shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2025-03-28 08:05 am
shallowness) wrote2025-03-28 08:05 am
Entry tags:
Towards Zero - episode 2
Despite the almost literal cliffhanger, Inspector Leach survived (because he would soon be required to investigate a murder.) He tried to get Sylvia to shut up after she came to him, in one piece, thrown up on the beach, but as he’d presumably passed out and she’d need help to get him off the beach, she didn’t. A doctor said that he’d seen someone survive such a fall (everyone knew it was a jump) like that once. I wondered if it was off that same cliff and relevant to the plot.
Leach would be summoned to see Lady Anjelica Huston who found out that he was suicidal out of survivor’s guilt after the first world war, and pointed out that death didn’t want him (yet?) She let slip that it was hard to be angry with the dead, but also that you had to go on living. Everyone would later note that Leach was not in the most stable state, although even while he was having flashbacks to the rocks in the sea (no budget for war flashbacks), he was taking in what was said.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. We had the awkward breakfast after the awkward dinner of the night before. Mary learned that Thomas had had a thing for Audrey. The lady of the house insisted that her visitors, especially Neville, joined her for lunch. They went off to the beach, where the two Mrs Stranges did battle over Neville (Audrey won), Sylvia dived into the sea after what she’d witnessed the night before, Mary grumbled. It turned out Thomas was broke and desperate for money and generally seemed on the verge of/at the start of a nervous breakdown (and possibly worse.)
Having left the beach, Kay demanded they go dancing, and so they did at the hotel, even though it was morning. The Lady of the house was forgotten, and the servants had to deal with her ire. I actually felt sorry for her as Macdonald insisted he go and serve her and carried her out of her bed, not with her consent. She seemed like a vulnerable old lady in that moment, although of course she hid her fear then by interrogating him. Great use of how dark Huston’s eyes can get.
Sylvia left the matinal debauchery and bonded a bit with Leach.
Kay tried to make Neville jealous. Audrey won that battle after the hotel’s fixer demanded a dance with the second Mrs Strange. Mary would later try to use him to make Thomas jealous. She had a lot of fair but angry questions of her pen pal, he didn’t help his case by presuming too much. Mary did notice that Kay and the fixer seemed to have known each other from before.
The Lady of the house was so furious that she was updating her will with her lawyer, and he wouldn’t let Neville come in and apologise to her when he did return home.
And so another dinner rolled around, where the lawyer intoned his theory of murder and zero (pompously) i.e. the one they’d decided to open the series with. Extra awkwardness because Mary had invited the fixer from the hotel, who turned out to be Louis Morrel and Kay’s ex. (Poor Mary.) More tension all around, with Kay’s meal not having compensated for the booze she’d been slipping before coming downstairs, and then Audrey deployed the ploy of a missing compact (although it might genuinely be missing and turn out to be important) to lure Neville upstairs. Some very heated less kissing and more petting in the corridor, and it’s kind of funny that Neville likes to bark orders but his wives don’t necessarily obey.
Still, in perhaps the epitome of most of these characters’ irrational habits of doing something stupid and then not owning it and being surprised that other people were mad/put out/outraged was Neville and Audrey taking their inability to keep their hands off each other to the lowest staircase and carrying out a sex act where everyone could see them. Kay blew a gasket, Louis attacked Neville and got kicked out, and even her Ladyship could hear the ructions. She advised stupid Neville to make it up with his current wife, but Kay wasn’t having any of it (having issued death threats like a kitten) and wouldn’t open the bedroom door to him. He had a word with the cook, before driving off to the hotel. There was some business involving sleeping draughts, Macdonald, the cook and her Ladyship.
In the morning, it turned out the household had other servants we had LITERALLY NEVER SEEN BEFORE. Also Cook was deeply sedated, and her Ladyship had been bludgeoned to death.
