Episode 2
Season 1
Episode 2
Editor’s Rating
4 stars
****
Photo: Sean Gleason/Mammoth Screen/Masterpiece
I know some of you have already watched this series in full (it premiered last fall in the U.K.), and some of you have watched a previous adaptation, and some of you have — this can’t be right — read the book? So please know that unless I come into a show with prior information, I try to remain spoiler-free so I can toss narrative guesses into the ether willy-nilly. I have picked up from others that Soames is an antihero, but I am going to champion his likely-doomed relationship anyway. Maybe it will all work out this time! People love drastically changing classics.
We left off with Frances learning that Dressmaker Louisa’s children are Jolyon’s from their Venetian dalliance ten years ago. She returns home, and Louisa hyperventilates because, wow, things sure are coming to a head all of a sudden. Frances decides to put this on pause, though, because the family is going to the opera tonight (a very alive and valid art form! Check out your local opera company!), and Frances has invited the Carterets to their box. The Forsyte parents want to match up June with Boy Carteret and Soames with Girl Carteret. Unfortunately for them, June has this whole New Woman schtick she’s trying, and Soames is obsessed with Irene the Ballerina, not that his family is at all aware.
While Bill from True Blood (Jolyon’s dad) has made the announcement that Jolyon will succeed him soon, Bill is still in charge at the brokerage. This is good, because Jolyon isn’t even wearing a tie to the office and looks like a dockworker. Get outta here, Jolyon! And wash that product out of your hair; it’s like 1885, for God’s sake. Instead of working, he flashes back to his man-bun life with Louisa in Venice. He doesn’t have a literal man bun in the flashback, but spiritually, he has one. Jol just wants to be an artist on the continent with his soulmate, the former lady’s maid. Honestly, he should do that. Soames and his dad gripe about relation over merit being archaic, and it is! Jolyon shouldn’t have this job. He is a limp noodle held upright from sheer force of will by his wife and father.
Speaking of his wife, I hope you love bitches who get shit done, because I am Team Frances in all of this. She is handling things amazingly. I mean, I guess she could encourage Jolyon’s art more? But her realizing the importance of that would require couples therapy, and I’m relatively certain that didn’t exist at this time. Frances immediately knew something was up between Jolyon and Louisa. FRANCES visited her as soon as she could, solely to gather information. She delicately reminds Jolyon that he is an adult with responsibilities. She visits Louisa again to figure out what her game is, and then, when she finds out that Jolyon knows about the children, Frances immediately has a forthright and calm conversation with him about it. I love her. But I also hope she has a dramatic breakdown later, because that’s what soap operas are about. Jolyon doesn’t deserve her.
Meanwhile, Soames perambulates a park with Irene, examining works of art in progress. Again, I do not care what doom awaits, I am a melting goober about Soft Soames. He’s so into everything Irene says, and Irene just stands there looking like a tiny fawn. Later, they ride in a boat around the lake, and then he arranges a picnic by the water. When they discuss her dancing, he compares it to his talent for numbers, and how they both have to learn a technique and practice it. Then Soames makes it clear he’s not laying claim to any form of artistry! Look at this man trying to find points of connection while also admiring her work and lifting it above his. I can’t. If you’re new to my work, I am very gay, but my wife did hear me say “AW” multiple times while I watched this week’s episode, always about Soames. Soames is the best but also probably the worst. Irene tells him she hopes to go to Paris very soon.
You might say, “Wait, does Irene give one single shit about Soames?” Great, yes, we should definitely think about that. But that’s a bummer, so for now, let’s turn to the opera. They’re seeing La Traviata, which is one of my and many people’s all-time favorites, mostly because it is SO GOOD. If you’ve seen Moulin Rouge, you know the plot. The Carterets and Forsytes are sharing a box as planned. Frances shoves June at Boy Carteret. June interrogates him about Frankenstein, and mentions the creature being forced to do another’s bidding. What? That’s not it, June. Stop making Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s book about your eighteen-year-old angst when it’s about her nineteen-year-old angst. June runs away from Boy and literally runs into another young man. His name is maybe Philip Bassoon? That can’t be right. He gives her a pamphlet on the Fabian Society (British socialists) and runs off. Guess we’ll be seeing that young man of indeterminate name again sometime.
For now, we get to watch “Addio del passato” from Traviata! Fun fact: at my small Christian high school graduation, we could pick a song to play over our senior photo, but it had to either mention God or be orchestral. So I picked the part of “Addio” where she basically says, “God, forgive this fallen woman.” And my high school said “Sounds great, go for it.” What I wanted to do was this, but comic songs rarely bring up God, so here we are. The recording they use for this performance is by a mezzo-soprano, which is fun and different, as usually the heroine is a soprano. “Is that fun?” you ask. Yes!
Nothing else gets accomplished at the opera other than some wonderful world-building. Girl Carteret tells Soames she adores Traviata, which is not a hot take, and Soames ignores her because she is not a waifish ballerina with doe eyes. Try harder next time, Girl Carteret!
Jol flashes back to his time in Venice when Louisa talks about their difference in stations, and he replies, “And no gentleman ever married a lady’s maid?” Not really, Jolyon! Only in Pamela, and everyone hates that book. He decides to go to Louisa’s shop, which she is very unhappy about. She makes him leave, but then he comes back later and sees the kids. So now Jolyon knows he has two kids with Louisa and everyone’s plans are fucked. Jolyon’s dad and Frances have some clandestine meeting in the gazebo, as befits my late Victorian soap opera, and she updates him on all this and how it could imperil Jolyon’s position at the brokerage. Frances trusts in Louisa’s discretion, but she didn’t count on Jolyon being a Pushy Polly who keeps seeing someone who doesn’t want to see them.
When Jol returns home, he and Frances immediately discuss the situation. Again, what great communication. What an example. If this were The Gilded Age, one would storm off for like three episodes in a row. Frances is concerned that Jolyon having “illegitimate” children could be used against him, and she just wants to ignore it and move on. Jolyon doesn’t want to deny the children’s existence, which Frances does not want to hear, and she makes him promise not to tell anyone for now. “It would be catastrophic for you as chairman, for us as a family, for me as your wife.” Yeah, Jolyon! June overhears all of this and is mad at Jolyon.
Okay, back to Irene’s feelings for Soames: she doesn’t have any. Or rather, she is very “Thank you for being such an excellent friend to me” and Soames, whose timeline has moved up because of her imminent move to Paris, declares his intense ardor for her. “You are my heart’s desire. I cannot imagine a life without you.” I’M SORRY BUT I LOVE IT. Irene is baffled by this declaration, though. Soames, sensing potential rejection, offers that they can be engaged on a trial basis, and if she hates it, he’ll release her from it. Irene smiles at him and he looks so happy.
We end with June going to tell Jol’s aunt what’s what, Frances seeing Jol’s paintings brought out again, and Soames smoking a cigar with a very satisfied look on his face. I love this show so much.
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