Joe (Matt Ryan) is offered a lucrative contract back home by Delane (Matthew Marsh) he'll be working out of New York with a new show called 'Joe O'Hara Eyes Over America.' (Ah just send him this way!) Which is his dream career and what he's always wanted to do. At the same time he's conflicted about leaving, but not at first. Even if there'll be no one replacing him here. Which means the war will go unreported, at least by a correspondent of his calibre. Also meaning that Britain will be on its own without any hope of any help. As Delane tells Joe, they got involved in the last War and so many Americans died. Joe trying to convince him they don't have to strap on arms and fight, but will just be reporting. Emma (Hermione Corfield) is disappointed in him too and as he gets his bar bill he can't believe the final number on it. Actually he shouldn't be, Jim Beam doesn't come cheap and there's a War on! Getting a final drink on the house, his mind's made up. Until Emma takes him to see Freddie's (Jamie Blackley) friend and fellow Pilot Stanislav (Joe Phillimore) who was shot down and found by a freighter. He was in the Polish air force until they were defeated and found a new home here and he's also married. He's heard of Illinois and the Black Hawks, the ice hockey team as Joe tells the others and Stanislav loves vodka too. Emma thinks this will have an impact on Joe by seeing him and what he's doing in the war.
Joe takes Stanislav a bottle of vodka but he goes into convulsions and Joe tells Freddie that he died. Freddie can't have a drink as he is back at the airfield later on. So Joe decides to have the drink (or several) himself, as he writes about the pilots and what they do, risking everything. As was shown earlier by the dog fight with the Messerschmidt which was shot down. Delane calling it 'a war zone' with people standing by looking. Which makes Joe see the real story and how it's here with the ordinary people and those who give their all. Delane should recall America entered the War due to Pearl Harbour being attacked and not cos of any reporting that was done.
At the end of the day what happened to Stanislav did impact on Joe and he changed his mind about leaving, determined to report what was happening in a nation alone. How Stanislav was a pilot with a wife and only 21, who won't go down in history or even be remembered, so they need to remember them all and what they do. Also mentioning Freddie and how he scrambles with his squadron to fight the enemy. Joe returns to The Halcyon looking for a room for £2 since his salary's been cut and Garland (Steven Mackintosh) asks Emma what she recommends, 201. Which he can't afford: as Garland says again; "we look after our own." Accepting him as one of their own, or perhaps in some ways looking ahead to how he can be helpful to Garland as well. In the longrun it pays to have a correspondent on your side, don't know when he may need to throw his name and occupation around again.
Good to see this episode mostly devoted to Joe and the work of correspondents during the War. The only way for people around the world and especially in America to hear firsthand what's going on. Delane asking Joe if what he said about the pilot was true. And having a change of heart, well would it really matter to him if it was true. Though Emma was harsh when he said he's never been to a pub, before and she replied they don't serve Martinis. Martinis also being mentioned in ep 3. (See, see that's why I said Matty would make the perfect James Bond: shaken and not stirred! All the way back when the show aired in the UK and even more recently. So how did Joe have his martinis, seeing as he was more into his bourbon.
Joe: "you know I never went to a pub."
"I don’t think you’d like them. They don’t serve martinis." Maybe he was looking more for pub fare (or affair!) Yes that's me pun-ing again.
Okay so Joe wanted Emma to come to New York and be assistant, but not as though she would've gone and of course we knew he wouldn't leave either.
Elsewhere Betsy (Kara Tointon) and Emma watch Gone with the Wind and Betsy calls it a 'drip.' Yeah not her cuppa obviously. "If anyone told me he didn’t give a damn, I’d frankly clip him round the earhole." Yes Bets, Scarlett was more refined than that.
Where Priscilla (Olivia Williams) is later taken by D'Abberville (Charles Edwards) as she's never been to a picture house before cos it's full of "people, people." And not aristocrats like her. Asking Toby (Edward Bluemel) for his opinion on her dress since he's into that sort of clobber that ordinary people wear. Yeah her dress matched the curtains behind Toby! (Probably innuendo for he's gay and would be good at that sort of fashionable stuff.)
Emma and Freddie fall into bed together after Toby finds out that squadron 392 has suffered casualties but news is sketchy. Toby tells Emma not to tell their mother and tries to get info on who is missing. Adil (Akshay Kumar) sends him up some coffee cos he works hard and he later admonished him for doing so. So that moment they had in the previous episode meant nothing to him, when their hands touched over the glass. Funny in that both Freddie and Toby are carrying on dalliances with the staff then, or least Toby will be too later. Garland warns Emma about Freddie and how he doesn't want her hurt and she'll be watching out the door for him too, as she did now as the telegram arrived; but it wasn't for them.
Betsy's mother arrives making a nuisance of herself in search of money and Sonny (Sope Disiru) sells his trumpet for her so Betsy won't have to give her money. She overhears Betsy saying she "bloody wished she wasn't even born." But later tells her that she didn't wish that. Sonny doesn't want Betsy to know he paid her and it wasn't about "dropping her knickers for him." She already did that in episode 1 in the bath scene! Ha.
Priscilla gets rumbled at the cinema with Billy (Ewan Mitchell) Kate (Lauren Coe) and Robbie (Gordon Kennedy) in the row behind her and leaves at the interval. She later invites them to tea and tells them she's getting to know her staff and how careless talk is dangerous. Also asking how the film ended. If she wanted to hid, why didn't she sit in the back row? Well it ended with Rhett not giving a "fig..." as Billy tells her!
There was Bellyard at Lincoln's Inn in the shot where Sonny sold his trumpet and it was in the shop window! Great places to film in and around legal London!
This ep as I said last time, was definitely a Joe ep and can you just stop calling him "cheesy" you reviewers; cos he's not!! He's a correspondent who does his job, does it well, hence asking if his numbers are rising, but he also cares deep down. He's softened plenty and is someone who would fight for this country, even if only with his poetic, sombre words and resounding voice! No fake news here!! This episode also being very topical to current offers across the Pond as Joe says, "they say you’d rather be spoonfed mindless entertainment. I say you’re better than that. Take care, America!"
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