Harry (Jeremy Piven) has a meeting with Henri (Gregory Fitoussi) Crabb (Ron Cook) and Delphine (Polly Walker) to decide what they can do to entice customers back to the store. Delphine suggests to recreate the "spirit of Delphine" (what was that, the name for a plane! ha) in the Palm Court and she guarantees him they'll come a-running. Crabb tells her that's a little different since hers is a nightclub and theirs is a store so the clientele will be different. Well obviously but she's determined. Also Henri has a plan to invite Mrs Winifred Bonfils Black (Sara Stewart) a journalist he knew in America to the store and let her write a piece which will turn women's heads. Harry thinks it's a great idea but Delphine insists they should use the story to promote her idea. Oh shut up Delphine, sorry I had to get that out, she's so annoying, to put it mildly! Thinking she can just wind Harry round her little finger.
Harry also thinks he can get his lawyers to sort out the newspaper mess and wants Rose (Frances O'Connor) to come to the store, but she has a prior appointment she says. Though she doesn't tell him it's to see a doctor who diagnoses her with mild chest congestion. She comes to the store hoping to see Harry but Delphine drives her away by telling her that Harry's gone and she has tea with her instead cos they haven't seen each other in a while, more like to find out what's troubling Rose and dig her claws further into Harry. Rose kind of confides in her about seeing the doctor. Delphine obviously insisting on her taking a break as it'll be good for her and that Harry doesn't need any distractions cos he's "got the weight of the world on his shoulders". What gives her the right to interfere in their business and to speak for Harry as if he wouldn't have time for his beloved rose.
Ms Mardle (Amanda Abbington) spends a passionate night with Florian (Oliver Farnworth) and they wake up together. She's happy but later Grove (Tom Goodman-Hill) sees her giving money to Florian for lunch even though he is paid a minimum wage in the factory. He also kisses her on the cheek, before she sends him away and makes him stop. Later Grove reprimands her for the display, or rather that Florian is nothing more than a gold digger and is after her money. Jealous much? Think he would have had all that money she inherited, ha. Grove's more taken aback with her being happy and actually finding someone who makes no demands on her. So his telling her off for her behaviour is more that Florian kissed her so intimately in public, than anything cos he couldn't do that. She tells him her life is her own and in future he should keep his opinions to himself. Groves' words to Ms Mardle: "unbecoming of an employee of Selfridge's" which was no different than his affair with her and then dumping her for a younger woman.
Jessie (Sai Bennett) gives Kitty (Amy Beth Hayes) a letter of resignation as her father's making her leave and she tells her to leave it with her, spurred on last ep by Ms Mardle's example of standing by people. She tells Jessie to let her father know she has to give a week's notice and to leave it with her. The newspaper has a story about Lady Mae (Katherine Kelly) leaving Loxley (Aidan McArdle) and Rose thinks Harry should speak with her. He also won't take Frank's (Samuel West) calls. Kitty tells Frank they must investigate to clear Harry's name and that he should meet with Lady Mae since there's more here than meets the eye. However his editor refuses to investigate further and so Frank resigns cos if he can't write the truth, he'd rather not write anything.
Mrs Black tours the store to see what she'll write and Henri takes her to the Fashion department, where we see Thackeray (Cal MacAninch) putting his hand up a mannequin's dress to fix it, well I thought it was funny. He's an ardent admirer of hers and fawns all over her in a bid to get his name in the paper and offers to show her around. What's he doing reading a woman's column? Ha. She sees him for who he really is and says as much to Henri. He takes her to meet with Agnes (Aisling Loftus) who is still agonizing over George (Calum Callaghan). Henri sings Agnes's praises and about Harry having faith in her, seeing the potential and sending her to Paris. She is Henri's protege. Asking how she got the job here Agnes reminds us how she lost her other job cos of Harry and she went and asked him for a job here. Mrs Black decides to write her story about Agnes and probably even more so when she learns George is away at war and is missing.