What followed had nothing to do with likely procedure, but Leech was on the case. The lawyer was pompously obstructive over the will (and it wasn’t exactly clear whether the changes considered the day before had any force, but it seemed like Neville was the chief beneficiary but Audrey, Thomas and Mary weren’t poorly off.) Mary learned that Thomas had been trying to blackmail his aunt for money because he was broke, but he also seemed genuinely disturbed over the incident where he claimed that young Neville had killed Peter James. I could have stood to know who Peter was and how exactly Thomas and Neville and everyone were related.
Neville was clearly more into Audrey now but Kay wasn’t giving him a divorce.
Leech wanted to find out why her Ladyship was so angry with her dead husband, but had to make do with his officers having found the murder weapon (one of Neville’s golf clubs. I tended to think the murderer was a bloke, although I suppose if they’d sedated her Ladyship, a woman could have done it.)
And then investigations into Macdonald’s background revealed that he’d never worked where he claimed he had. The police were suspicious of who’d turned off the bell from her Ladyship’s room – we knew he’d turned it off in the kitchen, but not in the cook’s room. So they had questions for him. It turned out he was Dead Sir Matthew’s bastard son (I suspected the knocked-up maid might not have been too enthused about having sex with a powerful older man who probably wasn’t going to treat her right) and had the sleeping draught in his room (which we also knew.) But he claimed it was for himself, as he was a bad sleeper and swore on his mother’s soul he’d never killed her Ladyship (and I don’t quite know what his motive would be or what he’d get out of it, as he couldn’t inherit.) He seemed really distressed at the idea of being banged up (possibly because of past experience, given that he was fond of headbutting people, although Macdonald under duress from the police was a different character to what we’d seen of the valet so far.)
The lawyer and the upper crust were all for believing that the murderer had been caught. (The TV audience knew better. There was another episode to go!) The lawyer went off to look up Sylvia. Neville went to bed with Audrey, and we saw Kay come down to let Louis in to spend the night with her. Only it was to be an interrupted night, because a man could be heard screaming, and it sounded as if he was being attacked by a woman.
I get that everyone is meant to be acting suspiciously, but most of the characters are also acting completely irrationally. The mentally unwell characters (Leech, Thomas and Macdonald and Sylvia, to an extent) are the ones whose behaviour makes the most sense. The theory that Neville and Audrey were in cahoots seems to be ruined by all we saw in this episode. I’m still confused about the family tree and Mary’s connection to the household. Still, some of the clothes were gorgeous, but Kay overdoes the fake white flowers in her hair.
Leach would be summoned to see Lady Anjelica Huston who found out that he was suicidal out of survivor’s guilt after the first world war, and pointed out that death didn’t want him (yet?) She let slip that it was hard to be angry with the dead, but also that you had to go on living. Everyone would later note that Leach was not in the most stable state, although even while he was having flashbacks to the rocks in the sea (no budget for war flashbacks), he was taking in what was said.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. We had the awkward breakfast after the awkward dinner of the night before. Mary learned that Thomas had had a thing for Audrey. The lady of the house insisted that her visitors, especially Neville, joined her for lunch. They went off to the beach, where the two Mrs Stranges did battle over Neville (Audrey won), Sylvia dived into the sea after what she’d witnessed the night before, Mary grumbled. It turned out Thomas was broke and desperate for money and generally seemed on the verge of/at the start of a nervous breakdown (and possibly worse.)
Having left the beach, Kay demanded they go dancing, and so they did at the hotel, even though it was morning. The Lady of the house was forgotten, and the servants had to deal with her ire. I actually felt sorry for her as Macdonald insisted he go and serve her and carried her out of her bed, not with her consent. She seemed like a vulnerable old lady in that moment, although of course she hid her fear then by interrogating him. Great use of how dark Huston’s eyes can get.
Sylvia left the matinal debauchery and bonded a bit with Leach.
Kay tried to make Neville jealous. Audrey won that battle after the hotel’s fixer demanded a dance with the second Mrs Strange. Mary would later try to use him to make Thomas jealous. She had a lot of fair but angry questions of her pen pal, he didn’t help his case by presuming too much. Mary did notice that Kay and the fixer seemed to have known each other from before.
The Lady of the house was so furious that she was updating her will with her lawyer, and he wouldn’t let Neville come in and apologise to her when he did return home.
