he also never really shows any emotion, and i'm wondering how much of this is supposed to represent class egotism and/or pts; post traumatic stress syndrome from WWI, which we all know was horrific and a HUGE waste of life..... it's also interesting to contrast ahther with jack, who we know was also in WWI. whereas arthur only mentions the war to his mother in the argument above about how he doesn't have to listen to her any more, jack is really forward about his experience. at one point when bea was working for him, jack revealed how much it affected him, and that he felt compelled to drink himself to numbness at times... you just never know how a person's gonna respond to stress...
in the previous two episodes that i haven't mentioned, the eliott sisters have worked their way through yet another dressmaker's...actually, i think it's supposed to be a low-end fashion house (i'm not super familiar with" fashion", so i have no idea how these things are organized). anywho, the head honcho lays into evie for giving a client her real opinion, and then steals some of her designs. bea, who i just admire immensely (YES, i know that it's just a television show, and these people don't really exist**), decides that the eliott sisters deserve more recognition, AND that evie should be paid for her designs, even if she's not given credit of creation. do i need to spell out the abrupt nature of the termination of their employment? i admire bea's ability to recognize the true worth of both herself and her sister, and to stand up and demand acknowledgement by the world at large. in the last episode, you know, the one where ahther corners evie about marrying him, the one where piggy both announces his financial backing for the eliott sisters, and then his total financial demise at the graphs of the stock market.... although he does want bea to drop everything and move with him to birmingham (?), where he's taken an actor's position at a theatre....but i digress... left with no financial support to continue growing their business, bea hatches a plan. she goes to see evie's godfather, a bigwig financier, to garner his support

she gets the ol'ixnay, but not for the reasons she initially believes. bea's primary male interactions seem to have been with her fahther and her cousin, both of whom are dismissive of women's abilities in the world of business...this was the standard at the time, and unfortunately still is today in some places, and is a smallish example of conditioned subjugation, since it places a woman in a place of dependance, the way a child is dependant (which of course raises questions of its own...). beatrice decides to approach evie's godfather, who had been dissed and dismissed at some point by fahther when the girls were still young. the godfather, who's name escapes me at the moment but who i'll look up at imdb at some point, surely, is critical about financing the venture, not because he doesn't believe in their ability, but because they really haven't put together a solid business proposal. he suggests she ask arther, as evie's legal guardian, to be....hmmmm, i forget the legalese they used, but i would think of it as a co-signer; someone willing to pay up should things go south. he tells bea that if she can get ahther to back them, he will find the financing....

swallowing her pride for the greater good, she approaches ahther at home, where she feels he'll be more vunerable, and therefor perhaps more thoughtful to her request. that beatrice is one smart cookie! he refuses. although bea confronts ahther that his refusal is due to evie's refusal of his marriage proposal, i think that's only half the reason. i think ahther is pissed that the sisters were confident enough of themselves that they would be willing to go around, or in this case, above him for assistance. ahther's ego was definately flying high, knowing that despite the approval of the godfather, all power really seemed to lay with him, which is why he made his....mistake.

in the delirium of his applied power, mingled with what i suspect to be a tinge of jealousy revolving around evie, he summons sebastian (who we previously thought was an eliott half-sibling bent on getting in on the family inheritance) to his office. sebastian, in the two episodes between when we last spoke and this episode, has discovered AND revealed that he is NOT an eliott. apparently, his mother lied to fahther, in order to get on the payroll. superficially, i am greatly amused by this deception, and am thrilled that fahther was shenanaganned. on a deeper level, it's sad that in the past, if a woman who didn't want to be married she really had to play all the angles, not falling short of deceipt, in order to survive. i mean, i've never heard a child say, "i wanna be a liar when i grow up......sad in that kinda way.....anywhoo, sebastian shows up, and is forward about how he's not related and doesn't expect any money in that regard, but that he feels his mother IS due something, having somewhat filled the role of wife during fahther's lifetime. ahther, riding high on the delusions of his own grandeur, decides to tell sebastian that neither he, nor his mother, will be getting one red cent (my phrasing). in addition, he's to stay the hell away from the eliott family, specifically the eliott sisters, and threatens to reveal what a total whore sebastian's mother has been, by providing a list of names and addresses of said daliances....are there two L's in daliance?....

