On the face of it, this episode goes over the same for & against arguments as were live then and are live now with regard to GRT people. IMO, Harriet makes some excellent points.
However, this episode is really about Hilly & especially Lady Broughall and the woman that links them - Hilly's mother. The series has already teased us into thinking there's something interesting about the relationship, what with Lady B giving Hilly Rolls Royce cars whenever she needs one, but it is this episode that clarifies the whole thing.
Lady B is Hilly's grandmother. Her daughter, Penelope, ran off to live in a commune 20 years ago (tbh this seems a bit long, given how old the daughter looks, but more of that later) and only came back once, to leave Hilly with Gran.
We are very much encouraged to think that ex-doctor "Doc" will turn out to be the missing daughter, Pen. But in the end it turns out to be poor "Nib" - from Pen/Penelope (geddit?) - a character who never speaks & then promptly dies (& who doesn't look old enough to have been running away 20 years ago).
This allows the writer - whoever that may have been - to give Lady B some absolutely lovely dialogue (in the quote on this page) about allowing people to live their lives & not to live in the past.
Probably the best, certainly the most moving, episode so far.
However, this episode is really about Hilly & especially Lady Broughall and the woman that links them - Hilly's mother. The series has already teased us into thinking there's something interesting about the relationship, what with Lady B giving Hilly Rolls Royce cars whenever she needs one, but it is this episode that clarifies the whole thing.
Lady B is Hilly's grandmother. Her daughter, Penelope, ran off to live in a commune 20 years ago (tbh this seems a bit long, given how old the daughter looks, but more of that later) and only came back once, to leave Hilly with Gran.
We are very much encouraged to think that ex-doctor "Doc" will turn out to be the missing daughter, Pen. But in the end it turns out to be poor "Nib" - from Pen/Penelope (geddit?) - a character who never speaks & then promptly dies (& who doesn't look old enough to have been running away 20 years ago).
This allows the writer - whoever that may have been - to give Lady B some absolutely lovely dialogue (in the quote on this page) about allowing people to live their lives & not to live in the past.
Probably the best, certainly the most moving, episode so far.
