Other Doctor Lives: Gentleman Jack: Season 1, Episode 4 – “Most women are dull and stupid” (2019)

*Spoilers for the end of episode 3.*

We’ve reached the midpoint of season 1. This is a strong episode, featuring some good drama and compelling performances as things heat up.

At the end of the last episode, Mrs. Priestley walked in on Miss Walker and Anne kissing, and Miss Walker’s entire family is whispering about the incident in no time at all. Anne insists that the best course of action is simply to carry on as normal, but everything is thrown for a loop when Miss Walker receives some shocking news from a family friend.

The biggest narrative driving point here is the letter, which causes a major setback for Miss Walker’s nervous condition and her overall health. Anne was proud that Miss Walker had been improving since they were together, but now she’s in a tailspin and Anne doesn’t know what to do. The contents of the letter are upsetting enough for Miss Walker on the face of it, but there are deeper implications going on that have to be dealt with. This puts their entire relationship into question, and Anne, who’s been longing so much for a permanent companion, gets defensive and stubborn as the life she’d hoped for is threatened for reasons she doesn’t understand.

Some other interesting stuff going on here too. I particularly like Anne taking Miss Walker to York to see a different doctor, once with a less provincial perspective. Yes, he does say that most of Miss Walker’s health issues stem from “nervous hysteria,” but he also acknowledges that mental health is just as crucial as physical health, despite the medicine of the day having fewer effective treatments in that arena. He and Anne discuss ways to help Miss Walker improve her health by way of her spirits.

And as I mentioned, the whole Walker/Priestley clan is up in Anne and Miss Walker’s business now. For all of the Priestleys’ approving words toward Anne in the pilot, their turn is almost immediate. As Mrs. Priestley tells her husband what she saw, she rails about how foolish she feels, having defended Anne against gossip for years “because [she] never once thought that it was true.” Miss Walker’s relatives, many of whom have been grasping at her wealth, now cluck over Anne having her “under [her] spell.” As the matriarch of the family solemnly proclaims, “She’ll have her in Paris before we know it.”

As for Mr. Priestley, his first thought is to keep knowledge of this “indiscretion” contained, but since his wife evidently deals with her shock by telling every single person she knows, the cat is already out of the bag before he even hears about it. This leaves Mr. Priestley in a rather feckless position, all but wringing his hands as he vainly tries to pretend the gossip isn’t happening (even though it’s all anyone is talking about.) He’s a bit of a lump here, and Peter Davison plays that effectively—a Victorian stuffed shirt whose niceties are failing him.