Last we left off with The Other Bennet Sister, I was screaming and kicking my feet. Mary had two gentlemen vying for her attention. And even though Tom was my favorite and frontrunner, I was still open to the idea of Mr. Ryder. Now, I’m ready to fight Mr. Ryder. Because he absolutely said something to Tom to make him stop in his tracks and not confess his love for Mary.
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Personally, I love when a show makes me feel some sort of way where I want to build a machine where I can jump into the TV and give someone some choice words. And that’s what Episode 9 of The Other Bennet Sister did. It took that giddy feeling that I had in Episode 8, teased me into thinking that it was going to continue in Episode 9, and then kind of broke my heart.
Tom was there. He was going to tell Mary how he felt. In fact, I think he started to do it. And you could tell by Mary’s face that she was feeling so much joy, love, and hope in that moment. So when he stopped, spoke with Mr. Ryder, and then basically shut Mary down, I think her hopes kind of collapsed around her and she became angry.
The way that Mary acted up on that hillside, doesn’t mean that the Mary we’ve come to know and love as she grows in this series has disappeared. She’s just painfully human. There was a future in front of her that she had finally allowed herself to want. And then she felt like it was snatched away. That kind of hurt makes you clam up. And that’s what Mary did.
What happened afterwards with the descent from the hillside was very dramatic. And it was on par for what I expected from a period drama. While I thought Mary was the one to get hurt on those slippery rocks, I like that The Other Bennet Sister made it that Ms. Bingley was the one that was hurt. And I loved it even more that Ms. Bennet came to her rescue with no qualms or hesitations.
Women in these sorts of romantic stories end up being pitted against each other more often than I would like. But The Other Bennet Sister inhabits a different world where marriage is a game changer and the only way to secure a future. So these women aren’t so much as fighting against each other for a man. They’re fighting to survive a system that works against them.
Hopefully Ms. Bingley asking Ms. Bennet for help sees some change in the former. Because she can’t be this terrible all the time, right? But I also hope that it sees some change in Mr. Ryder. Because he’s still very much in a space where he thinks his actions don’t have consequences. But this incident blew everything open. The thing is I don’t have much hope for him besides him growing a spine and retracting whatever he told Tom that made him clam up.
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At the end of the day, Mr. Ryder is a coward. He wasn’t at Mary’s bedside as she tried to recover from an exhausting ordeal down the hillside that left her sick. Mrs. Gardiner was by her side, a true mother to Mary that she has never experienced. (Also, I will love Mrs. Gardiner to my dying day.) And you know who else was at Mary’s side? Tom. Even though he left at the end because whatever Mr. Ryder told him was still echoing in his mind, he stayed.
Whatever comes next for the final episode of The Other Bennet Sister, I know I can Google it and just figure it out since it aired in the UK already. But this journey with Mary has been so satisfying to watch. She’s gone from being this timid and sheltered young woman being crushed by her mother and expectations, to a vibrant and outspoken yet curious woman. At the same time, she still remains Mary. This is why I haven’t Googled the end.
For the final episode, I hope that I have clocked Mary right enough that the person she wants to spend the rest of her life with is Tom. Because she deserves hope and light. And that’s what he is. But it’s also what he brings out of her.
The Other Bennet Sister new episodes premiere each Wednesday on BritBox.
