The Other Bennet Sister: Episode 6 recap

Mary had to rush to Pemberley so fast she didn’t even have time to change out of the dress she wore to supper, which is ridiculous. I’m assuming she also doesn’t have clothes with her? Also, Pemberley is in Derbyshire, which is 150 miles from London, so even travelling as fast as she could go by carriage, this trip would have taken more than a day. Has she really been wearing the same outfit, which is utterly impractical for travel, for days? That thing would be ruined.

MayVO tells us that she’s super anxious about her mother, because she can’t imagine her life without her.

Inside, she’s greeted by a servant who gives her the vague directions of: Upstairs, and Mary grabs a lantern (?) from the woman and dashes directly to the correct room. Why does she need a lantern? It’s daytime (as evidenced by the blue sky outside and the natural light filtering in).

Outside her mother’s room, Mary steels herself, goes in and finds… Her mother totally fine, in bed, surrounded by the other Bennet girls. Are they all staying at Pemberley, then? Don’t they have their own homes and husbands? Were they all summoned here, as Mary was?

Lydia’s now hugely pregnant, so I guess some months have passed since Mr B’s funeral.

Mrs B can’t even let Mary say hello before she starts flinging attitude at her.

All right, I’m over this. The Mrs B from Pride and Prejudice was NOT this nasty. This is a completely different character. P&P Mrs B would’ve been excitedly asking Mary to tell her all the news from London: what are the fashions like? The carriages? And what was Lady Fakername’s ball like? She was a silly, frivolous woman, not a Lady Catherine.

Mary rushes to greet her mother and Mrs B just hands her a plate to clean up. Not. The same. Character. AT ALL. Mary observes that her mother looks well, and she’s relieved. Mrs B tells Mary she looks awful, and mocks her outfit.

Elizabeth finally steps up and greets her sister properly, while all the rest of them sit around staring at the walls or whatever. Mrs B scowls like a harridan while Lizzy, then Jane and Kitty dare to show Mary some affection. What is WRONG with this woman? Poor Mary looks exhausted and starts digging her fingernails into her hands again.

Mary has somehow managed to acquire her own clothes. Over breakfast with her sisters, she asks what the deal actually was with their mother’s health. Jane said the doctor thought it might be influenza, but she’s made a sort of miraculous recovery. Lydia, of course, thinks it’s all down to her own arrival. They got this character right, at least.

Mary suggests they play Graces later, and Lydia sneers that nobody plays Graces anymore, like she would know. Jane correct that it’s quite fashionable in London (see? I knew she and Bingley would have spent a good amount of time in London, so explain again how William didn’t know how the Bennets and Bingleys were connected?)

Most of the sisters ask Mary to tell them about London, while Lydia, truly her mother’s child, yells at Kitty that she can’t reach the preserves. Kitty gives her a great, ‘how is that my problem?’ look and Jane slides the preserves towards Lydia.

They ask who Mary’s met, what she’s done, and Jane asks if she’s run into Caroline while she’s been there. Do none of these people write letters? Correspond at all? The post existed and was very heavily used!

Mary ums and stumbles her way along and doesn’t really answer any questions. And then she’s saved by the bell, literally: her mother’s bell, summoning her upstairs so she can be sent to walk ‘the duchess’ to the edge of the fountain and no further. Mrs B’s dog is a puggle, I think, for anyone interested, and Mrs B melodramatically says the dog’s the only member of the family she can rely on. Well, that’s going to be 100% true if you keep this nonsense up.

Mrs Bennet decamps for the drawing room, fussed over by all her daughters, whining about pillows while Mary yearns for freedom.

Hilariously, Mr Darcy walks in, takes one look at who’s there, wheels around and walks right back out. Hee!

Mary’s days become rounds of dog walks and nothing else. But then a letter arrives from Anne, which Lydia mocks because she’s never heard of Anne Baxter. Why would you have heard of her, Lydia, you live in Newcastle? Lydia continues to be awful and Kitty calls her out for being unkind. I feel desperately sorry for Lydia’s future baby. I hope it’s not a girl.

