Sanditon 2.5
Aug. 23rd, 2022 11:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThere was so much ‘Jane Austen would never have written this’ about this episode. Obviously, Austen would never have written a lot of what’s come already in this second series, but dealing with whether a girl is a young lady and out and balls? Austen territory. And then there were the ‘Austen wrote this better (in Pride and Prejudice)’ bits. That is not to say I wasn’t very emotionally invested, as you’ll see. Another thing that struck me was some horrible things happened to women and girls, mostly at the hands of men.
We started in ’Up the workers!’ mood, as the tradespeople quite understandably withdrew their goods until the army paid their bills. Oh, noes, the ball we’d never heard about before was in jeopardy! What would all the people invited from London who had zero impact on the plot think? Mrs Wheatly stood up for their boss when Charlotte trash talked him, venting her frustrations based on what she knew. A governess really shouldn’t have talked like that to his long-time housekeeper, but it just goes to show how thoroughly the lines are blurred between Charlotte and Colbourne.
Actually, it was almost surprising that Charlotte turned up for work, I’d been wondering if she still had a job after their last fight. Then she was too chicken to face Colbourne. Still, it was weird that the crisis of her employment status came up later, after he gave a very limited apology but no explanation, and she was still right that he didn’t own her.
In one sense, Augusta should totally chill, everyone in Sanditon is so obsessed their own business that they won’t remember her fainting fit. I thought it was Leonora abusing the keys of the spinet, not Little Miss Attitude. Said attitude strengthened my position that taking a girl who’s still in the schoolroom to a garden party is one thing, but a public ball is another. Especially when it’s a very few days after. Charlotte could quite reasonably have asked Colbourne about how Augusta’s coming out would work in general, but this is Sanditon so it had to be about This Ball. Never mind that in an actual Austen novel you’d have several discussions about what went down in the garden party and the upcoming ball, and Mary would have wanted to know whether Augusta was out to include her in the invitation, which Colbourne would have had to reply to, but fine, serial TV drama doesn’t work like that and so Sanditon’s social calendar and etiquette is what it is.
Alison had decided she was leaving the next thing, despite Charlotte’s hint that she was over-reacting. Fraser, who actually cared about the news, unlike Captain Cowardly Liar, came to apologise for his part. He was met with shocking rudeness – the appropriate Austen heroine’s sister’s response would be an awkward curtsy and a chilly, ‘Good morning, Captain Fraser,’ ALISON/WRITERS. Trust a competent actress to convey, ‘Oh, it’s only you’ while saying something else. Even on ITV.
And also, really, would Mrs Mary Parker open her own front door? No, she would not. So, we were back to the missing servants/lack of budget.
Anyway, Alison and Fraser had a scene where he was really tall and Alison realised Carter had nicked Fraser’s life history but not the poetry loving. I would merely note that while the writers are portraying Fraser as deserving of Alison’s heart, he does seem dumb not to have noticed that he’s surrounded by dishonourable men, not just Carter.
Oh well, it balances things out because Alison continued to be a ninny. I liked how supportive Charlotte and Georgiana were of her decision to go to the ball on her last night. But seriously, you three, how have you failed to notice the Parkers’ concerns about Colonel Lennox not paying his bills? I get that they might not want to discuss it in front of their guests and Georgiana doesn’t actually live with them, and all three were preoccupied, but after Charlotte had danced the first dance with him, they, or certainly Mary might have wanted to step in and whisper, ‘Yeah, don’t do that again.’
Fortunately, Charlotte was protected by feelings for A N Other, whatever Alison, the ninny, thought was going on. It now seemed as though Alison was criticising her big sis for moving on as she’s wanted her to do for weeks. Fortunately, Alison redeemed herself somewhat by seeing other girls potentially falling prey to Captain Carter and gave him a cutting piece of her mind, walking away with her head held high.
As to Fraser’s complimenting her beauty/the beauty of her ‘simple’ dress, at least she pointed out it wasn’t a ball gown. That was a bit clichéd on the ‘Men are useless at this’ front. But it couldn’t quite compete with the Artist brilliantly observing to Georgiana, ‘You’ve done something to your hair!’ What’s his job again? Yes, sir, she has done something to her hair, something of massive personal and cultural significance. I know the take out in both instances was meant to be an indulgent ‘oh, they’re besotted’, but it just felt lazy.
