As the seventh episode of Rivals begins, Seb Burrows (Milo Callaghan) hangs out with Daysee Butler (Lara Peake) at the party. She claims she’s never been better. Cameron Cook (Nafessa Williams) speaks to Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) who says he’s the king of the castle. Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner), Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell), and the others put on Venturer t-shirts and speak to the media. Declan explains they’re pitching against Corinium for the Central South West ITV franchise. Ginger tells Tony about it before being pushed into the pool. Tony begins yelling and blaming everyone else. Cameron insists they need to fight back. Tony threatens to fire anyone who speaks to anyone with Venturer. He goes inside and curses Hermione. He tells Monica (Claire Rushbrook) that Hermione is no longer her friend. Declan tells his team that they need to remain in full control of the campaign.
They begin discussing everything they need to do, including getting the locals on their side. Declan says they have to make a good showing because Lady Gosling can pull their application. When Declan and Rupert begin arguing, Freddie (Danny Dyer) reminds them they’re in this together. Enid tells Maud (Victoria Smurfit) that her husband is very impressive. Maud isn’t happy that he’s being whisked away again. Taggie (Bella Maclean) tells Rupert to stop doing things he needs to say sorry for. She goes into town and tries to find supporters. Taggies runs into Charles Fairburn who invites her inside for a cup of tea. He tells her that Rupert visited him and realized he wasn’t coping with his mother. Rupert put a rocket up social services. He admits that Rupert was tremendous. Cameron, Tony, and many others go to the BTVA Awards. Declan and Rupert arrive as well.
They go inside and try to find out who they want to lure tonight. Declan mentions Harold White from Grenada who is his number one for program controller. Rupert thanks Cameron for not saying anything about Venturer. He admits they didn’t read her application. Cameron is confident they still won’t win. Julian Hathaway approaches Cameron. He’s part of the group that’s pitching for Yorkshire TV. Julian wants to talk to her about coming on board. Ginger interrupts and gets rid of him. Tony speaks to Richard and his wife Alicia. Harold isn’t keen on going along with Declan’s plan. He refuses to risk his entire career on a long shot. Four Men Went to Mow wins the best drama series. Tony speaks to the crowd after accepting the award. He gives much of the credit to Cameron who admits the award means a lot to her. Cameron and Tony make out outside after the show.
When Tony gets home, Monica tells him that Walter Scott has died. Declan visits Charles and invites him to join Venturer as the controller of programs. Charles says he can’t with his mother. Declan offers to let him handle documentaries. Charles says he’d love that. Tony celebrates with the team at the station and says they’ll need to sign new contracts. Cameron says they want to wow the IBA with their creative output. They also need to discredit Venturer. Tony suggests checking for an IRA connection. He also wants to find out whether the bishop had fiddled with any choir boys. Seb is told to find out who Rupert is sleeping with. Charles calls Declan to tell him to be careful. Seb catches Charles and tells him he’ll have to do better than that if he’s going to work for Venturer. Tony and Cameron talk to James Vereker (Oliver Chris) about doing a program about how to stay married. Tony tells him to have fewer working lunches with Sarah from now on.
James goes home where he tells Lizzie (Katherine Parkinson) they’ve been offered their own show. Lizzie can’t imagine them being on television together. She says she can’t because her editor is screaming at her for the draft. James suggests the show might help her book really sell. He asks Lizzie to do the screen test before deciding to destroy his career. Bas (Luke Pasqualino) finds Lizzie and Maud in the bar together. Lizzie tells Maud they’ll have to meet in secret or James will get upset. They talk about having an affair. Lizzie admits she’s never had an affair because it’s much too complicated. Maud likes complications. Charles visits Taggie and Declan. Once he tells Declan, they meet Seb in private. Seb says working for Declan was the best job he ever had. He admits he’d like to join them. He’d even be another mole in Tony’s camp. Seb explains that he went into journalism to oust bullies. Declan agrees to let him join them.
