#The English (2022)

[loveisactivated]

THE ENGLISH (2022)

[lousolversons]

Home is here. With you. Lady Cornelia Locke & Eli Whipp in THE ENGLISH (2022)

[patrocles]

THE ENGLISH (2022) dir. Hugo Blick

[tls123]

THE ENGLISH — episode two

[skulandcrossbones]

eli & "with you" for @combat-librarian

+ bonus cornelia & "with you":

[laiqualaurelote]

I do not usually have Thoughts on matters like awards but what is up with the Emmy nominations this year. I'm glad Ted Lasso got some noms but it was for the wrong things?! how does Jason Sudeikis get a nom despite phoning in half the season, but no recognition for Nick Mohammed or Toheeb Jimoh? Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple both somehow in the Best Supporting Actress category? Writing nom for So Long, Farewell but not Sunflowers? Bizarre. But the most egregious omission...

...WHERE IS THE ENGLISH?! Where are the nominations for this, the finest limited series of 2022? Where is Chaske Spencer's Best Actor Award? Why is Episode 5: The Buffalo Gun not being showered with Best Writing, Best Directing, Outstanding Cinematography for the 49 minutes of unrelenting excellence it brought to our screens? Why, for the love of all that is holy, is this show so consistently underrated? This is a travesty and I and the 20 other people in this fandom will be mad about it forever.

[michaeltrevino]

CHASKE SPENCER as ELI WHIPP The English | Path of the Dead (E02)

[korkiekenobiconfirmed]

what she says: i'm fine

what she means: holding on to something, to someone, might be what you need at first, but there will come a day when you no longer do. there will come a day when you're holding on because you want to, because you think you don't know how to let go, but learning to let go doesn't mean forgetting and it doesn't mean losing someone entirely. it just means that one day when our bones are dust, when we've all returned to the earth from whence we came, when we're nothing but stars in the sky and roots in the ground... then we will belong to each other in a way we never could in life.

long way or short way, all we'll be in the end is a handful of words on someone's lips, but for now we'll travel our own paths and keep each other alive in the stories we choose to tell. it's what we need, even if it's not what we want.

[ballisticiansfolly]

I've noticed this about you – Trying to pick up and understand things referenced in The English, pt. 1/2

So, I just watched Amazon's new miniseries The English at the beginning of this year, and while enjoying the it immensely I couldn't help but to notice that, besides historical facts and details, there were undercurrents in it that I just wasn't getting. I decided to do some research and came across pretty interesting things. Lots of thought has went into the making of this series. I've divided my findings in two parts. This first part is about general stuff.

Eli's a member of the Skiri/Skidi-Federation, one of the four bands (or groups) of the Pawnee people. Also known as the Wolf Pawnee or Loups, the Skiri used to live along the Loup and Platte river areas in Nebraska. The Skiri use a different dialect of Pawnee than the three southern bands (South band and Skiri differ mainly in pronunciation and vocabulary), but Pawnee speakers don't have trouble understanding each other. Eli's Pawnee name Ckirirahpiks is pronounced [tskirira:hpiks]. Ckirir means 'wolf' and rahpiks 'scarred.'

Recruitment of Indian scouts was first authorized in 1866 by an act of Congress. Between 1864 and 1877, 170 Pawnee men served in the "Pawnee Battalion" under Frank North (1840–1885) who had learned the Pawnee language after moving to Nebraska at the age of 16. (Interestingly, in 1882 North joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West as a manager of the American Indians.) Indian Scouts were officially deactivated in 1947 when their last member retired.

I found pictures of Pawnee scouts from 1870s in this blog post. These three pictures, taken by William Henry Jackson, were particularly interesting because you can clearly see that details of their appearance have been used as an inspiration when creating Eli's looks.

When rewatching the show I noticed that Eli was wearing an Indian peace medal. According to Trooper Charlie White, Eli was known for his heroic exploits while in the army, but - given Eli's brush off - I wonder if Eli's medal had been something he had inherited. Had his father been a chief? Still, among William Jackson's pictures there were Pawnee scouts with peace medals hanging around their necks. A Pawnee scout called Co-Rux-Te-Chod-Ish was the first Native American to receive the Medal of Honor.

Raise your hand if you really thought that Richard Watts had managed to get his hands on freshwater oysters. Perhaps this was yet another case of him "spitting in the soup."

I was super confused when Simon the squeezebox player reappeared in the last episode since I had completely forgotten about him, but I loved the colours in this scene.

"I've noticed this about you. You keep saying these negative things and you end up always doing the opposite." "Hmm, well... Maybe I should start listening to myself."

So apparently even women who have never given birth can breastfeed babies. To induce lactation you need to stimulate breasts 10–15 minutes several times a day and milk will start after a month or so. Also, of course a 'breast' would be an English word Eli couldn't have picked up naturally.