Harry meets with Lady Mae finally and she admits she shouldn't have vouched for Loxley but she was afraid of him cos he's a violent man. That she was naive when she married him and thought she could control him. Harry invites her to stay with them at his house. Rose tells her about needing to go away to the sea and Lady Mae thinks it's a mistake leaving Harry now when he needs her more than ever by his side. Also finding out that the dreaded Delphine is helping Harry a lot. Lady Mae pays her a visit and tells her of how she knows she's trying to come between them and that now that she's a divorcee, she doesn't have anything to lose so she gives her an ultimatum. Either she leaves and never returns or she'll tell Rose everything. Delphine and Lady Mae in a war of words when she calls her theatre actresses "trollops." Well, what do you call female nightclub owners then! To think Rose wanted to go into business with her.
Lady Mae tells Frank about Lord Edgerton (Raymond Coulthard) and his "old school ties" with Loxley and he's blackmailing him over his past "piccadilos." But Edgerton refuses to speak and instead goes straight to Loxley, who bursts into Harry's home and demands Lady Mae return with him. How he'll drag her name through the papers over every illicit affair she's ever had, he'll just be dragging his name through the mud too since he married her! Harry tells him to get out but he refuses and Harry is just itching to beat him to the other side of the week and we know Harry is capable of doing that, since he got rough with Rose's painter didn't he last series and Agnes's father too! But oh how I would have loved to see him put Loxley in his place, though the age of duelling had long since past!! Ha. Loxley deserved some of his own medicine, from a real man!!
Ms Mardle tries to avoid Florian by telling him she has a headache and just as he fixed that darned tap too! Henri has words with Victor (Trystan Gravelle) or rather the other way around when Henri tells him his concerns for Agnes and how she's not facing how George might be dead. Victor replies it's her way of dealing with it and then tells Henri he's there for her and has been all this time. Agnes sees a soldier in the store and thinks it's George but it's not and she cries, though she has Victor by her side, she needs to finish the store window. Mrs Black says Agnes has got so much potential to throw it all away by getting married and she's been married twice so she's had her dream. Exactly, so why can't Agnes make up her own mind. Didn't think that part about being married and not being able to work was still going on, especially not in Selfridge's, shouldn't they have been the first to radically alter this traditional way of thinking.
The article is all about Agnes and how she's a "rising star" which everyone likes. Thackeray steals a moment to skim through it obviously looking for his name when he told her how to spell it too. But she wasn't impressed with him and rightly so. Kitty has an idea of how to keep Jessie employed and shows the article to her father, telling him she could be the same one day too and have that much success.
Agnes opens the door to George who was shot in the shoulder but he survived. He seems to be eating a hearty breakfast and Victor thinks they should get married now that George is here and Agnes seems to have two minds about it. Lady Mae tells Harry to watch out for Delphine since she's determined to drive him and Rose apart and shouldn't trust her. Sure enough she makes her move in his office by telling him they should be together. Harry puts his foot down saying he doesn't love her. That although he's hurt Rose in the past with his dalliances, this time he's going to make it right and she's the only one for him. Well yes, considering what Rose will eventually face in the future regarding her health. Delphine leaves and about time too. See that's all she wanted from the outset and it took Lady Mae to tell Harry for him to realize this, wonder why he didn't see it for himself.
SO one more ep when everything will be sorted, like Harry getting his name and reputation back, Loxley will be disgraced (we hope) and Agnes will decide whether she really wants to marry straightaway, if at all. Although I must admit there's not really any reason to rush into a marriage already, especially since it would be good for Victor to maybe actually save some money if he wants to run the restaurant, even if he is getting a loan from the bank. Oh dear it looks like Agnes will choose her job, but as the next series will jump forward some years, we'll find the action will have moved on. Oh no, this means Rose probably won't be around.
Anyway, Harry's mother and daughters arrive back home and Miss Blenkinsop (Deborah Cornelius) also returns to some friction between her and Miss Plunkett (Sadie Shimmin). Miss Blenkinsop will now be Harry's social secretary. Grove finally gets the son he always wanted and Ms Mardle has a teary walk to the lift! Yeah a lift scene! She congratulates him but doesn't let him say what he really wanted to, as she walks off.
Funny part was no one coming into the store to see Delphine's "special event" of an Arabian theme, not even one customer, so she hopelessly misjudged in helping him out there then. Harry even tells her Rose was right and he should have listened to her about keeping things simple, especially at this time. That was a well deserved slap in the face for her and for Harry rejecting her too! Mind you, it took me a little while to get past how Harry's now had his hair and beard dyed! ha, particularly in the first scene when he's reading the paper at breakfast with Rose!
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