Tony and Cameron visit Bas’s pub. He tells Bas it’s time for him to join Corinium. Freddie, Declan, and Rupert arrive and observe the conversation. Bas admits to Tony he’s already signed with the other side. Tony believes Rupert is desperate. He suggests they’ll implode by themselves. Later, Rupert admits that Declan is the only member of the team who has actually made any television. Maud tries to convince Declan to just quit. Freddie argues that Tony is inside their heads. Gerard (Hubert Burton) tells Rupert in the morning that the PM’s office calls because they believe he backed the wrong side in the franchise race. Paul (Rufus Jones) learns that Sarah isn’t going to Corinium today. He’s surprised she’s so calm about everything. Paul suggests Tony will replace Sarah on Round-Up too. Sarah claims that won’t happen although Paul thinks she needs a strategy. Sarah visits James and tries to have sex with him. Lizzie waits for her in the lobby until Deirdre comes for her.
They go to James’s office where Lizzie hears him with Sarah. The screen test begins moments later. Although Lizzie is distraught, she goes through with the test. Cameron tells Tony that Lizzie will get better and it’s a great concept. Rupert listens to Paul being questioned about him. It’s suggested that Rupert could be gambling his political career with the franchise bid. Next, Rupert thinks about his racing career. Gerard checks on him and asks if someone has died. Rupert says only himself. Taggie drives to Cotchester Rugby Club. She goes inside and tries to speak to some rowdy men about sports on television. She ends up leaving in a hurry when the men start throwing things at her. As Taggie drives away, she almost gets into a wreck with Rupert who says Sydney didn’t see her because of the blind corner. Taggie insists she’s fine. Rupert decides to drive her home.
He learns she was using a cassette to find her way around. Taggie thanks him for driving her back. Rupert tells her that the PM is announcing the election tomorrow. When she does, he’ll be canvassing the area. Rupert invites Taggie to come with him and paddle the Venturer canoe. They can use the Tory loudspeaker to plug Venturer. Rupert says he’s going to walk back. He visits Cameron in the middle of the night. Rupert knows it was a dirty trick to take her application. He offers to give her their application in return. Rupert says it comes with an offer, controller of programs. He warns her that she’ll never be a true partner if she stays with Tony. With Venturer, she can be a founder. The next day, Lizzie calls Freddie to see if he’d still like to take her out for lunch. He agrees. Cameron almost gets caught looking at the application when Tony visits. He brings her a ring. Tony says he’ll turn it into an engagement ring if they win the franchise.
Meanwhile, Rupert tells Declan and the others that he put Penscombe up as collateral to secure a 7 million pound loan. He also says he offered Cameron Cook the job of controller of programs. They learn that Rupert gave her his application. Charles says he joined them to get away from bullies like Cameron. Declan agrees that she’s not coming. Cameron interrupts to say she’s here and she’s joining their side. The others relent and agree to let Cameron join Venturer. Taggie isn’t happy though. Bas finds Maud upset outside. She worries that she won’t have anything. Rupert agrees to visit Cameron later. They kiss outside. Once Cameron leaves, Taggi asks Rupert if he can really trust her. He admits he doesn’t know. Tony and Monica get a dog. Ginger visits Tony who tells him they need to up their surveillance. He’s talking about personal surveillance on everyone.
Rivals Review
The seventh episode of Rivals was okay since it at least pushed the story forward. Everything has become pretty predictable though. It was easy enough to see that most of Tony’s team would end up leaving him and causing his downfall sooner or later.
The show is a little shallow in the sense that it hasn’t explored the assets of each character. We’re supposed to believe that Cameron is a huge deal, but we haven’t really seen why she is. The same can be said about Taggie and Rupert’s relationship because it’s only been skimmed over.
If the series wasn’t going to delve deeper into these things, it should’ve been six episodes instead of eight. It just seems like a lot of time was wasted on sex scenes and other things that really didn’t matter. It’s likely that the show will never really reach its peak potential.
The episode was just okay. It scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Rivals can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
