Mr. Selfridge 1x05
Feb. 9th, 2018 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsMr. Selfridge 1x05
Back to Work
Or Valuables
I’m going to say upfront that I’m only breaking this episode into sections because I feel weird writing reviews as long as these have been without breaks. There’s a lot of little things going on in this episode and so I find a lot of points hard to classify under specific headers; they’re either too small to justify having their own point so get lumped in with some semi-connected point, or connect to a few different larger points so ‘m not sure where I most want to discuss them. I tried just doing this freeform though and didn’t like the way it was going, so we’ll try it this way instead.
Practical bits
Again it’s hard to say how long has passed between these episodes; it could be the next day or the next week, probably not much more than that but it could be a bit more. I will say that in this case it doesn’t matter to me quite as much, as the relationships don’t seem to shift a ton between episodes making me wonder how much time must have elapsed. About the only place where it feels on the longer side is that Roddy finished the painting off-screen when he seemed a ways from finishing last episode.
Also, we have to talk about terrible foreshadowing; if we don’t talk about it how can writers ever learn? Crabb basically looks at the audience and says that no one, including Harry, is allowed to drive the car; everyone got that? Grove randomly bringing up how he would take over if something happened to Harry is a bit less blatant in its setup, but is very much forced in there; the basic conversation with (well, rant to) Mardle does at least feel like it’s in character, just having to include some awkward foreshadowing.
There’s some pretty awkward camera work in this one too, seems to go handheld at times when it really doesn’t need to and then doesn’t know where to focus in the crash scene.
Agnes I
I hadn’t really noticed until I tried to organize my thoughts on this, how much Agnes’ situation is very much the key story of the episode and connects with a lot of the other things I want to talk about. However, for now I’m going to keep focus away from the love triangle elements and focus on the professional and family elements of her story; trust me we’ll circle back to the love triangle, as if there was any doubt.
Not for the first or last time it seems Agnes could stand to get a new landlady. Much like a lot of the other characters reactions to Reg, it may be realistic that it’s treated as if this problem makes the whole Towler family a problem, but that doesn’t make it right. Also, I don’t really understand how they don’t allow gentleman callers in a housing situation open to anyone. The landlady is taking on faith that Agnes is living with her father and brother rather than either of them being some gentleman she’s hooked up with (and as I pointed out in the early episodes that’s not obvious to look at them). Granted she may just have been shaking Harry down for some extra money, but that doesn’t exactly count as a reason the Towlers should keep living there.
There are some elements that I’ve never quite been able to shake my initial feelings for. The smaller one is that I was convinced after watching it the first time that the scarf bit was going to be a problem; that Harry’s accident would somehow get in the way of Henri clearing the books and people would assume Agnes had stolen the scarf, then even if that got worked out we’d be left with another problem on the field. It did turn out that if anything people were too distracted to wonder where Agnes got her new fancy scarf.
The other matter is how uncomfortable Harry’s advice about not explaining makes me; even now I feel like that is a very male perspective, and more so for the time, it’s a harder angle to take as women. Not that it can’t work, and the show lets it work (kind of, Agnes does offer an explanation, just one that’s in kind of a grey area of truth), but I have always had a gut reaction that that’s harder advice for her to pull off that Harry acts like it will be. Harry even looks a bit like he really hopes that was good advice as Agnes gets out of the car.
As a small note, that conversation in the car sort of betrays the lack of long term planning in this show. Because when Harry talks about Agnes driving or even flying someday that feels like something that wants to be paid off down the line but never is. Partly that could be blamed on what I see as a hurried conclusion to things in s3, but I also don’t know that I think the writers ever meant to go much further with the Agnes-Harry parallels than we have here; there’s similarities, but to have Agnes actually become like Harry would have been to change a lot that people liked in the character from the start.
Bad dads and work-dad
This is really the big episode that connects Agnes and Harry’s, our two main protagonists’, stories. Agnes serves as a way to see into Harry’s past, and Harry shows the heights to which Agnes could aspire even from where she is. Obviously they’re not exact reflections, but they’re echoes, and they see that in each other, if they didn’t already they see if now. Which makes it a little weird that they have so little to do with each other for most of the rest of the season (I have a theory on that, but I’m leaving it for later).
Agnes is probably more like Harry than any of his own children, and I think she’s certainly the daughter (work-daughter though that is) that he’s the most proud of. His children were born with money and security, and although Harry isn’t the greatest dad in the world he’s many steps up from Pa Selfridge of Pa Towler. The Selfridge daughters aren’t given any place to really be like Harry (Violette is in her way, but not in ways he likes), but Agnes is. She’s almost certainly the one whose husband Harry likes the best.
You know how I said that even in s3 I feel like Reg Towler casts a long shadow over the show? The same can not be said for Pa Selfridge. As I was analyzing it this time I finally realized how that shadow could be read into some things down the road, but I don’t the writers had any of that in mind. For example, Harry being so determined that the men who go to war will have a place to come back to could be him trying to do what he can to prevent what happened to his family from happening to others. There’s definitely an angle that could have been explored with this and Henri in s3, men who survive war but each on their way don’t quite manage to come home from it.