And so another dinner rolled around, where the lawyer intoned his theory of murder and zero (pompously) i.e. the one they’d decided to open the series with. Extra awkwardness because Mary had invited the fixer from the hotel, who turned out to be Louis Morrel and Kay’s ex. (Poor Mary.) More tension all around, with Kay’s meal not having compensated for the booze she’d been slipping before coming downstairs, and then Audrey deployed the ploy of a missing compact (although it might genuinely be missing and turn out to be important) to lure Neville upstairs. Some very heated less kissing and more petting in the corridor, and it’s kind of funny that Neville likes to bark orders but his wives don’t necessarily obey.
Still, in perhaps the epitome of most of these characters’ irrational habits of doing something stupid and then not owning it and being surprised that other people were mad/put out/outraged was Neville and Audrey taking their inability to keep their hands off each other to the lowest staircase and carrying out a sex act where everyone could see them. Kay blew a gasket, Louis attacked Neville and got kicked out, and even her Ladyship could hear the ructions. She advised stupid Neville to make it up with his current wife, but Kay wasn’t having any of it (having issued death threats like a kitten) and wouldn’t open the bedroom door to him. He had a word with the cook, before driving off to the hotel. There was some business involving sleeping draughts, Macdonald, the cook and her Ladyship.
In the morning, it turned out the household had other servants we had LITERALLY NEVER SEEN BEFORE. Also Cook was deeply sedated, and her Ladyship had been bludgeoned to death.
What followed had nothing to do with likely procedure, but Leech was on the case. The lawyer was pompously obstructive over the will (and it wasn’t exactly clear whether the changes considered the day before had any force, but it seemed like Neville was the chief beneficiary but Audrey, Thomas and Mary weren’t poorly off.) Mary learned that Thomas had been trying to blackmail his aunt for money because he was broke, but he also seemed genuinely disturbed over the incident where he claimed that young Neville had killed Peter James. I could have stood to know who Peter was and how exactly Thomas and Neville and everyone were related.
Neville was clearly more into Audrey now but Kay wasn’t giving him a divorce.
Leech wanted to find out why her Ladyship was so angry with her dead husband, but had to make do with his officers having found the murder weapon (one of Neville’s golf clubs. I tended to think the murderer was a bloke, although I suppose if they’d sedated her Ladyship, a woman could have done it.)
And then investigations into Macdonald’s background revealed that he’d never worked where he claimed he had. The police were suspicious of who’d turned off the bell from her Ladyship’s room – we knew he’d turned it off in the kitchen, but not in the cook’s room. So they had questions for him. It turned out he was Dead Sir Matthew’s bastard son (I suspected the knocked-up maid might not have been too enthused about having sex with a powerful older man who probably wasn’t going to treat her right) and had the sleeping draught in his room (which we also knew.) But he claimed it was for himself, as he was a bad sleeper and swore on his mother’s soul he’d never killed her Ladyship (and I don’t quite know what his motive would be or what he’d get out of it, as he couldn’t inherit.) He seemed really distressed at the idea of being banged up (possibly because of past experience, given that he was fond of headbutting people, although Macdonald under duress from the police was a different character to what we’d seen of the valet so far.)
The lawyer and the upper crust were all for believing that the murderer had been caught. (The TV audience knew better. There was another episode to go!) The lawyer went off to look up Sylvia. Neville went to bed with Audrey, and we saw Kay come down to let Louis in to spend the night with her. Only it was to be an interrupted night, because a man could be heard screaming, and it sounded as if he was being attacked by a woman.
I get that everyone is meant to be acting suspiciously, but most of the characters are also acting completely irrationally. The mentally unwell characters (Leech, Thomas and Macdonald and Sylvia, to an extent) are the ones whose behaviour makes the most sense. The theory that Neville and Audrey were in cahoots seems to be ruined by all we saw in this episode. I’m still confused about the family tree and Mary’s connection to the household. Still, some of the clothes were gorgeous, but Kay overdoes the fake white flowers in her hair.
no subject
no subject