Crazy Ladies

Fiz going off on Charlotte. She’s in Charlotte’s house telling her exactly what she thinks of her and telling her to stay away from her man! Wonderful. Nice to see Fiz back. No more mealy-mouthing, just saying what she really thinks. Poor Charlotte cowering, obviously not used to being talked to this way.

It’s one shot that I particularly liked. Fiz, with a curtain of glass pendants, crystals, whatever they are hanging in front of a mirror. Fiz looks out of place in this house, and that shot captures it perfectly.

Charlotte’s house

We’ve never seen Charlotte’s house before, and it’s absolutely perfect. At first, the tight shot when Fiz is going to the door, I thought it was a small brick cottage. The flowers, the low front porch, the trellis work – I knew it was Charlotte’s.

Later, when they show a long shot of it, it’s a rowhouse, plain fronted, just like its neighbours. Not very interesting architecturally, kind of run-down and looking like they’re divided into apartments. But Charlotte has made the front of hers look like a little crafty type cottage. Macrame plant hangers wouldn’t be out of place.

The inside doesn’t really look like that, no Indian print cotton spreads, no brass or overabundance of ferns. Only some crochet work and the glass beads. Lovely with the light reflecting through them, and absolutely right for someone of Charlotte’s style, post-hippie in age and era. And not Fiz at all.

Fiz is doing wonderfully at terrifying the real story out of Charlotte. And she’s just about to get it all when she keeps talking when she should shut up.

“I know what you’re going to say”

A character saying what they think the other person is going to say is a device often seen in American soaps to keep a deception going. It’s often very apparent and clunky, so on top of your disappointment that the truth didn’t come out, you’ve just watched a really stupid bit of writing. Fiz saying “what about Colin? Where’s he gone? Charlotte:  “He’s –” Fiz: “Has he gone back to Canada?” Charlotte, realization and relief flowing over her, “Yes, he’s gone back to Canada.” Big exhale from me, oh Fiz, why did you say that! Then Charlotte tells her the “big truth” – John is still planning to use Colin’s identity to teach.

Back home, telling John about her visit, she does the same thing; “she told me about your little secret.” But she keeps going, telling him she knows he hasn’t quit teaching. Huge relief for John, when he’d also nearly told her the real truth. Again, the deception last-minute-save done very well.

Then Friday, for me, a little aha moment. John and Charlotte moaning about the predicament they’ve got themselves in. Charlotte says, “Shakespeare got it right, didn’t he – ‘oh what a tangled web we weave.’” John barely looks up, “Walter Scott, in a book called Marmion. Not Shakespeare.” Oh, I just love him, deranged as he is.