34 thoughts on “Gentleman Jack Recap, Part 3

  1. I can understand Anne Walker wanting time to think. However strong her feelings for Anne Lister moving in with her is a big step, especially as it would mean effectively coming out. Walker is also financially secure but she might care about talk.

      1. On the plus side if Anne Walker moves in she can borrow some of Anne Lister’s wonderful suits!

  2. I love the sibling scrapping–Marian’s a hoot. Yara Greyjoy, is that you?! in frilly curls and pretty plaids? Mr SOWden, pig farmer. Perfect, and a fitting demise. But he should have just been suffocated rather than cut. Now I’m worried about that nice son (even if he is a murderer–dad would have killed them all).That close-up of Anne’s dress clothes–gorgeous. Is that blackwork on her shirt collar?

    1. Marian isn’t wrong. Unless Daddy writes a will dictating otherwise she is co-heiress to his estate. But if she’s smart she’ll shut up and let Anne manage it because Anne’s obviously got a head for business. Marian can get married if she likes but I pity the man who takes on Anne. Interesting how their father is willing to be side lined. Is he weak in the head or does he just have a justified respect for his elder daughter’s good business head and an acceptance of her sexuality?

      1. Dad has nothing to do with the estate. Anne inherits it from an Aunt and Uncle in her own right as her brother died and there was not other living male heirs. Miriam’s scheme is to marry and have her husband try to take over the estate as Anne spends most of her time out of the area

        1. Oh, I see. Yes that explains everything. Anne is of age so Dad has no legal leverage. I still pity any man who tries to overcome Anne Lister. If it came to Anne by will rather than simply as next of kin Marian has no rights at all. Obviously she resents the fact.

      2. I believe it was established in episode 1 that Anne was left the property by Her uncle. So Marian would not be a co-heir.
        And dad is out of it for that reason.

    2. “Sow-den” I know, hah!

      Lister’s shirt collar, I don’t think it’s blackwork in the Elizabethan sense (altho’ we haven’t gotten enough of a view). I think just the top edge is worked in black.

  3. I am watching the episode tonight.
    But I’m wondering if there’s a way to ship Marian off to Westeros and see how long she survives. She’s so annoying.

    Which Mr Rawson – smart or dumb?

    I’m definitely going to find a copy of her diary.

        1. Ah yes, I think that’s probably Smart Rawson – in his first scene arriving at the bank (w/the dog), he’s driven in a carriage, & someone comments that he’s not driving his gig. He shoos them off with something about it being broken down or being no good.

          1. Makes sense. And explains whyas magistrate, he’s doing nothing, rien, Nada.

  4. Uh, I just can’t get into things like this. I don’t mind same-sex love stories, but for me to get emotionally involved, it’s gotta be hot & sexy. Two average looking middle aged women ain’t it. Sorry, not sorry.

    1. Well that’s judgey & not in an entertaining way. I hope average-looking opposite-gender ppl having sex turns you off just as much (tho’ I feel sorry not sorry about your own lovelife). Oh & way to be ageist while you’re at it.

    2. Damn, bro, who peed in your coffee? Most of us are average, and I don’t think 30 and 40 count as “middle aged” (the ages of the actresses playing Miss Walker and Anne Lister respectively).

      Was it Emily Post who said “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all”? I’m going to add if it’s not constructive, keep it to yourself.

    3. As a straight female girl on girl does nothing for me. But I can empathize with the emotions involved.
      Anne Lister is tired of being left. She wants a settled, permanent relationship – and why shouldn’t she?
      Anne Walker is in love for the first time in her life and it’s with another woman. Naturally she’s going to need some time to adjust to this startling discovery and decide what to do about it. Accepting Lister is going to take a certain amount of courage.

    4. Anne Lister becomes increasingly hot to me as the series progresses (I just started binge watching which is why I’m so late to the comments).

      I’m quite enamored with her hands, how upfront she is, and how tender and understanding she is with Ann. And I’m rather straight.