sebastian gets pissed off! although it looks like seb is gonna floor aht, he's really just about to throw the wadded up list of giggello....(how the hell do you spell that? or PLURALIZE it, for that matter? where's richard gere when you need him?!?!?!) back in ahther's face. at this point, i'm giddy with lurve for sebastian! at first i thought he was just in it to win it, but then it kept seeming like sincerity was creeping in, even though i was slow to accept it. not only do i, obviously, appreciate the sincerity, i appreciate the if-you're-gonna-step-to-me-you're-gonna-get-stepped-on attitude that sebastian slings, which actually brings about the catalyst for my admiration. instead of lashing out physically, seb observes quietly from the sidelines

and when he discovers the jugular, he strikes, ripping it open in the dark....

sebatian, implementing his expensive education, tails ahther until a point of interest is reached. he goes to the nightclub, and susses it out....

daphne reveals to seb, after a mere FIVE MINUTES of dancing, that he can obtain whatever drugs he's jonesing at the front office of the club. it takes no time at all for sebastian to summon a police raid without ahther having noticed him in the club once.

before they even knew what him'em, the 3 partners were in front of a magistrate! not only were they dealing drugs from the office, they were shipping whiskey to the states, who were in the midst of prohibition. ahther winds up having to pay 1,000 pounds and do a month in prison. STOKED!
for mumsie, not so stoked...

i have to say, it is exactly one month ago today that i wrote,
daphne's behavior is so outrageous and irratic, she must surely have some kind of amphetamines going on"
the truth always finds me. it seems that it's not just ahther who's having to pay the price. one of mumsie's best society buddies is daphne's mother. she shows up to acknowledge to aunt lydia's face that daphne has been hospitalized for cocaine problems stemming from ahther's club. that, combined with the social scandal of ahther's conviction, left her with no sound society choice but to say good-bye to aunt lydia. i think it takes alotta chutzpha to say something like that to someone's face, when you could simply walk away and not deal with it. i admire chutzpha!

the house of eliott is on the receiving end of some of the society's standards crap themselves.... lady so-n-so initially gets all confrontational with bea about her cousin's behaviour with all this not-only-am-i-not-going-to-give-you-any-business-but-i'll-make-sure-no-one-does
attitude. and you know our bea; not taking it. she puts lady so-n-so in her place by reminding her that debtors are listed in the paper if she so decides not to pay the bill for dresses already made, and the decision is all hers....
lady so-n-so comes back with her tail between her legs, or at least as much as she can muster. after being told to sod off by bea, in not so many words, she has this moment where she allows herself to be vunerable, where she admits not only that she's wrong, but her admiration towards bea for standing up to her. it's such a glorious moment of vindication, for both women. lady so-n-so is able to let go and experience something "real", and bea's belief in her self-worth is both internally and externally validated. (i need to remember this for my own life....)

and through that validation, a space is made for the universe to provide**, as it were.... the london hipsters start coming out of the woodwork, and swamp the house of eliott specifically because of the "scandal", and place more dress-making orders than the three ladies (DON'T FORGET TILLY!) can practically handle.
and if that weren't provision enough, ahther is released from prison,

and realizes he's gonna have to leave the country in order to be able to have any kind of "appropriate" employment....you know, so many of the past society behaviour/rules to me seem unkind, restricting, and totally unnecessary, although i'm sure they were just a given at the time. it makes me wonder how similar "modern" social mores will be viewed in the future; what part of our conditioned social construct will be viewed as unkind, restricting and unnecessary?
AND NOW FOR THE BEST PART!!! realizing that the gig is up, ahther has no choice but to throw himself prostrate at the sisters' feet! he finally tells bea and evie that he's hidden money from them, primarily from his personal embarrassment at being partnered in such a rigamarole of a business...a nightclub where he'd been in cahoots with fahther.

the additional 400 pounds from the sale of the house, along with their stock in the club, comes to about 3,000 pounds, which, from the look on bea-n-evie's faces should sound alot more impressive to me than it does....i would like to say i'll research this in order to ascertain what the dealie-o is, but i won't. i'll just take the looks on their faces as proof enough that it's a good deal of money... ahther admits to bea's face that he had misjudged her ability to run a business. again, i was taken back that someone i didn't expect to step up, and who was in a position to just walk away, they stepped up! hoorahz for the stepping up!!!! (as opposed to the stepping to)
not that the sisters were gonna suddenly embrace ahther for what he'd put them through, in that, you know, they coulda really used that money for rent and business materials, and whatnot... after signing over evie's legal guardianship to bea, and the position of executor of estate to the godfather, ahther leaves without another word.....

**it is my personal belief that stories arise from the remant energy of past souls merging with current consciousness, so i apply a certain amount of validity to recurring themes that seem almost omnipresent in all "storytelling"....i mean, it's not like i'm completely outta touch with reality....