untung99.biz: Tom Jones episode 2 recap the runaways

Every season, GBH Drama prepares to bring you coverage of the latest and greatest in British dramas. This month, we’re getting a brand new series from MASTERPIECE: Tom Jones. Featuring romance, class struggles, and an delightful cast, this series does not disappoint. GBH Drama contributor Amanda-Rae Prescott is here to recap the magic as it happens.

This week on Tom Jones, Sophia decides to take the hard way out on the mismatched engagement with Blifil. Tom also faces eviction from Squire Allworthy’s house. Both of them leave the countryside and along the way, there’s a lot of shenanigans and new characters to meet. Let’s discuss what happens.

Banishment
The episode begins with Aunt Western convinced that Sophia is in love with Blifil. Nope, she’s thinking about dancing with Tom. Blifil is also not helping convince his future wife he won’t be an absolute flop by being a terrible and borderline creepy flirt. Sophia begs Grandpa Western to cancel the wedding but he complains about her complaint instead. Grandpa Western then sees Tom nearby and thinks Tom can convince Sophia to marry Blifil. Tom hates the marriage idea, and he ends up kissing Sophia before the adults get outraged that Tom is anywhere near her. Tom’s kicked out and Sophia is locked in her room until she will agree to the wedding.

Squire Allworthy is frustrated that Tom made an attempt to stop the wedding. Tom tries to apologize for causing havoc but the Squire says that Tom’s messed things up too many times. He kicks Tom out of Paradise Hall for good, but not before giving him some pocket money. In the woods, Tom meets Black George and asks him to watch over Sophia. He also tries to leave a note for Sophia but realizes it’s futile because he can’t stop the wedding. Tom says goodbye to Black George but he doesn’t realize he dropped the money from Squire Allworthy. Black George picks up the cash bundle and goes on his way.

Absolutely Not
Blifil asks Squire Western if he can move up the wedding to the day after tomorrow, and Squire Western agrees. Meanwhile, Sophia finds out from Honour that Tom was kicked out. She’s annoyed that he didn’t leave a goodbye note.
Honour doesn’t trust Tom

because of his bad boy reputation but Sophia calls him an angel. Honour’s also scared about encountering thieves on the road but Sophia thinks she’s over exaggerating. Sophia is supposed to be prepping her wedding outfit but instead, she tells Honour to pack some traveling clothes. She knows that Aunt Harriet and Lady Bellaston live in London and probably have crash space to spare. Sophia and Honour take 2 horses and sneak out in the middle of the night. Yay for taking a stand!

Bar Fight
After wandering in the woods all day, Tom stops at the Man On The Hill Inn for dinner and a pint of beer. He meets two men in the bar, Captain Patrick Fitzpatrick and Benjamin Partridge. Fitzpatrick encourages Tom to drink with him and sing. Things with Fitzpatrick start out OK until he drunkenly claims he slept with Sophia, and Tom punches him. Tom was right to defend Sophia, but he gets a stool thrown at him and a banged-up head. Partridge patches him up and he reveals to Tom that he knew his mother. Partridge, at the time of Tom’s birth, was the school teacher who employed his mother, but then he lost his position because everyone assumed — incorrectly— that he was Tom’s dad. He’s itching to teach people Latin again and hoping Tom can help him set the record straight. Tom realizes he lost the pocket money and he refuses Partridge’s offer to pay the tab so he’s thrown out. Later, Sophia and Honour run into the same pub where they’re told Tom was there the night before but he was kicked out. They’re thankful for the info but decide to move on.

Tom crashes into a pile of hay and then returns to wandering the road. As he continues walking he stumbles upon a couple fighting. The man runs away and the woman, Mrs. Flowers, thanks Tom for intervening, He offers her his coat and they walk together to the next village.

Small Town, Big Microaggressions & Even Larger Passions
Sophia and Honour realize that they have to crash for the night. They approach the first inn they see in this small village and check in. The innkeeper’s assistant gives them the hardcore side eye and claims there are no rooms available. Her boss tells her to shut up and points out that Sophia and Honour are clearly ladies of quality based on their clothes. This is another example where it’s clear the script doesn’t hide the existence of racial micro and macro aggressions from the era.

Little do they realize that Tom and Mrs. Flowers have also arrived at the same inn, and end up in the other room. Poor Sophia and Honour can’t sleep because Mrs. Flowers decides to seduce Tom after dinner and they’re having extremely loud sex on the other side of the wall. Sophia is convinced that she will never do with Blifil whatever is going on in there. Tom, on the other hand, is having a really good time with his lady friend until there’s banging at the inn door. A very drunk Fitzpatrick is back trying to find Mrs. Flowers and he ends up crashing into Sophia and Honour’s room. He quickly apologizes and then finds Tom’s room. Once again, a woman has lied to Tom because it’s clear she was involved with Fitzpatrick and she ends up apologizing to him and acting like she totally wasn’t cheating. Poor Tom has to shuffle away naked and holding his clothes.

The next morning Honour asks the innkeeper for breakfast. She claims the kitchen is closed but Partridge managed to get some food. Partridge kindly offers Honour some of his food. The maid mentions that she saw Tom sneaking out naked the night before. Sophia hears this conversation and runs out of the inn. She’s upset that Tom has clearly moved on, but at the same time she has no intentions of going back to Blifil, so she continues on in search of the aunts.

After Sophia and Honour leave, Tom finds out Sophia was there because she left her pocketbook and her aunt’s address behind. Partridge had no idea Sophia wasn’t white so he couldn’t help Tom find her earlier (The term Partridge uses is more problematic today but back then was used as a skin tone description.) Tom’s convinced now that there’s hope for them to be together since she ran away, so he’s going to return her purse to her.

London Town
Sophia and Honour arrive in London looking for 24 Marleybone Place, but they land in a working class neighborhood. The sights shock Sophia as she clearly has not seen that level of poverty that close to her before. Honour goes into a pub to find out where they need to go. To Honour’s surprise, the pub is filled with Black laborers talking and drinking beer. The bartender calls her “sister” which is a nice surprise after the disaster at the inn. He tells her Sophia’s aunt lives at 24 Marleybone Lane and how to get there. Honour is grateful for the help and intrigued by all the handsome patrons.

Aunt Harriet allows Honour and Sophia to stay overnight as Lady Bellaston has a much bigger house. Lady Bellaston’s massive house dwarfs Aunt Harriet’s townhouse. Sophia meets Lady Bellaston, who tells her that she will set her up with the most eligible bachelors in London. Meanwhile, Tom knocks on the door of Aunt Harriet’s house and is ignored. On the third try Lady Harriet answers and says that Sophia already left but then brings in Lady Bellaston as a visitor. Sophia’s voiceover about how no one can be trusted and a man could lose his soul has an extremely ominous tone.

What is Lady Bellaston going to do next? Will Tom and Sophia reunite? Will Blifil try again to resume the wedding? We’ll have to find out next week on Tom Jones!