#harlots 207

[calamity-bean]

from “i am charged with upholding that law, a task i neither savor nor shrink from” to “the law is ink placed on parchment by self-serving rich men”...... THAT’S GROWTH!!!

[cptrs]

[calamity-bean]

what do you think of the kiss between nancy and margaret?

That it was beautiful and lovely and such an emotional moment!!! That it suggests Margaret and Nancy quite possibly were lovers at one point, or had a romantic friendship of some kind, and that Nancy in particular might still be in love in a romantic sense!!! But it also doesn’t really matter how we, the audience, try to interpret or define the kiss anyway, because at the end of the day, what’s undeniable regardless is that Mags and Nancy’s love – be it romantic, platonic, sisterly, all of the above, etc. – is so incredibly deep and comprehensive and true. 

Their scenes were such a major highlight of this episode for me. All they’ve been through together, all the decades and hardships and victories and sorrows; I’m fucking overwhelmed thinking about their bond, and every one of their interactions this episode really drove that home.

[calamity-bean]

harlots 2.07 quick reactions

So it spoils nothing to say that I’m an absolute mess about this episode, because I was an absolute mess beforehand and would surely continue to be an absolute mess regardless of what happened, but see below for heat-of-the-moment reactions as I fling my messy feelings all over the place!

Obviously, major spoilers under the cut!

First of all, elephant in the room: I’M SO FUCKING RELIEVED ABOUT MAGS OH MY GOD

This episode was pure torture. Utter, drawn-out torture. Not because it was bad or boring, but because every scene with Mags ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it. Shall I talk about her beautiful singing in the cell? About her tearful embraces with Charlotte? About Will telling her that “her face, her laugh, and her love” were “the best things he’d ever known”????

But the standout among all of it was Margaret and Nancy. Holy... I’m wrung out. It’s not just the kiss, though the kiss was beautiful. I think a lot of us have long read an element of romance into their friendship, and the kiss felt fitting and right. But it’s more than that. It’s Nancy -- strong, fearsome, stoic Nancy! -- breaking down sobbing as she says that even after Margaret got her own family, she was still the ONLY thing Nancy had. 

And I don’t think that’s really true -- because clearly Will, Charlotte, Lucy, and Jacob all consider Nancy to be as much their family as Margaret, and I’m sure Nancy considers them family as well. But in the grief of the moment, all she can thing about is how vastly, inextricably important little Maggie Mudpie has always been to Nancy Ache-Face, and oh my god.... I’m destroyed.

And I am also SO. So. Fucking proud of Josiah Hunt.

Sorry to get sidetracked by my niche fave here, y’all, but I have been pulling for this guy the entire season. A month ago, I laid out my basic hopes for his arc: that he would become more compassionate, would learn to separate law from morality, would continue being put into increasingly difficult moral quandries and hopefully come out of it all a better person. I am so used to character arcs not turning out as I hoped, but bless you, Hunt, you have not let me down.

It’s not all perfect, of course. Hunt’s words about transportation being what Margaret deserves are a lil harsh, but make sense for his character; he’s come a long way, but even as he rejects the law as the ultimate moral standard, I think he still feels the need to feel that justice has been done in some way, and that means a penance of some kind. And the thought of Margaret being gone ... the thought of her being separated from her family, and of her family not even KNOWING she’s alive ... is absolutely gutting.

Which means you’ve got ONE EPISODE to fix this, Harlots!!!

ONE EPISODE to take down whoever needs to be taken down so that it’s safe for Margaret to return, and to get her pardoned, and for the lot of them to race to Tilbury and free her and bring her home!!!

I’m hoping like hell that someone can finally tell Lucy what’s been happening and that this will finally be the (tragic) wake-up call she needs to see Fallon for what he really is. I’m hoping she gets out of there and that Fallon gets his comeuppance. I don’t know if I’m ready to see Lydia taken down for good, especially if Mags is truly gone as well, and I think Harcourt will probably make it out of the season fairly unscathed ... But I’m hoping. Like hell. For something like a happy ending to all this.

At least we’ve got a CHANCE.

[calamity-bean]

“what is it worth? oh, my soul”

re: my last gifset, I seriously cannot overstate how I shrieked when the same music that played over Kitty’s funeral procession started playing over Margaret’s walk to the gallows. It’s such an evocative song even on its own, and I have so many feelings about the show’s choice to parallel those particular scenes. 

What is Margaret’s soul worth? What was Kitty’s? This season -- indeed, much of this series as a whole -- has been largely driven by the theme of whether justice is possible for the marginalized, the underprivileged, the poor. Every Spartan victim; every subject of abuse; and though the theme intersects with many characters, if any one of them has been held up as an emblem of all of it, it’s Kitty Carter. Her soul was surely as good and kindhearted as anyone’s, yet for her poverty and her profession and her supposed lack of morals, most of society values her at practically nothing. Almost every episode this season has asked whether it’s even POSSIBLE to ever get justice for her, and thus far, every attempt at justice has failed. 

