Gentelman Jack – It’s Not Illegal

By starrymag | June 20, 2022

By: Kelly Kearney

 

 

The finale is here and we’re finally slamming the door on the Walker estate story, sending Captain Sutherland back under the homophobic rock he crawled out from. While the second season finale didn’t carry the same weight as that hilltop love fest we were given in season one, it did wrap up the stories nicely and end in a loving moment between our two favorite Georgian-era wives. So, grab your travel thermometer and hop on the gig,  it’s time to head to London with Anne and Ann. 

 

Tensions Run High in London

 

We begin with Anne (Suranne Jones) and her moody wife Ann (Sophie Rundle) on their London trip. The tensions from last week are still burning hot over Ann’s frustrations with her wife sidelining her with her posh friends. Ann feels left out of her wife’s high society life and doesn’t understand why she’s forced to stay in their rented apartment while Anne runs off to dinner. Anne brushes off her concerns with a promise of someday, but for now she thinks Ann isn’t ready and for what, we have no idea. Maybe it’s the fact her last love, Vere Hobart, will be there and Ann has already come face to face with the other exes from her wife’s past? Anne probably isn’t ready to have that conversation again. 

Leaving her wife miffed and stewing in her feelings, Anne heads to dinner and, as always, she is the life of the party. Everyone at the table cannot get enough of her traveling stories and witty rapport. She mentions Ann, and not by her marital status, but for the fact she claims the two “friends” are in London searching for a new headteacher for Halifax’s day school. She stumbles over the truth of their relationship but spends most of the dinner wrapped up in Veres’ complaints about married life. It seems all the women Anne has loved, who were never brave enough to be with her, hate the lives they’ve chosen and still want her around. Who can blame them? 

After their search for the teacher the two wives hop in Anne’s fixed carriage where Ann is in another snit over being sidelining when she tries to speak her mind. She accuses Anne of making her look inept, as if her ideas are frivolous and not considered equally. She is sick of it and throughout the episode has no issue telling her wife to shove it and in far more colorful language than Anne or the viewers are used to. It seems the two women have switched personalities in this episode with Anne trying to not to step on her wife’s feelings and Ann taking control over how she is perceived. It’s a role reversal Lister wasn’t prepared for. 

 

The Captain Hatches A Plan

 

While Anne and Ann were in London, Captain Sutherland (Derek Riddell) is up to his same greedy and homophobic tricks. After supper he dismisses his wife, Elizabeth (Katherine Kelly) to have a little secret chat with his mother about their plans for the Walker estate division. He tells her she will be in charge of the children while he and Elizabeth leave Scotland for Halifax and then lets slip his concerns for his sister-in-law’s well-being. He’s convinced this push to divide the estate is all thanks to Anne Lister and her “unnatural” grip on Ann’s decisions. He knows the eccentric landowner is behind all of this because he knows Ann is not determined enough, or smart enough (ouch!) to do this on her own. Everything about this guy is an insulting, toxic mess. He goes as far as to compare the two women to another pair of women in Scotland, who were also accused of having an unnatural and romantic relationship. He even mentions how the courts got involved, and now we know his Plan B if Ann keeps insisting he sign the estate papers. 

Meanwhile, Anne and Ann are on their way back to Halifax and the two are still fighting over the same issue: treating Ann like an afterthought unless her wife needs money. She comes right out and accuses Anne of pilfering her coiffers to fund their trips, her coal mines and the Northgate casino and hotel development. She seems to only be useful to her wife as long as the money is flowing. The argument intensifies unti the name Mariana falls from Ann’s lips. She knows something happened between the two and, whether or not she thinks her wife was unfaithful, she’s certainly sniffing around that truth. Anne is shocked and after a few rows of accusations Ann announces she can no longer stay married to Anne! It seems the two are breaking up before their marriage could even gather dust. For Anne’s part, she barely fights for her wife to reconsider and claims she only wants Ann to be happy. If her wife would rather leave, she won’t stop her. She even starts quietly wondering if she’s ready to get back out in the streets and find herself a suitable replacement! Silly Anne. In the past she thought the same and then realized her heart was tied to Walker’s in a way she hadn’t seen coming. It’s another case of Lister ego getting in the way of her heart, and it happens on and off throughout the series. 

