49 thoughts on “Gentleman Jack Recap, Part 5

  1. I wanted to really let Arya take care of Mr Bastard Ainsworth. But I’d let the Bishop know that one of his clergy is a rapist, adulterer and fornicator first.

    And Anne’s attacker I give to Ser Brienne then Queen Sansa (oops-maybe a spoiler).

  2. I was waiting for Lister to tear Ainsworth a new one.
    Parkhill’s Gay Panic is unfortunately very believable. She’s been taught all her life that sex is iffy and sex with your own gender is a horrible sin. She’s genuinely terrified for her friend’s immortal soul. Good Intentions = Road to Hell.
    Poor Ann Walker is a mess. Coming out of the Closet is a Big Deal. Bigger than Lister who has been Out all her life seems to realize. Lister’s courage to be herself and take the consequences is rare in any age.
    I’m sure those two women in the library were admiring Lister’s wonderful suit.

    1. Seriously a woman walks in looking so trim and tailored and elegant would make me rethink my puffy sleeves and muslin fichus, not to mention the bonnets.

    2. Yeah, Parkhill is believable, if pathetic. Much as Walker’s indecision. Which makes Lister’s strength & self-knowledge all the more impressive (& it’s not just modern writing, it’s all from her diaries).

      1. That Ann would even consider marrying Ainsworth is at once pitiful and believable.

  3. I seriously thought the episode was entitled ‘FUCK THIS GUY.’ Seriously, they can all go die in a pigpen. And Happy World Goth Day!

    1. Except Ann’s servant James. He can stay. I loved it when he shut the door in Ainsworth’s face. I think he can tell Anne is good for Ann.

      1. Oh yes, Ann does have an excellent footman! I nearly screencapped that scene, but I didn’t want more Ainsworth in the recap than I already had.

  4. As an aside; if Mr Abbott does own property in New Zealand in this time period than he’s almost certainly involved with the New Zealand Company and the Wakefields. He’s going to loose a lot of his money as most of the land the company claimed to own was gained through dubious means and did not turn the profit they hoped for. In the end the British Government had to bail out the company and take over their colonisation schemes, and annex New Zealand in 1840 to clean up the mess.

    My, my, Marian really can pick’em, and totally deserves her derpy bonnet of shame.

        1. Marian was born in 1798, so she’d be 34 at this time. Basically off the marriage market (& I can’t find any historical notes that she did marry). So yeah, desperate.

  5. Parkhill may be losing it over the idea of gay people but the fabric of that first striped dress she wears is to die for.

    1. The fact that she ,Parkhill, liked Lister must be especially frightening. Does she have unnatural feelings too? Maybe but it’s probably the suits. Not to mention the intelligence and originality. Who wouldn’t like Lister?

  6. This was an amazing episode — I was particularly moved by Anne Walker, who, unlike Ann Lister, doesn’t yet know who she is or wants to be. And here she has to deal with two issues — her rape by Mr. Ainsworth (this is in the dairies although described as defiled and taken advantage of) and her homosexuality — both at the same time. In the 19th C, there were customs and laws (there still are in many countries including some parts of the US cf. Missouri and Florida) where women were encouraged to marry their rapists due to shame, pregnancy, social convention, keeping the man out of prison, etc. There was also the idea that a first love stopped a woman from loving again (hate this in The Small House at Allington by Trollope as well as the pop Song “The First Cut”). So FUCK THIS GUY’s obvious feelings of ownership of Miss Walker as well as her repeated statements that it might be best if she marries him were perfectly period and not just about homosexuality. No wonder she was stressed out, ill, probably with PTSD and unmarried at 29, torn between her feelings for Ann and social convention. I love the energy of Ann Lister, but here Miss Walker takes center stage, with her issues having an echo in Marian and Mr. Abbott, who is exerting his own feelings of ownership over Marian and Aunt Anne and his real love, the property.

    1. Yes, it’s a very period dilemma. Ainsworth is obviously a fortune Hunter of the worst description.

    2. Ann Walker Ann is without the E but Anne Lister has the E just to be pedantic.

      But Rev. Ainsworth want her $$$,££££ and to control her.

      Hopefully, we will get a season 2. Ms Lister dies in 1840. And it’s 1834?

      1. This series is so well done. Hopefully it will lead to more LGTB frock shows for all of us. I loved both Oscar Wilde movies, and The Girl King. Maybe, we will see one about women ambulance drivers in WWI. Kerry Greenwood mentions one in her Phryne series and I cannot think of name besides Toupie.

          1. I can’t get enough of those gorgeous suits! I really love the tailed lines, the rich colors and elegant little details. Like I said Lister is better dressed than the male characters as well as the female ones.

