Gentleman Jack – A Lucky and Narrow Escape

By: Kelly Kearney

The race is close – between the incumbent Tory party, the Whigs and the Radicals with an outcome that leaves the town broken and burning thanks to the have nots putting the elites like Anne, on notice. A well-known supporter of the Tories, Anne can’t vote in any elections thanks to the patriarchal rules blocking women from the polls, but in this episode she makes it her mission to ensure all of her employees and tenants cast their ballots for her preferred candidate. While the episode primarily revolves around what’s happening outside Shibden Hall, inside the estate’s walls things are just as fiery when Marian announces the carpet maker, Mr. Abbott– a man Anne Lister not only despises but finds far beneath her sister and their family’s name, is back in her life and things might be getting serious. As the political unrest wages on, cracks start to form in the Lister sisters’ relationship, and it all has to do with an outdated class system Anne embraces as closely to her chest as her beloved Tories. So, lets jump right in and find out how to juggle political shake ups and family feuds – Anne Lister style!

Election Day is Here!

The episode opens on James Wortley (Alex Bhat) speaking to a crowd of angry Halifaxians who have no use for the Tory candidate running for Parliament. Representing the landowners and businessmen of the town leaves little room for the voices of the impoverished tenants and by their reactions to Wortley, it seems this election could be a close one. Tensions are so high that the young Matthew Avison (Leo Flanagan) takes the brunt of the crowd’s anger when Radicals leave him beaten and battered as he attempts to flee the scene. Once he arrives back at Shibden, Cordingley (Rosie Cavaliero) tends to his wounds while Anne (Suranne Jones) pumps him for information about the speech from Wortley. Regardless of how unpopular the candidate is, he is a Tory and that’s Anne’s party, so he has her support. Why wouldn’t he? She might be a female without a voice in her country’s elections, but she is a landowner and the Tories always protected them from the oppressed and impoverished.

Later, Anne, her wife Ann (Sophie Rundle) and the Lister family gather for supper and, of course, their usual mealtime banter that always mixes in a dash of comedy to whatever drama the episode is serving up. This time the topic around the table is a Marian’s (Gemma Whelan) choice of gentleman callers–Mr. Abbott is back in the picture, much to Anne’s dismay. Marian has agreed to invite him over for tea and to see if they can move past their previous disappointing proposals. Anne immediately expresses her displeasure with the carpet maker and, after the way he treated her niece, Aunt Anne (Gemma Jones) can’t help but agree. The man is not worthy of Marian; not as a husband and not as a member of the Lister lineage and poor Marian is stuck between her family and the only man who has ever shown her interest.

Marian’s Love Life Gets a Reboot

After dinner Marian and Mr. Abbott (John Hollingsworth) have their date while Anne does her best to avoid the situation since she has no interest in entertaining Marian’s wool-knitter. Besides, she is too busy with her Aunt whose leg sores seem to be spreading. When Dr. Sunderland (Tony Gardner) is called to take a look, he has surprisingly good news; the sores look worse than they are and Aunt Anne will probably live longer than any of them expected her to. With that good news, Anne heads to the kitchen where she finds Cordingley struggling to accomplish her tasks thanks to a sore hip she appears to be favoring in secret. Anne urges the woman to let the doctor take a look at her hip, but when he tries to examine her she flinches and abruptly pushes the doctor away claiming she doesn’t need his help. The outburst is unlike her and when the doctor leaves the room Anne returns with a stern look on her face that quickly morphs into kindness for the woman who has probably worked (and kept her secrets) the longest. Not known for her empathy, it shocks Cordingley when Anne orders her to go visit her sister and get the rest she obviously needs. She even offers the woman a ride on the gig and, regardless of her often-gruff treatment of the servants, she seems to truly care for the housemaid.

Later on that day Samuel Washington (Joe Armstrong) arrives at Shibden with news from Scotland. It seems Elizabeth, Ann’s sister, has devised a plan to save some money by putting longstanding tenants who owe back rent out on the streets. The shocking part of this is the fact the people are mostly elderly and sick and they pay what they can when they have it, something Washington impresses on his boss with the hopes she won’t make him toss these people out of their homes while the town is practically chomping at the bit to devour the rich. These rents were never an issue before until Ann told her sister she wanted to divide up the properties to combine her inheritance with Anne’s. All of a sudden Elizabeth cares more about finances than people and her sister seems to think this might be her greedy husband, Captain Sutherland’s doing. When Washington asks Ann what he should do – kick these people out or wait until she can speak to her sister about it – Ann seems trapped between her empathy and her promise to her wife to finally seal their union. She also knows Anne isn’t the type to allow tenants to take advantage, so she practically chokes out the orders to the reluctant Washington to start the eviction processes.

The Radicals Riot

That night Joseph Booth (Ben Hunter) arrives at Shibden with news of the unrest in town. The election will be close and the people of Halifax have already taken their outrage to the streets. Shops have been broken into, windows smashed and buildings burned and a worried Ann question whether or not the angry mob will make their way up the hill to their doorstep. Booth tries to put their minds at ease and then hands Anne a letter from Candidate Wortley—who pleads with Miss Lister to not abandon hope even though he is behind in the polls.