Harry’s flashbacks to his dad are pretty awkwardly handled (and they won’t get better next episode), though in my memory there’s a lot more of them than there actually are (probably partly combined with next episode). As much as he overacts when dealing with Reg, it’s much more telling of his daddy issues than the flashbacks. We’ve had enough foreshadowing of Harry’s bad memories of his dad to see why he responds so badly to Reg, and when he goes off on Reg it tells us as much about his own father as we may even need to know.
Though, how much time has Frank spent talking to Lois about Pa Selfridge? Sometimes I get the feeling like Frank’s character got filled in with rejected ideas for Henri when Henri became the romantic lead instead of Harry’s sidekick (potentially gay sidekick at the time). It’s not like Lois goes around talking about the Major all that much, so Frank would have to be hanging out with the Selfridges a lot more than is otherwise implied, while Henri has known the family for years and therefore had time to be told some things.
And bad-dad-Reg definitely takes the wrong angle with newly-affirmed work-dad-Harry by insinuating Harry and Agnes have any kind of improper relationship. And this episode means it’s a pretty good thing the show never tried to do any kind of Harry/Agnes business, or in retrospect Reg just sold his kids off to Harry. Also Agnes talk about their family situation like they’ve gone through this song and dance before, where she and George manage to leave Reg behind only for him to track them down and force his way back into their lives; so I tend to assume Reg got himself killed before that cycle could play out again, I don’t really think Harry’s threats would have kept him at bay.
Change the narrative
There are several times in this episode where circumstances cause the focus of attention to be shifted. Catching Alf and the boys gives a counterpoint to the idea that the staff wouldn’t understand letting Agnes come back; if you do something wrong there are consequences, but being in a bad spot isn’t a crime. When Beatrice throws the Roddy secret out in the open, the fight between Harry and Rose might have taken a different shape had Ellen not shown up and made the situation even messier. For that matter, Beatrice’s appearance does a lot to change the focus of the Rose and Roddy scene from him pressuring her to just give in and be with him, to concern over what her daughter will say; not that he stops being pretty pushy at that point.
On another level, focus tends to drift around the supposed focus a lot at times. Especially in Harry’s big speech to the staff (though there is no way that’s the whole staff, we’ve seen whole staff meetings before this and they’re much more crowded), how much do we in the audience focus on Harry’s speech vs. George’s uncomfortable looks, Mardle and Grove studiously not looking at each other, Henri hovering happily at Agnes’ shoulder (side note, which of them decided to stand like that, I considered that they might have come up to the meeting together but she’s had a whole conversation with Victor before the meeting actually started) while she glows at the support she’s found, Kitty’s cattiness and Victor’s jealousy. For all there are times when the camerawork in this one is a little wonky, they do say a lot by what they focus on at times. There’s a whole lot conveyed just by having the camera land on Henri when Agnes talks her way back into work; I can tell you in s2 the exact moment when the direction told me these two were endgame, but this is very telling of that we’re already supposed to care about this relationship.
Down in the loading bay
I guess when Agnes asked Victor to keep an eye on George while she was out of work, Victor took that to mean he should make it very likely George would be fired with the other loading bay workers involved in the thieving. I can just about give him the benefit of the doubt that Alf and the boys were getting rougher both with the thieving and with George specifically, and Victor decided it was better if he turned them in thus controlling the situation, knowing when about to pull George away so he wouldn’t be among those who got in trouble. It still was a very close shave that makes me doubt he really thought his plan through.
Also, I don’t know whether to blame the actor or the direction, and the writing is at least some of the problem, but when George says that he thought Alf and them were his friends, and then Victor’s all “I can be your friend,” it comes off as fairly creepy. People who claimed to be George’s friends have been using him for weeks, and Victor just wants to use him differently. Ultimately Victor does end up being George’s friend in other stories, but right here is comes off as dishonest, that he just wants to score points with Agnes.
I don’t know that I feel we get enough of the fallout for George from this. Like I said a few episodes ago, George is only kind of a POV character at this point (or any point before about s3), and now that the situation has been settled it’s no longer relevant to the characters we do have more connection with. George looks super awkward and uncomfortable during Harry’s big staff meeting, but that’s basically the end of this plotline and semi-character arc for George.
Accessories
The stuff with the accessories crew surrounding Agnes’ departure and return is sort of worth examining. The bit about dealing with customers who want Agnes is weird and doesn’t seem like something that would happen, while also not telling us much about the remaining characters. That kind of awkwardness would have worked in fashion after Bunting was fired, what do you tell customers when the head of department (and a department where I can see regular customers developing a comradery with certain employees) has been fired for theft? I do understand that shopping in those days was different, and that Selfridges caters to a client base that wants to have a relationship with the employees who sell the merchandise, but it’s still weird to me that it would be an issue; especially for Kitty, if Doris had been the one caught off guard being asked about Agnes it could have been a little less odd, but Kitty should be well prepared for Agnes being gone; hell, how much time has Agnes really spent at the accessories counters with all the time she spends working with Henri?