Lizzy finds Mary in the music room, practicing piano and they have a nice sister moment together. Lizzy observes that Mary seems troubled, particularly whenever someone mentions London. Mary tells her that she embarrassed herself when she was leaving by breaking William’s dad’s bell jar. Lizzy dismisses that, saying Mary’s probably the only person who’s thinking of it at all. Well, you don’t really know that, do you, Lizzy? I mean, it sounds like a minor thing, but it might hold great sentimental value.

Mary also mentions Caroline being horrible and Lizzy sympatises. Lizzy has, after all, seen Caroline in action.

Lizzy asks if Mary’s met any nice young men in London and Mary says there seem to not be any eligible young men, as if William didn’t exist? She adds that she doesn’t think she’s the marrying sort.

I feel I should mention that the clothes Mary’s wearing are dresses we haven’t seen on her since Longbourn. She never wore these in London, as far as I can remember. She’s regressing here, I think. But also, the lighter colours make her more as one with her pastel-loving sisters. So, regressing to the state she was before she went to London (put-upon, bit downtrodden, used terribly by her mother without complaint) but also visually connecting with all the sisters who went the marriage route and made (more or less) successful matches. Just putting that out there because you know I can't resist picking apart costuming.

There are a lot of really lovely shots in this, aren't there?

Mary gets a visitor: William! What a nice surprise, but also, he wouldn’t just show up at someone’s house like this. They’re out in the countryside, which means they’d likely have to put him up, unless he’s staying with family or friends nearby, so just arriving like this would be pretty rude.

Lizzy must know who he is, because her face lights up in a, ‘Well, will you look at THIS!’ way, and Mrs Bennet sits up on the sofa like Dracula waking from the dead. Lydia’s so dumbstruck she’s overfilling a teacup. Or maybe her three brain cells just powered down for a bit. They need their rest, you know.

William explains that he came up because he was concerned about her mother, which… weird? He tells Mrs B he’s happy to see her looking so well. ‘I usually look much better than this,’ she purrs, prompting an AWESOME eyeroll from Lizzy. Mrs Bennet quickly gets a bit gross with William, touching him so much he gets uncomfortable fast. Ew.

Mary introduces him to her sisters and HOW DOES HE NOT ALREADY KNOW ELIZABETH AND JANE? This is so bizarre. This is his cousin’s house! Elizabeth is his cousin’s wife! She’s a relative! He’s friends with the Bingleys! I don’t know why this is bothering me so much other than the fact that it’s sloppy as hell and makes no sense.

Lydia rather sneeringly asks how he knows Mary and William explains that they’ve met a few times and share a taste in crime pamphlets. Credit where it’s due, there’s some excellent eye-and-facial-expression work going on this episode, particularly with the actress who plays Lizzy. Whole conversations are happening with a few looks and it’s marvellous.

William goes on to say that he was on his way to visit his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and thought he’d swing by. So, confirmed: he and Darcy are first cousins. And they both visit their aunt semi-frequently, so it’s safe to assume, they’ve met before. Especially if Pemberley is on the way to (or at least not too far from ) Rosings Park.

(Except: Hang on, Rosings is supposed to be in Kent, right? Which is southeast of London. Derbyshire, where Pemberley is, is in central-sh England. It’s literally in the opposite direction of Rosings Park, so he couldn’t possibly be on his way to Rosings and just thought he’d swing by, unless his aunt’s up here, for some reason? SLOPPY! I hate sloppy work! If you’re going to base something on another author’s established story, characters, and world, get your facts right! It feels disrespectful to do otherwise.)

Jane points out that William's come a very long way to see Mary. Yes, hundreds of miles in the wrong direction!

William’s dragged outside, where Mrs B walks arm-in-arm and murmurs to him that she’s always felt that what a lady puts in her garden is so terribly important. I’m not touching that one.

The rest of the Bennet girls are playing bowls. Jane sidles up to Mary and notes that Mary forgot to mention William in her reports from London. So, she has been writing, then? Lizzy comments on how handsome he is, and Mary goes back to the, ‘I haven’t noticed his looks’ well. Mary, you wear glasses, but you aren’t blind. Even if he’s not your type, he’s objectively good looking, come on.

Quite the unified pastel trio, no?

