Pride & Prejudice Review: Episode 3

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet seen this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

         "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." 

       

So Charlotte Lucas snagged Mr. Collins on the rebound, Wickham has set his sights on a rich young heiress, and Mr. Darcy finally can't take it any longer and gives Lizzie a very flustered and utterly insulting proposal. Poor Lizzie!

Well, actually I don't feel too sorry for her. She gives as good as she's got and royally dresses him down for being such a jerk. He had it coming...

That is the climax of the episode (and, I daresay, of the entire series). There's LOTS more that happens. For starters, we have the beginning of the rift between Jane and Miss Bingley. We've long seen that Caroline is a catty, rich snob who only tolerated Jane's company because it was the best to be had in Hertfordshire (aside from Louisa's belching, drunk husband, that is) but Jane was determined not to think the worst of the sister of her prospective husband. In this episode, Miss Bingley comes to visit Jane in London where she is (oh horrors) staying in Cheapside with her aunt and uncle. The uncle who is in (gasp) trade of all things!

Lizzie then travels with Sir William Lucas and his youngest daughter, Mariah, to visit the new Mrs. Collins in Kent. This also gives them an opportunity to meet up with the esteemed patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. I am very glad that Mariah Lucas was included in this adaptation, as she is a fun character who - for some reason - is often cut. She gives Lizzie the chance to be the big sister to someone actually agreeable. Unlike Lady Catherine and her daughter, who are exceedingly unpleasant and rude. But, because they are rich, they can afford to be.

But all of this, including the introduction of Colonel Fitzwilliam, is all building up to the big reveal and proposal of Mr. Darcy and Lizzie's subsequent refusal. It is the highlight of the episode. No questions asked.

5/5