Victoria Season 1 Recap “An Ordinary Woman”

After meeting cute over a piano last week, the sparks fly between Victoria and Albert. So why is everyone trying so hard to get them together?

After an hour of negging on the Queen of England last week, Victoria finally broke down and proposed to Albert, his accent, his mustaches and his oh-so-serious demeanor, and was rewarded with an answer of yes. Turns out that despite the issues Albert brings to the table, his answer of “yes” to Victoria’s proposal is not the only thing that differentiates him from Lord Melbourne. The latte prefers going home and brooding in his fields on the back of a horse, while Albert’s favorite pastimes include making out in garden corners. All in all, a great improvement. Now, if only everyone would stop taking credit for the relationship, so that Victoria would stop feeling the need to rebel against it.

"Prince Ernest: Duchess, there are some very curious looking shrubs over there. Would you be kind enough to explain them to me?Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland: Shrubs are my speciality."

It speaks to how rare Downton Abbey was that it took us the better part of three seasons to get to the staging of a wedding between members of the upper classes. (Sorry Daisy, sorry Sybil, but your weddings didn’t have the trappings to swoon over properly.) All the shows that have risen in the wake of Downton’s popularity have not have the nerve to hold out on their audiences for nearly that long. Poldark and Demelza were married practically a fortnight after we’d met them. (Elizabeth has now been married twice in two seasons.) The Crown was so eager to show their restaging of Elizabeth’s wedding that they blew their wad in the first episode (and then had to top it a few episodes later with her coronation). Victoria has done the opposite, staging the coronation first, and now topping it with a royal wedding.

Tom Hughes as Prince Albert and Jenna Coleman as Victoria

(C) ITV Plc

But the course of true love never did run smooth, and unlike those aforementioned shows, this is the first one to deal with the marriage of a sitting monarch. (Elizabeth was, after all, still merely an heir when she married Philip.) This means the meddling of politicians, attempting to paint Albert a “papist”. (Heaven forfend.) I continue to find the emphasis on the royal family’s German ties an interesting one, especially in light of Brexit, which was, on a level, the people of England telling the Germans (who are the defacto head of the European Union) to shove it. Of course, Victoria was taped prior to the vote, so perhaps they, like many here in the US, assumed an election that would go the other way.

"Lord Melbourne: I’m afraid, ma’am, if the people get into the way of making kings, they might get into the way of unmaking them."

In terms of historical accuracy, this week’s nod to the politics of the time is also tied up in Victoria’s marriage and the inability of her majesty to get her husband named King Consort. Much of the non-historical fluff the show is stuffed with is patriarchal to the extreme, with Victoria changing her ways to please Albert, tripping over herself in responding to his negging instead of telling him to go hang, and even this evening’s opening remarks how she wishes herself to be “an ordinary woman” because it would solve all the patriarchy upending facets of her life. But this was one time where the patriarchal system of the time stands as a roadblock, even as no one speaks of it. After all, no one feels threatened by a German princess who would be named Queen Consort.

David Oakes as Prince Ernest.

(C) ITV Plc

The other drama of the week played less interestingly, as we knew from the get-go that no matter what Ernest did, the chances of Albert actually sleeping with with the ladies provided to the Man Who Would Be the Queen’s Husband were practically nil. Still, I did not see the bit about “well, since we’re here, and I’m going to have to do this soon enough, could you give me some pointers” coming. There may be many hipster elements to Albert’s character I find overbearing and terrible, both last week and this, but this, like his interest in the plight of the poor last week, was downright endearing. As was the scene between him and Ernest as his brother says goodbye to the little brother who has been his constant companion all these years. Though perhaps not as affecting as our goodbye at the end of the hour to Lord M.

"Penge: May I remind you that royal service is a vocation, and not a matrimonial agency?"

Despite the meddling and the delays (because of course there will be meddling and delays, we have an hour to fill here) the true joy of this week was in fact watching the royal household go into an uproar over the anticipated wedding. For those who might not be aware, our modern day Wedding Industrial Complex and all the “standard” trappings that are considered a part of a “proper” wedding began with Victoria’s wedding to Albert, and were finalized into their current format over the course of the weddings of their children.

Rufus Sewell as Lord Melbourne

(C) ITV Plc

The wedding cake, in fact, did not exist as we know it today prior to Victoria’s wedding. The standard several tiers of white fondant and elaborate decorations was first created for the royal wedding of 1840, which is why the endless drama around Francatelli’s ability to create his masterpiece on time is such a major plot point this week, and why the cake was shown multiple times over the course of the episode, along with the cutting of it. (As for Penge’s little romance with the member of the German household, we’ll let that go. Though I hope it continues, he looks nice when he smiles.)

Next: Victoria Season 1 Recap “The Clockwork Prince”

Of course, in the end, Victoria does promise to love honor and “obey” a foreign national on her wedding day, politics be damned. The use of the Gloriana theme to stage the wedding was particularly effective, and Albert’s over intense delivery played as a perfect counterpoint. Of the weddings we’ve seen staged in the last few years on Masterpiece, this was perhaps not the grandest, but the most effective. Victoria may not rank over her competition, especially with the liberties taken with history. But at moments like this, it gets the details just right.