The fifth episode of Sanditon ended with a big cliffhanger which served as a jumping-off point for episode six. An episode that is the least like other Jane Austen adaptations.
Georgiana (Crystal Clarke) had been kidnapped and taken to London. Charlotte (Rose Williams) goes to the big, strange city to try and find her friend but finds out she is out of her depth. She has to team up with Sidney (Theo James) as they search the seedier parts of the English capital.
In Sanditon Lady Denham (Anne Reid) is lying on her deathbed, which means the issue of the inheritance is coming to a head. Edward (Jack Fox) and Clara (Lily Sacofsky) race to find Lady Denham’s will and amend it in their favour.
This is an episode that features abduction, forced marriage, brothels, incest, and a sex scene – things that aren’t usually in Austen’s work. Austen purists have already been critical of Sanditon and these feelings are going to be heightened after seeing this episode. The idea of this episode was to a darker part of the series and force Charlotte and Sidney to work together.
Throughout the series Charlotte has been shown to be smart but naïve. She grew up on a farm and her only exposure to the wider world was a small, developing town. London was a new experience where people at best ignored her or were rude to her, at worst leered at or tried to assault her. So London hasn’t changed much of the course of 200 years. Theo James got to show off his action credentials by beating up a potential rapist and rescues Georgiana from a speeding carriage. The episode had a big stunt moment when Sidney jumps from one carriage to another.
Charlotte does get to enjoy London after the rescue mission and got to find out more about Sidney. This was where the episode goes back to more traditional territory for a Jane Austen adaptation as character warm to another, goes to a ball, and comes to a major realisation. The end of the episode sees another potential love rival. The warming relationship between Charlotte and Sidney leads to a question about what’s going to happen between Charlotte and Young Stringer? Will there be a dark twist like Young Stringer being violent or a rapist?
In Sanditon, Clara shows her true colours. She has been a duplicitous character throughout the series. She played the innocent when she was with her aunt, but taunted Esther about her love affair with her stepbrother. She was a more sympathetic character because of her history of being sexually abused. But she loses a lot of this sympathy because of actions with Edward in this episode. The show has performed a wrestling heel turn by making Clara more selfish and Esther more lovelorn. There is still a possibility that Clara is playing the long game because she was willing to make an alliance with Esther and she knows Edward’s true colours – a cartoony villain.
The sixth episode will be hated by Jane Austen fans because it moves into darker and saucy material but it offered a healthy amount of intrigue.
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Directing
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Acting
Whilst correct in most aspects of the review, some of the comments regarding the potential story arc of Young Stringer are far fetched in the extreme. The dark and light introduced into this adaption/completion gives the audience a more contemporary and relatable version of Austin. Admittedly, Austin purists will balk at the divergence from superficial romance into a more passionately portrayed characterisation but fan fiction has long since proven the appetite for such a change. For me, this was the best choreography I have seen in any period drama and the characters have been slow burning but engaging. I am one of the many who were mesmerised by the dance routine and devastated by the ending.
As for Lord Edward and Clara, the scene of them coming together in their deceitful pact was both in keeping with the storyline and whilst cringe-worthy was actually fairly mild.
I would highly recommend watching this dramatisation with an open mind and an open heart. Character arcs are cleverly enacted to give you a rollercoaster of emotions throughout! Enjoy.
If you are planning to publish your brilliant thoughts, even if it is ‘just online’, please have someone who knows how to write edit them before you hit “SEND”. Things don’t ‘come to ahead’. Things ‘come to a head’. After that error, I stopped reading.