*Some spoilers for episode 4.*
Big things happened in the last episode, and this one is very much in reaction to that. Anne is reaching for the domestic happily-ever-after she so desperately wants, but forces around her and Miss Walker are conspiring to get in the way of that.
In episode 4, Miss Walker received news that a friend of hers was killed in a carriage accident. This upset her, not only because she grieved the loss of her friend, but because she feared that Mr. Ainsworth, the late friend’s husband, would expect to marry her next. It was with much difficulty that she confided to Anne about his past sexual assaults on her, and now that Mr. Ainsworth has come to town, Anne considers it her sworn duty to shield Miss Walker from his creepy advances. However, as friends and relatives flutter around Miss Walker, they’re 1) concerned for her delicate health, 2) wary of Anne’s interest in her, and 3) ignorantly enthusiastic about the prospect of her receiving a marriage proposal. Certain matters merely get in the way of the two women, while others actively work to separate them.
Hearing about Mr. Ainsworth, and what he did to Miss Walker, was bad enough in the last episode. He’s even worse in the flesh, putting on a panto-worthy sham performance of mourning for his late wife even as he conspires to force Miss Walker to marry him. He’s just vile as he hams it up on tear-filled lines like, “I hope you don’t think it indecorous of me, coming here so soon after…the event.” You can feel how much he disconcerts Miss Walker—you cheer for her in the moments where she stands up against him, and when she’s unable to do that, you root for Anne to put that slimy rapist in his place.
With Miss Walker’s friends and relatives discussing her potential match with Mr. Ainsworth, Anne grows even more determined to solemnize their relationship, and she pushes Miss Walker for greater assurances. However, the more she clings, the unsure Miss Walker gets, especially with her “well-meaning” loved ones talking in her ear about “sins,” things being “unnatural,” and two men who were recently hanged in another city for being in love. I understand Anne’s doggedness, because she’s been burned before by lovers who gave her up to get married, and she speaks passionately and eloquently in defense of her feelings. But given Miss Walker’s state of mind and the past trauma she’s currently wrestling with, Anne’s ardent words only scare and overwhelm her.
Most of Peter Davison’s scenes today are with the horrible Mr. Ainsworth, who’s staying with the Priestleys as he tries to get his hooks into Miss Walker. Mr. Priestley buys into his sad-widower act and tries to do what he can to help, sympathetic even as he gets uncomfortably Victorian over all this show of feeling. “Emotionally constipated” is often the phrase that comes to mind when I look at Mr. Priestley, and while it’s certainly unflattering to the character, Davison plays it very well.
His best scene comes when Anne drops by. She’s come to put the fear of God into Mr. Ainsworth but she does it very offhandedly and cleverly, couching her threats in a conversation about something entirely different and directed mainly to the Priestleys, only addressing Mr. Ainsworth in occasional asides. When Mr. Priestley gets word that Anne has arrived, there’s visible panic on his face, no doubt thinking of the gossip about Anne and Miss Walker and not wanting Miss Walker’s prospective fiancée to get wind of it. But as Anne performs her subtle balancing act, he gets completely swept up in it, to the point where he’s still calling after her with questions when she makes to leave.
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