Although hunting was also an integral part of the subsistence pattern, horticulture - particularly corn - occupied a preeminent position in Pawnee life. It not only provided their sustenance but also figured prominently in their religious life.

At the beginning of the 19th century the Pawnee lived earth lodges which were large, dome-shaped structures of wood covered with packed sod and earth and had a long, narrow, covered entryway. The sizes of lodges varied in diameter from 8 to 15 metres and generally contained several families. Historical sources give varying numbers of Skiri villages, ranging from 13 to 18. Each village had its own separate identity through religious functions, but by the mid-19th century the importance of village identity began to fade as the Skiri population rapidly diminished. (Murie, J. R. and Parks, D. R. (1981) Ceremonies of the Pawnee.)

As the 19th century progressed, the Pawnee bands were forced together onto a reservation on the north side of the Platte and were treated as a single tribal entity by the United States government. Missionaries and the government worked steadily at "making white men"of the Pawnee. By 1873 because of disease, crop failure, warfare, and government rations policy, the Pawnee population had decreased to approximately 2,400. In 1875 the Pawnee were persuaded to give up their reservation in Nebraska and move to new one in the Indian Territory. By the 1876 the entire tribe had removed there, where efforts to acculturate them continued. By 1890 most of the Skiri Pawnee lived on individual farms, dressed like contemporary whites, and spoke English. (Murie, & Parks, 1981)

Bundles were an integral part of Pawnee religion and served as shrines. Among the Skiri, there were two general types of bundles. Sacred bundles, cuharîpîru, were village and band bundles and naturally more important. The oldest sacred bundle was the Evening Star bundle. The other type was referred as karûsu, a bag/sack, and was any lesser bundle – that of a warrior, a doctor, or any other individual.

I was curious about the skull in Eli's bag and using skullsite.com and Royal BC Museum's bird bone identification guide I was able to identify it. Given that Pawnee villages used to be located along rivers, it not surprising that that the skull Eli treasured would belong to an osprey aka fish hawk.

Ospreys differ from most hawks by having short prefrontals.

Round and almost circular nasal (nostril).

Has perforation in sheet of bone between eyes.

Particularly curved bill.

Frontal’s width stays even. 

I always like it when a show makes me curious and inspires me to learn something new, in this case to determine cardinal directions using the sun. I used the instructions in this post to make the collage of Eli determining the compass points.

[naneki-maid]

still thinking about how Eli and his horse were dancing in circles, kicking up a dust storm because he couldn’t decide whether to disappear or to turn right around in search of Cornelia. he always told her about how he didn’t believe in destiny, about how we’re only here for a moment—life’s a whole lot of aiming. one miss. but in that moment that all disappeared. i think if he hadn’t heard her voice he would have chosen her. even if it meant his life.

this narrative hits me so hard because it’s a love story that is destined for tragedy, which is only realized more clearly as the series progresses. it’s two people who have experienced their own unique and excruciatingly long lifetimes of pain/suffering who have finally found love within the other, something they never thought they’d ever find again. and then it’s all taken away. we only see this a few times in the series but I think Chaske Spencer is especially brilliant and cruel when he manages to make the same expression every time he embraces Cornelia, which is one of extreme pain. tormented by her embrace, and agony to be separated.

[joyfulghostskeletonpizza]

On Emily's scene with Gary Farmer in episode 3:

Think what I've realised about this point in the story is that it's the point when a character has been pushed to the point where they truly & utterly Do. Not. Care. Anymore.

Already pushed to the fringes of society, rejected & isolated because of what happened to her, she is now set free in a landscape where there is nothing except for the truth of who people are.

No societal expectations, no bargain with women to tell them if you behave and be a good girl you'll get nice things & be protected - if only you submit.

She wasn't protected. She lost everything anyway. Then lost her son too.

Then the only thing she has left to care about is threatened - Eli.

She learns fast about who not to trust & how to tell when someone is lying from the scene where she stabs Katie Clarke.

Then with John, she is fully formed. She reacts as a wild creature would, to protect its own. A Wolf with absolutely no pretence.

Or perhaps as an indigenous woman would, their behaviour never shaped by what white woman are told about who they should be.

Touches Ground played by Tonantzin Carmelo is a good example of this - a freedom fighter, then political prisoner who resisted the occupation of her lands for years with her husband Chief Running Hawk - who does not shrink from bashing in the face of a man trying to kill her son in episode 5 The Buffalo Gun.

At this point Cornelia has zero reason to care about whether she lives or dies, knowing she is dead anyway, and this is when someone becomes truly dangerous.

And John knows it, and he submits.

It's in the eyes.

This is the point when Emily's character becomes truly terrifying.

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[loveisactivated]

CHASKE SPENCER as ELI WHIPP/WOUNDED WOLF

[eternalegoist]

these two have my heart

[patrocles]

How do you do?

Better on my own.

[fernmusing]

BAFTA nominations for Hugo Blick and Chaske Spencer this morning! The English finally getting some recognition.

[skulandcrossbones]