S03.E06: Season 3, Episode 6

[nodorothyparker]

Airdate 2019.08.14

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After the violent events of the previous day, Margaret attempts to ensure her family’s safety and also protect Jonas’ interests.  Lucy and Elizabeth try to keep Golden Square within their grasp as threats escalate.

[Jlina]

Lucy wishing she'd listened to Margaret about now?  

The new girl is showing a lot of agency of her own, independent of Quigly.  That's interesting. I wonder if it is her familial background vs being raised on the streets so to speak. And yes, I know they were awful but it was maybe stable.

I was surprised the brother believed Margaret was gone and didn't go down to check.  Felt like a mistep in the show.  Emily Lacy is the personification of "bosom heaving!" That was painful to watch.

Yeah Fanny! 

Edited August 15, 2019 by Jlina
*vs

[ElizaD]

Wow. Margaret is gone, Lucy called her out on what she'd done, and Fanny is the Greek Street bawd. I'm thrilled with all of those developments. It's a shame that the show is probably not getting a fourth season, because even though Charlotte was in a league of her own I'd love a season about Lydia and her current girls, Lucy/Elizabeth and their house, and Fanny/Nancy giving Greek Street their own touch.

Emily is the worst liar ever. Everything about her screamed guilt, even more than when she was trying to hide the Pinchers' involvement in Charlotte's death.

[chaifan]

I'm sort of glad Margaret is gone.  And although I like the actress, I hope the character is really gone this time.  The Margaret vs. Lydia battle is old and done, and I think things were more interesting without her the first few episodes.

I loved the wedding reception scene back at Golden Square.  Such a shame that it had to end so abruptly.  Elizabeth's new hubby has a right to be mad about Elizabeth not disclosing her debts, but um, hello?  Pot, meet kettle. 

The prince is just soooo creepy with the garish makeup.  I'd like to see a scene with him without makeup.  Do we know how old he is supposed to be? 

This is somewhat shallow of me, but I want to know who does Lucy's hair.  They never show any house maids/servants at Golden Square, but her hair is always magnificently done. 

[rollacoaster]

The theme of the season so far is:

For her fierce love of friends and family, Margaret ruins everything. 

Cherry looked quite fetching in her new togs!

Emily Lacey may have to kill that whore who knows her secret. I suspect she'll keep coming back to shake her down. Poor Emily is under so much stress right now. 

Blayne is just so...gross.

I like this saucy, independent Kate. I'm intrigued to see where her story goes. 

Mr. Young is a silver fox. He's feisty!

That was a surprisingly touching parting scene between Margaret and Lydia. I think Lydia might be headed towards a measure of healing and redemption. Maybe. 

Mr. North truly is a rock in the midst of all this chaos. I might have gotten something in my eye when Margaret left him on the pier. 

Aw shit! That Hal is a dogged sort. I fear for Emily Lacey. 

Knox tickles me with his hilarious reactions to so many women whispering in his ear. 

Elizabeth Harvey looked like a walking wedding cake cake in that white dress. 

Edited August 15, 2019 by rollacoaster
additional thoughts

[LadyintheLoop]

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Blayne is just so...gross.

When I see that mane flying I think, "Kirstie Alley looks rough."

So Nell might have been taken by slavers instead of Spartans? Maybe London's not that much safer than the colonies.

[kieyra]

In no particular order, like the show ...

I love the actress who plays Cherry and I want to see more work from her.

I’m relieved Margaret is gone, but I didn’t need another episode of goodbyes.

Agree Lucy always looks stunning. 

I could watch Nancy and Isabella forever, and I want them to move in together and become scandalous lady friends. 

I do loathe Blayne but I think we need him as the show’s, or season’s, final big bad. Lydia isn’t exactly on a redemption arc, but she’s not exactly not either. 

No idea what Kate is up to, but that’s better than her just having things done *to* her.

This was the first episode where I stopped actively missing Charlotte. It’s still a shame, though. She was a fantastic character.

I thought it was hilarious that everyone was all “DRAT! That Margaret Wells got away!” and then they cut to a shot of her in a rowboat five feet away. 

Edited August 16, 2019 by kieyra

[tennisgurl]

As much as I like Margaret, I hope that she is really gone, the show is more interesting with her gone at this point. Of course I guess that leaves Lucy as our kind of main character, which...I like Lucy, but her being the last Wells women standing just seems bizarre to me. I do appreciate that Margaret had a nice moment with little Jacob, who she really hasn't had a lot of scenes with, considering she is his mother. 

