Mmm no haxby is not mood anymore what a disgusting pig

Top characters you ship with Richard Bowden?

1- Ivan McDermott

2- Benjamin Stone

3- Michael Muldoon

4- Anyone but Simon Haxby

@mattzwright the great asked me to do the fandom ask game for Downton Abbey (and for Star Wars as well but that’s going to be a different post)

Favourite female character: Honestly, I can't decide who to choose, so I'm going to go with Mary and Anna. Anna is a longtime favourite character, I love that she is kind and tough at the same time, absolutely adore her determination and that she is not afraid to confess her feelings. Mary became my favourite during the rewatch, I wasn't expecting to like her that much. I love the emotional range she has behind her cold façade, how she wants to live up to her family's expectations but she also wants to rebel against them (not the same was as Sybil does).

Favourite male character: I think I'm going to pick Matthew here. I like that he starts as an outisder, but then becomes an essential part of the family (not just because he's the heir). Mr Carson comes as second, he's an amazing character.

Favourite season: I haven't watched it past Season 3, and until then I'd pick Season2, because at that point we already know and love the characters, we can see Mary's emotional journey, get to know more about Edith, Anna and Bates get married, also we can see the house in a different role. Also, I really liked that Mary and Lavinia became friends and they genuinely liked each other when it could have been the total opposite as they both loved the same man.

Favourite episode: Season 2 Christmas special. This episode has everything: drama, dogs, charades, scandals, ghosts, Daisy has a scene with Lady Violet, Christmas, a ball, and we finally have the big proposal.

Favourite cast member: Tough one, because I love them as an ensemble, but I think I’ll go with Michelle Dockery, because I watched the most interviews with her and I loved her choices on Cards Against Humanity :P (And if you haven’t seen those videos, do yourself a favour and watch them here and here, plus here’s another with Laura Carmichael, Phyllis Logan and Lesyley Nicol)

Favourite ship: This is a very difficult question (no, not really). Mary and Matthew, hands down. I loved the slow-burn, that they genuinely got along very well, that Mary has learned to love herself more because he loved her. Honestly, it’s such a shame we couldn’t see them laugh more together or being silly around each other. 

A character I’d die defending: Lavinia Swire, without a doubt. She was a very sweet and kind girl who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

A character I just can’t sympathize with: Major Charles Prickhead Bryant. I know that people were thinking in a different way back then, but bloody hell, if you get someone pregnant, take some responsibility. 

A character I grew to love: I can’t remember anyone who I used to dislike when I first watched the series, but grew to love later - it was more like I started dislike them a little less, because I could understand them better now, but I wouldn’t say I love them.

My anti OTP: I think I’ll go with Mary and Sir Richard. From the outside it could seem that they could have been the power couple, but Sir Richard was too controlling and while they did look good together, they couldn’t get along well which is quite a drawback if you have to live in the same house with that person. Even if it’s as big as Haxby.

The Gilded Age Isn’t a Downton Abbey Prequel (But May As Well Be)

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In 2012, riding high on the success of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes told a crowd at Bafta that he was considering writing a prequel. The spin-off would be about ladder-climbing yanks trying to pay their way into the sniffy social elite, and feature a young Lord and Lady Grantham. He, a fresh-faced toff weighted by ancestral burden, she a US debutante with a daddy as riche as Croesus but in the undesirable nouveau way. The prequel would dramatise “the courtship of Robert and Cora, when all those American heiresses were arriving in London – the Buccaneers, as they were called.”

There were doubtless ruder nicknames, but ‘Buccaneers’, as Edith Wharton styled them in her 1870s-set novel of the same name, and ‘Dollar Princesses’ were the popular terms for the moneyed Americans who were married off into British nobility. Both parties got something from the deal. Old titles met new money in a contract that meant English castles could finally afford to repair their leaking roofs while heiresses could call themselves Lady Somesuch and invite the British ruling classes over to murder pheasants. Win-win, except for the pheasants.