This episode was so yay!Arthur, except when it came to the Artist, for Arthur became the latest of Georgiana’s failboat chaperones, leading to what I presume was a makeout session. Arthur praised the Artist to the skies, but, like Mary, I remain sceptical. Is he in it for the cash or the lust? Or, third choice, is he on the level? It was so telling that Georgiana had to ask whether he wanted her as a mistress. Also, she may have money, but he’s still got more privilege. I’d tend to say she shouldn’t go to Europe with him, myself, however frustrated she is. (That makes for another episode with two proposals. At least no-one nearly drowned, but so far, the only acceptance has been by Clara!)
But back to Arthur. We had some quite touching Parker brother moments, with Tom realising he’d been looking for a Sidney replacement in Lennox while Arthur was stepping up right under his nose, and Arthur praising Tom’s vision.
Satisfying to have Mary dishing out the truth that Sidney had sacrificed his and Charlotte’s happiness because of Tom’s past financial woes. (I don’t know if this is helpful if Tom is a gambling addict, but let’s hope it is.) The moment when Tom tried to acknowledge to Charlotte that he now realised what Sidney had meant to her and that she could have been his sister in law was rather touching.
He also gave away that Alison is 20. (So they could resolve her love story this series and bring in another Heywood sibling.)
But let’s move on to the nasty stuff being done to us wimmenz. They turned the dial up to 11 on the Forehead plot, with him upping the letter snatching and turning to poisoning Esther. Only we and Clara realised this, and her nascent conscience kept telling her it was wrong whilst I was seething for Esther. As we all know Clara is self-interested, once she realised he was doing it out of revenge, wouldn’t that be the time to get herself and George (dunno how strong her mother love is, though) away from all that? On the other hand, Forehead basically threatened her and she knows what he’s capable of now.
Actually watching Esther being made physically unwell and mentally unbalanced was horrible, particularly the final scene with George. Lady Denham, of course, showed no kindness. Fuchs diagnosed hysteria (dude, I know she’s got more information, but Clara is a better diagnostician than you). He also confirmed that his tincture was a placebo. But, even if Babbington has (seemingly) been incommunicado, wouldn’t the call to send Esther to an asylum be ultimately his?
On a more flippant note, possibly the most incredible thing that happened this episode was Lady D claiming to have a friend in Ramsgate.
Lennox unmasked himself thoroughly in that nasty little proposal, with the intimations of his ignoring Charlotte’s ‘no’ and forcing a kiss/himself on her. Yeah, it was funnier when it was Mr Collins accusing Lizzie of saying ‘no’ but meaning ‘yes’, but this was way darker. Bringing rank i.e. social status into it is proper Austen, granted.
I had divided sympathies for both Lucy and Alexander and their loveless marriage; they clearly didn’t want to spend time together. (I’d thought from the previous episode that maybe his father had forced him to marry her, but that didn’t come out in the story.) So did Colbourne say he was very young or that they were very young? If it was the latter, it was a mistake to make Lucy Augusta’s mother’s twin, sisters would have sufficed. Anyway, we and Charlotte found out how badly Lennox had treated his lover, and that Colbourne did the honourable thing, if not very kindly.
But mainly, I am all LEO, NO! I wish I hadn’t been right about her conception. Eavesdroppers never hear well of themselves, fine, but what a way to learn all that horrible truth. It might have been better for her never to learn it, but certainly not that way, so really, despite all the delicious build-up to the Heybourne kissing, I was ‘LEO, KITTEN, NO!’ And touché, show, on having Lennox and his horse nearly trample his own daughter unknowingly, although another question I have is he must have remembered Colbourne lived near Sanditon, so why agree to Edward’s suggestion they come there?
But the shipping stuff was otherwise delicious. Charlotte using ‘the girls’ as proxy to explain why she wanted to stick to her job and mistaking Alison’s ‘him’ again. She knew how she felt. And Charlotte and Alexander were both continuing to emote at each other about how much he’d apologise because it mattered so much. And then, after all he’d said, Alexander proved he could change (because of love!) by turning up to the ball (even if balls don’t work like that, as covered above.)
