Mr. Selfridge 1x03

[jedi_of_urth]

Mr. Selfridge 1x03

Reflections
Or A Lady’s Secret

Looking back, this was probably the episode that really sold me on the show. The pacing, while kind of weird in its own way, makes a lot more sense; the characters as individuals and their dynamics when interacting seem more interesting; not coincidentally, there’s a lot of Henri Leclair to look at; and the real focus of the show is emerging, that of the development of the modern department store. I’m not even sure at this point first time through I knew this was based on actual history and not historical fiction (look, I never heard of the store before this show), but this episode was clearly showing (a fictionalized version of) the way certain things about department stores came to be.

Also, this episode has a lot that will feed into my grand theory at the end of the season, which is actually sort of becoming a few semi-joined theories the more I analyze things for this review series.

Production notes
I have several notes about production matters this time, so let’s get them out of the way. For one, this episode introduces what will often be a staple of the directing on this show, if there’ a mirror you can bet they’re going to film a scene in it. In this episode it does at least make some thematic sense, since the story is structured around makeup and the things it hides, but it happens a lot.

Secondly, this episode has a lot of different musical tunes from the usual choice of two that I noted before. Ellen gets three different tunes to sing, and there are a couple other pieces that may still be referencing the New Girl tune but are less obvious about it. But I don’t recall any of these music cues sticking around. To be fair, none of Ellen’s new tunes are very good, but is at least more variety.

And, like last time, let’s talk about the timing at play here. This time it definitely feels like some time has passed between episodes. It’s enough time for Harry to start going off Ellen (though, since that mostly seems to happen in episode maybe it wasn’t going to take him long, but I would expect him to know himself in that case and not invest in a pricy love nest), also enough time for Ellen’s extravagance in the store to have become much talked about and even expected from some quarters, and enough time for Agnes and Henri to have started...vibing. There’s also a fair amount of time that passes in-episode her; enough time to change the layout at the store, to come up with the idea for the Selfridge perfume, get it into development and start noticing profit trends; I don’t know that it really makes sense that that much time passes, but it’s rarely as distracting as it was in the first couple eps.

In that vein, though, the Gaiety seems to have finally added some new numbers, though they haven’t gotten the kinks worked out of the silly teddy bear dance, to always make sure someone is going to catch it if she throws it into the crowd, or at least don’t swing the spotlight around to show off the bad stage management.

Practical matters
I’m actually not going to spend a lot of time talking about the actual basis of this episode, because makeup and perfume are not things I care about; and as someone who despised shopping for anything but books and games/toys by the age of ten I don’t exactly have a lot to comment on regarding that whole central conceit I talked about at the beginning. It’s actually kind of amazing that I like this show as much as I do when the central concept is one that does nothing for me.

But I do like the way it’s handled in this episode. I kind of love the idea (whether real history or not) that this layout of stores that is still used was done to block the smell of house shit out on the street. And more importantly the discussions we get are used to reveal things about our characters rather than just be focused on Harry’s genius at crafting the modern (or semi-modern pre-internet) shopping experience. Harry’s logic in this development is highly influenced by his relationship status at any given moment. Mardle, Bunting, Agnes, Henri, Crabb, they all have their own stances and views on the issue. And I do love Valerie, but we’ll get back to that.

I could talk about how Harry says at the end that he doesn’t want the store to be defined by makeup and beauty supplies when that’s kind of the way it will be; that Selfridges was part of redefining how makeup was approached in this age, and because Kitty will basically take over the ground floor of the store by s4. But I almost think it’s funnier to note at this point how much the whole enterprise is influenced by and then flows back into influencing is affair with Ellen. When he’s swept up with a woman who wears a lot of makeup he decides everyone else must want to have it out in the open; as those waters recede he decides to walk into the makeup business a bit more cautiously.

It really is fun to analytically look at the development of relationships that will be important down the road. Josie seems to be mellowing in her opinion of Agnes, I almost get a Mr. Bennet vibe, ‘thank god you’ve come back, the levels of silly are much too high when I’m left with these two.’ They’re not friends yet, but the suspicion and distrust seems to have gone out of it. And it’s out first scene with Victor and George, who honestly have always had better chemistry than Victor and Agnes. And even the ultimately forgotten relationship between Mardle and Bunting, having this episode makes the fact that that relationship will be dropped feel tragic.

Some of the early scenes at the store are kind of weird. The part where Harry calls a staff meeting to talk about makeup, then ends it before they really talk about much of anything at least seems to know that that would be weird (he does later apologize for having to call the meeting again later). The scene with Ellen on the shop floor I’m less sure knows it’s odd; the gathered crowd just doesn’t seem that into it, Kitty and Doris are the only ones talking as she makes a spectacle of things, she isn’t exactly encouraging people to shop which would at least fall under that Spirit of Selfridges concept; she’s just being weird and doesn’t seem like a good kind of weird.

