The Hour - "Episode Five"

When everything that wasn’t working, suddenly does

“The mark of a man is how he handles himself in times like this.”

-Hector

 “I’d rather debate a question without settling it,

than settle a question without debate.”

-Bel

When The Hour first started out, I was sure that the most interesting element, the part of the show that would have me tuning in week after week would be the espionage storyline. It’s wasn’t just that I have a soft spot for spy dramas (I do) or that the other plots weren’t capably done (they were), but it was also the fact the espionage elements seemed to be the plot that the show seemed most interested in developing long-term. Yet tonight I was rather impressed by, and most interested in, the reemergence of “The Hour” as a plot device, and the ensuing connections to which it led.

Now as rule, I tend to also have a soft spot for plotlines about journalism, which most likely dates back to the series of courses that I took in high school. (Now that I think about it, I have an unusually large amount of soft spots for someone who aspires to be a TV critic, but that’s my own issue to deal with.) There was something about watching the news teams struggle with a way around the two week parliamentary gag order – with suggestions that include a satire sketch, man on the street reactions, and using other news services footage – that helped to present their job as a challenge. Suddenly “The Hour” just wasn’t a job they simply did the fill the time between having affairs and cracking open conspiracies; it became a difficult job that these people have a knack for, and I respect all the characters more because of it. But what really made this plotline work, beyond the lengthy ruminations on the ethical bounds of censorship, was the fact that it tied in so well into another plot that has been ruminating in the background: the Suez Canal Crisis.

Though it would be unfair to call it an insignificant plot point, the Suez Canal Crisis has often seemed to exist solely to give the espionage plot context, back when it seemed like the two might be interrelated. And yet even though the show has move the conspiracy plot in another direction (more on that later), the Suez Canal crisis still remained, and it finally earned its place on the show, thus proving the show’s setting was in fact important, and not just a simple cosmetic addition. And it wasn’t just the fact that the Suez Canal Crisis helped to fuel a plotline around “The Hour”; it also finally revealed to us something about the city of London in 1956, a setting that has been unsettling sparse up to this point. Even if the city was just CGI’d in, it’s still comforting to know that there’s a larger world outside of the BBC studio, a world that the characters can run around in whenever any of the main plots run out of steam. (And there’s plenty of evidence that some or all of them might – or should – wind down next week.)

But what I was most surprised by was the fact that the love triangle also became so intriguing. Since we just seem to be going through all of my TV predilections in this piece, I must admit that I am always a bit wary of love triangles. In most cases, it’s quite obvious which pair is “meant to be”, making the whole thing a perfunctory plot hurdle that holds created very little dramatic tension. The most successful love triangles are those where both potential pairings make sense for different but equitable reasons, and that’s exactly what happened to Bel-Freddie-Hector triangle tonight. (Actually, there’s really something more akin to a love pentagram when you factor in Marnie and Lix, plus the Sissy-Isaac love line on the side, which actually lends a little more flavor to everything.)

Though it was understandable why both Hector and Freddie would fall for a fetching woman like Bel, but it was nice to know that there was some emotional reasoning as well. Freddie sees in Bel an intellectual equal that shares his outlook on life, while Hector is just excited to be with someone less vapid than the secretary pool, and Bel fell in bed with Hector because it was easy, a relationship that wouldn’t take away too much time from her career. And while all of these are fairly standard answers, I like how the show used characters outside of each pairing to comment on it. Hector noticed the emotional connection between Bel and Freddie, it was Bel’s mom that helped her realize why she was sleeping with a married man in the first place, and it was Marnie who clued Bel in on why Hector was with her. It was that last scene that really struck home for me, as Marnie stopped being the bitchy socialite who alienated Hectors – really, that was just too easy of an excuse for his cheating – and instead became the put-upon, tortured wife who has no other recourse. It was a bold move that helped Marnie move from caricature to person.

In some ways, it would be almost fitting if the espionage plot – the one element that had been holding my interest up until this point – had suddenly crapped out just when all of the other plots started to improve. But in actuality, what tonight’s episode helped me realize was that the espionage plot was never as good as I thought it was, it just took other quality plots to show me that. Now, much like with the rest of the episode, the espionage elements here were greatly bolstered by the interconnectivity of all the plots, especially the fact that Hector was finally able to corner McCain into revealing the truth given all the pressure he had weighing down on him.

But the fast and furious pace at which this was all revealed – that Darrow was a MI-6 traitor, that he had a list of candidates to be turned, that these were the “Bright Stones”, that he was having an affair with Ruth and she was pregnant with his child, that McCain was gay with La Rae (that’s just fun to rhyme), and that’s why he set him up with Ruth, that the Elms knew all of this – was frankly just a bit silly, and I finally see where all those complaints about the espionage plotline are coming from. The quality of the biggest reveal – that Freddie was himself a Bright Stone – remains to be seen, based on how it’s incorporated into the plot, but right now, it too looks rightly silly, and I don’t see it improving by the next episode.

Despite these missteps in the espionage plot, “Episode Five”, with all of the interconnected plots and reveals built on weeks of lead-up, is the best episode of the series so far. But perhaps Abi Morgan really should scrap some of these long running plotlines next season, just to be on the safe side.

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

Tonight’s episode was directed by Jamie Payne, who also directed next week’s episode. I don’t know what this means in terms of episode quality – I often get the sense that TV series are even more writerly across the pond than they are in the States – but it gives me hope that next week’s episode is equally good. (I mean, the previews have certainly gotten my hopes up.)

After Isaac sad trio of pathetic-ness last week, it was nice to see him get a win with that satire sketch. Go, Isaac, go!

Maybe I missed it, or have forgotten about it, but why was Ruth killed via fake suicide? Or have they not revealed that yet? Because give that infodump, it feels like we should know by now.

“Let me talk to him.” “He doesn’t talk, he dictates.”

“Oh good, it is him on the other side of the phone. I can never tell.”

“This is why you shouldn’t drink bad wine.”

“I think it’s the creative in him. Picasso had a heap of lovers.”

“You’re God’s cruel jokes. You throw horrible relief on all out inadequacies.”

“It makes me nervous.” “All the more reason to run it.”

“I’ll drive.” “Are you sure? You can’t even walk in a straight line.” “It’s nearly midnight; there’s no one on the road.”