Matters of the Heart – As the second episode of The Essex Serpent begins, Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes) has a nightmare about being attacked by the serpent. Martha (Hayley Squires) holds her while promising Michael can’t hurt her anymore. After the intro, Henry (Gerard Kearns) and Naomi Banks (Lily-Rose Aslandogdu) hold a viewer for Gracie. Martha asks Cora if she is ready to go home. Cora says Stella told her about a cottage for rent in Aldwinter. Despite everything that has happened, Cora needs to find out what is out there. She believes Frankie likes Essex, but he does not. Martha suggests it might be fun to live in a cottage for a while and she could go home to get his things and buy more Sherlock. Frank nods before Martha tells Cora she’ll need the train fare.

Cora offers to handle other expenses. Martha quickly interrupts to say she can look after herself. Luke Garrett (Frank Dillane) tries to convince Cora to return to London, but she says she cannot. He believes she is in shock and will return to normal once she spends time in London. Cora argues that she can help by talking to people and offering a rational explanation. Luke doesn’t think it is a good idea to tell them about her plesiosaur theory considering a young girl died. She asks if he is encouraging her to give up on her ideas when he isn’t. When Luke says he is a qualified doctor, Cora reminds him that she is not his patient. Luke leaves after Cora promises to write to him.

Cora and Frankie take a carriage to Aldwinter. Once they reach the cottage, Cora tells Frankie he can have his own room here. He tells her that he had that in London. On the train, Martha reads Karl Marx’s writings to Luke and Dr. George Spencer (Jamael Westman). Luke recognizes it as the Communist Manifesto while George asks how she became so radical. She laughs before revealing she was born in Bethnal Green. When everything around you is broken, you look for new ideas. Luke asks how Cora copes with a raging socialist in her home. Martha doesn’t think they’re much different. He mentions the grand townhouse and jewels, but Martha says she has given all the jewels away.

He asks if they’re close and whether Cora confides in her about matters of the heart. George interrupts to ask if she thinks Cora will stay in Essex long. Martha doesn’t know because Cora does what Cora wants from now on. While Cora looks at her fossils, Frankie surprises her with a chicken that he found just outside. She agrees to let him keep her until they find out who it belongs to. Frankie says he also saw a lot of people wearing black. Henry runs into Will Ransome (Tom Hiddleston) and tells him people are saying Gracie was taken for her sins. Will comforts him while insisting she just drowned and that God will look after her now as they must look after Naomi.

Jo Ransome (Dixie Egerickx) asks Naomi what she can do and whether she can sing for her. She gets up and sings for Naomi and everyone else in the pub. Cora walks in and interrupts before apologizing and leaving. Some wonder why she is still here. Will follows Cora out. She only came to pay her respects and is sorry if she upset people. Will admits he and Stella didn’t think she would come back. Cora thought she could help by being a voice of reason. Although Cora suggests she can explain things, Will believes she came for her serpent. As he walks her back to the cottage, Cora promises she isn’t there to make trouble although she would like to look into things and ask questions.

He encourages her to be careful since people are scared. Stella (Clemence Poesy) will be eager to see her so she asked to come once she gets settled. Cora hopes he doesn’t disprove of her coming, but he approves of her trying to understand and find the truth. George asks Martha if the servants will still be up to look after her. She has to tell him that she is the servant. Nurse Maureen tells Luke about an explosion at the arsenal. She believes one of the casualties has a pericardial tear. He is young, fit, and strong. Luke and George rush out while Maureen asks Martha a favor. Luke checks the patient before telling his sister, Sali (Deepica Stephen), that he believes there is a tear in the sack around his heart.

He believes he needs to operate straight away even though he failed this operation the last time. Before the sister goes with Martha, she asks them to do their best. Martha asks if there is anyone she can get word to. Sali says she and Nev came from India last year so they don’t know anyone here. She tells Martha that they came to London with a British family. She was their ayah while Nev was their tutor, but they changed their mind when they arrived and let them go. Luke finishes with the heart and says the wound is intact so they should close his chest. They need to wait for him to come around. After a while, Luke begins worrying that the wound reopened. Soon, Nev starts coming around.