I called that he’d be dancing, and the camera work during their dance was excellent, kinetic, intimate and focusing on the gestures and lending them meaning. The camera work was nearly as good in Alison and Fraser’s dance. Were they dancing different steps to the background dancers? I liked how they’d switched into Farmer’s Daughter/Rudest Man Ever banter, it worked in a way that Georgiana/the Artist’s bantz has mostly failed to.
And everything Colbourne said during the dance, pretty much using the girls as proxies for Charlotte’s effect on him - the reanimation and transformation! Full marks to him once he saw her straight after the scene with Lennox for suppressing the wish to throttle Lennox and focusing on her. Charlotte deserved an explanation then and there. I had a whole kneejerk ‘Austen would never write that’ when, because of Augusta, he moved the location to his place. I appreciate the ‘please stay with me always’ subtext that was also there when he demanded Charlotte come away from the garden party and Lennox with him in the previous ep, but no way would a Colbourne be able to invite a Miss Heywood into his carriage over to his from a ball in those circumstances. The conversation should have been postponed until the next morning and happened at either the Parkers’ or his place. Really, Mrs Whately’s eyebrows should have shot up at Charlotte turning up at night. I get that it was all about Leo and maximum drama, and I’ll be interested to see how they play what happened next, because this is blatantly transplanting modern mores on Regency propriety. I know, they’ve done it before, but still.
Oh, Leo, staying up and wanting to hear everything about the ball, and Charlotte promising her answers tomorrow! I know I’ve overthought this, but I suppose Mrs Whately was helping Augusta change instead of making sure Leo had gone to bed and stayed there. That’s the problem when you only seem to have one servant in a house when there should certainly be more.
And really, how much of this could Colbourne have told Charlotte before? You don’t exactly go and tell the world at large that you were cuckolded by someone, do you? Or that he knocked your wife up and abandoned her? There was a lot of guilt as there should be. You can already contrast how Alexander and Charlotte want to spend time together with his marriage. Yeah, he’s grown up and some of it is responsibility towards Augusta, but he’s been overcoming anti-social inclinations and habits because he can’t keep away from Charlotte. Her pointing out that he had to forgive himself and let the past go because of a dear future was better writing than a lot of what we’ve had on this show. The hand holding would have sufficed for me at this point.
And Leo heard it all! About how her father wasn’t her father, about her mother taking her own life, that a rotter was her birth father! KITTEN! I bet it’s her, not the army that’s dong a flit.
This episode jossed about three different fics I was working on.
[Edited for typos 30/1/25.]
We started in ’Up the workers!’ mood, as the tradespeople quite understandably withdrew their goods until the army paid their bills. Oh, noes, the ball we’d never heard about before was in jeopardy! What would all the people invited from London who had zero impact on the plot think? Mrs Wheatly stood up for their boss when Charlotte trash talked him, venting her frustrations based on what she knew. A governess really shouldn’t have talked like that to his long-time housekeeper, but it just goes to show how thoroughly the lines are blurred between Charlotte and Colbourne.
Actually, it was almost surprising that Charlotte turned up for work, I’d been wondering if she still had a job after their last fight. Then she was too chicken to face Colbourne. Still, it was weird that the crisis of her employment status came up later, after he gave a very limited apology but no explanation, and she was still right that he didn’t own her.
In one sense, Augusta should totally chill, everyone in Sanditon is so obsessed their own business that they won’t remember her fainting fit. I thought it was Leonora abusing the keys of the spinet, not Little Miss Attitude. Said attitude strengthened my position that taking a girl who’s still in the schoolroom to a garden party is one thing, but a public ball is another. Especially when it’s a very few days after. Charlotte could quite reasonably have asked Colbourne about how Augusta’s coming out would work in general, but this is Sanditon so it had to be about This Ball. Never mind that in an actual Austen novel you’d have several discussions about what went down in the garden party and the upcoming ball, and Mary would have wanted to know whether Augusta was out to include her in the invitation, which Colbourne would have had to reply to, but fine, serial TV drama doesn’t work like that and so Sanditon’s social calendar and etiquette is what it is.
Alison had decided she was leaving the next thing, despite Charlotte’s hint that she was over-reacting. Fraser, who actually cared about the news, unlike Captain Cowardly Liar, came to apologise for his part. He was met with shocking rudeness – the appropriate Austen heroine’s sister’s response would be an awkward curtsy and a chilly, ‘Good morning, Captain Fraser,’ ALISON/WRITERS. Trust a competent actress to convey, ‘Oh, it’s only you’ while saying something else. Even on ITV.
