This entry is a bit late due to how busy my weekend was, so apologies to anyone who was kept waiting to share thoughts on the show.
Previous discussions - Week 1 Week 2
Act 5: Do You Love Your Fianc�e?
Albert and his companions enjoy the Count of Monte Cristo's hospitality, and admire the opulence of his his home while taking a boat ride in his basement. They meet Haidee, a mysterious woman who would do anything for the Count. The group begins to discuss relationships, specifically how most relationships among the nobility are initiated out of convenience and financial gain rather than love. This rubs Maximilian the wrong way and he and Albert enter into a duel. Albert falls into the water, only to be rescued by the Count, who seems to have a greater purpose in store for him. Albert leaves the Count's abode, only to begin wondering about the state of his parents' relationship and why his mother has been acting unusual lately.
Act 6: Her Melancholy, My Melancholy
Eugenie laments her parents' loveless marriage and her mother's affair just as the Count makes preparations to open up an account with her father's bank. Jullian Danglars seems hesitant to accept the Count's credentials at first, until the Count shows some financial force that's difficult for him to ignore. He quickly impresses the money-focused Victoria Danglars, but his motivations seem unclear at the very least. He offers opera tickets to Albert for the purpose of impressing Eugenie, but Albert is unsure of how to proceed with the invitations. Eugenie, for her part, appears exhausted by her obligations and the weight of her family issues. At the opera, Haidee's reaction to General Morcerf seems to indicate wrongdoing on his part.
Discussion: As if somehow being aware of the direction in which the discussion has gone previously, this batch of episodes features some well-needed insight into Eugenie's character and why she and Albert are at odds a lot of the time. One of the primary similarities between these early episodes is the way in which Albert's lack of awareness of the world contrasts even with that of the other sheltered nobles with whom he keeps company. He seems especially obtuse about Eugenie and her feelings.
One might say that the most valuable relationships we have are those which ask us to challenge our own perceptions so that we may learn and grow. While the Count may not be that good of a friend in the sense that he most certainly, even at this point, has a whole heap of ulterior motives for being nice to Albert, his subtle (and occasionally not-so-subtle) machinations and manipulations do Albert the sometimes distasteful (but valuable) service of forcing him to look at the truth of his relationships. He's forced to look at the "why" of his convictions when Maximilian confronts him (and by extension, the other nobles present) about the lack of love in their relationships. While this might seem like, for lack of a better word, trolling on the Count's part, this focus on romance and the lack thereof lays the groundwork for later events.
One of the more immediate, and most obvious, reflections of this is with Mercedes, who seems distracted while General Morcerf insists upon the romantic basis of their marriage when Albert prods him. As usual, the subtlety of the character acting helps to paint the picture of a woman being forced to remember events that don't fit within the image of a "proper" noblewoman. This theme has been introduced already - the portrait of Mercedes overlooking Marseilles is seen as a bit grotesque considering that the city is looked upon as being for the lower-class citizens of France (at least in this series, I'm not sure about real-life). In any case, her love for her husband seems less sound than Albert would like to think, especially considering the old photograph of another man she keeps locked away in her bedroom.
The entirety of these two episodes, in fact, seems to be so focused on examining the loveless relationships that surround Albert that one of them almost falls beneath the radar. It's easy to see the human faults that strain the relationship between the Danglars family members, or the awkwardness of Albert and Eugenie's betrothal, but what of Haidee? The Count describes her as a living doll, one who exists soullessly to do as he wishes. While the full extent of their relationship isn't entirely clear at this point, I personally find the character to be interesting in the way that she's characterized because, in a lesser series, she'd almost certainly be the fulfillment of someone's mo� fantasy. Her lack of distinctive personality and her devotion to the titular male character is somehow not detrimental to how intriguing she is, though; her reaction towards Morcerf at the opera house is just one instance where her importance seems greater than her personality may at first suggest. And oh, that dress!
I believe it's Albert who states that "everyone is changing" in one of these episodes as a reaction to all the things he's finding out about the people he knows, and I found that in particular to be very telling about his character - I think that is a good reflection of how na�ve he's been throughout his life. He's only now realizing that the lives of his friends and family aren't quite as ideal as he'd have liked to think, and yet he perceives the situation as everyone having suddenly "changed" in front of him rather than his perception having been altered. I'm wondering if anyone has any further thoughts on this?
I also enjoyed the scene that opened episode six where Albert and his father were shooting targets, and Albert was having trouble making the shots. Albert tends to "miss the mark" quite a bit in his assumptions, so to reflect that visually was clever. Episode six in general also features some excellent character animation, which is a bit uncharacteristic for this series.
Some points of discussion:
- How do you view Albert and Eugenie's relationship now considering the new information we've been shown about her and her family situation?
