It’s hard to believe that Maxton Hall will be signing off for the season.
So, it’s possible that my frustrations for the hour lie in the mere fact that the sophomore season only has six episodes. It’s a ridiculously short season to tell what amounts to a beautiful and layered love story based on a novel, right?
It means that so many emotional beats get lost, and conflict can’t unfold as it should, and there’s little room for any specific storyline to truly breathe. Maxton Hall Season 2 Episode 5 is a prime example of all of this.
Mortimer: Maxton Hall’s Most Obnoxious [Redacted] Blocker
We had all of this delicious build-up to a steamy scene following Maxton Hall Season 2 Episode 4, as James whisked Ruby to his home and bed, as the pair nearly embarked on an incredibly sexy journey, I must admit.
But like a hurricane of chaos, toxic masculinity, and emblematic of all the ails the world has these days, Mortimer storms in, bringing with him all his irritating villainy and contrived angst.
It’s in this exact moment that it hits that this hour serves as the penultimate episode of the season. Sadly, we barely settled into the plot and the many conflicts the storyline presents, and now we’ll be signing off, likely with some gaspworthy cliffhanger that will undoubtedly cause James and Ruby more pain.
Mortimer is such a frustrating character. Perhaps it’s because every time they give him little moments of depth and complexity, they snatch them away just as quickly.
It’s like he’s torn between being a potentially complex character and a cartoon villain only serving as a plot device for conflict, and there’s no in between.
We Could Have a Complex Villain, But Maxton Hall Said Challenge Not Accepted
Mortimer lured me in with his responses and reactions to Ruby at the top of the hour. Because once he got past that uppercrest disdain and sneering, he was briefly, oh so briefly, enchanted by her.
It further gave credence to my theory that James and Ruby are meant almost to parallel Mortimer and Cordelia.
You could tell that while listening to how bright Ruby is, her zest for life and knowledge, hearing about her goals and how she’s both someone who thinks things through but also allows her heart to lead her to, that maybe Ruby reminded him of Cordelia and his love for her.
And moments like that are interesting. Just like Mortimer actually comforting James briefly after his mother’s death was interesting, or his own breakdown in the middle of the night when he thought he was all alone.
They are those moments when Mortimer feels human, and you can work with that.
Mortimer, crumpled on the floor, feels representative of the fall of many men like him, and hopefully the archaic ideals they hold that serve as a hindrance to progress and real reform.
He doesn’t allow his children to see that side of him because he still clings to this misconception about masculinity and strength. But vulnerable Mortimer, in that moment, grieving his wife and allowing his children to comfort him, was far more manly than anything else we’ve seen from him.
Cowardice, Cruelty, and the Hold of Rich Old Men
Because Mortimer in the boardroom not having the balls to actually stand up this board of predominantly old, rich white guys sniveling and muttering about things like legacy and image and attempting to impress and please more old, rich white dudes wasn’t manly nor impressive, it was pathetic.
Mortimer’s cowardice in the boardroom, unable to back his son, defend his son, or even support or advocate for his daughter’s ideas or those of his late wife? Yeah, his cowardice somehow manages to be worse than his cruelty.
But his cruelty is pretty damn bad. Mortimer having so much smoke for Ruby is comically surreal and frustrating. It’s just absolute madness, the lengths he goes to destroy a teenage girl.
It harkens back to the smallness of powerful men who already have it all that a mere young girl is what vexes them so much.
Because Mortimer somehow managed to call in a favor or a threat so that Alice Campbell reneged on her scholarship and job offer, it is so unconscionably heinous that it had me seething.
At some point, it’s not even about the threat she poses to James and the future Mortimer envisons for him.
It’s the mere fact that he himself seems enamored by Ruby’s light and potential, knows that her humble roots aren’t keeping her from reaching for her dreams and potentially ascending in this superficial idea of standing, and his first response is to squash, squander, and extinguish that.
How utterly twisted!
Ruby & James Are Healthy, It’s Everyone Else Who Is Toxic AF
Every time it seems like Ruby is getting ahead, not even with James, but for herself, there’s some privileged person with an axe to grind standing there trying to ruin her. And it’s draining.
Ruby loves James so much, and she’s already learned how to love him without sacrificing or losing herself in the process.
In that sense, there’s a maturity in their dynamic that’s refreshing, and we see James pull his weight when he tells her he believes in them and lets her make her choice, rather than begging or trying to keep hold of her for selfish reasons.
James and Ruby on their own as a couple? They’re FINE.
It’s just the two differing worlds they’re part of constantly orchestrating new ways to screw with them that remains the issue, as the series’ name reminds us.
But what’s upsetting is that it’s Ruby who has the most to lose all the time. She does everything imaginable (everything right) to get ahead, something that only other characters of lower standing seem to accept and process.
It’s not lost on me how eager the headmaster and Graham were to help her because they’re often victims of this world, too. But then, no matter what she does, there will always be Mortimer or Elaine there to squash her like a bug and block her blessings.
Free Us from Lydia/Graham, Please!
The hour delivers this new conflict, but it doesn’t have much space to really simmer and land. We’re tossed into another scandal that reads a bit too contrived.
For reasons beyond comprehension, Lydia and Graham are reckless with their feelings for each other in public. Like, Graham knew he literally ran from his colleague mid-conversation to chase after a teenage student, right?
And Lydia knew Cyril was looking right at her when she dipped into the forest like a woodland fairy.
It’s one thing to have their heated, passionate discussion in the woods, but all the touching and kissing was so ridiculously stupid on their part.
Admittedly, there is nothing they can do to make this particular storyline endearing. It’s gross, inappropriate, and it’s nothing worth rooting for there.
Worse yet, it’s likely more ammunition used to destroy Ruby and James in some way because that’s how this story works, no? e come a bit full circle in that regard with Lydia and Graham’s relationship being a catalyst for ALL THE THINGS.
Thinky-Thoughts and Things:
- Um, congratulations to both Harriet Herbig-Matten and Damian Hardung on their everything. Beautiful people being beautiful, love that for them (and our eyeballs, respectfully).
- Lydia looked absolutely ethereal in her ensemble. The costumes looked so expensive!
- How exactly is Lydia hiding that bump from people?
- So, like, we really don’t get Ophelia again until the finale? What a bummer!
- Percy, my beloved! He loved Cordelia so much. He loves James so much. So many feels.
- Anyone else sad that they sidelined the supporting characters so much this season?
- Imagine if Cyril and Elaine didn’t feel so entitled to other people … we could avoid so much.
- Lexington tickled and beaming with happiness at the mere look of James and Ruby canoodling like they’re in a dream sequence … he’s just like me for real.
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