Fellowes’ prequel never arrived, but almost a decade later, he’s back with a different story of ladder-climbing yanks trying to pay their way into the sniffy social elite. The Gilded Age follows railway millionaires the Russells, and their attempts to be received by the crepey white hands of 1880s New York City society. Carrie Coon (The Leftovers, Fargo) plays aspirant socialite Bertha Russell, a woman who plans to throw as many lobsters and diamonds as her husband can afford (so, all of them) at the social edifice until it cracks. Christine Baranski plays the enjoyably snooty Agnes van Rhijn, a defender of the old ways who’ll be damned before she’ll allow her tacky nobody neighbours across the threshold.

The Gilded Age is a new story unrelated to Downton Abbey. (A Russell Family did own Haxby Park in the earlier show, but as the Crawleys’ neighbours for centuries, they were ensconced in the English upper classes so have nothing to do with this American lot.) It’s set on a different continent, 30-odd years before the age of Mrs Patmore’s puddings, during what would have been Lady Cora’s adolescence. There’s no Cora, no Robert, no Violet, no Isobel, no Anna and no Bates… officially at least.

Squint though at episode one, and you’ll soon start to see the old characters, disguised under new identities and accents. Agnes, with her pursed lips and impossible standards, is the Dowager Countess; her dippy, softer-hearted sister Ada (played by Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon) is progressive Isobel Crawley; below stairs, there’s a scheming lady’s maid with her sights set on Mr Russell as a combination of O’Brien and Edna; there’s a closeted Thomas Barrow, a rule-bending, firebrand Lady Sybil, and a beloved dog (though this one’s named Pumpkin and not Isis – a name wisely chosen for its unlikelihood of being made famous by an international terrorist group midway through the series airing).

The Gilded Age isn’t Cora and Robert: the Debutante Years, then, but it’s not different enough that if fans wish to pretend that George and Bertha’s teenage daughter Gladys (played by American Horror Story’s Taissa Farmiga) is a young Cora Levinson, there’s anything much to stop them. Both the Russells and the Levinsons are fictional families inspired by America’s real-life spenny arrivistes the Vanderbilts, Leiters, Rothchilds and so on. The palatial home they have built on the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 61st Street to much discussion in episode one is likely inspired by the Vanderbilts’ real-life mansion on West 57th Street, or perhaps the Andrew Carnegie Mansion on Fifth and East 91st Street. Fellowes’ worlds are fictionalised, but peppered by the odd real historical figure. (In the first Downton Abbey film, King George V and Queen Mary come to visit, while The Gilded Age features the Astors, a Roosevelt, architect Stanford White, and others…).

As the story goes, Downton Abbey’s Cora Levinson made her debut in London society in 1888 at the behest of her pushy mother Martha (played by Shirley MacLaine – one of the few actors able to go toe-to-toe with Dame Maggie Smith as Violet and come out with the advantage). Cora was married to Robert Crawley, the 7th Earl of Grantham, whose estate was greatly in need of a cash injection. A dry goods heiress (so named for her father’s line of work, not the fact that she failed to produce a male heir), Cora’s fortune was entailed to the Grantham estate, protecting the Earldom for generations to come. Gratitude though was hardly forthcoming, and in early twentieth century England, Cora’s family faced the same prejudices that the Russells tackled three decades earlier across the water.

(The new drama does touch upon prejudice it’s easier to give a fig about in the story of Peggy, a young Black woman who aspires to become a writer, but as ever, this show’s concern with lives outside the moneyed classes only runs flan-deep.)

It’s no official prequel then, but it absolutely exists in the same universe, with the same themes, the same class snobbery, the same character types, and even some of the same lines (prepare to hear variations on “the times are changing/but not fast enough for me/you/my new valet” before and after most ad breaks. The good news for Downton Abbey fans is that the times, and almost everything else, have very much not changed with this one. It’s exactly the confection of gowns, chandeliers, gossip, mild scandal and weird old class shit that we all lapped up the first time around. See you at the ball.

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The Gilded Age airs on HBO from January 24th in the US and on Sky Atlantic from January 25th in the UK.

The post The Gilded Age Isn’t a Downton Abbey Prequel (But May As Well Be) appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/33DhzRx

I don't think you’re a dog at all, Mr. Haxby. I think you’re a bitch.

