You may have noticed I’ve been skipping the servants’ storylines. It is because they are boring. So, if you’re somehow not watching and only reading these recaps instead, there is a servant named Jack! He’s been heartlessly toying with the affections of two separate maids (just kidding, he seems pretty nice, but Justice for Bridget!), and we’ve been watching him tinker with a clock for weeks. The tinkering has also been boring! But this week, he makes his alarm-clock invention work, and it’s a fun little storyline, so now it gets brought in.
Jack applies for a patent, but he’s not a member of a horological society, so it’s rejected. What! Tell that to Shark Tank, sirs. None of those people look like they belong to a society related to their invention. Jack isn’t inventing the first alarm clock here (that was invented, from one perspective, in the year 725). Mechanical alarm clocks had definitely been invented as of Jack’s lifetime, but Marian says they don’t work well. She gives us no further details. So you have time to teach impoverished children how to read, but you don’t have time to explain the faults of contemporary alarm clocks? Thanks, Marian. Nice. Real nice. Anyway, other people in the Van Rhijn house chip in for Jack’s patent-application fee, and hopefully he’ll keep going and begin the Tim Burton–esque whimsical alarm-clock company his Timothée Chalamet physique calls for.
Oscar is being scammed, and it’s so frustrating to watch. It’s like none of these people has seen a movie. (#JOKES.) That scammy railroad investment he invested in last week? The man behind the big desk tells Oscar that they’re limiting it to a small group of large investors, and he “tries†to say farewell to Oscar by giving him a check for his returns so far. Oscar says, Well, well, well, what if I give you a much bigger check? Big Desk Man says, Oh, I could not; please take your money back. Are we not supposed to know it’s a scam, or are we very clearly supposed to know it’s a scam? I cannot tell!! The biggest scam of all would be if Julian Fellowes wrote this storyline as completely sincere, and Oscar ended up with a big pile of railroad-investment money. But he didn’t, and Maud is going to disappear in the night, hopefully leaving Oscar a note about how she likes him but she likes money more. Oh, well. Hopefully Oscar is left with something.
Everyone is really hyped about cousin Dashiell’s garden party, except Marian, because she has to teach children things. When Agnes learns this, she says the children will still be poor and needy the following day, which is a fun little quip but also mean and out of character for Agnes. My impression of her is that she is a bit domineering but mainly punches at her own level. Being straight-up Scrooge McDuck about impoverished children? It has the vibe of Fellowes wanting to write something Dowager Countess of Grantham-y despite it not being the same character. Agnes later refers to the children as a crowd of hobbledehoys, which … y’know. That’s fun, I guess.
Dashiell is clearly very into Marian, but we have seen zero reciprocity from her, so it is with much chagrin for the viewer that Dashiell pulls a Michael Scott at Diwali and proposes to Marian in front of everyone. In front of everyone, Dashiell?? It really is shocking how many mistakes people made before TV and film showed them how bad their ideas were. Marian is not into it but scrambles for what to say because it’s not like he’s not nice. He’s okay! Medium! She doesn’t want to embarrass him despite the fact that he’s the one who put her in this horrifying position. Marian tells Dashiell she will “if you really want me to.†Ah, the words of love.
As for our Real-World Drama, we have the Pittsburgh steel strike (based on the Homestead strike) and Peggy and T. Thomas Fortune’s escape from Alabama. Not that we see the escape. We saw them hide in a barn, and now they’re home. A relief! Peggy immediately tells Marian about it, and when she talks about hiding in the barn because they were terrified of the mob, Marian says, “I imagine it brought you closer.†This is a perfect segue for Peggy to tell Marian they kissed, but also, what? Can you imagine if your Black friend in the 1890s is telling you about having to hide in a hayloft with her employer while trying to escape a lynch mob, and your main response is, wow, I bet that really brought you two together. Marian, that is bananas. But anyway, Peggy does indeed tell Marian that she and Fortune kissed, and Marian is scandalized since he’s married, and Peggy’s like I AM AWARE. So now Peggy has to figure out how to work with him, which is probably not a fun situation when you can’t block someone out by staring at your phone/computer.
They have to work together, though, because Peggy’s mom, Dorothy, alerts her that the NYC education board is trying to close down schools for Black children because they don’t think the Black teachers can do a good job. They go to teacher and principal Sarah Garnet’s seamstress shop (Sarah Garnet was a real person!), where Peggy decides to write about the threatened closures. She pitches this to Fortune, and he says they’ll write it together. HMMMM.
As for the steel strike … I don’t know, man. The Homestead strike didn’t end well for the workers. Maybe this will be different somehow, but it’s just a bummer. Also the strike storyline is handled okay, I guess? But it just makes me want to rewatch the stellar BBC miniseries North & South, with its much better strike storyline. Did you know the stern and practical mill owner’s mother in that miniseries also plays Napoleon’s stern and practical mother in Napoleon? I was delighted. It’s twenty years later, and she’s still nailing the vibe. Anyway, George meets the strike leader’s family, realizes workers are human too, etc., and he makes the militia not fire on them. His henchman looks extremely hurt and disappointed by this show of compassion. My question in this is — can the militia just FIRE on them? It was two rows of men with rifles! The workers were literally just standing there chanting. That seems extremely illegal? I tried searching to see if something like this had happened, and I can’t find anything. Even at the Homestead strike, it looks like they exchanged gunfire with strikers, and the militia wounded some people with bayonets, but there weren’t like 30 guys with rifles firing into a closely packed crowd. If you know of something like this that isn’t in the 20th century, comment below!
Okay, we knew something was happening with this super fast Robert Sean Leonard marriage plotline. I thought it was a nefarious past because I always want it to be a nefarious past, but it turns out they had to speed up Ada and Reverend Luke’s relationship/engagement/marriage because now the writers have made it so he’s dying. Maybe RSL was only available for one season? They draggggg out saying what he’s sick with, which made me unfortunately annoyed by the time they finally said that it was cancer. I looked it up to see what cancer has a symptom of back pain, but it looks like it’s a number of types, and I don’t want to bum anyone out who’s had to deal with something like that, so let’s leave it at that. This means that Ada will be back in the house with Agnes soon, but for now, we’ll get cute scenes like Luke and Ada waltzing in their parlor. I liked it, but good Lord, so sad. Agnes finally goes to Ada’s house when she hears the news, and she gives her a massive hug. Good job, Agnes.
And that’s where we are! Larry/Marian is still simmering on low. Bertha was blink-and-you-miss-it this week, so maybe Carrie Coon was filming something. Gladys is vibing. Mrs. Winterton is trying to steal Bertha’s box at the Met, but George is putting a stop to it through threats and train abduction. Until next week!
Things to Gossip About at Mrs. Astor’s Next Ball
• Why was everyone wearing pink this week? Were we celebrating something? Or commemorating it? What’s going on?
• Have you seen Bertha Russell? She popped into the ball for two minutes and hasn’t been seen since. How are we to admire her dresses while still looking down on her if she’s not here?
• So Larry Russell had a sad, drunk weekend, and now he’s over that woman he wanted to marry and live the rest of his life with? Okey dokey.