I’m not sure if Mardle entirely believes Agnes’ way of coming back to work, and how much she’s just willing to go with it. Considering she could have asked Grove about it, who would have denied that Agnes was still on staff; considering Roger’s bitching about Harry undermining him later that can only be about not understanding the decision to take Agnes back, Mardle can and does know that what Agnes tells them isn’t true. Agnes is back, the Chief has decreed it, but she was out. But Josie seems to be okay with that fact, doesn’t seem bothered that Agnes is again benefiting from Harry’s favoritism, is just ready to put her back to work (or let her wander off to help Henri).
This is actually the last gasp of the semi-functional Mardle/Grove relationship. Next episode the mess starts; for now their biggest concern is that Mae may have understood their closeness (Mae totally did, Mae also doesn’t care as long as she gets her foot muffs).
Double standards
Consider the order of things from Rose’s perspective; Harry’s acing weird and randomly goes off to take care of something early in the morning, then Ellen Love shows up to announce her plans not to lose Harry. Rose has no idea Harry was dealing with the Agnes situation, or that he’s more or less settled on Agnes as work-daughter (and definitely has after this). As far as Rose knows, he might have been seeing Ellen until that morning; or he could be moving on to another mistress since he’s gotten tired of Ellen and is punishing Rose for Roddy. Plus he says he ‘values’ Rose, and that’s really awkward.
This episode very clearly illustrates the double standard of their marriage; it’s debatable if I should say it’s applicable to being ‘of the time’ because it is contrasted with the Loxley marriage where (so far) we don’t see the same inequality. The Selfridge marriage though, is very much one where Harry is able to what he wants and Rose isn’t. Rose knows about Harry’s penchant for chorus girls, and has had to take being cheated on for years, but this time, to all appearances the first time she strays even a little from their marriage, Harry flies of the handle.
And even Harry seems to know he’s in the wrong. His first instinct is to say that “whatever Ellen said, it isn’t true,” flimsy though that lie is and he has to quickly amend it to “well, it’s over.” He has no defense when Rose asks if he could really blame her if she had actually cheated with Roddy (I learned it watching you, Harry). And when he’s getting drunk at the club he talks about how he’s not sure Rose isn’t right that he’s no good. But you also know he’ll do it again.
As for the painting, the UYDS hosts really hate it, but I never saw it as that bad. It’s not great, or even that good, but I don’t hate it. I think it’s less ridiculous looking than the later portrait. But it is quite inappropriate to put in Harry’s office, as it is a bit too suggestive. And considering its creation was under near-adulterous terms, Rose just putting it in Harry’s office was definitely making a statement to remind him of how messed up things were.
Also, oh Rosalie. Even on first viewing her bit about wanting to find a man like Harry was uncomfortable; and it’s clearly supposed to as Rose and Lois both look like they know they should tell her to aim for better but can’t bring themselves to do it. But it’s worse on rewatch, because she never does realize the problem with that wish, and marries a man just like Harry (actually, kind of worse), and it goes about how Rose could have told her here and now that it would.
Ellen
I tend to mostly focus on Rose’s behavior in the scene between her and Ellen (the kind of steel it takes for Rose to hold it together as long as she does in the face of Ellen’s behavior) but I do want to talk about it from Ellen’s perspective. Thing is, as I touched on last time, when the season started Ellen was presented as someone who had been around the block a bit and understood how the world worked; but the longer this goes on the less experienced she seems.
Harry wouldn’t have ever indicated that he was looking to leave his wife, he’s never intended that. And they haven’t been together that long (this isn’t a Mardle and Grove situation), it’s been at most a few months since they actually started having any kind of relationship. Really, even calling her his mistress may be giving her too much position in his life; it was heading that way by giving her the flat and everything, but she really hadn’t risen past side-piece before he ended things. If she had always been portrayed as young and naïve about the kind of man he was or the kind of relationship she could expect to have with him, this would be much more tragic. In the end she says he’s “just like all the others” and yet doesn’t otherwise seem to have been burnt this way before. As is, it’s pretty hard to sympathize with; whether or not the writers intended us to sympathize with her is an open question.
The rest of the episode sure isn’t framed as if we’re supposed to find her sympathetic. Her appearance at the club (why couldn’t they keep her out, isn’t the point of gentleman’s clubs that girls aren’t allowed?) she’s pretty much gone off the rails. And her sort of suicide attempt is debatable as it seems fairly staged as a plea for attention (which, yeah a lot of actual suicide attempts are subconsciously, but in this case it seems very consciously set up for that; she could still have maybe messed up and ended up dying I suppose but that was more the danger than actually trying to kill herself).