“I hope you will be a good boy,” says Miss Wells, the moment she and I are alone together, heading for the Library, “and learn your lessons well, Mr Haxby.”

“Will you birch me if I do not, Miss Wells?” I find myself replying.

Fanart for The Subsequent Life and Opinions of Thomas Haxby by ningloreth

the wells women: *deceive, lie, backstab, betray, and murder*

lydia quigley, mrs. scanwell, lord fallon, lady isabella, william north, justice hunt, thomas haxby, daniel marny:

Harlots  -  Hulu / ITV Encore  -  3/27/2017  -  Present

Period Drama (8 episodes to date)

Running Time:  60 minutes

Stars:

Samantha Morton as Margaret Wells

Lesley Manville as Lydia Quigley

Jessica Brown Findlay as Charlotte Wells

Eloise Smyth as Lucy Wells

Kate Fleetwood as Nancy Birch

Danny Sapani as William North

Jordan A. Nash as Jacob Wells North

Douggie McMeekin as Charles Quigley

Hugh Skinner as Sir George Howard

Steven Robertson as Robert Oswald

Eleanor Yates as Lady Caroline Howard

Edward Hogg as Thomas Haxby

Rory Fleck Byrne as Daniel Marney

Con O'Neil as Nathaniel Lennox.

Pippa Bennett-Warner as Harriet Lennox

Timothy Innes as Benjamin Lennox

Lottie Tolhurst as Kitty Carter

Bronwyn James as Fanny Lambert

Josef Altin as Prince Rasselas

Holli Dempsey as Emily Lacey

Alexa Davies as Betsey Fletcher

Poppy Corby-Tuech as Marie-Louise D’Aubigne

Ellie Heydon as Anne Pettifer

Rosalind Eleazar as Violet Cross

Dorothy Atkinson as Florence Scanwell

Jordon Stevens as Amelia Scanwell

Roy Beck as Mr Abbadon

Saturday, 3 May 1823

8

1 5/60

Read aloud the principal part of the St. James chronicle – At 11 1/2 Mr D– (Duffin) and I went over the bridge – went to Wilson the butcher and walked thro’ the market in Ousegate – 

Read aloud the Yorkshire Gazette and at 1 Mr Christopher Sykes called for me to go to see the Philosophical society’s rooms and collection – we were about an hour there – Several fossil bones from a pretty fair infant collection of minerals, and a few books – Mr S– (Sykes) and I walked together as far as the mansion house –

parted then and I went to the Belcombes’ – got there about 2 – from then to 3 3/4 staid tête à tête with Mrs M– (Milne) in her own room  a flirting style of conversation – 1/4 hour with Mrs B– (Belcombe) who has lost her voice having just got a bad cold –

at 4 Mrs M– (Milne) walked with me into Micklegate came in for a few minutes – washed my hands etc – followed Mrs M– (Milne) down the stairs but could not overtake her – dined with them at 5 – afterwards from 6 50/60 to 7 50/60 Mrs M– (Milne) and I walked together to the end of the new walk – flirting style of conversation she pays me a compliment now and then and certainly likes my society well enough told her I did not like her husband she was lost upon him he was very good but one of the stupidest fellows I ever saw and I liked anything but his company she said she supposed I fancied myself privileged to say anything I apologized declaring I thought what I said but would say nothing she did not like in returning she suddenly asked me if I thought Hartley was a poet without at all guessing what she meant I said if he was he must be a stupid one she then said she had had some verses and asked if I knew anything about them I denied but she looked at me my poetical letter instantly struck me I smiled and perhaps betrayed a very little however tho she said two or three times I was insincere and fancied I did know something she owned at last she could make nothing of my countenance though it put on for the sake of getting to know and believed I was ignorant and said she wished she had said nothing about it she had never named it to anyone I got out of her she received the letter at Langton could not attribute it to anyone did not at all knew the hand indeed it began by saying she did not knew the hand she would give anything to know the London postmark very civil written by a friend ended with a prayer for her happiness but yet not complimentary  how did it occur to think I could know anything about it  she said she was not certain whether it was from a gentleman or lady but after my disclaiming all knowledge I think she fancied it from a gent  I told her I would find out anything in the world I could for her said I had had plenty of anonymous letters in one a quotation from Drydens Juvenal must be from a lady but an improper book for a lady to read then she would get it asked what I thought of Horace I said it was nothing except one or two odes one to an old woman etc which she seemed to know – I completely deceived her about the letter how well I must have disguised my hand I think the thing made an impression on her she said she had destroyed it but I scarce believe this she remembers it so well she must have read it often – 

