Gentleman Jack – Faith Is All

By: Kelly Kearney

Everyone’s favorite old-timey lesbians are back after a two-year pandemic break and holy Halifax, they were missed! Kicking off season 2 find 19th century lesbian land owner and coal mining businesswoman welcoming her new wife into her families a state called Shipton hall. Things get dicey when Ann Walker’s family disapproves of not only their united “friendship” but of the talks of combining their inheritance. As an and a start their new life together trouble bruise in both business and social situations setting off a string of inconsistencies for miss lister’s new wife. Halifax is not ready for these two landed ladies and their sapphic romance rumors but as we all know from season one, Anne Lister, the transformative gender-defying housewife-bedding charmer, could care less.

A U-Haul to Shibden

The episode begins shortly after that sweeping proposal on the green hills of Halifax. The two Anne/Ann’s entered into a marriage on Easter when they took the sacrament together in York, but before they can combine their households into one, Miss Walker (Gemma Jones) needs the clearance of her doctor, Steph Belcombe (Michael D. Xavier). The good doctor has been guiding the fragile woman through her mental illness and since he is the brother of Anne’s ex, Mariana Lawton, Lister not only trusts him, but she’d take his advice over the Walker family’s any day. Ann is delicate and easily swayed by the opinions and fears of loved ones and the townspeople. It’s one of the reasons why Anne Lister plans to keep her wife by her side and separate from the influences of her family. And if her fortune just happens to separate directly into Lister’s coal mining business, she certainly isn’t going to complain about it. So, it isn’t surprising when she arrives at Ann Walker’s Aunt Ann’s (Stephanie Cole) house that Aunt Ann and cousins William (Peter Davison) and Lisa Priestley (Amelia Bullmore) all seem to think the infamous Miss Lister is standing between their niece and her family. The question is why? Anne dials up the charm and reassures the Walker/Priestley families that she has no intentions of keeping her “friend” apart from her family but reminds them that in the past when the woman needed a roof over her head that Aunt Ann turned her away with the excuse that their personalities did not mesh. Aunt Ann, who is herself no pushover, stands up to Miss Lister and the two have a heated argument over where Miss Walker is going to live and just exactly what her interests are in their family fortune. Aunt Ann Walker isn’t wrong. As Ann Lister prepares to head to Paris she stops off in York to see her wife for first time since they took their vows at the Easter service. Love must have healing powers because the change in Ann Walker is noticeable. The typically melancholy and nervous woman is calmer, happier and filling her days with landscape paintings of the beautiful Yorkshire countryside. Her mood only improves under the loving gaze of her new wife which does hit a brief snag when the Reverend is mentioned. Ann Walker claims she never told her wife about Ainsworth’s pop-in visit because it meant nothing to her and she didn’t want to upset her already stressed wife. Her concern for Anne, whether she is playing to her affections or not, works and Anne drops her jealousies for a newlywed romp, but not before she reminds Ann to fill out a new will. A division of estates is in order since her sister Elizabeth (Katherine Kelly) shares ownership in the estate Crow’s Nest. Now that they’re married everything that is Ann Walker’s is Anne Lister’s and would transfer to the surviving spouse after one of their deaths. While Ann Walker knows this, she grows anxious that her family will use her delicate mental faculties against her and prevent her from moving in at Shibden. While their marriage is a commitment in both their minds and hearts, legally Ann Walker has no rights as a woman in the 19th century. If her behavior is considered out of the ordinary, unbecoming to a woman of her stature, the Walker family could easily send her away and she would never be seen from again. In those days asylums were filled with troubled women who just couldn’t fit in to the patriarchal heterosexual society they were expected to accept. This is why she tells her wife that it might not be the right time to ask her sister to divide up their property–especially after her recent suicide attempt. Without any evidence to prove, she’s convinced Elizabeth told the rest of the family and none of that bodes well for her. Even Doctor Belcombe couldn’t stop her family from committing her. Things only get worse after Anne Lister’s meeting with Aunt Ann and the Priestleys where they spilled the tea about a visit from the Reverend Ainsworth while she was in Scotland with her sister. The news that the swarthy “dog collar” has been sniffing around her wife incites Anne’s jealous side and gets her thinking about Mrs. Lawton. The thing with Ann Lister is taht she’s always wanted her cake and to eat it too. And when one lover disappoints her, she always has another waiting in the wings to comfort her.

