I guess I may as well make a tag for this show

[sholio]

I finished season 3 and man, that last run of episodes was BRUTAL. I just want to update my previous caveat about this show to note that in season three, they're really starting to hit the moral ambiguity a lot harder - they are finally acknowledging the rebels' unsavory activities and actually having them be responsible for some pretty awful things. In other news, everything hurts and nothing is okay.


I didn't expect to cry at André's death - I mean, we know he dies and when he dies, because history. BUT I TOTALLY DID. Also, while there are things I still don't like about Abigail's storyline, her sort-of-friendship with André has been handled in a way that is really nuanced and lovely - I love that it's obvious that they both really like and care about each other, but she's in a position where she can't afford to trust a white man with power over her, and he can't really ever see her as an equal ... but that mutual affection is still there; as people, they connect. I mean, that relationship could so easily have turned really squicky, but imho, for whatever my opinion is worth, it manages to be genuinely heartfelt without slipping over that line (even while I have reservations about other aspects of her storyline). She does genuinely like him and has reason for it, just as she has reason not to trust him and the show gives her space for that emotional ambiguity. (Also, reluctant props to the show for Washington's "lolnope" when Anna suggests giving Abigail her emancipation papers. The show has started increasingly being willing not to pull punches when it comes to the darker side of the Continentals' world, and they are NEVER going to really give us the dark side of Washington, but they do occasionally hint at it.)

Also, that last scene with Talmadge and André - I was quietly screaming DON'T TELL HIM ABIGAIL BETRAYED HIM for the entire thing, and thank you, Talmadge, for not doing that. Damn it, André, I'm gonna miss you.

Everything with Hewlett and Anna this season was both amazing and also an entire world of pain. GOD, Anna betraying him to save him and him taking the fall to save her and that scene where she tells him the whole truth about her spying but can't actually, honestly tell him she loves him ... just ... everything. HELP ME, EVERYTHING HURTS AND NOTHING IS OKAY.

Richard saving his son and the reveal on Richard at the end there was just ... Damn it, Richard, you are probably going to die right as I decide that I actually do really like you. ;___; Richard is probably a better spy than 3/4 of the Culper ring.

Also, Mary is hardcore as FUCK sometimes. The entire thing where she straight up stabs the shit out of a guy and washes off the blood in her bathwater and then stone cold looks into the face of the guy she was actually trying to murder!

And the reveal on Caleb having burned down Samuel Townsend's barn and killed his livestock to drive Robert into the resistance! THANK YOU, show, for giving us some narrative nuance with the rebels, but also, dark. Robert punching Caleb in the face was excellent. I love Caleb, but yes, he totally had that coming. I love Robert Townsend, the one competent spy in the entire Culper ring.

And also along the lines of moral ambiguity, plus all the ones to the entire subplot with Talmadge running into the Loyalist widow whose husband was murdered by colonists.

Rogers is utterly batshit and I love him.



p.s. My tongue-in-cheek assessment on Tumblr about the general high quality of the Culper ring's life decisions.

I can't believe I have only one season left of this show! I really want a few more seasons, but given the emotional roller coaster of this season, it would probably have killed me.

Comments

[isis]

I really love Townsend also. And yeah, Mary - I didn't want to spoil things for you, but I was itching to say that her arc is so interesting because she's basically boring whitebread at the beginning, but she grows a spine, and you see her re-evaluating her political convictions in the light of, "what best protects the people I care about?"

It's really fun to see your reactions!

[sholio]

They're all having really interesting arcs! I really did not expect how complex this show, and everyone in it, is turning out to be. I enjoyed the early episodes, clearly enough to continue, but the show really seemed to deepen and come alive over the last couple of seasons. I'm looking forward to the last one, and kind of sad it is the last one.

And yeah, I think Mary is providing an interesting counterpoint to the characters who are largely motivated by various shades of political conviction. With her it's pretty clearly pragmatic; she'll very nearly switch sides at the drop of a hat if she has to, but it's not at all capricious, it's just that she makes what she feels is the best and most sensible decision to keep everyone safe, whether it's burning the house down or moving in with Richard or shooting an occupying soldier in the head - or, for that matter, marrying her fiance's brother to begin with.

[sovay]

I didn't expect to cry at André's death - I mean, we know he dies and when he dies, because history. BUT I TOTALLY DID.

Last month I watched The Scarlet Coat (1955), which is an MGM Technicolor historical swashbuckler written and directed by people who totally cried over Major John André, there played by Michael Wilding, a gentleman to the last.