- Do you have any thoughts on Albert's character development over these couple of episodes?
- Do you have any personal theories on Haidee's near-fall at the opera house and why she'd have such a strong reaction to Morcerf?
Marsailles was, in the 19th Century, anyway, a rough-and-tumble port town, while Paris was the sophisticated capital. Anyone who got money or prestige moved up to the big city, or at least got an apartment there if their business required them to stay put.
I'll note these are the first episodes I'm watching "fresh", so I was especially struck by the extremely on-the-nose theme music.
My view of the Albert/Eugenie relationship is heavily shadowed by the book, as she's a really unusual character for 19th-Century mainstream literature. Here she seems actually somewhat friendlier to Albert. Her line about her father selling her if the price is right is foreshadowing in the book.
Haidee, I've read the book and have a very good idea of why she'd react that way to Morcerf, so I won't talk about that.
Instead, I'll say a bit about the Count introducing her as a "doll". In the book, Haydee is from the exotic Orient, what today we call Greece and the Middle East. The submissive women of Eastern harems and seraglios were a sexy fantasy to Western European men, used to their own comparatively independent and demanding spouses and mistresses.
And the Count is deliberately using this as part of his plan. By his description of Haidee as a doll, he serves a triple purpose. First, she's a prop to establish his "has been in the mysterious Orient" credentials. Second, it prevents anyone from inquiring into her real background, and her place in the Count's revenge plans. And third, it allows the Count to conceal from himself any more genuine feelings he might have for her, since he cannot afford to be swayed from his goals.
The book's Count repeatedly uses his sojourn into the "Orient" both to obscure his true identity, and to excuse any unusual behavior (I picked up this unusual custom in the East of not shaking hands, think nothing of it.)
To me, it seems to show why Eugenie seems to go shopping with Mercedes and where her aloofness comes from. The tension between the two now seems to have revealed its origins, Albert�s happy-go-lucky personality coming from his viewpoint of an ideal marriage between his parents and Eugenie�s more detached personality coming from her disdain of her parents. Since this is just a first impression of Eugenie�s parents, I can only infer that their treatment of her has been going on for a while. It gives the relationship a different dimension since Eugenie has told Albert that her mother is having an affair, but also strengthens the assertion that this arranged marriage was only done for strategic purposes (perhaps even more one-sided on the Danglars part), two individuals being matched together and being treated as pawns on a chessboard rather than for their compatibility.
Albert�s character development seems natural, the initial exterior shock coming from Maximillien�s question of whether he loves his fianc�. This comes after he begins to question his parents� true love to each other, so his �deer-in-the-headlights� moment was inevitable and caused him to lose the duel. However, since he is still trying to come to grasps with how deep these implications go and what everything means, he still keeps his bright personality and optimistic outlook on life. This is shown when he acted so enthusiastic and happy when introducing the Count to the Danglars and still thinks that he can solve the problem of Eugenie�s unhappiness by just running away from it all with her. I expect there to be a bridge of anger and frustration between these two expressions when more is revealed later on.
There was a strong reaction on the part of Haidee�s near-fall as it elicited a tense reaction from Albert�s father. It�s as if his previous viewpoint of the Count as perhaps a lesser if not equal to him (an inference I gathered from the dinner) is being challenged because the Count was able to secure seats in a supposedly closed off section of the theater. The initial shock of the Count perhaps being superior to him is compounded when he sees Haidee. There�s a connection between Haidee and Morcerf that I can�t seem to put my finger on, but the conflict seems deep-rooted and probably something that Morcerf has tried to keep buried for a long time and he is now starting to realize that both individuals may be connected to that past conflict. For Haidee, the thoughts are the same, something that connected her to Morcerf in the past which she might be trying to either extract justice or revenge by allying with the Count, hence her role as a �doll.� Perhaps she has thrown away everything, and will ally with anyone, her main motive being revenge or justice, depending on how you look at it. To expand on the target practice scene, in the last shot that Morcerf senior takes, he fires two rounds, but there�s no sound to indicate he hit his target, so in this sense, even he is missing the true point in something.
Since it is pretty obvious that there is a lack of love between Eugenie's parents, who I'm sure had an arranged marriage. I feel like Eugenie is afraid that her marriage would also be rather loveless, and Albert's naivety pushes her frustration and adds to those feelings.
I am not sure what Haidee's role is, and how she would recognize the Morcef. Maybe the Count knew that Morcef had a role in something that affected Haidee's life after he had the Count thrown in prison. My thought is some kind of trauma that left her as a soulless doll. However, I feel like there is something to do with Eclipse as well, seeing that his eye got creepily mechanical during that scene. Maybe the Count is training them (or altered their bodies/memories, since this series is more futuristic) to react to those who betrayed Dantes. I really want to see where this goes.