“Oh, Robert. In times of war only men choose sides. Women just want the ugliness to stop.” ~ Mrs. Elizabeth Haverford
Last Time on ‘Copper’ Molly gave Corky Ellen’s missing locket, which took him on an investigation into Madame Grindle and her missing ledger. This led him to corruption in the Episcopal diocese as the diocesan bishop Onderdonk had threatened Mme Grindle to keep quiet about using her services, which resulted in his parlor maid’s death. After exposing Bishop Onderdonk, however, Corky came to a dead end since Onderdonk neither had the ledger nor killed Mme Grindle. Meanwhile Maguire asks Molly to marry him and after agreeing to it, she tells Eva that she has no intentions of doing so. At this point, Eva tells Molly she knows that Molly had pleasured Corky in her absence against Eva’s wishes and then slits Molly’s throat and watches her bleed out on the floor and tells people Molly killed herself.
In ‘La Tempete’ Corky learns about Carwyn Rodrick’s gang’s plans to steal money from Mrs. Elizabeth Haverford and Norbert Morehouse’s fundraiser. When he learns about those plans, Corky informs Haverford of the possible threat. After talking to Captain Sullivan, she requests Corky to head up security. Corky and his colleagues stake out the fundraiser and watch for any possible threats while making an agreement with a rival gang in the hopes of keeping any harm to themselves at bay. Meanwhile, Maguire finds “love” with Mme Grindle’s sister while Annie continues to spy on and report Mrs. Haverford’s visitors and activities to anyone who will listen and Matthew Freeman’s uncle continues training Jasper to fight.
Recap
While Corky referees a boxing match for Robert Morehouse’s chosen Irishman Jake McGinnis, Maguire and Andrew play poker with Andrew’s brother-in-law, Seamus, who borrows money from Andrew and then proceeds to win the game. When Andrew and Maguire go to get Andrew’s money back, they find an invitation to a fundraiser held by Mrs. Haverford and Norbert Morehouse and a layout to the Morehouse home. After “questioning” him, he admits that he is working with Carwyn Rodrick’s gang to hit the fundraiser.
Corky informs Elizabeth about the threat to her fundraiser and though reluctant at first, she eventually speaks to Captain Sullivan to set up security at her gala and asks to have Corky head up the security. At the party, Corky watches the donation box while Andrew checks on the hired help in the kitchen and Maguire watches the street from a bedroom on the second floor while Sergeant Byrnes checks on guests as the enter the party and Captain Sullivan attends the party. The party goes on without a hitch, however, so they realize as they leave the party that Rodrick’s gang most likely plans to attack them on their way to the bank.
Shortly after they leave the party, Rodrick’s gang ambushes them. Andrew is shot in the arm and the carriage tips, so they run off on foot into O’Connell’s territory where they run into O’Connell and his gang. O’Connell tells them that Rodrick offered him a better deal than the coppers had offered him, so he takes the money, but tells them they’ll be safe in his territory. When O’Connell meets up with the Rodrick gang and opens the box, they find it empty with nothing but a picture inside. Upset at being lied to by Rodrick, O’Connell kills him and the gangs fight it out while Corky meets up with Robert Morehouse who is transporting the money safely to the bank in his prosthetic leg.
Meanwhile, Maguire has meetings with Mme Grindle’s sister who convinces him to marry her. Later, when he tells Corky and Andrew about his intentions to marry Mme Grindle’s sister, Corky objects because he thinks Maguire is still in mourning and is marrying for the sake of marrying and not for love. Maguire gets upset and tells him that searching relentlessly for Ellen isn’t love either and that he should move on, like Maguire was doing with Mme Grindle’s sister.
And back at Mrs. Haverford’s, Annie continues to find a way to prove Mrs. Haverford is evil and no good for Corky and sees Mrs. Haverford meet with a southern gentleman whom she believes is a confederate soldier. After persuading Robert Morehouse to ask her to dance at the gala, she tells Morehouse she was with him at Contessa Pompadou’s despite Morehouse’s inability to remember it. When he tells her to admit to lying about it, she ignores him and tells him about Mrs. Haverford’s meeting with a confederate soldier. When Robert confronts Elizabeth about it, she admits to meeting with the southern gentleman about raising funds for southern civilians and nothing more nefarious than that.
Meanwhile, Freeman’s uncle continues to train Jasper for the fight against Irishman Jake McGinnis. During training he stops to attempt to convince Sara to come outside, but after she refuses he attempts to force himself on her. She locks herself in another room with a pistol and Jasper enters and stops Uncle Freeman. The two proceed to duke it out. When Matthew arrives home later that night, he finds everything in disarray, Jasper had run off, Uncle Freeman beat up and Sara still locked in the other room. He quickly deduces that Uncle Freeman attacked Sara and in return Jasper attacked him. He sends his uncle to find Jasper and manages to coax Sara out of the room.
Review
I have to say, I was surprised with how quickly Maguire moved on and essentially forgot about Molly. I was surprised to see her killed off, so I expected her death to have a bit more impact. I just didn’t expect him to move on so quickly…and with Mme Grindle’s sister on top of it. Though this does at least open it up for the possibility of Maguire getting his hands on Mme Grindle’s ledger, I still expected more to Molly’s death than that.
I’ll admit Mrs. Haverford is starting to grow on me. Though I am curious if Annie is right about Mrs. Haverford’s secret meetings, I am beginning to doubt it more and more as Annie’s innocence clearly doesn’t exist. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that girl needs help. I wonder if she was telling the truth about being with Robert Morehouse at Contessa Pompadou’s. After all, as I noted before, we never saw the “special girl” Pompadou had for Morehouse. That doesn’t mean it was Annie, though. She could have easily heard enough stories about him to convince him she was there. That girl is messed up. Seriously.
Then there’s Uncle Freeman. I haven’t liked him from the moment I saw him. I figured it was only a matter of time before he did something and yes, I expected it would be some form of attack on Sara if not something to do with Jasper. So now I’m wondering if he’s still going to stay around after this. Will Jasper still fight? If so, will he really train Jasper to throw the fight? What will happen if he doesn’t?
‘La Tempete’ was an interesting episode and though I’m still curious about Morehouse and Haverford’s intentions both are growing on me more and more. I hope that they actually are good people. That’s not to say it wouldn’t be interesting if they weren’t. Either way, ‘La Tempete’ was a good episode and I’m looking forward to the follow-up, though it will be nice to see ‘Copper’ go back to some murder investigation.
‘Copper’ airs on Sunday nights at 10/9C on BBC America.