Nev’s sister rushes into the room to check on her brother with Martha closely behind her. When George finds Luke, he tells him he never doubted it for a second. Cora gives flowers to Naomi and Henry when she visits. She apologizes for intruding yesterday and insists she only wanted to offer her condolences. She tells them that she is next door in the cottage and will do whatever she can. Although her husband died recently, she knows losing a child is different. Once Henry says it is unnatural, Core asks whether he thinks something is out there. Henry thinks she should go. Before she goes, Naomi tells her that the chicken her son has belongs to old Cracknell. Once she leaves, Henry burns the flowers she bought.

Outside, the locals begin installing a net near the water. On the way to see Cracknell, Cora and Frankie run into Matthew Evansford (Michael Jibson) warns them to be careful because he doesn’t go to church. Frankie tells him that they don’t go to church before they continue. When Cracknell sees them, he calls them the serpent loving newcomers. Cora asks whether he believes there is something out there, but he says it is not a question of belief for him. He explains that you can’t believe in the devil if you don’t believe in God. After Cora asks what he believes happened to Gracie, he says someone dies on the marshes every year. He hasn’t seen any monsters. Frankie asks the names of the goats.

Cracknell calls them Gog and Magog. He says it is his joke before allowing Frankie to feed them. As Naomi sits with Will, she tells him that she saw the serpent. She claims she sees it at night too, but he believes they just let their fears take hold at night. Cora and Frankie go to the Ransome house where they’re greeted by Jo and Stella. Stella admits they’re still on edge. John (Ryan Reffell) is doing science which is called dull. Jo complains that girls don’t get to do it. Cora believes everyone needs science to help them understand the world. Jo asks if she could give them a lesson. Cora would love to do that and bring her fossils if Stella thinks it is a good idea. Stella doesn’t see why not.

She’ll see if Will can arrange it. Cora learns Will is in his study so she decides to go say hello. Cora is surprised by all the books in Will’s study and asks what a man like him is doing in the marshes. He could ask her the same question. Will shows her the fossil he found on his morning walk and lets her keep it. She believes it is some type of lobster such as a Hoploparia. He offers to show her where he found it by the cliffs at St. Osyth. Once Cora returns to the others, she finds that Frankie is busy showing Stella their fossils. As they leave, Cora tells Frankie she hopes Martha will be coming back soon. Luke reads an article about him performing the first pericardial surgery that is described as miraculous.

Martha arrives and tells George that she brought food for the patient. They check on the patient who looks a lot better. While George inspects the wound, Martha tells the sister that her brother fell sick when she was her age and it is a struggle. She is thanked for the food. Her parents aren’t around either. As for her brother, he had typhus and never recovered. Martha is lucky in many ways since she has a good job and a home. While leaving, George admits he thought Nev would be a bit more cheerful about going home.

Martha asks if he is going to give Nev a long list of medicine and insist he take a month off work. When George says a minimum, Martha wonders how they’re going to pay their rent. He questions if they’ll be evicted, but Martha thinks he’ll be packing gunpowder first thing Monday morning. George worries it’ll danger his recovery so someone needs to tell him. Martha asks if he should be told that he can’t win. Meanwhile, Will admits he could play his card rights and be sitting on a backbench debating some minor point of law. He’d prefer to spend his time guiding Cracknell back to the God who never left him. He explains that he really wanted purpose instead of achievement. Besides, he believes he has found an equal in Stella.

Will takes her to the spot where he found the fossil as Cora says it looks like the earthquake caused a landslide. She’ll come back with some tools because she is hoping to find a tangible link to their past and the creatures that came before them. Will mentions the creatures out there. Cora admits it is possible. Will asks how a dead fossil can prove the existence of a living one. Cora confesses that it can’t although it might give them clues. While she believes that, she is never sure of the difference between thinking and believing. She suggests Will could teach her one day. After Frankie asks Stella if she believes in the serpent, she says she doesn’t know. She doesn’t think they have all the answers but asks him to tell her husband.

Frankie can keep secrets. She can too. While Will and Cora walk back, they talk about the locals harvesting oysters and how Cora used to do it when she was a child. She reveals that she lived on the coast until she was 16 when her father took her to London to meet her husband. Cora tells him about the Japanese kintsugi vase which is pottery that has been broken and put back together with gold. Michael gave it to her when they met and told her he wanted to break her before mending her with gold. Will learns that Michael hurt her although Cora isn’t eager to say more. They see a boat on the water that looks like it is floating in the sky as a tear slides down Cora’s cheek. Martha and George visit the patient’s house where the sister confirms she has been cleaning the wound every day.

