Frock Flicks note: This is a guest post by our friend Yosa Addiss. After pursuing a degree in costume design, she created one of the first websites for custom-made costume gowns. Yosa has moved on to a career in marketing but remains a lifelong fan of historical costume. Find her at yosa.com.
Welcome to my oh-so-spoilery review of Sanditon (2019), episode 7. Catch up with previous episodes here.
After the maddening pace and number of bad plot choices in episode 6, episode 7 gives us progress on the couples. The episode gives us a movement forward for nearly everyone.
Confused Charlotte is confused, but has found her hot rollers, and a nice spencer, with a good sleeve detail. Her silhouettes throughout the episode are really nice.
Claire and Esther argue again, and Esther learns that her brother has made a deal with Claire for a 50/50 split of the fortune. (Ha! She started with a 1/5th and keeps upping her stake.) Esther also learns that he had sex with Claire, something Esther never did with her bother. It seems Esther is finally realizing that he really is #handsomebutslimy.
Esther spills everything she knows to the Dowager, who is suspected to die any minute. She recalls how the fortune has poisoned them, and good people have become mean-spirited and vile over it.
The next morning the Dowager has miraculously made a full recovery and clearly has heard every vile word her relatives have said to her. She even knows about the sex on the parlor room floor and complains that it will have to be refinished. LOL.
She justly disinherits Mr. Handsomebutslimy, and sends Claire back to live with her poor relations, penniless.
Better look at Esther’s dress. The waist is lower, perhaps showing in her style that she is ready to move forward. Her brother is a slime bag, she has ruined her relationship with the Dowager, and depression is setting in.
Meanwhile, Lord Babbington arrives for the regatta and tells his friend he has given up on Esther. The suits here finally show that Lord B is a lord, and he can dress very well. However, both of these men are of means, and their outfits are very different.The lapels on the vents and jackets are wildly different from each other. Babbington looks amazing here, but is he dressed too far forward in time for the setting?
Mr. Hero spends time with his former sweetheart, who plans to marry him now that her first husband has died. Note that her hair is nicely up, she is wearing a proper bonnet, and the buttons on her pelisse are completely crooked. I paused, zoomed in, and even got a second screenshot to make sure — yup — completely off kilter. Also, the actress’s hair has about every color of highlight, lowlight, and frosted color to it, plus roots showing. Get her a wig!
Crooked buttons, and her outfit could use a bit of lace at the base of her neck.
My favorites, the younger Parker siblings, are flighty and worried as always.
Then they see Lady Sarah has arrived in Sanditon for the regatta! Once again our Mary Sue has saved the day by bringing all of fashionable London to town.
I love their new outfits here — very in keeping with the time and the story, and they just look like such nice (albeit silly) people.
Lady Sarah, dressed nicely in almost fitting rental clothes, tells the audience and Charlotte, that she is not here for the regatta. She came all the way from London to continue her conversation with Charlotte. Really? Sigh.
A nice shot of the three Parker brothers on the day of the regatta. Why is Mr. Hero’s waist so low on his body in comparison to the other two? It is too modern and looks out of place.
What is Georgina up to? Being bored to bits by the reverend. At least she has some idea that her reputation has been ruined.
But wait — this is the couples episode! In comes young Parker with a silly ruse to get Georgiana dressed and out to the regatta. She exclaims that he is quite possibly the most confounding man she has ever met. I have high hopes for romance, but she does look pretty hostile.
Mr. Hero avoids the question of if he wants to marry her. Love her hat feathers!
We see many of the women in this episode wearing better hats than before. This brim shape is a very particular one and was very in fashion. Sure, the show has the brims too short, but we give a little when it is important for a camera to be able to see their faces.
Meanwhile at the regatta, Lord Babbington has a meaningful (but hard to screenshot) moment with Mr. Handsomebutslimy. Babbington learns just how awful the brother has been to Esther, emotionally abusive for apparently ages. I give Babbington a ton of credit for seeing how that has clearly affected Esther, and going to see her.
Babbinton then visits Esther and finds her packing and in a complete ruin. He comforts her by understanding and saying “He alone has had the power to determine your self worth and he has abused that power in ways I can’t even guess at.”
Ah, the power of a good moment of empathy and understanding.
He even has a handkerchief.
“Your brother is not going to make a victim out of you. I’ll not allow it.” — Lord Babbington. Seriously, crushing hard here. He was handsome before, but this kind of determination and caring? Romance novel stuff.
Compare that with the single most selfish Mr. Hero ever, whose best line is “I believe I am my best self, my truest self when I’m with you.” And then he leaves. And I am glad.
Just one more episode left!
Josa, welcome back.
Is it me or are the clothes in need of refitting? Esther’s green dress may be the exception.
Also Charlotte may have found her curlers, but someone needs to sit her down and have her repeat ad infinitum ‘I will wear my hair up at all times, excluding bed.’
Lord B maybe the True Mr Hero.
Sloppy acting and sloppy costumes does not make a happy viewer. At least it’s not PFG.
These recaps are much less painful than watching any of this (imo) crap.
I agree!
Thirded!