Isaac might not have been the best guy, but I did feel sad for Hal, his grief felt very real throughout, even knowing what a pain his brother was. And again, while he wasn't a particularly good person, he was killed in the end for something that he didn't do.

Lydia's new girl is already making some of her own moves to get the creepy princes favor and turn him against the other creepy guy, and is already showing some autonomy. The poor girl is really pretty well, all things considered. 

I still miss Charlotte. 

[PinkRibbons]

I loved the last moments with Lucy and Quiqley. I felt like Lydia just realized that oops, she doesn't actually know this Wells woman. She raised Margaret and was there when Charlotte was born (and, lets be fair, Charlotte disclosed some real pain about her mother selling her off to help convince Lydia she was loyal). Lucy is this blonde enigma to her. I mean, we know that Lucy is relatively harmless unless she's holding something sharp (and goodness knows she is a poor judge of character, ie. Fallon and Bess), but as far as Lydia can see, Lucy has a possibility of being a real player whose moves she doesn't know.

I love that Lucy unabashedly loves money first. That'll be a first for Quigley to deal with from a Wells.

Kate Fleetwood is such a joy, and I'm so glad she's back being magnificent after her awful mustache-twirling character on Victoria. So many people were blaming her and not the awful writing; the whole time I had to watch reactions to her as Feo I wanted to scream "EVERYBODY JUST STEP AWAY AND WATCH HARLOTS".

[nodorothyparker]

Margaret's long goodbye dragged on more than a little, well, long.  It feels very much like a final act for an actor who knows they're not coming back, so for Margaret to pop back up again later would just feel unnecessary.  That said, Lucy and then North letting Margaret know in no uncertain terms just what a wrecking ball she's been in their lives was terrific.  Loved North's consternation at spelling that out for her only for the first thing out of her mouth to be that Isaac Pincher is now dead too.  I could only laugh at everyone rushing around on the docks and darn! just missed Margaret when she was right there after running hither and yon all over greater London with no more disguise than a hood.

I really appreciate when the show remembers that Leslie Manville has the chops to give Lydia layers rather than just playing a Disney villain in a powdered wig.  Her "truth is a complex beast" scene with Kate laying out her backstory of being sexually abused as a child and what it made her was so well done in making me want to feel for Lydia until I remembered that this is in fact Lydia and it can very well be her at her most honest and still be her using it to manipulate Kate to get back on her good side.  Combine her acknowledging here that she's often turned her pain and anger on other people, her grief for Charlotte and seemingly obvious affection for Kate, with her surprisingly tender goodbye to "Maggie" and it's almost possible to think that even among all her scheming she's at a place where she's looking for a genuine connection.  I liked Lydia's final scene with Lucy too, in that she seemed to be trying to size her up after likely assuming Lucy is a pretty enough lightweight compared to Margaret or Charlotte.  Lucy looked like a china doll in that pink gown.

Good for Kate in being savvy enough to be less than fully trusting of either Lydia or Blayne and making moves in her own right.  Yeah, I know the ridiculous wig and makeup was extremely fashionable for men at the time, but knowing that doesn't make the prince feel any less patently ridiculous as an object of such intense desire.  And yes, I realize that's entirely the point as none of these people are seeking him for his good looks or sparkling wit.

Pairing Nancy up with Isabella is logical enough, I suppose, since their other main pairings are now off the canvas.  Of course we learn that Blayne had the guy Sophia ran off on his payroll the whole time.

At the rate this season is shaping up Emily is going to end up killing the red-headed whore who seems to have found blackmail a preferable source of revenue to whoring.  If she or Hal don't end up having to kill the other first.

[Scarlett45]

On 8/15/2019 at 12:30 AM, Jlina said:

The new girl is showing a lot of agency of her own, independent of Quigly.  That's interesting. I wonder if it is her familial background vs being raised on the streets so to speak. And yes, I know they were awful but it was maybe stable.

The new girl, Kate, was raised on a farm with her parents. Her father died and her mother remarried that awful Rev who locked her up in Bedlam. It’s quite possible her upbringing was stable and loving, it looks as if she had some type of education (she could read the obituary just fine). That would certainly give her a different perspective and set of skills than someone who grew up around sex work. 

On 8/15/2019 at 1:13 PM, LadyintheLoop said:

So Nell might have been taken by slavers instead of Spartans? Maybe London's not that much safer than the colonies.

I thought it was established Nell was taken by slavers. 