 

Mourning the Life She Was Meant To Have

 

Before arriving at Shibden, Anne asks her soon-to-be-ex if she wouldn’t mind stopping off in York to pay their respects to a child’s grave. The infant died only a few weeks before Anne was born and when the two enter the church and approach the tomb Anne starts to emotionally unravel. In the best monologue of the season Anne talks about who she became and wonders if the infant’s death sealed her fate. Perhaps she was destined to be someone else – someone greater with a ranking that fit her refined tastes – but the universe filled her body with this tragic child’s soul. Ann doesnt understand how that could be possible and with a subtle pain and restrained emotions. Anne gives an explanation of reincarnation and why this child’s fate which anchored itself to her means she couldn’t give Ann the life she wanted. She means children – the one issue that keeps her wife wondering if a life with Lister is the right one for her. 

After the mournful stop in York, Anne’s gig pulls up to Shibden Hall where Marian (Gemma Whelan), Captain Lister (Timothy West) and Aunt Anne (Gemma Jones) are all waiting to hear about the two women’s trip. The conversation segues to the Northgate property where Anne mentions her plans for a groundbreaking ceremony and she’s asked Ann to give a speech and lay the first stone. No doubt the locals will show up to see this, with some of them hoping to catch a glimpse of the two women blowing up the Hlifax rumor mill. The worry about what this speech and event might look like, not to mention the current crumbling state of their marriage and the looming issue with the estate division, pushes Ann to drink a bottomless glass of wine that sends her to the chamber pot–sick while her wife holds her hair. 

The next day Anne heads to her family’s home alone to meet with her sister and Sutherland; not that Elizabeth says much to her. It seems her husband stole her ability to speak and now she just sits there and watches her no-good Captain question Ann’s mental stability and intellect. This is a theme in Ann’s life and she has to swallow her outrage before she proves him right. Sutherland also makes it clear he thinks she could only drum up plans like this with the help of a sharp golddigger, like Anne Lister. His accusations do not subside when he learns the deeds to Ann’s estate, the ones he places in the bank himself, are now residing in a locked room at Shibden Hall. He is irate because anyone, especially the savvy Anne, could read them and know what he’s been up to. After that total debacle Ann sends word to Anne in the form of a letter informing her of went down in the meeting. Sutherland continues to refuse to sign the deed and she was hoping for some assistance from her wife. Ex? It’s hard to say since the letter is written with such loving dedication. Not that Anne seems to care as she is having fantasies of sexual enccunters with Mariana (Lydia Leonard) in the Lister-Walker marital bed!

Cut to the following day and Anne isn’t the only one feeling the relationship blues. After Anne puts the kibosh on her sister’s marriage plans Marian isn’t happy in Halifax. Keeping track of the house finances and caring for their father has left her exhausted and she tells Anne she is thinking of taking the Captain and moving to their Market Weighton estate. Anne is stunned and wonders what happened to Abbott, but Marian blows her off and says it’s been over between the two for a while. That is what Anne wanted, so it is odd she even bothered to ask. Maybe it’s because her sister has been moping around the Hall ever since Anne got in the way of her happiness? Seems like a good reason for anyone to be depressed.

 

Ceremonial Stones and Swindles 

 

While this sister chat is going on Captan Sutherland is in York slithering his way to Mr. Gray’s (Adrian Rawlins) office to discuss his concerns about Ann’s stability. He tells the lawyer that Miss. Walker is not of sound mind and probably under the control of a woman who has an unnatural attachment to her. Mr. Gray can see this grifter coming from 10km away and tells him that Ann’s highly respected doctor would disagree with his assessment of his client’s mental health. According to the doctor she is not only competent but her health has never been better. This incites Sutherland’s rage and he likens their “ungodly” relationship to that of the two women in Scotland he mentioned earlier. Mr. Gray, who is obviously a gay ally, shoots this down with some solid facts–those two women sued their accusers and the courts found in their favor; giving them a settlement for their reputations purposefully sullied by lies. Sutherland just lost his ace up his sleeve and he storms back to the proverbial drawing board for a new plan and it doesn’t include accepting the invite to the Northgate groundbreaking.

