]

Quote

Eliza and Nash are still struggling to work together when an explosive case takes them into a cutthroat industry where people will kill to keep their secrets.

PBS makes the complete season available on Passport beginning on 1/7. Discussion in this thread may contain plot information pertaining to the episode before it airs on PBS.  Do not use spoiler tags.  

[chitowngirl]

I miss William….

[Orcinus orca]

7 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

I miss William….

I have to wonder how this will all play out. But we know he will be back if there is a next season, otherwise a new title will be needed!

There are some big decisions here, however.  If they are to get together, either Eliza has to give up her dream or William has got to change his way of thinking about Eliza having a career.

[tvmom]

Eliza and William will  be involved with Nash & Sons. Eliza and William will run the London office, and maybe Fitzroy will become a detective there. 

[chaifan]

I actually did not miss William this episode.  I really liked seeing Eliza and Nash interact, argue, bicker, deduce, deduct, agree, agree to disagree and so on.  I don't want Nash to become a romantic rival for William, though.  For a while, I thought I did, but now I just want them to be almost-equals in the business. 

I guess I watch too many modern-era detective shows, but I expected Eliza to go undercover, applying for a job as a switchboard operator to get access to the records.  I feel like there have been several opportunities for Eliza to take advantage of being a woman that the writers skip right over.  (I would have loved if she created a network of informants from the "Elysium", as they would have felt more comfortable with, and wanted to help a female detective.) 

Overall, I liked the mystery this week, I liked the inclusion of new fangled technology, with Eliza showing that she's kept up to date on these things.  I liked that she noted the short in the wires, and figured out how the explosion happened.  I felt bad for the widow/murderer, though, but I liked that she was smart enough to figure out how to rig the explosion through the phone. 

[nora1992]

1 minute ago, chaifan said:

I actually did not miss William this episode.  I really liked seeing Eliza and Nash interact, argue, bicker, deduce, deduct, agree, agree to disagree and so on.  I don't want Nash to become a romantic rival for William, though.  For a while, I thought I did, but now I just want them to be almost-equals in the business. 

I like Nash as a potential interest for Eliza.  Maybe he’ll inherit a dukedom/duchy (not sure which word is correct) so that the title won’t have to change.  

[12catcrazy]

I really enjoyed this episode and did not miss William at all.  I enjoy Eliza and Nash together and how they bounce off one another.   Nash is being a mentor to Eliza (who can act like a real spoiled brat at times)and helping her come into her own.  

I'm probably in the minority here but I would love to see William (and the romantic moping around) gone for good.  

[Magnumfangirl]

This one was boring.  I don't understand what's going on with the show.  Is Stuart Martin only available for half the episodes or is this what the writers and show runners actually want?  If Martin is so busy he can't film 6 episodes at a time (I doubt this because his credits on imdb don't reflect that), then they should do 3 episodes twice a year.

Edited February 6 by Magnumfangirl

[Driad]

Eliza writes with her left hand.  I don't recall anyone criticizing her for that; maybe they have enough ammunition from her being an outspoken woman.

But in this episode she started to peel a potato, holding the knife in her right hand.

[chitowngirl]

I’m left handed and I iron right handed because that’s how I was taught. I tried ironing left handed recently and it felt wrong. 🤷‍♀️

[Salacious Kitty]

I'm a lefty, but I do knife work (except for prepping stuff) right handed. Also use scissors righty. 

[HoodlumSheep]

Eliza lacked a lot of her usual spark this episode and I can only contribute it being caused by William having left. Everytime she spoke...it was not the usually peppy manner in which she speaks.

An okay ep. Glad to see business picking up for Eliza again.

[Daff]

7 hours ago, Driad said:

Eliza writes with her left hand.  I don't recall anyone criticizing her for that; maybe they have enough ammunition from her being an outspoken woman.

But in this episode she started to peel a potato, holding the knife in her right hand.

 

7 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

I'm a lefty, but I do knife work (except for prepping stuff) right handed. Also use scissors righty. 

Being ambidextrous would certainly fit with the character, and I doubt there were “lefty” scissors manufactured at that time. Eliza strikes as the kind of character who would easily frustrate at the inefficiency of trying to complete certain tasks without switching hands, depending on the available tools.

