‘Black Narcissus’ Episode 2: Sister Clodagh is a stern nun, what made her feel attracted to Mr Dean?
Spoilers for ‘Black Narcissus’ Episode 2
Episode 1 of the FX limited series, ‘Black Narcissus’, based on Margaret Rumer Godden’s best-selling 1939 novel of the same name saw Sister Clodagh (Gemma Arterton) and Mr Dean (Alessandro Nivola) at odds with each other. They are after all starkly different. One, a woman of the cloth and the other, a rugged atheist cowboy. Yet, by the end of Episode 2, Sister Ruth (Aisling Franciosi) accused Sister Clodagh of “sniffing him like a b***h in heat”. What changed?
In all fairness, Sister Ruth’s comments were driven by several factors. She was visibly attracted to Mr Dean for a while. And when she made advances at him on Christmas Eve, the man did not reciprocate. Sister Ruth also did not much like Sister Clodagh. She felt the latter hated her or was even jealous of her. But did her comments have any merit? They did, of course.
In the second episode, we saw Sister Clodagh’s demeanor change towards the man. She even took his snarky jibe about the difference between religiosity and spirituality seriously and asked him if he thought that the nuns (especially her) at the Mopu Palace lacked spirituality. She was kinder to him. And at one point, the sexual tension between them was so thick, one could cut it with a knife -- there was an inappropriate amount of proximity, and heavy breathing, always a good way to capture the electricity between two characters.
The question, of course, is: What brought about this change? The answer, at least from what we saw on the show is a rather weird one. Mr. Dean lived a certain distance down the mountain in a small cabin alone. When visiting him for official business, Sister Clodagh sees his pathetic living conditions and general unkemptness. His cabin’s verandah was littered with boxes of cigarettes, cigarette stubs, empty bottles of alcohol and even a smut novel.
And if that was not enough depravity for the woman of the cloth, she saw (rather accidentally witnessed) the man getting out of bed that he was sharing with a local girl. They were both in varying stages of nude and that was enough to frighten the nun, who ran. But once the girl left, Sister Clodagh returned and had her words with him. But there was a perceptible difference in her attitude. She was softer in her tone.
Since Episode 1, we have been seeing the nun grapple with memories of her past (some saucy ones) before she had accepted the habit. And these seemed to be getting triggered more and more by the presence of Mr. Dean. So did seeing him half-naked in his dirty apartment really change the nun’s outlook? Were the man’s rugged good looks (despite his shabby personal habits and beliefs) arousing something she thought she had given up when she accepted religion? It is, after all, an erotic tale. So that is as good an explanation as any.
‘Black Narcissus’ premiered all three episodes on FX Monday, November 23, beginning at 8 pm ET/PT. The full series will also be available on FX on Hulu on Tuesday at 3 am ET.