Also, now that we are having staff meetings we get that Harry does clearly have chairs in his office, though weirdly the table moves around a lot between scenes, and when it’s pushed to the back there are fewer available chairs. Also weird that so few departments are represented; I get that these are the departments relevant to out stories, but why are they th ones and only ones at the meetings?

Lady Mae
This is the first episode where Mae starts to feel like a layered character too. That’s actually true of many of the characters; I don’t know whether to chalk it up to being a few episodes in or if it’s a change in writer (you many notice that I rarely give directors as much credit or blame as I do writers, but there was also a director change here). As usual I conclude it’s some of both; on one hand, believe me, I will have things to say about Davies return to writer duties in the finale, but some of it is certainly having a chance to find the characters as they go.

Mae is more force of nature/symbol of the age in the premier, and then weird snakey friend in ep 2, but here she’s much more of a person. While there’s still a lot of favor-trading going on here, that feels like who this person is rather than it only serving a story point. Her scene with Rose takes that snake vibe from the previous episode and softens it into confidence and snark and intelligence rather than arrogance and condescension from before. And her scene with Harry is all that, but even a little more noticeable that they’ve worked out what these characters relationship is going to be. Her scene with Tony is a little weird, but that’s because her relationship with Tony is kind of weird, it’s not exactly clear how much this is an actual relationship vs. borderline (or maybe not even that borderline) prostitution and that scene seems to have a foot in each camp.

I don’t think at the time I thought anything about Mae’s suffrage actions, I don’t see why I would have. Her portrayal in the first couple episodes masks that there might be an actual story there; she seems to just be very liberal in all female matters so naturally also suffrage. Not that she needed some darker reason why she supports the cause, that initial assumption made perfect sense; it’s just that once we meet Loxley it’s hard not to think there are deeper reasons why she is so active on that cause.

Also, for future reference, Pimble is mentioned here but the only other woman we see at Mae’s is not the eventual Pimble; nor do I think it’s supposed to be, I’m just noting it.

Rose’s turn
The more I watch this show the more obvious it becomes (not that it was ever that subtle) how much Rose’s dalliance with Roddy is done in reaction to Harry’s affair with Ellen. After Mae makes a thing of it last episode, Rose gets swept off with Roddy at the museum, then Mae makes a deal of it again here and Rose goes back to hang out with Roddy. She’s clearly not the experienced one when it comes to extramarital activities so I can’t say she’s had this happen during Harry’s other affairs, which then questions why now.

I don’t think even she knows where she wants this to go. Her coming back home after their first meeting this episode has a lot in common with Harry sneaking in when he’s been out late at least borderline misbehaving. And the ending is very adulterous without quite feeling like she’s going to go through with anything (obviously we know she doesn’t). I suppose the logical conclusion then is that she’s seeing how far Harry’s behavior will push her towards doing something to push back. And since Harry’s attentions are cycling back towards good-behavior-Harry she doesn’t end up going any further than this.

Henri
This episode is the first episode where Henri is really Henri as we will know him through the series, or at least the season. It seems to signal a pretty hard shift in his intended character. Ever since I found out they had originally envisioned him to be the gay window dresser it’s hard not to see the scene between him and Ellen as spelling out the new direction for the character. Of course this is after having him and Valerie in bed together so it wasn’t exactly necessary for the audience. But the scene with Ellen put the original idea out there for the characters, and Henri reacts like the assumption doesn’t really surprise him but he loves women and is quite secure in that even without much security in his ongoing relationship with Valerie.

Henri and Ellen’s rivalry is a side of the character we rarely if ever see again. It’s not even that creative a trap he sets for her, if she weren’t a coke-head (and probably not that bright to start with) she might have realized he was handing her a shovel; but instead she gleefully starts digging her own grave. That he can be a rotten bastard who probably generally dislikes Harry’s girlfriends is a good way to establish his character even if it’s not something we delve into very often in the future. He is going to spend much of this season as perfect human being Henri, leaving it to s2 to really challenge his character, but we do at least set up that he has layers.

There is a lot to say about Henri, but he’s a character most defined by his relationships to others, so I think we’ll do that.

A very strange friendship
Am I the only one who’s ever sat and thought about just how weird Harry and Henri’s friendship is? Henri basically hates everything Harry likes; casual theater, cards, clubs, floozies, etc. To be fair, he may not actually hate non-artsy theater as much as he seems to here and this is more about how much he hates Ellen, which certainly doesn’t help him enjoy her theater work. He is however not particularly happy when Harry invites him out for the night, as if he’s been subjected to Harry’s idea of a good time enough to know it’s not going to cheer him up. We’re never told exactly how long these two have known each other or anything about how they became friends, we’re just supposed to take it at face value that they are.