Henri
This has struck me about Henri before, but not usually in this episode, but it’s interesting to contrast the way Henri is with Agnes with the way he is with the other female members of staff that he interacts with. He is generally respectful of whoever he interacts with (besides Ellen), but he’s also very confident and self-assured, to the point where it almost comes across as flirtatious. I’m thinking especially of his interactions with Miss Ravillious, who matches him in confidence and near-flirtation; I don’t think either of them mistake the other for actually flirting, but it’s an attitude that if he acts that way with say Kitty she might mistake for sexual tension. But with Agnes, he’s shy and tentative and hesitant; he clearly likes her a lot but he’s cautious about whether it should be a professional like or if he ‘like’ likes her.
I do feel like, if the time between Agnes’ return and the car crash had been more than a day, this might have been the point where Harry started to question just what was going on between Henri and Agnes. Agnes has been back at the store for a couple hours at most before Henri pulls her off the floor to go work on the car display (enough time for her to tell George she’s back at the store, possibly unload the stock Mardle suggested she work on, and get recruited by Henri, but not enough time for Victor to have heard anything in the midst of his weird plan to get the loading bay guys caught). Harry could either hear that it was a question going around or he go down to check in with Henri and find the pair of them design-flirting and I think he’d have some things to say (such as that Agnes already has enough of the deck stacked against her, she doesn’t need Henri making her life more complicated). And it’s a conversation I kind of wish had happened, but could really only happen at this moment; once Agnes is settled back in I don’t know that Harry’s protective work-dad instincts would be as strong; and by s2 he just seems to have randomly worked out that Henri and Agnes are too dumb to realize they’re in love with each other
Victor
I have a lot of thoughts involving Victor in this one, but they’re really hard to pin down. I could say he’s trying to be nice to Agnes in their first scene, putting a positive spin on the situation or whatever, but once you see their later scene it’s hard to give him that leeway because he actually does think that she agreed with him about losing her job being a good thing since they could be together, and that the job was the only reason they weren’t already together when Agnes also just doesn’t seem interested. It’s a little presumptive in the first scene, but not terrible behavior on its own; but the later scene does not put him in a good light.
I’m not sure whether Victor is more bothered by her taking her job back or the growing closeness between her and Henri. If I was sure he was mostly bothered by the latter, I’d give him a little more slack, because as disinterested as she was, she did say she was his girl but as soon as she’s back at work she’s back to eye-sexing/making heart-eyes at/design-flirting with Henri. Maybe Victor could avoid pushing her right at Henri by not being such an asshole about her wanting to have a job she loves and is proud of (hmm, no, that doesn’t really change).
Also, Victor says Agnes jumps whenever Henri snaps his fingers; don’t Brits say ‘click’ rather than ‘snap’? This is written by British people, for a firstly British audience so it’s not something that should be inaccurate, it just wasn’t what I expect to hear watching British shows.
Then there’s Victor and Mae’s beginning affair, which is interesting to watch. Because this does seem like a relationship dynamic he’s much more comfortable with, at least starting out. Of course it helps that Mae does seem to actually want to be around him (he ‘has many talents’...he’s just pouring tea, Mae) while Agnes doesn’t really seem to care one way or the other. When he’s a bit of a jerk to Mae she volleys it back where Agnes either doesn’t respond or gets angry with him, same goes for just general flirting and he can’t ever seem to do right with Agnes but does quite well with Mae. And it’s not like he’s good in a vacuum but not when it actually counts, because he knows what Mae wants and he’s going for it. It may not be a long term proposition, but he means it to go somewhere. The show clearly (eventually) decided this was more true to Victor and why he never ends up settling down and becomes more like Harry than basically anyone else on the show.
Agnes II
And we circle back to the other side turn for Agnes this episode (not that I haven’t touched on it several times already). This and the next episode sort of form a two-parter not just about Harry’s car crash, but Agnes weighing her potential love interests. She knows she should like Victor the way he likes her, and she knows she shouldn’t like Henri (much as he seems to like her); Victor is the practical choice and Agnes is nothing if not practical. And yet, she doesn’t really enjoy the idea of being with Victor, she definitely prefers her job to him. And while this episode does show Henri is a much more favorable light than it does Victor (he’s very glad she’s back to work, encourages her to see how the world is opening up before, appreciates her ambition; not to mention the radiating sexual intensity between them), I feel like the focus is more on Victor’s poor behavior than Henri positive actions; to be focused the other way next time as I recall.
Agnes finally declaring that she’s had enough of people telling her what to do is in some ways setup for her and Henri’s big talk next time, but it’s not obvious foreshadowing. Because it is also the culmination of her arc up to this point in the episode and season. She’s been backed into a corner (literally while she and Victor were having that conversation) for most of the season. And she’d been given a golden opportunity to take command of her own life, while Victor seems like he preferred her not in control.
Much as my not-at-all-inner shipper would jokingly point out that Agnes’ landlady says there’s a ‘swelt’ asking for her and then she seems surprised it’s Harry, so was she expecting someone else; I do acknowledge that she probably hadn’t really guessed it was anyone, she just took the excuse to stop hanging out with her dad. Still, it makes me wonder at least a little if she hoped it was Henri come to check on her. And I do suspect if Harry hadn’t risen to Henri’s request to have Agnes back, Henri probably would have contrived some excuse to just cut out the middle part of the equation and hire her to the creative department.