      Suranne is amazing and I love her and these two are adorable and even sexy together.

  5. I think them being “average looking” is part of the point.

    But can I say how much I love how they’ve characterized Ann Walker? She IS beautiful, and interesting, as Anne Lister tells her, even if she isn’t Lister’s intellectual equal. And she is a full participant in their romance when in so, so, so many lesser shows (particularly hetero-oriented shows) she might have been just a love object with no individual personality. Lister herself is the more modern character from the viewing standpoint, but Ann Walker, while still being a woman of her time, doesn’t have her values down-graded or laughed at in the writing. So many historical shows sneer at more “conventional” characters (who act more in accordance with the norms of their era), but this one mostly avoids that, especially with Ann Walker.

    Also, although we do see the initial financial attraction to Lister, she does develop a tender appreciation for Ann’s gifts, which is how a man of her era and class would have approached marriage. To us it might look mercenary, but to a person in 1832, the financial and class position of potential mates MATTERED.

    This show is a little uneven but I LOVE their love!

    1. YES! It’s a beautifully written relationship, esp. from Walker’s POV. Lister is on the hunt for a companion, she’s tired of ladies who ditch her for men, she knows what she wants. But Walker is open, curious, & truly falls in love with Lister, without coercion, but from seeing the appeal of the relationship. They’re both getting something out of it equally. It’s quite lovely.

  6. Honestly not feeling the disapproval of Marian’s concern for the servants’ up at late hours. And Anne is just a soulless rentier (rentier and soulless perforce go naturally hand in hand) to whom Mlle. Guillotine would love to give a big juicy kiss.. alas the nation and period are rather wrong for the sort of thing.

    1. Anne’s views were extremely common for her time & class; Marian’s the one out of step, esp. since she profits just as much from her status in the world. She may not run the estate like Anne, but she has everything she needs from it (& unlike Jane Austen & her heroines, no fear of homelessness).

      1. Oh, I do understand how common her attitudes were. They brought us Uncle Karl, after all.

        1. Personally I’ve always felt that ‘Uncle Karl’s’ ideology had a lot to do with resentment that he had to support his family. Or more charitably, frustration over his inability to do so.

    2. Keeping the servants up late wasn’t very kind, because they had to be up at the crack of dawn (and possibly had some other chores to do after they finished taking care of the mistress, losing even more sleep).
      They were not paid for overtime and they had their duties and plenty of them – the fact that they had to wait for their mistress returning late the night before would not be a good excuse for not doing them.
      Marian acts like a good mistress of the household – she’s trying to make sure there is a good schedule in place. Messing with it is inconsiderate.
      (I haven’t watched the show yet – just ging by the recaps)/

        1. I’m pretty sure considerate mistresses existed in the early 19th c. It comes up in some early etiquette books. But insisting the servants need their sleep is also a way of criticizing one’s sister’s late hours.

        2. It seems to me more like division between traditional male and female roles. Anne is taking a male role in the household – dealing with tenants, coal, whatever. Marian takes the feminine role of managing the household – deals with servants, meals and stuff (unless she doesn’t and it went past me). So she’s more concerned with things running on schedule. which a good mistress was supposed to have in place, not as much to make sure servants get enough sleep, but more as simply the best way to make sure things get done.

  7. I kind of liked the 4th wall being broken at certain points – it makes Anne Lister very immediate, very close to the audience, and she has such a business-like, hard exterior that there has to be some way the viewer empathizes with her for the whole arc of the story to work. But it didn’t work as well for me when Marian broke the 4th wall, and especially when Ann Walker asked “Who are you talking to?”. Being invited into Anne Lister’s headspace is one thing, but having another character become aware of the “surveillance” aspect of the storytelling seemed…I don’t know, forced? Kind of silly?? I’m not sure what. But as I’m loving everything else about the show, that one little blip can be overlooked.

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