It might help to switch off while watching The English. Not your whole brain, but perhaps the part that enjoys being able to follow the exact plot of what’s going on in a TV show. It’s not that every show needs to drip feed us plot lines like a neatly-hyperlinked Wikipedia entry, but The English assumes a lot of interest and knowledge in its audience. Each episode introduces so many new characters and backstories – you would need a notepad and pen to keep track of them all – that it’s easier just to let go and enjoy the vibe.
This episode opens with one the show’s favourite themes: murder. At sunset in Hoxem, Wyoming, a woman runs until she is shot and flung over barbed wire. The man responsible then turns the gun on himself and pulls the trigger. The couple, we learn, are the Flynns: the wife was suffering from cowpox and had been branded with a ‘B’ before her death. This is all discovered by Billy Myers (Flynn’s business partner). Also in the picture is Flynn’s wife, Martha, who is attempting to retrieve cattle belonging to Flynn and Myers. But, as Thomas Trafford (Tom Hughes) delights in telling her, they are unmarked. Trafford takes them for his own. Later, Billy’s son returns home to find his father dead. Perhaps you find disputes over livestock very fascinating, perhaps the introduction of several characters at once is not off-putting to you, but it is very hard to be invested in this storyline, which unfortunately appears to be part of the show’s overarching mystery.
There’s stronger stuff to be found with the show’s leading couple. We find out that Eli (Chaske Spencer) is still at the Clarkes, paying off a debt owed for Cornelia’s compass. Eli realises that the Clarkes are not as saintly as they might seem, but when he attempts to leave, Katie shoots him with a blowdart. Cornelia (Emily Blunt), meanwhile, is trying to reunite the children she and Eli found with the Mennonites. On her way, she’s discovering that all of them are as out-of-place as herself. I liked her conversation with the scientist – who attributes the work of poet Tennyson to the scientist Darwin – which sours quickly from a discussion about infectious disease to one about race. Blunt’s Cornelia is once again a brilliant stand-in for the audience: her wide-eyed face depicting the exact moment where an interesting conversation turns ugly.
This episode’s greatest asset is highlighting Cornelia’s development; she rides around this wild land with a greater sense of ease. She’s still uncertain and fearful about everything going on around her – it would be foolish not to be – but now she’s seen enough, and survived enough, to know that she can take the unknown on. In one eery scene, she’s watched from by two men and their mother, Black Eyed Mog (a memorable villain, part steampunk, park Western, played by Nichola McAuliffe). Cornelia, noticing the danger, stays calm, tells the young German girl to lay flat and loads her gun. The trio decide she’s probably not worth mugging.
Cornelia returns the children sooner than expected. As the Mennonites discuss meeting the Clarkes, Cornelia realises that the latter are not to be trusted. It’s a satisfying penny drop moment for Cornelia, who rushes back to the Clarkes to try to protect Eli. Katie and Cornelia’s tense, winding discussion – the best from this episode – is great: a discussion over their dead children, which ends with Cornelia stabbing Katie in the chest. It would be nice if the show were full of these conversations, ones where you care about the characters, can actually follow the story, and also have a dramatic pay-off. Right now, they happen just enough to keep you interested, if not outright hooked.
Henry Wong is a senior culture writer at Esquire, working across digital and print. He covers film, television, books, and art for the magazine, and also writes profiles.