Speaking of, it’s the day of the groundbreaking ceremony and Anne, dressed in her signature black and looking like the hottest thirst trap in Halifax, has a brief talk with her sister Marian about her attendance. Marian isn’t going. She’s heard rumors about the crowd who might gather and what they say about Anne and her situation with Miss. Walker is embarrassing. Then, she lets slip the real reason Mr. Abbott left town and it had to do with that wedding announcement and the worry these rumors would attach themselves to his business. That’s why she’s leaving Halifax and taking their father with her. Speaking of the Captain, he also refuses to attend his daughter’s big day, and even though he wishes her luck, he signs off with a hope that she isn’t making a fool out of herself. He was never good with his support for Anne. 

With Ann by her side the two women make it to the Northgate ceremony where Samuel Washington (Joe Armstrong) informs Ann that her brother-in-law is still playing games and refusing to sign the deed–even after he got a dressing down from her lawyer. Instead, he sent the deed to Mr. Parker and Ann starts to realize his refusal is all based on his belief that Ann is incomptent and being led by Anne Lister. She doesn’t have time to dwell on that long because she’s pushed into the head of the crowd to give her speech. She nails it and Anne looks proud of her. Her wife finally gave her a voice and she proved she is more than capable of holding her own. With the first brick laid, the townspeople cheer and everyone is excited about the new hotel that’s sure to bring business to Halifax. 

 

Victory!

 

Full of pride and feeling empowered, Anne and Ann head to Mr. Parker’s (Bruce Alexander) office to discuss Captain Sutherland’s underhanded tricks, but they don’t get in to see him because he’s already in a meeting with the man! Once again Sutherland tries to get Parker on his side–filling his head with ideas about the nature of Anne and Ann’s relationship. He tries to convince him as to why it’s in Ann’s best interests that he hold the deeds. It’s all to protect Ann and her estate from the greedy Miss. Lister! Parker, who has been the Lister lawyer for multiple generations, seems nervous to grant the Captain his wishes.

The division of the estate comes to a head when the angry Captain Sutherland and his meek wife pull up to Shibden Hall to speak to Ann and probably get those deeds. Ann, who is feeling empowered after her speech, questions why he continues to delay the inevitable and accuses him of lying about her mental health just to steal her family’s estate. He, in turn, lies again and claims both Gray and Parker back him so she might as well hand over those deeds before she’s forced to. They are interrupted when a “Mr. Gray” is announced at the door. Anne’s footman asks if she would like to have him wait, but she assures him it is fine if they join their conversation. Thinking it is the Mr. Gray that they tried to persuade against Anne, Elizabeth can no longer stay quiet as her husband actively seeks to destroy her sister. Rather than wait for Mr. Gray to join them and say he stated no such support for Captain Sutherland’s plans, Elizabeth loudly outs him as a liar telling Ann and Anne that Gray and Parker aren’t on his side! He is all out of tricks and has no choice but to sign the documents in front of both men he tried roping into his scheme. Anne and Ann won and the two celebrate their victory but what does this mean for their future? Before they can figure this out, Anne gets word from Tibb (Joanna Scanlon) that her mother passed away. Mrs. Northcliffe and Anne were close so she takes the news hard. 

As the season draws to a close, Ann stops by her family’s home to say her goodbyes to Elizabeth before she and Anne leave to pay their respects to the Northcliffes. She even forces herself to offer a few parting words to the brooding Captain before she hugs her sister and climbs into the gig bound for York. Once they are nestled inside the carriage, the stresses of the estate start to ease. Ann is ready to try again and mentions putting their wills in order! Anne kisses her in both love and relief. These two women pledged their lives to each other and like most couples, if the love is there, they can weather any storm. They hold hands and lock lips, sealing the deal, and the season, with hope.