What I’m Watching: The Great

The Great: Season 1, Episode 7 “A Pox on Hope” (B+)

I’d like to put forward the theory that Peter really is a changed man. He’s still prone to childish impulses and unable to recognize that his delight in the pain of others is problematic, but what he did in this episode wasn’t motivated either by selfishness or evil. After Catherine tried to ease the situation and told him that he was much better at certain sexual things than Leo, he told him not to rub it in his face but instead to be honest with him, as he now hopes others will be with him as a result of his suggestion box. When he opposed Catherine’s vaccination idea, it was because of his legitimate doubt that injecting yourself with a disease would be the best way to ensure that you didn’t get the disease. Catherine also seemed more interested in pleasing him, even if her printing press – not a fig press, as he had hoped – was meant to lead to more liberties rather than just to make her husband happy. Georgina’s distress at being ignored by Peter did not sit well with Grigor, and that’s one thing that got back to normal by the end of the episode, much to Grigor’s dismay. Marial decided to give Vlad the ride of his life was an unexpected twist, and it was sad that it turned instantly into a devastating discovery of his doomed fate, executed superbly as this show always manages to do in its rapid shifts from comedy to drama. Ending with Catherine watching the bodies being burned was haunting, and it really hit home in a manner that I don’t usually expect this show to be able to achieve.