Letter this morning from Mrs Henry Stephen Belcombe (Newcastle Under Lyme) forwarded from Shibden to ask my advice and opinion about their going to Pontefract in consequence of the death of Dr. Haxby – Just after tea this evening wrote 1 1/2 very hurried pages to say that were I in Steph’s place, I would not change my present quarters until I came to settle in York – that there was not at P– (Pontefract) to repay them for moving, and that it was my opinion they had best stay quietly where they were – sent this letter a little before 10. to Mrs Henry Stephen Belcombe (Newcastle Staffordshire) – 

the room was so very hot, I did not like to trust my cold to the sudden change from hot to cold, came back therefore in a chair and got home at 10 20/60 – Mr D–‘s (Duffin’s) dinner party not all gone – Major Middleton, Mr George Crompton, and Captain Stainforth stayed playing whist with Mr D– (Duffin) till 11 10/60 – I came upstairs immediately (at 10 20/60) and wrote all the above of yesterday and today, and had done at 11 35/60

the Cromptons sent me this morning while I was out the note of the Quarterly review containing the critique on O’Meara’s work – Really they are very civil and attentive – 

told Mrs Milne I would give her a parasol –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/7/0008

Downton Abbey Filming Locations

This is somewhat complete list of the DA filming locations from S1-6. Some of this information comes from the various companion books (or was later confirmed by them), and some is from the info we got via social media as they were filming it.

Hoping that the cut/read more/’Keeping Reading” works on mobile, because this is a long list! 

Appearing in multiple series:

- Highclere Castle: Downton Abbey + the courtyard, the stables, cottages exteriors (including the Bateses'), cricket pitch  - Ealing Studios in London: servants' hall, kitchen, etc.; various interiors - Bampton, Oxfordshire: Downton village exterior shots. The Grantham Arms, Duck and Dog, Mrs Patmore's B&B exterior - Church Gate House, Bampton: Crawley House (exterior) - Hall Place, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire: Crawley House (interior) - Ham House in Surrey: Crawley House (kitchen) - Bampton Library: Downton Cottage Hospital (exterior but also interior in S6) - St. Mary's, Bampton: St. Michael's and Downton church cemetery - Byfleet Manor: Dower House - Horsted-Keynes Station, owned by the Blueway Railway in Sussex: Downton Station [used in A LOT of other period dramas] - West Wycombe Park: Rosamund's house interior 

First Appearing in Series 1

- St. James Park, London (playing itself in S1E7, S5E8) - Royal Hospital Chelsea: Duke of York Barracks (S1E7)

First Appearing in Series 2

- Akenham, Suffolk, reenactment fields owned by Taff Gillingham: Battle scenes in France - Old Forge, Shilton: The Red Lion (S2E3) - Waddesdon Manor, Waddesdon, Aylesbury: Haxby Park (S2E6) - The Swan Inn, Swinbrook: The inn where Tom and Sybil went (S2E7) - Crown Court, Surrey County Hall, Surrey: York Courthouse (S2CS, S6E5) - Stocker's Farm House, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire: Mr Mason's farm (before moving to Yew Tree) (interior) - Colstrope Farm, Buckinghamshire: Mr Mason's farm (before moving to Yew Tree (exterior) - Hall Barn, Buckinghampshire: Loxley

First Appearing in Series 3

- Lincoln Castle, Lincoln, Lincolnshire: York Prison (S3 prison scenes) - Grey's Court, Rotherfield Greys, Henley-on-Thames: Eryholme a.k.a. Downton Place (S3E3) - Rules Restaurant, Covent Garden (played itself in S3E7, S5E8, S6E3) - Inveraray Castle, Argyll: Duneagle Castle and estate (S3CS) - Wrotham Park: a few interiors in Duneagle Castle [the room Anna practices in, the billiards room] (S3CS)

