Countdown to Thirteen – Tess of the D’Urbervilles: Episode 4 (2008)

(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.