Wolf Hall: People Will Talk/Out of Time
Jan. 19th, 2025 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessWolf Hall – The Mirror and the Light - Episode 5: Mirror
So many of Henry's wives, and one to be, mentioned or appearing in this one. The key moment, perhaps, was when Cromwell chided Rafe for saying that the King would not do such and such. (Ah, any men about to come into positions of power that that reminds you of?) ‘Such and such’ was elevate Cromwell before destroying him.
Quite a lot of scenes of people telling Cromwell about what other people were doing – the first meeting of Henry and Anna (Anne of Cleves) where she couldn’t hide the fact that she thought him an old buffoon; Henry’s relations with Anna subsequently, and his relations with Catherine Howard, who was English and well-trained enough not to think he was an old buffoon; and the Emperor being disparaging about mere Kings in front of his new bestie. That last was one of the few moments where I could feel condescending towards the character who hadn’t got why this was good news for England, because I had got it. This on a show where I don’t often feel I get it (I don’t even remember the rhyme that would tell me what Anna and Catherine’s fates would be).
The last paragraph was an observation, not the usual ‘show don’t tell’ critique. This is about how these pieces of information affect Cromwell, in the end.
Lots more beef between Cromwell and Norfolk after the previous fight. They were made to shake hands, but Cromwell was set on removing the priests from the Priory, even though entitled old Norfolk had said he shouldn’t (they were meant to pray for his forefathers.) Lots of snobbishness about a cleverclogs upstart nobody versus a brute who thought he’d been born to rule (still talking about Norfolk and Timothy Spall’s expressive face, not Henry). And Cromwell wasn’t wrong that Norfolk was basically pimping out his motherless niece.
Bess talking about how they’d given her her own sister’s prayerbook to erase her name and then have to watch it be gifted to the new favourite was painful.
Anna was interesting, like Cromwell’s lady confidante, you had to admire her while seeing all too clearly what her mistakes were. (Did she have a thing for her interpreter?) Henry wasn’t keen on the match before his humiliation, and wanted to force Mary into a similar match with one of Anna’s relatives (in a fascinating green velvet cap.) I was reminded of Cromwell’s feeling that he had to protect Mary (sometimes from herself, because she certainly had Tudor wilfulness going) and that she had said that she was afraid of pregnancy because she thought she’d take after her mother, although Herny took this reluctance as defiance. And there were probably ambitions for the throne and the return of Catholicism involved there. Mary then vanished from the episode.
All the pressures that we’d seen kept building up, and some of Cromwell’s plans and plots really worked against him. It felt like his associate was right, he’d underestimated Norfolk, and Stephen Smugface was in the background stirring the pot. The rest of the council were, when it came down to it, self-serving and reverting to birth vs talent. Henry was getting tired of Cromwell’s checks, weary of his realism (and a reminder that he’d gone through how many wives in 10 years, and was 10 years away from his younger self.) Still, when the betrayal came – a scrum of men who Cromwell had been lording it over now authorised to turn on him – it was sudden and savage. And still he called out for the ghostly master who’d stopped visiting him. (Well, not in the moment, but throughout the episode.)
So many of Henry's wives, and one to be, mentioned or appearing in this one. The key moment, perhaps, was when Cromwell chided Rafe for saying that the King would not do such and such. (Ah, any men about to come into positions of power that that reminds you of?) ‘Such and such’ was elevate Cromwell before destroying him.
Quite a lot of scenes of people telling Cromwell about what other people were doing – the first meeting of Henry and Anna (Anne of Cleves) where she couldn’t hide the fact that she thought him an old buffoon; Henry’s relations with Anna subsequently, and his relations with Catherine Howard, who was English and well-trained enough not to think he was an old buffoon; and the Emperor being disparaging about mere Kings in front of his new bestie. That last was one of the few moments where I could feel condescending towards the character who hadn’t got why this was good news for England, because I had got it. This on a show where I don’t often feel I get it (I don’t even remember the rhyme that would tell me what Anna and Catherine’s fates would be).
The last paragraph was an observation, not the usual ‘show don’t tell’ critique. This is about how these pieces of information affect Cromwell, in the end.
Lots more beef between Cromwell and Norfolk after the previous fight. They were made to shake hands, but Cromwell was set on removing the priests from the Priory, even though entitled old Norfolk had said he shouldn’t (they were meant to pray for his forefathers.) Lots of snobbishness about a cleverclogs upstart nobody versus a brute who thought he’d been born to rule (still talking about Norfolk and Timothy Spall’s expressive face, not Henry). And Cromwell wasn’t wrong that Norfolk was basically pimping out his motherless niece.
Bess talking about how they’d given her her own sister’s prayerbook to erase her name and then have to watch it be gifted to the new favourite was painful.
Anna was interesting, like Cromwell’s lady confidante, you had to admire her while seeing all too clearly what her mistakes were. (Did she have a thing for her interpreter?) Henry wasn’t keen on the match before his humiliation, and wanted to force Mary into a similar match with one of Anna’s relatives (in a fascinating green velvet cap.) I was reminded of Cromwell’s feeling that he had to protect Mary (sometimes from herself, because she certainly had Tudor wilfulness going) and that she had said that she was afraid of pregnancy because she thought she’d take after her mother, although Herny took this reluctance as defiance. And there were probably ambitions for the throne and the return of Catholicism involved there. Mary then vanished from the episode.
All the pressures that we’d seen kept building up, and some of Cromwell’s plans and plots really worked against him. It felt like his associate was right, he’d underestimated Norfolk, and Stephen Smugface was in the background stirring the pot. The rest of the council were, when it came down to it, self-serving and reverting to birth vs talent. Henry was getting tired of Cromwell’s checks, weary of his realism (and a reminder that he’d gone through how many wives in 10 years, and was 10 years away from his younger self.) Still, when the betrayal came – a scrum of men who Cromwell had been lording it over now authorised to turn on him – it was sudden and savage. And still he called out for the ghostly master who’d stopped visiting him. (Well, not in the moment, but throughout the episode.)
