*A few spoilers from episode 6.*
Gentleman Jack unfortunately didn’t make it past season 2, and this is Peter Davison’s last episode of the show. It’s a good one, even if we only get a brief appearance from Mr. Priestley.
In addition to her plans for her own land—which are moving full steam ahead—Anne helps Miss Walker address some issues with her property. Miss Walker has long been waiting to divide up her shared inheritance with her sister, but things have become much more complicated since she learned that her sister signed over her half of their estate to her husband. Capt. Sutherland seems hellbent on dragging out the proceedings, especially once he detects Anne’s influence in Miss Walker’s letters.
I feel like it’s not often that we see a controlling, domineering husband in Victorian period pieces who’s abusive without being overt about it. Capt. Sutherland’s abuse is potent but subtle, exerting his will over his wife by manipulating her perspective and presenting a much more mild, innocuous portrait of himself. Miss Walker has quite the time facing up to him, but she’s not about to back down, especially with Anne rallying behind her.
One byproduct of these efforts to divide Miss Walker’s estate is that a Sunday school run out of one of her properties suddenly loses its teacher. This leads into a fun montage of Anne’s steward Mr. Washington, Miss Walker, and Anne all attempting to fill in and teach the Sunday school themselves. After seeing Mr. Washington and Miss Walker both do their utmost to interest the kids in the story of the Good Samaritan, we smash cut to Anne energetically teaching them geometry. Ha!
As far as Anne’s hotel scheme is concerned, this episode finds her meeting with a young but visionary architect, Mr. Harper. I was happy to see he was played by Luke Newberry, who I loved so much as Kieren on In the Flesh. Mr. Harper is an endearing character, who has a passion for the charming details of old houses and is so dedicated to his work he forgets to eat.
Our final scene with Peter Davison comes when Mr. and Mrs. Priestley confront Mr. Washington about recent evictions on Miss Walker’s properties (again, from preparations to divide her estate.) Mrs. Priestley clearly doesn’t have much faith in her husband to be of use in this matter, which gives us this amusing exchange:
Mrs. Priestley: “Don’t.”
Mr. Priestley: “What?”
Mrs. Priestley: “Say anything.”
And to be sure, he’s not especially helpful. He knows nothing about Miss Walker’s plan to divide the estate but badly bluffs that he does. And as usual, Anne is the thorn in his side—as soon as Mr. Washington tells them about Miss Walker’s plans, Mr. Priestley grumbles, “We know who’s behind that one, don’t we?”
That’s it for Peter Davison on Gentleman Jack! Final thoughts:
Accent Watch
A soft Northern—well-to-do while also keeping those Northern vowels in a way that, say, Anne doesn’t.
Recommend?
In General – I would. It can move a bit slowly at times, but I always enjoy getting period pieces about LGBTQ folks, and the fact that these were real people makes it even more interesting.
Peter Davison – A soft maybe. While I’m not sure Davison is really in the series enough to be “worth it” watching just for him, he still brings across a strong sense of this character.
Warnings
Sexual content, scenes of violence (including discussion of sexual assault,) language, drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements.
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