Back to Work
Or Valuables
I’m going to say upfront that I’m only breaking this episode into sections because I feel weird writing reviews as long as these have been without breaks. There’s a lot of little things going on in this episode and so I find a lot of points hard to classify under specific headers; they’re either too small to justify having their own point so get lumped in with some semi-connected point, or connect to a few different larger points so ‘m not sure where I most want to discuss them. I tried just doing this freeform though and didn’t like the way it was going, so we’ll try it this way instead.
Practical bits
Again it’s hard to say how long has passed between these episodes; it could be the next day or the next week, probably not much more than that but it could be a bit more. I will say that in this case it doesn’t matter to me quite as much, as the relationships don’t seem to shift a ton between episodes making me wonder how much time must have elapsed. About the only place where it feels on the longer side is that Roddy finished the painting off-screen when he seemed a ways from finishing last episode.
Also, we have to talk about terrible foreshadowing; if we don’t talk about it how can writers ever learn? Crabb basically looks at the audience and says that no one, including Harry, is allowed to drive the car; everyone got that? Grove randomly bringing up how he would take over if something happened to Harry is a bit less blatant in its setup, but is very much forced in there; the basic conversation with (well, rant to) Mardle does at least feel like it’s in character, just having to include some awkward foreshadowing.
There’s some pretty awkward camera work in this one too, seems to go handheld at times when it really doesn’t need to and then doesn’t know where to focus in the crash scene.
Agnes I
I hadn’t really noticed until I tried to organize my thoughts on this, how much Agnes’ situation is very much the key story of the episode and connects with a lot of the other things I want to talk about. However, for now I’m going to keep focus away from the love triangle elements and focus on the professional and family elements of her story; trust me we’ll circle back to the love triangle, as if there was any doubt.
Not for the first or last time it seems Agnes could stand to get a new landlady. Much like a lot of the other characters reactions to Reg, it may be realistic that it’s treated as if this problem makes the whole Towler family a problem, but that doesn’t make it right. Also, I don’t really understand how they don’t allow gentleman callers in a housing situation open to anyone. The landlady is taking on faith that Agnes is living with her father and brother rather than either of them being some gentleman she’s hooked up with (and as I pointed out in the early episodes that’s not obvious to look at them). Granted she may just have been shaking Harry down for some extra money, but that doesn’t exactly count as a reason the Towlers should keep living there.
There are some elements that I’ve never quite been able to shake my initial feelings for. The smaller one is that I was convinced after watching it the first time that the scarf bit was going to be a problem; that Harry’s accident would somehow get in the way of Henri clearing the books and people would assume Agnes had stolen the scarf, then even if that got worked out we’d be left with another problem on the field. It did turn out that if anything people were too distracted to wonder where Agnes got her new fancy scarf.
The other matter is how uncomfortable Harry’s advice about not explaining makes me; even now I feel like that is a very male perspective, and more so for the time, it’s a harder angle to take as women. Not that it can’t work, and the show lets it work (kind of, Agnes does offer an explanation, just one that’s in kind of a grey area of truth), but I have always had a gut reaction that that’s harder advice for her to pull off that Harry acts like it will be. Harry even looks a bit like he really hopes that was good advice as Agnes gets out of the car.
As a small note, that conversation in the car sort of betrays the lack of long term planning in this show. Because when Harry talks about Agnes driving or even flying someday that feels like something that wants to be paid off down the line but never is. Partly that could be blamed on what I see as a hurried conclusion to things in s3, but I also don’t know that I think the writers ever meant to go much further with the Agnes-Harry parallels than we have here; there’s similarities, but to have Agnes actually become like Harry would have been to change a lot that people liked in the character from the start.
Bad dads and work-dad
This is really the big episode that connects Agnes and Harry’s, our two main protagonists’, stories. Agnes serves as a way to see into Harry’s past, and Harry shows the heights to which Agnes could aspire even from where she is. Obviously they’re not exact reflections, but they’re echoes, and they see that in each other, if they didn’t already they see if now. Which makes it a little weird that they have so little to do with each other for most of the rest of the season (I have a theory on that, but I’m leaving it for later).
Agnes is probably more like Harry than any of his own children, and I think she’s certainly the daughter (work-daughter though that is) that he’s the most proud of. His children were born with money and security, and although Harry isn’t the greatest dad in the world he’s many steps up from Pa Selfridge of Pa Towler. The Selfridge daughters aren’t given any place to really be like Harry (Violette is in her way, but not in ways he likes), but Agnes is. She’s almost certainly the one whose husband Harry likes the best.
You know how I said that even in s3 I feel like Reg Towler casts a long shadow over the show? The same can not be said for Pa Selfridge. As I was analyzing it this time I finally realized how that shadow could be read into some things down the road, but I don’t the writers had any of that in mind. For example, Harry being so determined that the men who go to war will have a place to come back to could be him trying to do what he can to prevent what happened to his family from happening to others. There’s definitely an angle that could have been explored with this and Henri in s3, men who survive war but each on their way don’t quite manage to come home from it.
