(Spoilers
as to the tone, not the content, of the ending.)
Okay, so…
conclusion of this miniseries. I have to
say that I didn’t expect the particular way
that it ends, but as I predicted, it does quite unhappily. Surprisingly, though, less bleak than I
expected. Don’t get me wrong – it’s
thoroughly depressing. However, it’s not
quite the “pile everything horrible
on Tess until her spirit is hopelessly crushed” conclusion that I was bracing
myself for. I won’t go into specifics
for the sake of spoilers, but still – yeesh.
Episode 4
has the most minimal part for Jodie Whittaker, more in line of what I’d thought
her role might be in the last episode before she popped back up. It’s another one where Tess experiences a new
drastic change of circumstance, and so she drops out of her old life, mostly
leaving those characters behind. As
such, I don’t have too many parting words to say about Izzy, since we see so
little of her here. Once again, though,
she proves how she’ll go to bat for Tess every time, so that’s nice.
I have
some more spoilery thoughts about the miniseries in general, so I’ll wrap up
the Whittaker part of the write-up quickly and continue with the spoilers at
the bottom.
Recommend?
In
General
– Personally, I wouldn’t. Very nice
production with great performances all around, but it’s just relentlessly
depressing. Not that I don’t like
depressing things sometimes, but this feels almost vindictively depressing,
like there’s no greater point except to torture Tess.
Jodie
Whittaker
– Possibly. Even though this is quite a
small role, I do like Whittaker quite a lot as Izzy. She’s one of the consistently-brighter parts
of the story, and I think Whittaker does a fair amount with a little.
…Aaaaand,
spoilers.
I have to
say, I’m pretty relieved at how terrible Alec D’Urberville is in episode
4. I’m not happy about it – after all, it’s not like I want to see him turn
Tess’s life into a living nightmare – but after episode 3, I was terrified that
we were in for a story about how much he’s “changed,” especially with Angel
AWOL. (Netflix’s misleading summary, by
the way, talks about Tess “falling in and out of love” with both Alec and
Angel, so I was dreading some kind of redemption romance.) However, he quickly proves himself to be just
as despicable as ever.
Because I
don’t care how sorry he acts in episode 3, how sad he is about Tess’s baby
having died, or how much he insists he still “loves” her. The man raped her, and he isn’t entitled to
one ounce of Tess’s forgiveness or consideration. Hey, he could’ve been genuinely sorry. He could’ve genuinely changed. But that doesn’t mean he should get Tess’s
love. As awful as it is to watch him
taking advantage of her troubles in episode 4, I’m relieved that Tess remains
thoroughly repulsed by him and that a hot second of remorse doesn’t erase
everything he’s done.
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