First Appearing in Series 4

- St. Pancras Station (S4E1) - Cogges Manor Farm (a living history museum depicting rural life in Oxfordshire): Farmland, Yew Tree Farm (S4-S6) - Criterion Restaurant, Piccadilly (played itself in S4E1; S6E6) - Cheptow Villas: Gregson's flat (S4; in S6 they were at Ealing) - Lincoln Inn Fields: Outdoor London Scenes (S4) - The Tarred Yarn Store, Historic Docks, Chatham, Kent: The workhouse were Mrs Hughes finds Grigg (S4E1) - Historic Docks, Chatham, Kent: Outdoor York scene and exterior of dance hall (S4E2) - Hoxton Hall, Hackney, London: interior of dance hall in York (S4E2) - The Savile Club, Mayfair, London: The Lotus Club (S4E4) - The Langdon Down Museum: Kitchen of the Ritz (S4E5)  - York House, Twickenham: Interior of the Netherby Hotel and Restaurant, Thirsk (S4E6) - Hambledon Farm: The pig barn on the Downton estate (S4E7) - Syon House, the London home of the Duke of Northumberland: Restaurant (S4E8) - Cleveland Row, London: Grantham House (exterior) (S4CS, S5E8) - Basildon Park, Berkshire: Grantham House (interior) (S4CS, S5E8); Hyde Park (S4CS) - Royal Holloway: Gallery was used for art gallery with the Summer Exhibition (S4CS) - Embassy Night Club: playing itself (S4CS) - Lancaster House: Buckingham Palace (S4CS) - Goldsmith's College: Buckingham Palace (S4CS; I think the reception part?) - Kensington Gardens: the picnic at Albert Memorial (S4CS) - West Wittering Beach, Sussex: Brighton Beach (S4CS)

First Appearing in Series 5

- Burghclere: Schoolhouse (S5, S6) - Kingston Bagerprize House, Vale of the White Horse, Wiltshire: Cavenham Park (Lord Merton's house) (S5E2, S6) - Corinthia Hotel London: Grand Hotel in Liverpool (S5E2,3) - National Gallery in London (playing itself in S5E3) - The Strand Palace Hotel, London (or the above is the Strand area of London): Tony's apartment in Albany (S5E4) - Peter Pan statue at Kensington Gardens: Playing itself (S5E4) - St. Marylebone Parish Church, London: St. Mary Magdelene's in York (S5E5) - Simpson's-in-the-Strand: Restaurant playing itself (S5E5) - 2 Temple Place: Craxton Hall Registry Office (S5E8) - Alnwick Castle, Northumblerand (and Hulne Park, the surrounding land): An exterior shot was used for the exterior of the women's prison in York (S5CS); Exterior and interior used for Brancaster Castle, the grounds as well (S5CS); shops in Thirsk (S6E8) - St. Mary's, Charlbury (in the Cotswolds): The area near where Carson and Mrs Hughes look at houses (S5CS) - The Duchess High School, Bailiffgate, Northumberland: The Crown and Anchor pub in York (S5CS)

First Appearing in Series 6

- Ditchley Park near Charlbury, in Oxfordshire: Mallerton House (S6E1) - Lincoln Inn Fields, in near Wildy & Sons bookshop: Exterior of The Sketch offices (S6, S6E3 in particular) - Lacock, Wiltshire: Malton Market (S6E2) - Royal Automobile Club: I believe playing itself (S6E4) - Hampton Court Palace: Playing itself, basically, or just as a park (S6E5) - Thorney Island, Chichester: Catterick (S6E5, where they were testing cars) - Brooklands Museum: Brooklands Race Track, crowd scenes, the stands, and starting area, anything with signage (S6E7) - Goodwood Racerway: Brooklands Race Track; the main track the race happens on, and the crash site (S6E7) - Beamish Transport Museum: Talbot & Branson Motors

hello! new to the harlots fandom - curious about the fascination with haxby? also i'm just absolutely loving the complex female characters - especially margaret wells!! she has so many layers and i love learning more about her 🙌

Welcome to the fandom!! Margaret is a SUPER amazing character, and the size and excellence of the female cast is def one of my favorite things about the show. 