I would say they’ve probably known each other pretty well for at least five years or so, partly based on the evidence in this episode, and partly in spite of it. Harry clearly knows the deal between Henri and Valerie; he can guess instantly that that’s who Henri is talking about early in the episode, I definitely get the feeling that he’s seen them go through this dance before, and while trying to hire Valerie later on is definitely a good move that would have been a good idea, it’s clearly done here for Henri’s benefit. And I do think that Henri tolerates Harry’s idea of a good time, he does enjoy Harry’s company (though knows that he’s lost it as soon as Harry finds the card tables); but it does come off as a rather unequal friendship. Not unlike with Harry’s other relationships, he’s a big gesture guy as opposed to just generally listening to and doing right by the person he’s in some kind of relationship with.

Valerie
This is definitely Valerie’s best episode out of the few she gets, she swoops in and is awesome for a bit, then is gone. On the other hand, she doesn’t feel entirely like a character here, she exists as part of Henri’s story and as a ball of awesomeness that others react to, and those two elements definitely feed off each other but don’t tell us a lot about Valerie herself. Just enough to make some of the stuff that is referenced in s2 seem weird, but we’ll get there when we get there.

The scene where she describes makeup and especially lipstick logic to the Selfridge staff is still a standout one; but even in that I feel like we’re being told more about Henri than Valerie, he’s not scandalized by her descriptions, he just looks on adoringly. This is the woman he’s loved for so much of his life, and she represents a world that he doesn’t quite live in but comfortably flirts on the edges of when he finds himself there. He may not like Harry’s version of a night out, but he fits in easily enough with Harry’s high society sorts; he may not deal in women’s fashion or makeup, but he appreciates it, especially when Valerie talks about it.

Valerie does also serve as sort of a counterweight to Henri’s behavior towards Ellen. We see through Valerie that his dislike of Ellen isn’t that he’s rude to women or thinks they should ‘stay in their place’ somehow. Valerie is in some ways (though not all) the person Ellen thinks she is – she’s confident and seductive and respected – but Ellen isn’t anywhere near competent enough to be Valerie.

I actually have a fair amount of headcanon for the backstory of Valerie and Henri’s relationship (since they’ve known each other so long, it’s tied in with a lot of my Henri headcanon backstory), but chiefly relevant to this episode is how much this feels like just the way their relationship generally is. They have their separate lives, probably have for years; and sometimes she shows up in his life, blows through like a whirlwind; and the feelings never really die, they just go in and out of the box he tries to store them in. And usually, it leaves him a mess for a while afterward, we see that even while she’s there it sort of throws him off his game in places; but I also think without him quite realizing it, it passes more quickly this time.

Design dorks
Unlike the one debatable scene in the premier, this episode is undeniably setting up Agnes/Henri. In basically all their scenes this episode, it feels like there’s been a decent amount of familiarity built since that one initial scene. When she comes back to work it’s clear they’ve gotten somewhat acquainted, though it is still at a level where asking if she wears sent is a bit weird (that’s kind of weird at a lot of levels of relationship); he goes looking for her to work on the perfume project, and they basically have their first designers date. And through this she’s apparently talking about him all the time to George and we’re given several views of Victor’s mounting jealousy.

Small note that Agnes seeing Henri and Valerie kiss goodbye gets a weird amount of focus. On one hand it feels like this is a continuation of the idea that Agnes sees people together when she shouldn’t, except that scene takes place in the middle of the shop floor so she is definitely not the only person who sees it. As such it loops back around on itself to seem like he feels conflicted about the person he has a burgeoning crush on seeing him with the woman he’s been in love with most of his life. He’s not at all bothered by how anyone else sees it, either their closeness when Valier first arrives or when she leaves, the only person who he notices noticing is Agnes.

I’m going to keep a closer watch this time out on how the different writers approach certain things (as part of the grand theories for the end), but my less-analyzed position is that Brooke didn’t really like Victor, especially not with Agnes. The only interaction between Agnes and Victor here is when he comes to check on her/walk her to work and she doesn’t want to go with him so pawns him off on George. There’s plenty of material to read into that scene beyond her just not wanting to deal with Victor; shame over her injuries, not wanting to tell him what happened or deal with his reaction to finding out what kind of family she comes from. And while I do think that’s there, it is somewhat undercut by having that happen on a day when she goes into work and is immediately found out, and still it doesn’t speak to her putting a lot of trust in whatever is between her and Victor. Beyond that Victor is mainly getting jealous of Agnes and Henri, Agnes drops him like a hot plate in favor of working with Henri, even George seems pretty clear that he sees that heading somewhere, and then Victor watches them together at the end, judging from a distance what I’m not sure either Agnes or Henri would quite agree is going on at this point.

What does the perfume end up named? Is it just the Selfridge perfume? The Spirit of Selfridges? I always assumed it was called Unforgettable, because of the offered options that seemed most relevant considering that it’s how this started the show’s main ship; and how I always assume that both of them associate the perfume with the beginning of their relationship. Again, I don’t think they’d say that now, but I think it’s unforgettably how it starts.