With looting and chaos on their minds, the wives head up to bed where the conversation moves away from politics and towards another bombshell topic: Mariana Lawton. Ann asks her wife why she hasn’t mentioned her trip to Lawton Hall, and even more, why she promised to never leave Ann again when she returned. Anne deflects the question away from the unfaithful truth to impress on her wife that Ann is the only woman she loves. There is no doubt she loves her wife, but her heart also beats for another and keeping that from Ann is bound to come out sooner or later. Marriage and secrets rarely end well.

Banished!

Speaking of marriage, after her date with Mr., Abbott, Marian breaks the good, or maybe bad, news that the carpet maker has asked her to marry him. Anne is livid and questions why a Lister (old money) would ever lower her standards and marry a factory owner (new money). It’s distasteful in her book and sullies their good name. In what is the saddest explanation of settling I’ve ever heard; Marian chokes out the truth—he is the only man who has ever asked and she is desperate to be a mother. Mr. Abbott might be her last chance and she all but begs Anne for her blessing. Anne understands her sister’s plight, but also reminds her she will always have a bed and a plate of food at Shibden, so settling is her choice; a choice Anne and the family will not support. She tells Marian she cannot announce it with the Lister name and the family will not attend the wedding. Furthermore, if she insists on going through with this she will never be allowed back in Shibden. She and their future children will be banished. Now, it is true Anne cannot stand Abbott and truly does want her sister to find someone worthy of her, but her cruelty is also based in fear that her husband and their offspring will try to make claims on her inheritance which is already going to Ann in the event of her death. She is protective of the Lister name, their legacy and he own fortune and she will stop at nothing to keep it from some suitor’s greedy hands. Marian is devastated and when Anne condescendingly taps her on the head and leaves her to choose the family or this wool knitter, it seems obvious her sister doesn’t have much of a choice.

Anne Enters the Belly of the Beast

After Washington stops by with news about the riots and what condition they eft the town in, Anne loads her gun and takes off into Halifax to collect the rents that are due. When she arrives she can hardly believe her eyes! Glass from broken windows scatters the streets, smoke billows from the fires which blazed throughout the night, and the people, who are mostly divided between the shop keeps cleaning up and the Radicals still trolling for a fight, stare at her in disbelief as to why a woman of her status would risk her safety. One group of Radical protesters even stops her to ask if she is a yellow or blue (a Tory) and she fires back she’s in black to mourn the loss of Halifax’s vitality. With her head held high and not a speck of fear in her eyes, she waltzes right though the mob and makes her way to Mr. Parker’s (Bruce Alexander) office – who is impressed the woman ventured into town. After handing him the rents, she rattles off a bunch of figures of what she owes and to whom and then asks him to help her secure the purchase of a hotel she’s had her eye on for a while. If there is one thing about Anne, It’s that she is never satisfied with one project, she has to have her hands in many to keep the money rolling in. She leaves for quick meeting with John Waterson Sr. (Nicholas Farrell) who tells her Wortley won the election, barely, and Halifax was still raised to practically rubble. It is a sign that things are changing and while they won this time, it’s a real possibility they won’t the next. Tenants’ rights will make their way into politics, it’s only a matter of time.

On that note, Anne heads directly back to Mr. Parker’s office where he tells her the good news: she is officially a hotel owner! She is thrilled and reveals her plan to only employ workers who will vote Tory. Mr. Parker warns her that her underhanded election tactic could cause her problems and, while he disagrees, he inevitably goes along with her plans.

Truths Are Revealed

On her way back to Shibden, Anne runs into Mr. Hardcastle (Joel Morris) who can barely look at her ever since his son saw her in a romantic embrace with her wife, Ann. She tells the man that during the riots the Rawsons, her sworn enemies, had their house ransacked and gig destroyed—the new gig Christopher bought after he ran down Henry Hardcastle and cost him a leg. This is news to his father, who is just hearing about who was behind that accident that hurt his son. She admits she tried to get Christopher to confess, but when he replaced the crashed gig with a new one she ran out of options to force the truth from hm. Mr. Hardcastle is both shocked and grateful she told him and from his demeanor is seems her care for their family outweighs the knowledge of what she gets up to in the privacy of her bedroom.

Safely back at Shibden Hall, the Lister family sits down for supper. Marian obviously has no appetite after her conversation with her sister, but things get even more tense when Mr. Washington shows up with news about a Lister wedding announcement. Surely Marian obeyed her sister and kept the family out of her engagement advertisement? Samuel Washington makes it clear it’s not Marian’s name in the paper, but one Captain Tom Lister who married his beloved Adney on Easter Sunday! Everyone at the table is confused and nervously Anne tries to cover it up by saying it’s a joke and forces out a laugh that her nervous wife joins her in. The laughter ends when later that night we see the sullen faces of the two women who know this can only mean one thing: trouble. Who took out the ad and what repercussions will it have for the couple and they’re new business ventures? It’s only a matter of time before the town catches wind of what’s happening up on the hill at Shibden Hall.