IV– Episode 4 begins with Jonathan Brigstocke (Louis Partridge) and Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett/Leila George) in the throes of passion. She easily convinces him to postpone his travels for another day but he does ask her to pose for him in return. She reluctantly agrees but alludes to them being more careful out of fear that Nicky/Nicholas Ravenscroft (Kodi Smit-McPhee/Bertie Haarer/Gorge Haarer) is going to notice his presence.
As Robert Ravenscroft (Sacha Baron Cohen) is stunned by the emotional response he’s having to the book, Stephen (Kevin Kline) recalls Nancy Brigstocke’s (Lesley Manville) rapid mental and physical decline following Jonathan’s death. She not only gives up working but attempts suicide. Despite this, she does have some good days, like the day she discovered a box of Jonathan’s photographs. Stephen suspects it was her excitement over those photos that inspired her to develop the film from Rome.
As Robert and Catherine’s problems begin to boil over into their work lives, Stephen thanks Justin (Art Malik) for his hard work and support on the book before asking for further assistance. Justin is thrilled to learn that Stephen is considering another novel but is clearly creeped out when he asks for his help with creating a Facebook page for one of the novel’s young characters. Despite his initial reaction, Justin agrees to put him in touch with Tommy (Ethan Lawrence), a young man who apparently designed their website.
Stephen continues to be plagued with memories of Nancy’s decline as Robert becomes fixated on protecting Nicky. He appears to be especially troubled by not knowing whether Catherine ignored him or exposed him to the affair. While he calls Nicky and plans another outing, Catherine experiences her own emotional break and nearly gets hit by a car after finding, ‘The Perfect Stranger’ for sale in her favorite bookstore, Claire’s (Claire Price) Bookshop.
Despite the ease with which Catherine and Jonathan’s relationship has been progressing, things take a sudden turn for the worse when he reveals he plans to return to London with her. Later learning that he’s already bought the ticket makes matters even worse. After the argument, Catherine returns to the beach and falls asleep next to Nicky, who is playing in an inflatable raft on shore.
Catherine’s episode at the bookstore is only made worse when she returns home to find that Robert has invited Nicky over to keep him company while she’s away. He passively-aggressively patronizes her by not only pretending like nothing happened but by being overly nice. At the same time, Stephen remembers how Nancy became more and more hostile the further she isolated herself.
In the previous timeline, Catherine wakes to discover Nicky missing. She soon discovers that he’s somehow managed to get himself and the inflatable raft all the way out into the ocean. Although her shrill pleas draw the attention of a herd of nearby beachgoers it takes all of them to save him, it was Nicholas who went in first without question.
As the crowd works to save Nicholas, the footage switches to a brief scene from Jonathan’s funeral. This serves no other purpose than to reveal that years earlier Stephen and Nancy purchased dual plots so they could be buried together. Nancy demanded for her and Jonathan to be buried together, leaving Stephen to be buried alone. By now Catherine’s cab has arrived and Robert is seeing her off. She practically begs him not to say anything to Nicholas about the book. Rather than give her a direct response, he rushes her off.
Once Nicholas is safely on shore, the rescuers turn their attention to Jonathan. Although he is alive before they pull him to shore, he is dead by the time they get him there. That’s where the episode ends.
Disclaimer Review
This wasn’t an all-around horrible episode but I would quite say it was great either. At least most of the story is out there now, so things should be able to stay in the present for the most part. I do enjoy learning more about Nancy and Stephen’s relationship. I almost feel bad for him because she seems needlessly hostile towards him. It’s almost as if she blames him for Jonathan’s death. In addition to that, it seems that Jonathan didn’t think that much of him either.
I liked to understand why that’s the case, and in a lot of ways, Stephen and Catherine appear to have more in common than either would admit. Episode 4 gets a 5.5. out of 10.
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