Margaret’s soul is arguably a somewhat different matter. She is, on the whole, a likable and sympathetic person, yes -- but she has made brutal choices and done disturbing things and, even with good intentions, inflicted cruelties on the ones she loves. The point that’s been brought up again and again about her this season is that her soul has blood on it. “There’s no blame on your doorstep, though, is there, Margaret? Only bodies. You’re choking on guilt. There's that many corpses clinging to your skirts, you’re starting to stink.”

I don’t really agree with Will laying the blame for those deaths on Margaret -- even the murder she actually committed was very understandable -- but I think it undeniable that Margaret herself has been feeling deeply responsible for the deaths or, in Mary’s case, for how she took advantage of the death. She approaches the gallows with fear, yes, but also with an attitude of ... absolution. Like she thinks this is what her soul deserves.

Does Hunt saving Margaret make up for his failure to get justice for Kitty? Does one’s survival balance the scales for the other’s death? The musical parallel might tempt one into viewing it that way, but no; no life is a substitute for another, and anyway, by 2.07, I think the season has made it clear that justice -- while a good thing when it can truly be attained -- is a flawed, complicated, nebulous and biased concept that can’t guarantee that ANYONE’S soul will be valued for even a fraction of what it’s worth. How does one even measure that worth, anyway? And does the measure of that worth really matter? Kitty’s murderers should be punished; I want them to be ... But that might never happen. And even if it does, it’s like Fanny said: nothing would change for Kitty or daughter. Kitty will still be dead.

Before being renamed in Kitty’s honor, Fanny’s own daughter was named Mercy. In 2.07, I think that mercy, more so than justice, is the point. Mercy is more nuanced than justice, more focused on helping the living rather than those who can no longer be helped. Margaret is guilty, and justice as the law defines it would see her hanged. But mercy looks at her bloodied, battered, guilt-ridden, imperfect soul and affirms that yes; of course it's worth something; a worth that cannot be quantified or balanced on a scale.

[calamity-bean]

i could do like a whole long post JUST breaking down the 2.08 trailer shot by shot, but for now all i’ve got time to say is that this tender moment

better come IMMEDIATELY before or after hunt telling will the truth!!!

[calamity-bean]

things that are HORRIBLE to think about: lucy’s gonna find out about margaret’s “death” without ever even knowing she was in trouble.

like, it’s gonna go ... straight from 0 to 100 for her. everybody else at least knew she was in prison, knew the charges, had some time to prepare themselves... but lucy has absolutely no reason to think her mother isn’t safe and sound at greek street. as far as she knows, her family is safe, and all is well in the world.

...*SOB*

[calamity-bean]

Did we ever figure out the meaning behind Lydia's smile at the end of that one episode (episode seven I think)?

Episode 6! In the wake of Charlotte telling her exactly what the heck she thinks of Lydia and leaving with Mags, leaving Lydia to rub her sore throat.

The smile wasn’t addressed specifically, as far as I recall, but we see in 2.07 that Lydia actively works to get her revenge against both Margaret and Charlotte by ensuring Margaret’s execution (even after she’s initially pardoned!) and by going after Charlotte in multiple ways: 1) trying to get Abigail Warren to accuse her of kidnapping her and pimping her out; 2) putting her in Harcourt’s line of fire; and 3) demanding Dodds prosecute Charlotte for strangling her. Of course, at the end of 2.06, Lydia didn’t know about Margaret’s predicament… So I reckon that little smile is all to do with Charlotte, and with the fact that Lydia probably began plotting right then and there all the different ways she could get back at Charlotte for her betrayal. 

[calamity-bean]

The more I rewatch 2.07, the more I feel like surely we MUST at least get some sort of final family farewell in 2.08... The way Margaret screams that there is no hope without her family, no LIFE without them, they CANNOT just let her vanish on that note, or it feels like a death sentence even though it isn’t in a practical sense. Especially since they’ve got a whole nother episode in which to make something happen.

I’m very uncertain about whether Margaret ultimately will be transported or not; staying in London would be perilous, as it would surely be back to the gallows for her should the Lord Chief Justice find out that Hunt spared her (unless a lot of other circumstances change), so it’s not a simple matter of her family finding out about the ship in time and spiriting her away. Even if she doesn’t get transported, she’d have to be hidden somehow, dead to the world. But for a character who’s so overwhelmingly focused on family, going away with no last goodbye and with them not even aware that she’s alive would just be... a very, very cruel way to end her arc (for the show or for the season), crueler than Harlots tends to be toward is protagonists.

[cptrs]

[cptrs]

[cptrs]

[calamity-bean]

Do you know the song that played at the beginning of episode 7? I've been looking every where for it

The one Margaret was singing in her cell? I’ve tried looking up the lyrics and unfortunately haven’t been able to find out whether it’s an established tune (as opposed to one made for the show). But it’s the same song that plays at the end of the episode and over the credits, and fortunately, that version has been posted here!

[calamity-bean]

in preparation for tonight’s Harlots i am filled with wine and dread!