Previously on The Crimson Field: Quayle and Grace had a falling out, as did Catherine and Rosalie. Joan’s German fiancé escaped from a POW transport so he could drop in and say hi, and Soper caught her helping the guy escape on her motorbike.
Tom bandages up Joan’s hand, which has apparently been injured at some point. She asks if her fiancé, Anton, has been caught and Tom says he hasn’t, but it’d be better for her if he had.
Previously on The Crimson Field: Catherine and Tom made an assignation, but then Catherine’s abusive husband showed up and traumatized her so much she suggested she and Tom just be friends. Joan has a German fiancé she’s trying to get info on, and Grace apparently has ‘exotic’ tastes, whatever that may mean.
Joan heads into the forest late at night, the scenes of her journey intercut with bits of her writing the letter to her fiancé. She checks a designated spot and finds a note from the Belgian that tells her to meet him at midnight the following night.
Previously on The Crimson Field: Catherine and Tom exchanged some significant looks and a shell-shocked soldier named Prentiss got sent back to the front, thanks to Quayle, who’s bitter as hell over having been passed over for a promotion.
Most of the name characters, along with a group of soldiers, march out of camp to bury some of the unlucky ones. After the service, one of the soldiers addresses the others, reminding them that they’re the Lucky 13, and they’ll stick together and stay alive. They all agree and bow their heads to pray for the departed. I feel like they missed a trick by not stunt casting the actor who played Titus Pullo on Rome just so he could yell ‘Thirteeeeeeeen!’ at some point this hour.
Previously on The Crimson Field: Catherine had a lover and a baby and now her mother won’t speak to her. Rosalie is so repressed she can’t bear the sight of a penis, and when Joan tried to help her Rosalie completely lost it and went running straight into Quayle’s waiting arms.
Tom sits in his tent, fantasizing about Catherine in her underwear, standing in the surf at the beach. He’s rudely interrupted by some douchebag hammering on the typewriter and telling Tom to wake up. He grabs his coat and walks through the tents, watched a little nervously by Catherine.
Previously on The Crimson Field: Three volunteers and one nurse arrived at a field hospital in 1915 France, ready to do some healing.
Catherine wakes with a cry from a nightmare, dresses, and goes out for a walk to the beach, where she sits and looks at a letter until the sun comes up.
A little later, we see her back at the camp, writing a letter of her own—a begging one, from what we can see of it. As she goes to post it, she runs into Grace, who opens the post box and removes the letter once Catherine’s gone. In her office, Grace opens the letter and reads it.
There’s something we all need to accept about Sunday evening BBC programming: it’s generally feelgood stuff. They want your heart to be warmed before you start your workweek. So, we’re not going to get terribly hard-hitting or experimental drama. No Ripper Street or Prime Suspect. I think it’s important to keep this in mind when watching (and, in my case, recapping and reviewing) shows that come on at this time. Not that we can’t criticize them when they’re really awful or the writing/acting/directing are lazy, but maybe we just need to adjust our standards a bit.
So, the Crimson Field. We start out on board ship, as a young woman (played by Oona Chaplin, granddaughter of Charlie, whom we last saw getting belly stabbed at the Red Wedding) tosses a wedding band overboard before disembarking. This is Catherine, and she’s just arrived in Boulogne in 1915. On the wharf, she passes an eager girl clutching a cake tin who introduces herself as Flora and is so excited to be in France. They catch up with a redheaded woman, Rosalie, and are all bundled off by an officious middle-aged officer to their transportation to hospital 25A, near the front.
Continue reading “The Crimson Field: Ring Around the Roses, a Teacup full of Toeses”