And also, really, would Mrs Mary Parker open her own front door? No, she would not. So, we were back to the missing servants/lack of budget.
Anyway, Alison and Fraser had a scene where he was really tall and Alison realised Carter had nicked Fraser’s life history but not the poetry loving. I would merely note that while the writers are portraying Fraser as deserving of Alison’s heart, he does seem dumb not to have noticed that he’s surrounded by dishonourable men, not just Carter.
Oh well, it balances things out because Alison continued to be a ninny. I liked how supportive Charlotte and Georgiana were of her decision to go to the ball on her last night. But seriously, you three, how have you failed to notice the Parkers’ concerns about Colonel Lennox not paying his bills? I get that they might not want to discuss it in front of their guests and Georgiana doesn’t actually live with them, and all three were preoccupied, but after Charlotte had danced the first dance with him, they, or certainly Mary might have wanted to step in and whisper, ‘Yeah, don’t do that again.’
Fortunately, Charlotte was protected by feelings for A N Other, whatever Alison, the ninny, thought was going on. It now seemed as though Alison was criticising her big sis for moving on as she’s wanted her to do for weeks. Fortunately, Alison redeemed herself somewhat by seeing other girls potentially falling prey to Captain Carter and gave him a cutting piece of her mind, walking away with her head held high.
As to Fraser’s complimenting her beauty/the beauty of her ‘simple’ dress, at least she pointed out it wasn’t a ball gown. That was a bit clichéd on the ‘Men are useless at this’ front. But it couldn’t quite compete with the Artist brilliantly observing to Georgiana, ‘You’ve done something to your hair!’ What’s his job again? Yes, sir, she has done something to her hair, something of massive personal and cultural significance. I know the take out in both instances was meant to be an indulgent ‘oh, they’re besotted’, but it just felt lazy.
This episode was so yay!Arthur, except when it came to the Artist, for Arthur became the latest of Georgiana’s failboat chaperones, leading to what I presume was a makeout session. Arthur praised the Artist to the skies, but, like Mary, I remain sceptical. Is he in it for the cash or the lust? Or, third choice, is he on the level? It was so telling that Georgiana had to ask whether he wanted her as a mistress. Also, she may have money, but he’s still got more privilege. I’d tend to say she shouldn’t go to Europe with him, myself, however frustrated she is. (That makes for another episode with two proposals. At least no-one nearly drowned, but so far, the only acceptance has been by Clara!)
But back to Arthur. We had some quite touching Parker brother moments, with Tom realising he’d been looking for a Sidney replacement in Lennox while Arthur was stepping up right under his nose, and Arthur praising Tom’s vision.
Satisfying to have Mary dishing out the truth that Sidney had sacrificed his and Charlotte’s happiness because of Tom’s past financial woes. (I don’t know if this is helpful if Tom is a gambling addict, but let’s hope it is.) The moment when Tom tried to acknowledge to Charlotte that he now realised what Sidney had meant to her and that she could have been his sister in law was rather touching.
He also gave away that Alison is 20. (So they could resolve her love story this series and bring in another Heywood sibling.)
But let’s move on to the nasty stuff being done to us wimmenz. They turned the dial up to 11 on the Forehead plot, with him upping the letter snatching and turning to poisoning Esther. Only we and Clara realised this, and her nascent conscience kept telling her it was wrong whilst I was seething for Esther. As we all know Clara is self-interested, once she realised he was doing it out of revenge, wouldn’t that be the time to get herself and George (dunno how strong her mother love is, though) away from all that? On the other hand, Forehead basically threatened her and she knows what he’s capable of now.
Actually watching Esther being made physically unwell and mentally unbalanced was horrible, particularly the final scene with George. Lady Denham, of course, showed no kindness. Fuchs diagnosed hysteria (dude, I know she’s got more information, but Clara is a better diagnostician than you). He also confirmed that his tincture was a placebo. But, even if Babbington has (seemingly) been incommunicado, wouldn’t the call to send Esther to an asylum be ultimately his?
On a more flippant note, possibly the most incredible thing that happened this episode was Lady D claiming to have a friend in Ramsgate.