Harry’s flashbacks to his dad are pretty awkwardly handled (and they won’t get better next episode), though in my memory there’s a lot more of them than there actually are (probably partly combined with next episode). As much as he overacts when dealing with Reg, it’s much more telling of his daddy issues than the flashbacks. We’ve had enough foreshadowing of Harry’s bad memories of his dad to see why he responds so badly to Reg, and when he goes off on Reg it tells us as much about his own father as we may even need to know.
Though, how much time has Frank spent talking to Lois about Pa Selfridge? Sometimes I get the feeling like Frank’s character got filled in with rejected ideas for Henri when Henri became the romantic lead instead of Harry’s sidekick (potentially gay sidekick at the time). It’s not like Lois goes around talking about the Major all that much, so Frank would have to be hanging out with the Selfridges a lot more than is otherwise implied, while Henri has known the family for years and therefore had time to be told some things.
And bad-dad-Reg definitely takes the wrong angle with newly-affirmed work-dad-Harry by insinuating Harry and Agnes have any kind of improper relationship. And this episode means it’s a pretty good thing the show never tried to do any kind of Harry/Agnes business, or in retrospect Reg just sold his kids off to Harry. Also Agnes talk about their family situation like they’ve gone through this song and dance before, where she and George manage to leave Reg behind only for him to track them down and force his way back into their lives; so I tend to assume Reg got himself killed before that cycle could play out again, I don’t really think Harry’s threats would have kept him at bay.
Change the narrative
There are several times in this episode where circumstances cause the focus of attention to be shifted. Catching Alf and the boys gives a counterpoint to the idea that the staff wouldn’t understand letting Agnes come back; if you do something wrong there are consequences, but being in a bad spot isn’t a crime. When Beatrice throws the Roddy secret out in the open, the fight between Harry and Rose might have taken a different shape had Ellen not shown up and made the situation even messier. For that matter, Beatrice’s appearance does a lot to change the focus of the Rose and Roddy scene from him pressuring her to just give in and be with him, to concern over what her daughter will say; not that he stops being pretty pushy at that point.
On another level, focus tends to drift around the supposed focus a lot at times. Especially in Harry’s big speech to the staff (though there is no way that’s the whole staff, we’ve seen whole staff meetings before this and they’re much more crowded), how much do we in the audience focus on Harry’s speech vs. George’s uncomfortable looks, Mardle and Grove studiously not looking at each other, Henri hovering happily at Agnes’ shoulder (side note, which of them decided to stand like that, I considered that they might have come up to the meeting together but she’s had a whole conversation with Victor before the meeting actually started) while she glows at the support she’s found, Kitty’s cattiness and Victor’s jealousy. For all there are times when the camerawork in this one is a little wonky, they do say a lot by what they focus on at times. There’s a whole lot conveyed just by having the camera land on Henri when Agnes talks her way back into work; I can tell you in s2 the exact moment when the direction told me these two were endgame, but this is very telling of that we’re already supposed to care about this relationship.
Down in the loading bay
I guess when Agnes asked Victor to keep an eye on George while she was out of work, Victor took that to mean he should make it very likely George would be fired with the other loading bay workers involved in the thieving. I can just about give him the benefit of the doubt that Alf and the boys were getting rougher both with the thieving and with George specifically, and Victor decided it was better if he turned them in thus controlling the situation, knowing when about to pull George away so he wouldn’t be among those who got in trouble. It still was a very close shave that makes me doubt he really thought his plan through.
Also, I don’t know whether to blame the actor or the direction, and the writing is at least some of the problem, but when George says that he thought Alf and them were his friends, and then Victor’s all “I can be your friend,” it comes off as fairly creepy. People who claimed to be George’s friends have been using him for weeks, and Victor just wants to use him differently. Ultimately Victor does end up being George’s friend in other stories, but right here is comes off as dishonest, that he just wants to score points with Agnes.
I don’t know that I feel we get enough of the fallout for George from this. Like I said a few episodes ago, George is only kind of a POV character at this point (or any point before about s3), and now that the situation has been settled it’s no longer relevant to the characters we do have more connection with. George looks super awkward and uncomfortable during Harry’s big staff meeting, but that’s basically the end of this plotline and semi-character arc for George.
Accessories
The stuff with the accessories crew surrounding Agnes’ departure and return is sort of worth examining. The bit about dealing with customers who want Agnes is weird and doesn’t seem like something that would happen, while also not telling us much about the remaining characters. That kind of awkwardness would have worked in fashion after Bunting was fired, what do you tell customers when the head of department (and a department where I can see regular customers developing a comradery with certain employees) has been fired for theft? I do understand that shopping in those days was different, and that Selfridges caters to a client base that wants to have a relationship with the employees who sell the merchandise, but it’s still weird to me that it would be an issue; especially for Kitty, if Doris had been the one caught off guard being asked about Agnes it could have been a little less odd, but Kitty should be well prepared for Agnes being gone; hell, how much time has Agnes really spent at the accessories counters with all the time she spends working with Henri?