I immediately thought that Theo James was Edmund Bertram from Mansfield Park before I realized this was Sanditon. Those billowing sleeves were my favorite thing about Edmund’s outfit when he and Fanny were watching over Thomas when he was ill.
I just caught up and I can’t seem to grasp who is related to whom, or what on earth is happening with everyone’s fortunes and reputations. Between that and the hairpins, the recaps will suffice for me.
Her first love tried to sell her to pay off his gambling debts, which has usually been the death knell for all my relationships.
Lord Babington and Esther are the only thing that I really love in this series.
Like I keep saying, Mr. Hero and Charlotte-Sue can’t wear proper period clothes because as the leads they must be relatable!
Any woman who married the youngest Mr. Parker can expect a life of good food and an adorably good natured, easy going husband light on the angst and heavy on the humor. He is frankly the best prospect in the whole town.
So true. So many admirable qualities in those who aren’t particularly the center of attention (and aren’t seeking to be). It’s basically the Sean Astin thing–will he be the main protagonist attention drawing fellow? No. But is he probably the most marriageable fellow in the whole thing? Yes–a good man, who cherishes family and home, and tries to do right by people. Quite a catch in the end. (Apparently they reworked the Bob Newby character in Stranger Things after casting him–originally he was more of an antagonist.)
So nice to hear about Sean Astin in Stranger Things, he is far too sweet to be an antagonist. His storyline made me cry.
Yikes! Side-parted hair!
Babbington’s romantic line is about his beloved. Sidney’s is about himself. I see the contrast.
Stringer Forever!
Yes, he is adorable but he so doesn’t fit in a Jane Austen. And he is much to good for Charlotte-Sue who is behaving improperly and leading him on.
Maybe you remember better, but I cannot think of a gentleman’s (legitimate) daughter “marrying down” in Austen. Unless we had better better imagine our Charlotte-Sue less like Lizzie Bennet, more akin to Harriet Smith from Emma. As a “small-holder’s” daughter, maybe someone like Stringer would be more appropriate for Charlotte-Sue, just as Mr Martin (a yeoman) is more appropriate for Harriet.
Stringer is a good romantic prospect for any sensible woman of his class. Charlotte on the other hand is terrible wife material for a man of any class! IMO. Her hoydenish ways would in real 19th c. life have gotten her bundled home in short order.
This episode made me angrier than any other episode (and I have been sooooo angry!)
After the many, many times that Claire attempted to make friends with Esther, to help Esther emotionally, to share that they were both abused…Esther cannot accept it, unless a man says it for her. (And good on Lord B for noticing, and speaking, and being present)
And I don’t understand at all why Davies couldn’t do a little throwaway line from Esther while talking to Deathbed Aunt: “but I cannot think too hard of Claire, she has survived more than I ever did…” After all of Claire’s attempts at kindness to Esther, it is Esther who digs her nails into Claire’s wound, again.
And shame again, on Davies. He didn’t have to pit the ladies against each other. And he didn’t have to reward the virgin (Esther), while making a villain of the “whore” (Claire), especially when much of Claire’s “whore” story was sexual abuse of a child. Not ok, Davies.
Lazy storytelling. Sexist, gross, yucky storytelling.
It would certainly have been better for Esther and Claire to make common cause against Slimy-but-handsome. Turn the tables on the user! But Claire seems quite cheerful in her last scene. Maybe she’s lost but Handsome-but-slimy has lost so much more! Seeing him cut down to nothing makes it almost worthwhile.
If her remarks were supposed to be cutting, then they were poorly written because they fell flat. Davies whiffed the landing.
Her character is all over the place, and makes no sense. Nothing in the character as (spasmodically written) would have ended with her genuinely cheerful at losing her chance at stability.
In my head, I imagine her doing 2 things at the end:
1) Using her sexuality and her hustle to climb the ranks of a famous (and rich) courtesan, starting with Mr Drunk-face friend (and reuniting Claire and Esther). Not very Austen in subject, but very Austen in structure and symmetry
or…
2) Using her survival smarts to notice that the youngest brother has no romantic interest in women (or maybe anyone), and then frankly offering a marriage of respectability and convenience where neither will have to sexually perform for the other. His sexual identity has been telescoped throughout the series, and then pretty much stated in the last episode. Very Austen-eqsue insofar that it echos Charlotte Collins’s choices, but I don’t know if Austen hinted at any queerness or asexuality in her characters.
The last one is my favorite, because it upends the patriarchy. Stupid Davies, upholding the gross and sexist patriarchy.
Wow…sorry for writing so much! This social isolation really has been making my cogs turn.
THANK YOU for addressing the Eliza’s button issue, I cannot believe that was actually filmed, it was so obvious. Fun fact: Ruth Kearney who plays Eliza is married to Theo James in real life.
And the hats in that photo of those three brothers are ridiculously big — was that really the fashion? Mr. Hero in particular looks like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.
I do think Mr. Hero’s declaration is of what Charlotte has done for him and Babbington’s is about what he can do for Esther. Clearly different declarations. I prefer the former as the latter is more of a cliche for a damsel in distress and the knight in shinning armor. Our heroine does not need “Mr. Hero” to rescue her, it is clearly he who needs her.