Are you already missing The Other Bennet Sister like we are? The Jane Austen-adjacent TV series was a thoroughly beautiful viewing experience, full of personal growth and romance, and Mary Bennet’s happy ending with Tom Hayward was the perfect resolution.
The best love stories are satisfying because they make you feel like the union between these two people was inevitable. The Other Bennet Sister does that. And my favorite element that proves Mary and Tom were always endgame is the use of poetry, which is layered and meaningful.
MORE: It’s easy to relive the romance of Mary and Tom’s happy ending. Just read our review of The Other Bennet Sister Episode 10!
The Food of Love
Mary (Ella Bruccoleri) and Tom (Donal Finn) share a connection from the start. Even though he has an “understanding” with another woman, they connect over things like their taste in reading. Mary likes true-crime pamphlets (relatable!) but Tom encourages her to give poetry a chance. In episode 4, he even gives a poetry reading for Mary and her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner (Indira Varma and Richard Coyle). He invites them to a beautiful hidden garden and recites William Wordsworth’s “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” with such feeling that it brings Mary to tears.
This moment is the first emotionally charged one between Mary and Tom. We have seen Mary’s physical attraction to Tom, but this is a moment where they deeply connect in mind and soul. Bruccoleri plays this perfectly, and Finn’s performance is so good that it absolutely warrants her emotion. Finn varies his vocal inflections throughout all the lines so the audience is engaged from beginning to end. Besides that, Tom directs his words almost entirely to Mary, emphasizing that for him, this is about reaching her.
The significance of this scene lingers on after the poem, too. Tom and Mary’s conversation directly following his recitation continues the romantic tone when he removes a petal from her hair. Even more importantly, the audience sees the lasting effect this moment has on Mary. She does indeed start reading poetry after this. In episode 8, she is reading Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” and she even gives her young cousins a poetry assignment as their governess. It’s safe to say that Tom influences Mary’s emotional growth in a way that demonstrates their romantic compatibility.
MORE: The Other Bennet Sister is coming back for more! Here’s the latest.
A Fine, Stout, Healthy Love
In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy spar when Elizabeth wonders about the effectiveness of poetry in driving away love. “I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,” Darcy replies (misquoting Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night). “Of a fine, stout, healthy love, it may,” Elizabeth shoots back. “But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”
The Other Bennet Sister puts Elizabeth’s theory into practice for her sister.
After Tom’s poetry reading, Mary’s other suitor, Mr. Ryder (Laurie Davidson), makes a similar move in episode 6. He’s visiting Mary at Pemberley. And on a ride together, he recites Wordsworth’s “She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways.”
The lyrics are much more specifically about Mary than those of Tom’s poem, but the difference in the two men’s delivery speaks volumes. Mr. Ryder has to clear his throat and start over. Though he clearly cares about Mary and their friendship has meant a lot to both of them, the words don’t transport Mary the way Tom’s did. When we try to picture a romantic future for Mary and Mr. Ryder, it feels “slight” and “thin.”
MORE: Catch up with what happened before the finale of The Other Bennet Sister by reading our review of Episode 9!
In contrast to Mr. Ryder, Tom’s poetry reading transformed Mary. She already had her emotional epiphany with Tom. Mr. Ryder was too late. Despite Tom’s understanding with another woman, this use of poetry is one way we know Mary will end up with Tom.
Their happy-ever-after in episode 10 feels fully earned. We swoon over it as we watch because it feels so satisfying and right. It is the “fine, stout, healthy” love that Austen was talking about. The Other Bennet Sister does the work to show that Mary and Tom were always endgame.
The Other Bennet Sister Season 1 is streaming on BritBox.
Agree with your review, but it was obvious from their very first encounter they were ‘endgame’. The moment Mary pedantically says mice don’t like cheese, and Tom instantly agrees and talks about what mice DO like, it’s obvious they are kindred spirits. Rapidly followed by their bond over having both read Catherine Macauley. What a delightful series it has been, especially thanks to these two.