George gives Nev Laudanum that he won’t charge him for if he promises not to go back to work. Nev reveals he already lost his job. Sali is busy assembling boxes for matches and says they’re getting by. George is going to pay their rent while Nev convalesces since he made a first-class contribution to medicine. Sali tells Martha that they don’t want charity. She and Nev are educated people used to solving their own problems. Martha asks her to think of it as a loan before Sali complains about being stuck in the slum making matchboxes and gunpowder. Martha understands and that is why she became a socialist which Sali calls troublemakers. She tells Sali that you sometimes have to make trouble to get change.

Martha invites her to a meeting and promises she’d be very welcome. Once they step outside, Martha tells Spencer that she needs his help to change things. She wants him to start by talking to Charles Ambrose who never takes her seriously. Martha suggests telling him that people need clean, affordable homes so they should persuade Ambrose to bring a social housing bill before Parliament. George supposes he could write to Charles to tell him what he has seen. They agree to meet for lunch and compose it together. Martha begins writing to Charles about the housing conditions in his constituency and how it is time for change. Will looks through one of his books while Cora draws a picture of the boat she saw earlier.

Cora meets with Martha at the station because there is so much to tell her. As they return to the cottage, Will is waiting for Cora. She tells him it wasn’t a mirage as he calls it a fata morgana. It was in one of his books. Will tells her that Angelucci saw one in Italy in the Messina Strait. Martha says she’ll show herself in as Cora gets excited telling Will how it works. Will confesses it bothers him. They think they see a boat sailing in the sky and Naomi thinks she sees a serpent in the water. When Cora asks what Stella thinks about it, Will admits he hasn’t told her yet. Will asks if she thinks something strange is going on here, but Cora says of course not.

Will runs into Matthew who tells him the barricades are finished and he is going to start a night watch. If he sees it, he’ll run back to the village and raise the alarm. Matthew argues that they need reassurance although Will suggests they might need clarity. He says Mrs. Seaborne is a naturalist and has offered to talk to the kids at school. Matthew doesn’t seem eager to welcome her. Matthew would prefer he convene the parish council, but Matthew says absolutely not because that would only entrench people’s fears. Matthew tells him to do it his way and let the devil in. Later that night, Cora tells Frankie he has ten minutes to come in. When Stella asks Will what he is afraid of, he says nothing.

Naomi hears something in the middle of the night before getting up and finding a seagull in the house. She manages to get it outside. In the morning, Jo tells Naomi that Cora has brought her fossils to the school. Naomi tells her about the seagull that flew into their house last night. She believes it is a sign that the serpent is coming for her. Jo insists Cora is going to explain everything. Cora tells the class how there are fossils of ancient creatures all around them while Matthew reminds them that God put the creatures on this earth. A student asks whether people will find remnants of the serpent many years from now. Cora says it might be real if it is a living fossil. When Matthew asks why he never heard of it, Cora mentions the theory that some animals could’ve escaped evolution.

Naomi asks whether there is a serpent or not. Cora explains that she is there to find out because she honestly doesn’t know. The students begin getting loud while saying the serpent is coming for us. Naomi yells for them to shut up before a bottle falls and breaks behind Cora. A little girl points at Naomi and says she did it as the other students start chanting with her. Frank hides under the table while Cora pleads with Jo not to join in. Naomi seems to be having a seizure. The students drop one by one. Naomi finally appears to return to normal.

 

The Essex Serpent Review

After the second episode of The Essex Serpent, it feels like the story is starting to come together and viewers can see where things are heading. There are many characters and each has its own storyline and goals. Luke just completed the first pericardial surgery so he has made a name for himself. He also seems interested in being more than friends with Cora. As for George Spencer, the doctor has probably fallen for Martha and may help her push her socialist agenda.

Cora has a lot going on while juggling her research and spending time with Will. While I haven’t read the novel, this could arguably be true to the source material since you can just tell that the story was well thought about beforehand. I am still having difficulty connecting with many of the main characters although George is the most likable at the moment.

The story is interesting albeit a bit slow. Honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising if many viewers gave up due to the tediously slow story. I expect a payoff for sticking with it until the end though. The episode had some emotional moments while the ending was enough of a cliffhanger to warrant another episode. It scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Essex Serpent can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support us by following this link.