Today marked the occasion of the visit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (John Sessions) a bit of a coup and especially since he holds a seance with his friend and medium, Mr Crenell (Todd Boyce). Not something to go down well in those times. Yet as we know Harry's (Jeremy Piven) game for anything particularly if it beings in sales, or rather punters, I like saying that for some reason. Though it's actually held for the staff.
Rose (Frances O'Connor) chases after Harry as he opens the lights in the house and puts the clocks five minutes forward to give them more time. She thinks he's crazy and she's crazy too cos of him. He's sorry for putting them through all that pain and he promises he'll always be there for them. Then invites her to lunch with Conan Doyle and she can get her books signed.
Agnes (Aisling Loftus) beautifies herself in the mirror before leaving for work and tears a piece off her petticoat to use as a ribbon for her hat. George (Calum Callaghan) comments she'll make someone a good wife, but she's not ready for that just yet. She assures George he'll find someone too. The store is abuzz as usual and Harry greets hi staff, not out of the lift this time, but from the balcony. checking the counter glass for dirt, as Miss Mardle (Amanda Abbington) asked Doris (Lauren Crace) to clean properly not five minutes before.
Frank (Samuel West) is happy to see Harry return and asks Harry for a quote, "life must go on." Well didn't need a quote there then. Frank needs a new pencil and asks Kitty (Amy Beth Hayes) for some samples, but not before there's flirting to be had. Her hair is natural strawberry blonde and Kitty is taken with him. He buys the pencils and before you know it, she gets a note, "sweets for a sweetheart" and a box of humbugs. Kitty thinks she has a secret admirer and believes it could be Frank, with Doris jumping the gun and calling her Mrs Frank Edwards. Obviously it's not Frank, but George, well the way he looked at her outside the teashop was a giveaway.
Irene (Anna Madeley) asks Harry for Agnes in her fashion department and she seems to be the apple of everyone's eye. Though Henri (Gregory Fitoussi) seems to be a little cold towards her, especially when she tells him news of her promotion, but he's already heard. Miss Mardle seemed reluctant to let Agnes leave but she's eager to go. Kitty and Doris see Miss Bunting (Pippa Haywood) at the teashop and Doris feels sorry for her as she can't find work without a reference. Doris speaks with her but Kitty chooses to ignore her, all right and proper, she doesn't associate with common riff raff. Doris gives her a coin to help her buy some buns. Her mother has passed now.
Doris later asks Grove (tom Goodman-Hill) if he will give Miss Bunting a reference since it would be something she'd ask for her own mother. Grove will have to speak with Harry and gives her a farthing for her to tide her over and for her to return same time next week. Grove comments Kitty is "soft of heart." In comparison to Miss Mardle whom he was rather standoffish towards, especially when she tells him she gave him her child bearing years and waited for him, and waited...even at the seance when a woman with the initial 'H' (Hettie) told him to marry again and thanked him for looking after her. Grove finds it too much and walks off. Seems he was only interested in Miss Mardle as long as his wife was alive and he didn't have to offer her any sort of commitment, but it was fine for him to use heh like that! Just stringing her along, seemed that way.
The seance also reveals a man, very hostile who Crenell doesn't allow to speak or convey his hostile message, especially since it's meant to be Harry's father. Conveniently it had to be him, since Harry's been having all those nightmares, made worse after his accident. Harry refuses a private seance with him since it's the past and he's moved on. He's more worried about his mother, Lois (Kika Markham) and especially after the conversation she had with Rose, he doesn't know anything about, of how Harry acts reckless and Rose thinks he may be born that way. Or she can think like Rose and imagine they made him that way. They also prepare Rosalie's (Poppy Lee Friar) dress for her coming out which she will attend with Lady Mae (Katherine Kelly) and without her parents. So naturally she's nervous. Who wouldn't be with Lady Mae around, who keeps on with her affair with Victor (Trystan Gravelle) who didn't seem to be at work, nor did he attend the seance.
Musker (Tim Woodward) talks to Harry about not being so eager to float the stock and issue shares so suddenly and the bank suggests a few weeks for this, Harry prefers a day. He instructs Crabb (Ron Cook) to bring the bankers to the store for a meeting, which he actually manages to do. But Musker also has Lady Mae up his sleeve, who puts in a good word for Harry and how he's so progressive. Not to mention the way he held the seance too, so very daring. As well as the reception of Conan Doyle. With Sherlock Holmes being bounded around just for good measure and for anyone who doesn't know who Conan Doyle is. Thus the bankers arrange a meeting with Harry for the Monday. Lady Mae also cautions him about the public floating of shares since they also mean publicity for his family.
Kitty isn't too pleased when she finds out it's George who's been sending heh the sweets and she agrees to tea with him anyway, seeing as she likes cats. Oh not another cat comment, seem to recall she made one about Agnes in the first part and Agnes replied she had a cat named Kitty. Agnes meanwhile gets flustered over ol' Henri and asks him for help with dressing the mannequin for the store window. Taking a chance and kissing him in the process, yeah we know it was just an excuse asking him for help, just to check as she wasn't sure if she kissed him right.
Harry tells Lois he knows about his father and how he left them, he wasn't really a war hero and understands why she lied to him. To not go through the pain she did. But he promises he won't do that and doesn't want to be like him. Well, he may not leave the family for another woman, but that didn't stop him from having his fun and dalliances, affairs of the heart. Speaking of, no Ellen Love this episode, a relief, ha.
Not much happened this episode but seemed to be more of a way to make Harry get back into the stride of things and thinking to the future, which is what he always does. Kind of a way to tie up some loose ends in
that his brush with death was put aside and he's ready and eager to move on. Think one of the best lines coming from him was when he said he'll leave his legacy and the store will continue on even without him. Which rings true as we know. "What we leave behind is more important than ourselves."
Oh and Roddy's Paris show is a success as Lois tells her Rose's portrait will be worth quite a few dollars. Rose is glad she made the right choice then. Right choice in not going with him, but he's not gone for good and next episode will rear his ugly head again, to cause more trouble.
Oh and there's that lift scene again with Harry coming out to meet the bankers, though it wasn't that prominent as in the past, see more serious business, and which proves successful for him. Those exits from the lift usually do! Seems we didn't get much of a mystery with Conan Doyle around after all, though Rose was acting all shy over not getting the book signed in her own name. He refers to her as 'Rosa' and not Rose, wonder if that was relevant, or just a slip of the tongue. Though Conan Doyle didn't turn to spiritualism until the death of his wife Louisa and his son in World War One and his brother. Here he's already portrayed as being into the spirit world, most probably due to Louisa dying in 1906.
No comments:
Post a Comment