i’m rewatching harlots s1 and…while i don’t think they really intended to set up a love triangle in the traditional (or really, any typical) sense, i’m realizing how early haxby/charlotte/daniel was set up (because i’m only on the second episode).
because haxby is actually there and sees her reaction at the “this life is full of wonders” and it is…incheresting.
Apparently it’s mentioned in-script also but I totally missed it. And yet it still came through to me via her acting, which I think is a testament to Ellie Heydon’s skill as an actor, that I was able to pick up on that background– a quick search showed me that while Harlots is her first IMDB credit, she has a long background in theatre, and an education at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama which makes sense considering!
“oh, i have the wrong black!” – said with delight, and an air of ‘whoops!’ gotta love that georgian racial profiling.
i really hope fan commentary has not pulled an emily (who, like…was drunk, and did not know the whole situation) at this point and isn’t accusing harriet of ‘trying to sink her claws into will again’ or some such nonsense because like…yeah, looking at dead bodies. how romantic. how transparent of her.
please.
the insight into sukey’s backstory– and just more, her as a character in this episode– was interesting, and i hope we see more of her next season. there’s something very…spiky, about her, she almost reminds me of marie-louise in a way?
i really can’t see isabella coming back at this point. the way they tied up her arc had a lot of closure, and i really can’t see how she’d contribute to the plot from this point forward.
obviously, it is disappointing in a certain sense, because ultimately she chose her brother, and herself and her daughter, over the victims of the spartans (and their future victims)– i do realize there was that addendum that he not hurt charlotte which was touching but also….really?
if blayne’s going to hurt charlotte, he would probably hire someone to do it (rather than doing it himself) in a way it couldn’t be traced back to him (this, even before he signed it) so i’m thinking…how is that exactly going to hold up in a court of law if some ‘accident’ befalls her (i’m not saying it will but like logistically…i don’t think it’s as much of an assurance as is the property being signed over to isabella)
however, it makes the viewer question their own moral code and it makes them question what they would do in a similar situation if they were isabella, which i think is what you want from storytelling.
i would like to believe that i wouldn’t make the choice that isabella did, but i can understand why, after a lifetime of living with her abuser, after a lifetime of having absolutely no leverage…she would use leverage when she finally had it, immediately, to get away from him.
and i can’t honestly say with certainty that i wouldn’t make a similar one, in similar circumstances and i hate that but the narrative made me confront it so…there it is. it’s Good Writing.
i’ve really gone back and forth on charles quigley this season, and this episode is no exception (i think in a lot of ways, we actually saw more development in s1)
probably should have clarified– it’s disappointing, but not really surprising, given isabella’s behaviors and some of the things she’s said this season.
also in retrospect i can’t help wondering…would she even have asked harcourt to make sure no harm came to charlotte personally, if they hadn’t had that night together? if she hadn’t comforted her in that way (’you’re not damned’ etc.) and they hadn’t established that connection…would she have even mentioned her?
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