  7. I thought I would get used to the puffy sleeves, but every episode I think “Oh God! They’re so puffy!”

      1. Worst Costume Era Ever. Okay, early 17th c. is pretty bad too. Hate drum farthingales.

        1. LOL – I purposefully made a wheel farthingale costume for a masquerade ball event this weekend! I love wacky historical silhouettes. wouldn’t want to wear them every day, but the exaggeration is entertaining.

      2. So, wacky! I’ve seen lots of fashion plates and illustrations of the era, but nothing prepared me for the reality.

  8. Thanks Trystan for the season 2 announcement. You just made my day.

    Anne Lister is a wonderfully complex person. Modern with regard to how she wants to live – free of patriarchy control, better dressed than most men of her era, open or mostly open regarding her sexuality. Strong and determined.

    Very Georgian regarding class and society, and vaguely modern RE religion.

  9. I’m finally caught up, and I LOVE everything this show does on both a costume and a story level. Anne’s suits are fabulously tailored and detailed, and differentiate her so well from the people around her. Most of the other women look completely absurd, as upper-class people in the 1830s should, but not so much that it feels like parody. I like the balance they strike with Anne Walker — she still gets the massive sleeve action and wild 1830s hair, but the delicate colors and softer shapes make her look pretty and almost doll-like instead of ridiculous. The level of detail and commitment to historical silhouettes is really impressive to me, and I’m glad they put that attention into this lesbian period drama that I would have watched even without fabulous costumes.

    1. ‘Most of the other women look completely absurd, as upper-class people in the 1830s should, but not so much that it feels like parody’

      –Tom Pye said something like that in our interview, so good to hear he hit the mark!

  10. I enjoy your recaps of Gentleman Jack as much as the show itself! You are brilliant and hilarious!

  11. In real life Anne Lister was a fortune hunter who wanted to use Anne Walker’s money to subsidize her lifestyle and once they got together, she did and Anne Walker was hysterical about about the way Anne Lister was using up her money. They didn’t really have a happy marriage. Furthermore Anne Lister women of more socially marginalized race and class statuses for her own sexual gratification and then discarded them. In real life she was really no better then this guy. This is why I’m having mixed feelings about this sanitized depiction of her. It wasn’t only the men who were sexually exploitative, fortune hunting, and oppressive – those attributes could be used to describe Anne Lister’s behavior around women she was attracted to and other people around her in general as as well. She forced her lower class male tenants to vote the way she wanted them to, basically appropriating their right to vote. I’m starting to wish they had just made up a completely fictional character INSPIRED by Anne Lister instead of needing to obviously sanitize Anne Lister’s real life behaviors in order to make her more sympathetic and relatable for this tv show.

    1. Basically, she acted much as an upper class man of that era would in terms of privilege and behavior. Or at least what the worst of them would expect to get away with. I’m sure there were lots of decent men then, even in the upper classes. But this behavior and attitude was not unusual. Anne strongly identified with and adopted the behavior of upper-class males so this should not be unexpected. I for one am very glad they did not sanitize or fictionalized her story.

    2. It’s not unusual for a couple to argue about money. And unlike more conventionally married women Ann Walker could take her goodies and go whenever she liked. Anne Lister had no legal claims on her. Emotional and moral are a different matter.

    3. What a very miserable state of affairs to pick on two long dead lesbians. In real life, this party is repeating a biased account from the late 1990s that suppressed a huge portion of research. I choose to believe Ann Walker’s words when she was asked if she would be better off at her own place or if she had regretted being with Anne, “Hell no.”

  12. I liked the episode. Is it wrong that I’d like to see more love scenes and romance in this show (and more of what’s going on in the lives of the servants and the tenants) then these coal wars? I wonder if next season they can show more of Anne’s romantic adventures on the continent. And I’d love if they show how she ended smoking and playing cards with soldiers in the middle of the night.

    Anne Lister was very gallant & chivalrous in this episode, I loved how she scared that guy sh!tless with threats and her cane alone, lol. And Anne Walker was whimpering, weak, & annoying…as usual. I’m not shocked by Harriet Parkhill’s behavior b/c people act like that now. Sexual behavior and the societal rules surrounding sexual behavior will always be tricky terrain. I loved Harriet’s hairstyle and the appliqués Harriet’s hair. Funnily enough watching all three of them interact, I wished the actress playing Harriet was the one playing Anne Walker. She seemed to have really great chemistry with Suranne Jones, is she is just less irritating to me then Sophie Rundle’s insecure, whimpering, fainting, and crying all over the place depiction of Anne Walker. The way she plays this character reminds me of that sniveling, fainting, crying version of Cosette in the latest incarnation of Les Miserables. It’s just…no. These women are not endearing, just annoying. All in all, I would love to see more of romance & love scenes, less coal wars – particularly Anne’s romances with ladies on the continent.

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