I’m not sure if Mardle entirely believes Agnes’ way of coming back to work, and how much she’s just willing to go with it. Considering she could have asked Grove about it, who would have denied that Agnes was still on staff; considering Roger’s bitching about Harry undermining him later that can only be about not understanding the decision to take Agnes back, Mardle can and does know that what Agnes tells them isn’t true. Agnes is back, the Chief has decreed it, but she was out. But Josie seems to be okay with that fact, doesn’t seem bothered that Agnes is again benefiting from Harry’s favoritism, is just ready to put her back to work (or let her wander off to help Henri).
This is actually the last gasp of the semi-functional Mardle/Grove relationship. Next episode the mess starts; for now their biggest concern is that Mae may have understood their closeness (Mae totally did, Mae also doesn’t care as long as she gets her foot muffs).
Double standards
Consider the order of things from Rose’s perspective; Harry’s acing weird and randomly goes off to take care of something early in the morning, then Ellen Love shows up to announce her plans not to lose Harry. Rose has no idea Harry was dealing with the Agnes situation, or that he’s more or less settled on Agnes as work-daughter (and definitely has after this). As far as Rose knows, he might have been seeing Ellen until that morning; or he could be moving on to another mistress since he’s gotten tired of Ellen and is punishing Rose for Roddy. Plus he says he ‘values’ Rose, and that’s really awkward.
This episode very clearly illustrates the double standard of their marriage; it’s debatable if I should say it’s applicable to being ‘of the time’ because it is contrasted with the Loxley marriage where (so far) we don’t see the same inequality. The Selfridge marriage though, is very much one where Harry is able to what he wants and Rose isn’t. Rose knows about Harry’s penchant for chorus girls, and has had to take being cheated on for years, but this time, to all appearances the first time she strays even a little from their marriage, Harry flies of the handle.
And even Harry seems to know he’s in the wrong. His first instinct is to say that “whatever Ellen said, it isn’t true,” flimsy though that lie is and he has to quickly amend it to “well, it’s over.” He has no defense when Rose asks if he could really blame her if she had actually cheated with Roddy (I learned it watching you, Harry). And when he’s getting drunk at the club he talks about how he’s not sure Rose isn’t right that he’s no good. But you also know he’ll do it again.
As for the painting, the UYDS hosts really hate it, but I never saw it as that bad. It’s not great, or even that good, but I don’t hate it. I think it’s less ridiculous looking than the later portrait. But it is quite inappropriate to put in Harry’s office, as it is a bit too suggestive. And considering its creation was under near-adulterous terms, Rose just putting it in Harry’s office was definitely making a statement to remind him of how messed up things were.
Also, oh Rosalie. Even on first viewing her bit about wanting to find a man like Harry was uncomfortable; and it’s clearly supposed to as Rose and Lois both look like they know they should tell her to aim for better but can’t bring themselves to do it. But it’s worse on rewatch, because she never does realize the problem with that wish, and marries a man just like Harry (actually, kind of worse), and it goes about how Rose could have told her here and now that it would.
Ellen
I tend to mostly focus on Rose’s behavior in the scene between her and Ellen (the kind of steel it takes for Rose to hold it together as long as she does in the face of Ellen’s behavior) but I do want to talk about it from Ellen’s perspective. Thing is, as I touched on last time, when the season started Ellen was presented as someone who had been around the block a bit and understood how the world worked; but the longer this goes on the less experienced she seems.
Harry wouldn’t have ever indicated that he was looking to leave his wife, he’s never intended that. And they haven’t been together that long (this isn’t a Mardle and Grove situation), it’s been at most a few months since they actually started having any kind of relationship. Really, even calling her his mistress may be giving her too much position in his life; it was heading that way by giving her the flat and everything, but she really hadn’t risen past side-piece before he ended things. If she had always been portrayed as young and naïve about the kind of man he was or the kind of relationship she could expect to have with him, this would be much more tragic. In the end she says he’s “just like all the others” and yet doesn’t otherwise seem to have been burnt this way before. As is, it’s pretty hard to sympathize with; whether or not the writers intended us to sympathize with her is an open question.
The rest of the episode sure isn’t framed as if we’re supposed to find her sympathetic. Her appearance at the club (why couldn’t they keep her out, isn’t the point of gentleman’s clubs that girls aren’t allowed?) she’s pretty much gone off the rails. And her sort of suicide attempt is debatable as it seems fairly staged as a plea for attention (which, yeah a lot of actual suicide attempts are subconsciously, but in this case it seems very consciously set up for that; she could still have maybe messed up and ended up dying I suppose but that was more the danger than actually trying to kill herself).
Henri
This has struck me about Henri before, but not usually in this episode, but it’s interesting to contrast the way Henri is with Agnes with the way he is with the other female members of staff that he interacts with. He is generally respectful of whoever he interacts with (besides Ellen), but he’s also very confident and self-assured, to the point where it almost comes across as flirtatious. I’m thinking especially of his interactions with Miss Ravillious, who matches him in confidence and near-flirtation; I don’t think either of them mistake the other for actually flirting, but it’s an attitude that if he acts that way with say Kitty she might mistake for sexual tension. But with Agnes, he’s shy and tentative and hesitant; he clearly likes her a lot but he’s cautious about whether it should be a professional like or if he ‘like’ likes her.