I can’t tell whether you’re all the way through season 1 yet – it sounds like you’re still catching up, and I don’t want to spoil anything for you. Regarding the fascination with Haxby … MY initial fascination, at least, was simply that I found him so FUN. He’s the dry, snarky butler stock character, but EXTRA salty, EXTRA petty, the thoroughly put-upon straight man rolling his eyes at Howard’s utter ridiculousness, and, well – like many people, I know what it is to deplore my employer and resent anyone who makes my job harder. I loved his and Charlotte’s war of banter and petty insults. I loved the moments when his smug exterior cracked and we got to see him be HUMAN. He’s a really interesting mix of sympathetic, unsympathetic, and just straight up pathetic, and if you’ve watched through 1.04 yet – well, suffice to say I loved the end of 1.04.

Also, he’s played by Ed Hogg, whom I already quite liked from his roles in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Taboo, and who I happen to think is a real cutie-pie. Maybe that’s not the most valid reason for liking a character, but it’s certainly not an uncommon one.

My feelings about Haxby changed a lot over the course of the season, especially in the final few eps, and are quite complicated overall. If you’re still curious about my (or anyone’s) interest in Haxby when you’ve finished season 1, I can refer to you to my #haxby and #haxlotte tags for a great deal of discussion on the subject.

“Your hat, Mr. Haxby” Oh shit she did That

Harlots Ep 4 Spoilers

alright I’m still trying to process this episode and am going to watch again and surely find more things to examine and analyze but here’s what I’ve got atm. feel free to reblog and discuss with me @customerservicebotdolores @gulbaharsultan and anyone else who’d like to!

Charlotte feels like nothing in the world she cares about or desires is secure, and in spite of the particular sphere of authority her position gives her, it doesn’t allow her to influence the outcome of anything she truly cares about above all else - namely, her sister’s safety and her relationship with Daniel. her family and her tentative relationship with Daniel matter more to her than material wealth and comfort, but she cannot effectively safeguard either, and in trying to, she endangers all of them and her social and economic security on top of that. I think this is what leads to that frustrated and self-destructive encounter upon her return to Sir Howard’s townhouse at the end of the episode. Haxby tells her she cannot command him, but there is one thing she can do, as she demonstrated earlier when she tried to help Lucy work through her difficulties servicing clients - she can make a man who she accused of lacking the organ to respond to a woman of doing just that, and that’s exactly what happens. who knows what the fallout from that will be? she slept with the help and should sir howard, who already showed himself to be borderline physically abusive this episode, find out...the consequences couldn’t be anything but dire. (I always thought there was a weird tension between Charlotte and Haxby actually - the way he had to follow her around and see how she might end up had she not made her way into Sir Howard’s household with Mary as an example was something I thought might melt his ill will a bit and she’s undeniably charming and beautiful and willful so I thought he’d end up with a weird crush on her and maybe keep her secrets from Sir Howard...but instead we got angry sex which I was not expecting)

