'Belgravia' Season 1 Episode 4: Ambition and greed drive all classes of society
Spoilers for 'Belgravia' season 1 episode 4
It looks like 'Belgravia' is getting more and more exciting with every week. This week, there is not only the royal drama but we also get to see some real scheming from under the Trenchards' cellar.
This episode, desperate to find out who Charles Pope (Jack Bardoe) really is and why half of Belgrave is so taken by him, John Bellasis (Adam James) employs the help of the Trenchards' staff, particularly Ellis (Saskia Reeves), Anne Trenchard's (Tamsin Greig) maid.
Ellis, always complaining about being stuck as a maid and not having the chance to earn more or change her social status in the stringent British hierarchy, finally earns more than her meagre salary - thanks to John, of course.
Now, with the promise of more money (or a "fortune" as John has convinced her), she is ready to betray her employees of decades.
Along with Ellis is Turton (Paul Ritter), who also betrays his employees for John's little pennies. The two of them together are surprisingly adept at deceit and spying, with Ellis even going to Caroline aka the Countess of Brockenhurst's (Harriet Walter) very guarded house to dig for more information. Here, she is practically shooed away by Lady Brockenhurst's maid, who we discover is more protective of her boss.
Meanwhile, John is also working the Trenchards' daughter-in-law Susan (Alice Eve) for news about Charles. Their affair, which not-so-surprisingly started in the last week's episode, is enough for Susan to want to comply. But there is more to this dynamic now.
She finds out she could be pregnant. At first, she refuses to believe it since it is already in her mind that she cannot conceive (owing to the patriarchal nature of the 1800s, it is established that it is she who is responsible for her not having children and not her husband Oliver).
Her very shrewd maid Speer (Bronagh Gallagher), who as we discovered in the first episode itself is ready to betray anyone to climb up the social ladder, is ready to back Susan in any way possible And if at all Susan and John's philandering works out, she is going to get the better end of the deal what with John being the heir to the Earl's throne.
At the moment, however, as Susan is still trying to figure out what her next step would be, Oliver (Richard Goulding) has more pressing matters. He is still rueful that his father wouldn't invest in his ideas but is more than willing to put money into Pope's ideas.
Speaking of Pope, the (rather predictable) romance between him and Lady Maria Grey (Ella Purnell) has finally seen the light of the day as they both confess their feelings in the park. She confesses to her mother and refuses to marry John, but no points for guessing that her mother is against this refusal.
In no time, Caroline gets suspicious of Ellis' visit, especially when they are visiting Pope in his office and John shows up. Perhaps the real reason behind Ellis' visit has dawned upon Caroline, who gave Anne a look of disapproval as if it was her doing. Now if only Anne - poor old Anne who is too good for this world - realises what exactly is going on in the cellars of her house.
Episode 5 of 'Belgravia' will air on Sunday, May 3, 2020, at 9/8c on Epix