I do feel like, if the time between Agnes’ return and the car crash had been more than a day, this might have been the point where Harry started to question just what was going on between Henri and Agnes. Agnes has been back at the store for a couple hours at most before Henri pulls her off the floor to go work on the car display (enough time for her to tell George she’s back at the store, possibly unload the stock Mardle suggested she work on, and get recruited by Henri, but not enough time for Victor to have heard anything in the midst of his weird plan to get the loading bay guys caught). Harry could either hear that it was a question going around or he go down to check in with Henri and find the pair of them design-flirting and I think he’d have some things to say (such as that Agnes already has enough of the deck stacked against her, she doesn’t need Henri making her life more complicated). And it’s a conversation I kind of wish had happened, but could really only happen at this moment; once Agnes is settled back in I don’t know that Harry’s protective work-dad instincts would be as strong; and by s2 he just seems to have randomly worked out that Henri and Agnes are too dumb to realize they’re in love with each other
Victor
I have a lot of thoughts involving Victor in this one, but they’re really hard to pin down. I could say he’s trying to be nice to Agnes in their first scene, putting a positive spin on the situation or whatever, but once you see their later scene it’s hard to give him that leeway because he actually does think that she agreed with him about losing her job being a good thing since they could be together, and that the job was the only reason they weren’t already together when Agnes also just doesn’t seem interested. It’s a little presumptive in the first scene, but not terrible behavior on its own; but the later scene does not put him in a good light.
I’m not sure whether Victor is more bothered by her taking her job back or the growing closeness between her and Henri. If I was sure he was mostly bothered by the latter, I’d give him a little more slack, because as disinterested as she was, she did say she was his girl but as soon as she’s back at work she’s back to eye-sexing/making heart-eyes at/design-flirting with Henri. Maybe Victor could avoid pushing her right at Henri by not being such an asshole about her wanting to have a job she loves and is proud of (hmm, no, that doesn’t really change).
Also, Victor says Agnes jumps whenever Henri snaps his fingers; don’t Brits say ‘click’ rather than ‘snap’? This is written by British people, for a firstly British audience so it’s not something that should be inaccurate, it just wasn’t what I expect to hear watching British shows.
Then there’s Victor and Mae’s beginning affair, which is interesting to watch. Because this does seem like a relationship dynamic he’s much more comfortable with, at least starting out. Of course it helps that Mae does seem to actually want to be around him (he ‘has many talents’...he’s just pouring tea, Mae) while Agnes doesn’t really seem to care one way or the other. When he’s a bit of a jerk to Mae she volleys it back where Agnes either doesn’t respond or gets angry with him, same goes for just general flirting and he can’t ever seem to do right with Agnes but does quite well with Mae. And it’s not like he’s good in a vacuum but not when it actually counts, because he knows what Mae wants and he’s going for it. It may not be a long term proposition, but he means it to go somewhere. The show clearly (eventually) decided this was more true to Victor and why he never ends up settling down and becomes more like Harry than basically anyone else on the show.
Agnes II
And we circle back to the other side turn for Agnes this episode (not that I haven’t touched on it several times already). This and the next episode sort of form a two-parter not just about Harry’s car crash, but Agnes weighing her potential love interests. She knows she should like Victor the way he likes her, and she knows she shouldn’t like Henri (much as he seems to like her); Victor is the practical choice and Agnes is nothing if not practical. And yet, she doesn’t really enjoy the idea of being with Victor, she definitely prefers her job to him. And while this episode does show Henri is a much more favorable light than it does Victor (he’s very glad she’s back to work, encourages her to see how the world is opening up before, appreciates her ambition; not to mention the radiating sexual intensity between them), I feel like the focus is more on Victor’s poor behavior than Henri positive actions; to be focused the other way next time as I recall.
Agnes finally declaring that she’s had enough of people telling her what to do is in some ways setup for her and Henri’s big talk next time, but it’s not obvious foreshadowing. Because it is also the culmination of her arc up to this point in the episode and season. She’s been backed into a corner (literally while she and Victor were having that conversation) for most of the season. And she’d been given a golden opportunity to take command of her own life, while Victor seems like he preferred her not in control.
Much as my not-at-all-inner shipper would jokingly point out that Agnes’ landlady says there’s a ‘swelt’ asking for her and then she seems surprised it’s Harry, so was she expecting someone else; I do acknowledge that she probably hadn’t really guessed it was anyone, she just took the excuse to stop hanging out with her dad. Still, it makes me wonder at least a little if she hoped it was Henri come to check on her. And I do suspect if Harry hadn’t risen to Henri’s request to have Agnes back, Henri probably would have contrived some excuse to just cut out the middle part of the equation and hire her to the creative department.