[ferjy]

On 8/16/2019 at 2:16 AM, PinkRibbons said:

Kate Fleetwood is such a joy, and I'm so glad she's back being magnificent after her awful mustache-twirling character on Victoria. So many people were blaming her and not the awful writing; the whole time I had to watch reactions to her as Feo I wanted to scream "EVERYBODY JUST STEP AWAY AND WATCH HARLOTS".

So true. I’ve always liked her as Nance, she’s superb in the role and I could hardly believe it was the same actress in Victoria, it was such a badly written character. 

[jnymph]

On ‎8‎/‎18‎/‎2019 at 11:00 PM, ferjy said:

So true. I’ve always liked her as Nance, she’s superb in the role and I could hardly believe it was the same actress in Victoria, it was such a badly written character. 

Completely agree !  She's a great actress, very charismatic.

OK WTF is up with this Margaret storyline?   She's gone !  She's back !  She's gone !  Honestly, this plotline is so ridiculous, I'm THIS CLOSE to bailing on this show.   However, as mentioned above, I'm probably coming back just for Kate Fleetwood. 

[aradia22]

I hate when Will yells at Margaret.

Too many things were going on. This was an episode where the choppy editing and criss-crossing storylines hurt the storytelling. I super duper don't care about Elizabeth Harvey and the silks guy. We don't have time for Jack being kidnapped. What is even happening?

It is out of nowhere but Katherine making moves against Blayne makes me like her more. Though Katherine and Knox is a dumb, underdeveloped plotline. I miss the Scanwells.

Fanny gets the house? I mean, yay? But also, nothing feels real in season 3. People keep dying but stuff barely makes sense. 

Y'all, Hal is bad.

[aradia22]

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I was surprised the brother believed Margaret was gone and didn't go down to check.  Felt like a mistep in the show.  

It felt like the show not wanting to actually risk losing the actors in a row boat on the sea. They had barely paddled away from shore. But I think we were supposed to understand that they were genuinely gone and Hal couldn't have caught them unless he was firing at them from shore.  It would have been better illustrated if they had rented a ship but I can forgive them for not wanting to go to the expense for one scene of Margaret reconnecting with Jonas and then showing them sailing off.

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I'd love a season about Lydia and her current girls, Lucy/Elizabeth and their house, and Fanny/Nancy giving Greek Street their own touch.

My problem is Lydia is always ridiculously evil. She's always mixed up with someone like Blayne and torturing her girls for no reason. I would like to see more of the struggles of the molly house as so far there's been barely any of it. What we have is mostly about Fredo. It's like if Fanny and Armitage were our entire understanding of Margaret's house in the first season. I love Nancy but I'm more interested in how Fanny might change things running her own house. Maybe they'd hire someone to babysit any children and she'd take in more of the overlooked girls. 

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This is somewhat shallow of me, but I want to know who does Lucy's hair.  They never show any house maids/servants at Golden Square, but her hair is always magnificently done. 

Actually, I would love to see more house maids/servants. Not creepy footman but you know... real people just doing their jobs.

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As much as I like Margaret, I hope that she is really gone, the show is more interesting with her gone at this point. Of course I guess that leaves Lucy as our kind of main character, which...I like Lucy, but her being the last Wells women standing just seems bizarre to me. 

I think the problem was how the show used Margaret. As much as she did things for her family and it was always consistent with how the character was written, there could never be peace because the writers love to use Margaret to stir things up. She's not quite an antagonist to Charlotte and Lucy but bringing her back at this time, it was inevitable that things would go wrong. Margaret is a tool for the writers. But by removing her from the plot for so many episodes, she no longer fit so when she came back and did her Margaret thing, it wasn't in service of the goals of the other characters like it has been in previous seasons. I did thing it was kind of nasty of the writers to have Charlotte throw that shot at her about Charlotte's tru wuv (eye roll) who she was going to escape with to America. NO ONE CARES, Charlotte. Also, yes, totally bizarre because Lucy is the most lacking in self-preservation skills.

[Roseanna]

On 8/16/2019 at 7:36 AM, tennisgurl said:

Isaac might not have been the best guy, but I did feel sad for Hal, his grief felt very real throughout, even knowing what a pain his brother was. And again, while he wasn't a particularly good person, he was killed in the end for something that he didn't do.

The reason Isaac was killed was because he threatened with the gun the women who had come to encounter him about Charlotte's death.

Looking deeper, Isaac was killed because of his, Hal and Emily's character and deeds.

I find difficult to see anything good in him. Well, he didn't try to save his life by accusing his brother.