[chaifan]

12 hours ago, HoodlumSheep said:

Eliza lacked a lot of her usual spark this episode and I can only contribute it being caused by William having left. Everytime she spoke...it was not the usually peppy manner in which she speaks.

That was on purpose.  This is why Nash kept telling her to stop sulking, and her reply that she wasn't sulking, she was brooding.  You can't get sulk/brood and pep/spark all at the same time. 

[sugarbaker design]

This show is just weirdly produced.  After losing the charismatic Moses, the producers focus on the two leads only to have the third episode in a six episode season a "When they met" episode that relies on flashbacks with two younger actors, followed by one of the leads disappearing for episode 5.  That being said, even after that lame kiss, I still get more of a brother/sister vibe from our two leads than anything else.

[blackwing]

I enjoyed this episode.  I like Nash.  I like that he respects Eliza's abilities as a detective.  Even after she alienated the entire staff and lost a lot of work, he still relied on her for the cases they were working last week and this week.  

I forget why Eliza joined him in the first place?  Was it so she wouldn't have the burden/stress of running her own agency, and having the established income from Nash?  But she is definitely pulling her weight.  Perhaps by end of next week's season finale, the agency will be called "Nash and Scarlet".

Funny that Nash has an established "Inspector Bates of Scotland Yard" persona, although even though the closed captioning said he had "different accent", I didn't think it was all that different, just a little lower pitched and drawn out.  

Last week William was saying he might not want to go back to the police force.  It seems that when William returns, he may join with Eliza at Nash's agency.

[taanja]

I miss William.

Nash just doesn't do it for me.

[surfgirl]

On 2/7/2024 at 10:46 AM, blackwing said:

I enjoyed this episode.  I like Nash.  I like that he respects Eliza's abilities as a detective.  Even after she alienated the entire staff and lost a lot of work, he still relied on her for the cases they were working last week and this week.  

I forget why Eliza joined him in the first place?  Was it so she wouldn't have the burden/stress of running her own agency, and having the established income from Nash?  But she is definitely pulling her weight.  Perhaps by end of next week's season finale, the agency will be called "Nash and Scarlet".

Funny that Nash has an established "Inspector Bates of Scotland Yard" persona, although even though the closed captioning said he had "different accent", I didn't think it was all that different, just a little lower pitched and drawn out.  

Last week William was saying he might not want to go back to the police force.  It seems that when William returns, he may join with Eliza at Nash's agency.

I like Nash and Eliza too, but as colleagues, not lovers. She and William belong together. I was so surprised to learn about William's background in the earlier episode, I had no idea he was on the streets as he seems like a refined gentleman. Not that you cannot become so, but I just thought he came from a posher background or at least something akin to Eliza's growing up situation. They are a great on screen pair and I miss him. I also miss his protege, and would like both William and his protoge to come and work for Nash. Hell, I'd like Nash to stick around as well because I think having a strong foursome in the mix would do wonders for the show being able to have multiple storylines per episode.

[Ceindreadh]

On 2/12/2024 at 7:15 PM, surfgirl said:

I like Nash and Eliza too, but as colleagues, not lovers. She and William belong together. I was so surprised to learn about William's background in the earlier episode, I had no idea he was on the streets as he seems like a refined gentleman. Not that you cannot become so, but I just thought he came from a posher background or at least something akin to Eliza's growing up situation. They are a great on screen pair and I miss him. I also miss his protege, and would like both William and his protoge to come and work for Nash. Hell, I'd like Nash to stick around as well because I think having a strong foursome in the mix would do wonders for the show being able to have multiple storylines per episode.

We knew from the first season that William didn't have a posh background.  IIRC, at one point he was bemoaning the fact that he'd been passed over for promotion because of who he was, in spite of his skills as a detective.  And I thought for an episode or two that he'd finally understood a little of the prejudices that Eliza had to deal with, but of course it didn't last.

I'm not unhappy that he's gone.  The trouble is that given the setting of the show, Eliza and William can't both have a happy ending.  Marriage might be William's happy ending, but Eliza would lose her independence.