Lennox unmasked himself thoroughly in that nasty little proposal, with the intimations of his ignoring Charlotte’s ‘no’ and forcing a kiss/himself on her. Yeah, it was funnier when it was Mr Collins accusing Lizzie of saying ‘no’ but meaning ‘yes’, but this was way darker. Bringing rank i.e. social status into it is proper Austen, granted.
I had divided sympathies for both Lucy and Alexander and their loveless marriage; they clearly didn’t want to spend time together. (I’d thought from the previous episode that maybe his father had forced him to marry her, but that didn’t come out in the story.) So did Colbourne say he was very young or that they were very young? If it was the latter, it was a mistake to make Lucy Augusta’s mother’s twin, sisters would have sufficed. Anyway, we and Charlotte found out how badly Lennox had treated his lover, and that Colbourne did the honourable thing, if not very kindly.
But mainly, I am all LEO, NO! I wish I hadn’t been right about her conception. Eavesdroppers never hear well of themselves, fine, but what a way to learn all that horrible truth. It might have been better for her never to learn it, but certainly not that way, so really, despite all the delicious build-up to the Heybourne kissing, I was ‘LEO, KITTEN, NO!’ And touché, show, on having Lennox and his horse nearly trample his own daughter unknowingly, although another question I have is he must have remembered Colbourne lived near Sanditon, so why agree to Edward’s suggestion they come there?
But the shipping stuff was otherwise delicious. Charlotte using ‘the girls’ as proxy to explain why she wanted to stick to her job and mistaking Alison’s ‘him’ again. She knew how she felt. And Charlotte and Alexander were both continuing to emote at each other about how much he’d apologise because it mattered so much. And then, after all he’d said, Alexander proved he could change (because of love!) by turning up to the ball (even if balls don’t work like that, as covered above.)
I called that he’d be dancing, and the camera work during their dance was excellent, kinetic, intimate and focusing on the gestures and lending them meaning. The camera work was nearly as good in Alison and Fraser’s dance. Were they dancing different steps to the background dancers? I liked how they’d switched into Farmer’s Daughter/Rudest Man Ever banter, it worked in a way that Georgiana/the Artist’s bantz has mostly failed to.
And everything Colbourne said during the dance, pretty much using the girls as proxies for Charlotte’s effect on him - the reanimation and transformation! Full marks to him once he saw her straight after the scene with Lennox for suppressing the wish to throttle Lennox and focusing on her. Charlotte deserved an explanation then and there. I had a whole kneejerk ‘Austen would never write that’ when, because of Augusta, he moved the location to his place. I appreciate the ‘please stay with me always’ subtext that was also there when he demanded Charlotte come away from the garden party and Lennox with him in the previous ep, but no way would a Colbourne be able to invite a Miss Heywood into his carriage over to his from a ball in those circumstances. The conversation should have been postponed until the next morning and happened at either the Parkers’ or his place. Really, Mrs Whately’s eyebrows should have shot up at Charlotte turning up at night. I get that it was all about Leo and maximum drama, and I’ll be interested to see how they play what happened next, because this is blatantly transplanting modern mores on Regency propriety. I know, they’ve done it before, but still.
Oh, Leo, staying up and wanting to hear everything about the ball, and Charlotte promising her answers tomorrow! I know I’ve overthought this, but I suppose Mrs Whately was helping Augusta change instead of making sure Leo had gone to bed and stayed there. That’s the problem when you only seem to have one servant in a house when there should certainly be more.
And really, how much of this could Colbourne have told Charlotte before? You don’t exactly go and tell the world at large that you were cuckolded by someone, do you? Or that he knocked your wife up and abandoned her? There was a lot of guilt as there should be. You can already contrast how Alexander and Charlotte want to spend time together with his marriage. Yeah, he’s grown up and some of it is responsibility towards Augusta, but he’s been overcoming anti-social inclinations and habits because he can’t keep away from Charlotte. Her pointing out that he had to forgive himself and let the past go because of a dear future was better writing than a lot of what we’ve had on this show. The hand holding would have sufficed for me at this point.
And Leo heard it all! About how her father wasn’t her father, about her mother taking her own life, that a rotter was her birth father! KITTEN! I bet it’s her, not the army that’s dong a flit.
This episode jossed about three different fics I was working on.
[Edited for typos 30/1/25.]
