Garrow's Law 2x04
That ending was dastardly. A total cliffhanger! Which is so cruel considering that I don't see an announcement for when a third series will be airing. And it takes so long between series in the UK.
Okay. So, basically they've both been found guilty, right? The separation went through, so Sarah's in legal limbo. She cannot remarry and she has no rights to Samuel. Will's been convicted and fined that one shilling.
I'd really like to know if there's ANY way Will's promise that Sarah won't be separated from either of the loves she has can be carried through. I honestly don't see how! I doubt Sir Arthur is going to be decent about letting Samuel go. I just...
ARGH!
For heaven's sakes, can I at least assume now that Sarah and Will are going to move in together? I mean, they've both already been punished for what they have not done, right? Sarah's reputation is in tatters; Will's a convicted seducer (which is really kind of hilarious, actually. I mean, even if he's not a full on virgin, the dude's about as far away from a rake as it's humanly possible to get!). CAN THEY PLEASE ACTUALLY GET TO ENJOY THE THING THEY'VE BEEN PUNISHED FOR?
My own frustration on their behalf is so great, I honestly don't know how they tolerate it. (Aside from the fact that they're fictional, so they tolerate whatever the writers wish. And that, really, I do think Will's a virgin and not intimately acquainted with what he's missing out on. YET.)
Though, I do wonder how the tensions of their position would wear on them even if they were getting the fun of enjoying each other. Everyone's going to snub Lady Sarah now, right? I mean, Will appears to be accustom to only having Southouse for a friend, but Lady Sarah used to have an active social life. And a son. What's she going to do around Will's (admittedly nice) new digs besides reflect on everything she's lost for his sake? :-/
Say what you like about Sir Arthur, she used to be part of a power couple with him. She had influence. She had the ears of important people. She had a seat at the table. Heck, it was often her table important people sat at! She had respect enough to be politically active despite being a woman. And she's traded all of that and her son for... a workaholic man who appears to, apart from a gift at public speaking, be kind of an introverted, law/justice geek at heart.
O.O
How the HECK is she going to be happy having visits with Mr Southouse and talking over cases with Will and never again being able to wield influence to do anything? At the beginning of series 1, she had more power on the sly than Will did out in the open. And now... ((shakes head)) she's lost it all. I think having no meaningful purpose to put her exceptional brain toward would break her heart as much as losing Samuel ultimately.
In his closing statement, Will said something about how Sir Arthur has suffocated Sarah.
But what exactly can Will do to avoid suffocating her? He wouldn't want her to feel trapped with him and powerless in a way she never was with her husband. But she is now because society will make it so.
If they could marry, she could start to work making the two of them a power couple. Inviting around other progressive thinkers, making connections, handling all the social stuff that Will obviously doesn't have the interpersonal skills for. She could do a lot with the power of their combined reputations. But as it is she has no reputation. Only the most extreme progressives would accept an invitation from a woman who's basically, in the eyes of society, Mr Garrow's whore.
:-/
Or maybe I'm wrong? I've only had one class on this period of British history, and the prof didn't much care for women's position (he failed to mention Mary Wollstonecraft and then, when I asked about her, said that she was not important!), so we didn't do much into their lives. I'd be happy to know if I'm overstating the limitations of Sarah's position.
In addition to needing to get more info on the social stuff, I wish I knew more about their legal prospects, because I kind of just want to WRITE VIRGIN!WILL FIX-IT FIC. RIGHT NOW. But I don't know how to massage the situation into something positive.
Okay, setting the abysmal state they left Lady Sarah in aside for a moment.
I thought the depiction of Will's despair was just excellent. I've been involved in social justice circles and, damn, people who care and are doing the work and putting before their eyes every day the endless, terrible cruelties of the world really do get really overwhelmed by it all. Especially if it's combined with personal tragedies. It's hard enough to stand outside and read about crap in the paper, but to be up close, trying and often failing? It can be quite wrecking. It was beautiful to see that depicted on TV.
And the massive inexcusable failure of justice in the case of the boy contextualized well the pettiness and more humane injustice of the decision in Garrow's case. I say more humane... but not really. More humane to the men involved. Lady Sarah is in a horrible, horrible mess. Lady Fox isn't so well off either.
I don't even know what to say! I suppose all the stuff early on about unequal punishments for men and women did foreshadow this, but it hurts me to see Will saved from ruin but know that Sarah's arms must ache to hold her child. D:
If Will can't follow through on his promise to help her get back her son, I could see the burden on Sarah of of having lost everything and having to live as a fallen woman destroy their relationship.
In the ordinary course of events, even people who love each other very much will irritate each other. How much worse would that be in their situation? How much pressure on Sarah to fight the memories of everything she's lost. And how much pressure on Will to try to make up for a loss he can never make up for.
I'm really worried for them. Though, now that the case is over, maybe Sir Arthur would come to his senses and allow visitation? I don't even know! I just can't tolerate the thought of Lady Sarah being made so miserable by all of this. UGH. DD:
Which is why I really, really need to work out a fix for it!