The Right Match

While Ann’s wavering about fully committing to her wife, Anne’s jealous ex Marianna Lawton (Lydia Leonard) writes a letter practically pleading with her to slow things down with Miss Walker. Of course, Mariana has a reason to persuade Anne away from her wife and it has little to do with Ann’s mental stability. Mrs. Lawton made her bed, so to speak, with a man that she did not love for her own financial security but if it was up to her she would have chosen Anne and the feeling was mutual. Over the years their relationship became toxic with a push and pull and a back and forth that could never be anything but in the shadows of a loveless marriage. However, that doesn’t mean Mariana is willing to give up the dream that one day, after her husband dies, she and Anne can be together. She isn’t the only one who has reservations about this new wife’s stability and whether or not she’s the right match for Anne Lister. When the newlyweds go visit the Norcliffs the family of Anne’s former lover Tibb (who is noticeably missing) it’s family friend Charlotte (Jenna Russell) who expresses concerns that this is a match that will burnout quickly. Anne listens to her friend’s concern and she agrees that her new wife is very different than the women she’s been with previously. She doesn’t have the worldliness that Anne has experienced, nor does she have a shared thirst for knowledge, but she is sweet and she is good and she loves Anne terribly. Miss Lister confides in Charlotte that while the two were apart not a day went by that she didn’t think of Ann Walker. She might not be in love with Ann in the same way the woman loves her, but she does have deep feelings for her and with their union and financial security those feelings are bound to grow deeper. If this is a honeymoon it’s certainly filled with awkward moments at the ex’s country home that continues when Ann’s estate is mentioned again. It’s not exactly the height of romance but the two newlyweds seemed to make it work.

New Ventures

As Anne prepared for her wife to visit Shibden, she confesses to her Aunt Anne about the nature of their relationship and the plans the two have for Shibden. Aunt Anne just wants her niece to be happy so offers them her blessing; besides, everyone in the family loves Miss Walker. When Ann finally arrives at her wife’s estate the mood is anything but loving. Apparently, Miss Walker had a meeting with her Aunt about the stop in her wife had with her family and she is livid. She yells at Anne to never speak to anyone about her again, and she does it right in front of the staff—a major no-no. Anne reprimands her to never embarrass her in front of the workers; and eventually the two make peace after dinner.

Besides the inheritance squabbles, the 19th century U-Hauls to Shibden Hall, and one very dramatic ex-girlfriend, Anne also has financial concerns on her mind. After returning to Halifax, she learns a few interesting things: One, she is missing her Groomsman, Thomas Beech. He is gone and Anne appoints young Joseph to the job after he impressed her on a transport for a new pony, she bought her wife. She also hears word on a neighboring estate up for sale and now she’s concerned about someone else snatching it up before she has a chance to put in a bid. The problem is she’s not interested in playing full price, she’s looking for a bargain. With Ann Walker still wavering on dividing up her properties Anne Lister heads to her solicitor to talk about the land sale proposition. He tells her one of her properties is soon to be vacant as a current tenant is moving out, and if she would like an extra cushion for her bank account when it comes to buying this new property she might as well sell the old one to fund the new. He also make a comment that her borrowing is getting quite excessive and with the money she makes on selling the property she could pay those debts off as well as have an enough for the neighboring estate. The problem is Anne Lister is as stubborn as she is brilliant, and she’s refusing to budge on the bargain price of the estate and even less isn’t interested in taking discounted sale price on her own property. In fact, the offer is so below her standards she considers turning it into a hotel just to stick it to her rivals the Rawsons.

Speaking of Anne’s estates, something fishy is going on with one of her tenants: the Sowdens. In season one Thomas Sowden (Tom Lewis) had enough of his abusive drunken father and after tying him to a chair to cool down the man’s temper only grew. After an attack, Thomas wound up killing the man and then feeding him to their pigs. To cover for his crime, he forged a letter from his father’s brother Ben (Anthony Flanagan) saying he was abandoning his family and moving to America. Without an easy way to contact anyone in across the pond the excuse that his father skipped town seemed like the perfect way to cover for his disappearance. The problem is, Ben showed up in town looking for a place to stay claiming he never wrote the letter, nor does he know where his brother is. When Anne’s estate manager, Mr. Washington (Joe Armstrong) heard this, the inquisitive man started to think something was going on. Added to the drama is the fact that Mr. Washington daughter recently married Thomas making this suspicion even more concerning.