Just when I thought he was out, SPATZ IS BACK, honey. And he has a five-o’clock shadow! Before I get to Claes Bang’s hotly anticipated return as the Nazi intelligence officer who seduced Coco Chanel, let’s begin with some historical context disguised as a history lesson.
“I Love You Most of All†begins with Coco Chanel dining with Glenn Close, who plays Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow. Snow entertains Coco, but the rumors continue to hinder Chanel’s future, both the person and the brand. Snow connects to Coco due to their age in an industry and a world that relentlessly pushes out the old for the new. Ironically, Snow is looking for something new herself. Snow isn’t looking to rehabilitate the old; she’s looking for a new voice in a postwar world. Carmel Snow was a cutting-edge, influential Irish American fashion writer and editor who, earlier in their career, worked for Vogue. Snow, who immigrated to the States from Ireland with her mother, a dressmaker, when she was a child, became a pioneer in fashion for her ethos of providing journalism not only for the well-dressed woman but for the “well-dressed mind.†Snow is, also, so coincidentally, the exact person who coined the term “the New Look.†Suffice it to say, The New Look television program would not exist without Carmel Snow, whose positive reception to Dior’s first collection changed fashion and Christian Dior’s future. During a visit to Balenciaga in the episode, Carmel suggests that American industry could make French couture global. That’s exactly what would happen if Dior were to be platformed for an American audience. Dior became a global brand and thus made French couture (and couture in general) recognizable and influential across the world. Did she drink the water of life? Throughout the episode, Snow entertains and somewhat manipulates the who’s who of postwar French couture: She visits Balenciaga (who accidentally throws Christian under the bus with his comments about his vision for dressing only 30 women), Balmain, and, of course, Dior, though Christian is not available when she visits 30 Avenue Montaigne. Coco tries, and ultimately fails, to convince Snow that she is innocent of her rumored Nazi ties. The best she can get is a promise to distribute bottles of Chanel No. 1 in the States.
Christian Dior is struggling, as always. Although he found his dream headquarters at 30 Avenue Montaigne, his first collection is missing the “definitive piece†that will define the collection. He’s also experiencing tension in his relationship with Jaques as his career is on the rise. Despite having the perfect headquarters and team, he can’t find any models due to his unwillingness to steal models away from his designer friends. Instead, he opened the gigs to non-working models only on the day the ministry closed down brothels. Christian is taken with one particular “mousy†model, Marie-Therese (Mathilde Warnier), who we later learn resembles Christian’s mother, Madeline. Marie-Therese is a new muse, but not enough to spur Christian to design the definitive piece. For that, as always, he has to dig deeper inside himself and into his past. Maurice asks Christian to visit him with his brother, but Christian is too busy and insists he cannot. Maurice shouts, “Have you learned nothing from my mistakes?†alluding to his own failure as a businessman. Christian doesn’t make his way home, but he hops on a train and visits his brother, Bernard (Jonjo O’Neill), who appears to live in adult housing (there is not much information about Christian’s siblings other than Catherine). As always, family is where his inspiration strikes for Christian Dior. Bernard’s monologuing about the dark and the light is the inspiration Christian needed. “We are all two parts,†Bernard says. “The upper and the under. The light and the dark. In each of us, they float like layers, separated by a bar.†And just like that … “The Barâ€Â is born. The look features a cream jacket that cinches tightly at the waist, a full black pleated skirt, and a hat. But with new life, there is death: while the Christian Dior sign is unveiled at his headquarters, Jacques delivers the news that Maurice is dead.
Chaos continues in Switzerland. As if Coco’s Nazi past isn’t haunting her enough, it comes back to her real life in full force, just as she’s desperate to get Carmel Snow on her side and return to French couture. Coco receives an envelope addressed to Agent Westminster, her Nazi spy-code name, a reference to her British ties and her brief romantic relationship with the second Duke of Westminster. She meets the mysterious sender, and it is … drumroll please … not that we are excited about Nazis … but we are excited about Claes Bang … SPATZ. In the words of Elsa Lombardi, “Will wonders never cease?†Coco and Spatz come face to face from different cars (I love the way this scene is framed), and Spatz reveals his salt-and-peppery facial hair. Stunning stuff! Coco is infuriated but mildly flattered by his return (who, in any world, real or fictional, is not titillated at the presence of Claes Bang). Spatz’s new name is Peter Lang, a silk merchant, and he agrees to help clear all records of Coco’s involvement in Nazi operations, though it seems like his contact (a woman he does kiss) could not confirm that the records were destroyed.
Spatz senses something is up with Elsa: He feels her presence back in Coco’s life is suspicious and thinks it’s possible she’s working for MI6 to get intel on Coco. He wants to get rid of her, but Coco resists until she catches Elsa and Spatz in an intimate moment, likely designed by Spatz to manipulate Coco into doing his bidding. Elsa, now a full-fledged morphine addict, rummages in Coco’s hotel room for it and, on a trip to town with Spatz, attempts to rob an apothecary. “I have a knife,†we hear her shout in the distance. Emily Mortimer should get an EGOT for this performance, which, strategically and brilliantly, balances on the lines of tragedy and comedy. It’s truly never been done before.
We continue to learn next to nothing about Catherine with a story that is, for some reason, choosing to unfold glacially with only several episodes left while she tends to flowers in France. Catherine runs into Jacob Friedman (Gaëtan Wenders) at the market, where they agree his daughter Tania is gone forever. Catherine tells her father that Tania was sweet and kind, adding that “people just want answers.†Toward the episode’s end, Catherine attempts to tell Maurice (and the audience) the full truth and, perhaps, explain why she’s being so cagey about all this. But he dies before she can say anything. I am endlessly curious about what is going on here and why it is taking so many episodes (and months of hair growth???), so I rewatched the early episode in which the French woman at the Nazi torture house in Paris helps Catherine but I cannot tell if it is the same woman from the picture Jacob gives her at the repatriation center? I’m running out of ideas.
Episode eight ends with a cover of “You Always Hurt the Ones You Love†by Bartees Strange, and suddenly I am rewatching Blue Valentine. Until next week, which will undoubtedly contain MORE SPATZ!!!!!