Jane points out that he’s come a very long way to see Mary. Yes, hundreds of miles in the wrong direction!

Mrs Bennet invites William to stay, and Lizzy seconds the invitation. Mary takes her turn and biffs it, but her mother applauds like she just won the Nobel Prize. Looking confused, William joins in the applause.

Later, Mary and William walk alone in the garden and start having what is clearly two entirely separate conversations. She thinks he’s there to talk about that bell jar, and he thinks he’s here so they can talk about their ‘connection’. He tells her not to worry about the bell jar and goes on that it’s a pleasure to meet her family. She agrees that her sisters are very sparkly, and he says she’s plenty sparkly too, thanks.

He thinks it’s super cool that she’s Not Like the Other Girls, and I don’t think she set out to be a Pick Me, but here we are.

He opines that they all hide behind all these rules and she kind of just smirks and they walk arm-in-arm while her mother and sisters spy on them in a manner so obvious and obnoxious it wouldn’t be out of place in a Marx Brothers film. Lydia has binoculars, for heaven’s sake.

Before dinner, Lydia decides it’s her turn to start being inappropriate with William, which is extra cringe considering that giant pregnant belly of hers. Not that pregnant ladies can’t be flirty, but come on, Lydia. You’re married. William admits that London’s been a bit dull without Mary. She’s only been gone a week, mind. William’s quite keen.

That night, Mrs B goes to Mary’s room to terrify her, aggressively brush her hair, and wonder how rich William is. Mary looks like she has no idea what’s happening around her anymore. Which is a bit silly for someone who’s seen four sisters marry and hasn’t been living under a rock. She can’t pretend she doesn’t know how any of this works or how her mother operates when suitors are in play.

Mary and William read together and exchange glances over the tops of their books. It’s quite cute, actually. Book nerd flirting! She also notices the book he’s ‘reading’ is upside down. I don’t think William’s here to check out the books, do you?

He asks what she’s reading, and it turns out she’s back on Fordyce’s Sermons for Young Women. He negs her reading by calling Fordyce an ‘insufferable, rule-making pedant’ and offers to BURN THE BOOK. Sir, no matter how bad the book is, that’s a step too far. It’s not even his book!

I'm definitely going to find a lot more uses for this image

Mary tries to talk him around to books that aren’t romantic poetry, while her sisters gather at the closed door and listen in like they’re all eight years old. He tells her that his dad devoted himself to studying beetles, which means William never saw him. Ok, but that’s not non-fiction’s fault, William. That’s not a reason to reject an entire genre.

Anyway, that convinced William to devote himself to the pursuit of joy. He asks what makes her happy and she gabbles that nobody’s ever asked her that. That’s very sad. She thinks about it and says reading, learning, and teaching all bring her joy. Teaching? Really? Ok.

He says that life is short and they should all experience some joy while they still can. Solid advice, but she derives joy from the books she reads, William. Just because they aren’t the books you like don’t mean they’re not enjoyable. He’s just as judgy about this as Tom.

'Look busy! LOOK BUSY!'

He suggests they go riding and she enthusiastically agrees, despite the fact she doesn’t like horses.

They go on a ride through an idyllic woodland and she asks him to expand a bit on his argument that everyone should just say whatever they think or feel. She points out there are times when holding back might be the right (not to mention, adult) thing to do. He says he intends to live his life by bolder principles (so, he intends to be a jerk, then?) and came here to put these beliefs into practice. By telling her honestly what he thinks of her.

Instead of speaking his own words, he decides to quote Wordsworth’s She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways. That’s… a choice. YMMV, but I don’t think he does as well as Tom. Still, she is, once again, moved to tears.

She comments that he seems to see her as a lonely figure. He thinks that she’s been overshadowed by her sisters too much, but now she’s broken out on her own and can be seen as she deserves. He says their conversations make him very happy and she returns the sentiment.

Back at Pemberley, Mrs B nabs Mary and tells her she’s pretty sure William’s about to propose. She orders Mary to say yes if he does.

Mary tries to escape to her room, but first William catches her and asks if he can speak with her in private. MayVO tells us that nothing, not even her mother, could prepare her for what happened next.

Dun, dun, DUNNN!