there’s an interesting parallel in this episode between Margaret’s relationship with Lucy and Lydia’s relationship with Charles. both mother-child relationships are warped in some ways bc these are women who brought their children into the trade with them out of necessity, but they’re fundamentally different in so many ways. Margaret knows Lucy is having trouble pleasing her clients and instead of haranguing her about it, she keeps encouraging her and checking up on her to see if she’s ok - Lucy hasn’t told her or anyone else about what Repton did to her yet but it’s easy to see that her mother would certainly be receptive to her struggles if she did. Lucy, however, becomes freshly determined to ignore her trauma when she overhears Will and Margaret discussing their finances - something that Margaret keeps from Lucy who she still thinks of as a child - which she is. Margaret sold Lucy’s virginity and threw up after she did it - no matter how much she rationalizes doing so to herself, the softer part of her has compunctions about doing so. Unlike Charlotte (12) and Margaret (10), Lucy entered the trade when she was technically “of age” (as she sings hauntingly at the end of the episode, “a virgin of 15″) but there is no doubt that her mother knows she is still a child. It’s a moral quandary she is hyperaware of. Then there is the relationship between Charles and Lydia. Charles has been pampered and hemmed in by his mother to the point that he knows little of life beyond the brothel and prior to his feelings for Emily, has thought nothing of it and didn’t question his mother’s authority. Unlike Margaret’s sensitive concern for Lucy’s apparent difficulties (even though she’s not explicitly aware of her trauma, she senses something is wrong), Lydia’s affection for him disappears in this episode the minute he does anything remotely independent and contrary to her liking, or fails her in any way - and she outright tells him she wishes she had kept a girl instead of him and that he was “unfit for purpose,” implying she’s had other children (meanwhile, Margaret has kept all of hers and wishes for boys instead bc the daughters of prostitutes and bawds almost always end up in the trade themselves out of necessity bc they’re not seen as respectable...but that doesn’t seem like it would bother Quigley, although she still has pangs of conscience about procuring virgin young women for “the Beast” as Cunliffe notes this episode). He trembles when he defies her and flinches when she shuts the door as she leaves after he defies Mr. Osborne. Charles, meanwhile, is trying to be his own man for the first time in his life in order to protect Emily how he can, and for the first time has become aware of how his mother treats him “like a boy” - his lack of self-awareness prior to his attempt to protect Emily from Mr. Osborne is painfully apparent in his gift of sweets to her, as if that would actually make things better. We will see how he may be able to help her in future and if he can understand her need to flee.

Speaking of Emily, once again the show does not force us to witness a man physically abusing a woman. Instead we see how Marie-Louise cares for her in the aftermath, and we see how Emily deals with her trauma. This show always focuses on the only narratively-relevant part of abuse - how the character subjected to it deals with it. Marie-Louise has similarly suffered, and she is also given a voice. I’m glad she escaped Quigley’s, and I hope Emily will soon follow! 

Harriet sees how these other women support themselves as best they can through sex work - financially, Kitty specifically is able to support her daughter, and moreover, Harriet seems to decide that she wants to empower herself through it - she is accused by Lennox’s white son of having always been a whore, but as she puts it, at least now she is paid for it. I just hope Repton remains entertained by her domination of him and that his fetishization of her will protect her from his dark side that no one but Lucy seems to be aware of. 

Amelia and Violet become closer and share a sweet kiss this episode and it becomes clear that Amelia’s morals are very different from her mother’s - far more open-minded and compassionate to the point that she doesn’t think it’s right for her to judge Violet being a thief in order to support herself. How will she handle the kiss she shared with Violet? And what of the complication between her mother and Lydia - the fact that she knows Florence (Amelia’s mother) was once a prostitute herself? We see some tenderness between Florence and Amelia this episode as well - how she kisses Amelia’s hand before she begins one of her fiery sermons outside of the Wells brothel. That was just after the opening shot, which opens on the contrast between Florence’s predominately black gown and her daughter’s predominately white one - a reflection of the moral system she prescribes to? 

We got to see a bit more of Prince, the molly boy who spies for Lydia, this episode as well - he made an excellent faux curate! He’s so clever; I hope we get to see more of him. 

Lord Fallon is apparently one of the men for whom Cunliffe has been procuring virgins...which makes me very worried for Lucy.

This show’s soundtrack is incredible - I hope they release it and all the excellent credits songs ASAP!

THERE WERE SO MANY GOOD NORTHWELLS MOMENTS THIS EPISODE KEEP EM COMING also AW little Jacob wore a little red suit for the party he is the most adorable

the transformation of the Wells brothel into the underworld with Margaret and Will as King and Queen added 10 years to my lifespan - way to own your notoriety and supposed moral depravity and turn it into your strength! the dark, libertine aesthetic of the masquerade and all its revels was inspired and allowed people like Amelia the liberty of anonymity to explore passions they normally wouldn’t.

I wonder if Lady Caroline is actually barren, or if it’s actually Sir Howard shooting blanks?

“Miss Pettifer” - another one of the Quigley girls - seems to have fallen into the trade via running off with a “rake” according to Emily. Presumably he ruined her and deserted her which is why she works for Quigley now but still “pretends” to be a lady. Everyone has a backstory on this show and I love it - every one of these women is deserving of a narrative