Harlots season 3 episode 2 review: Sisters are doing it for themselves

Harlots season 3 continues, as its leading women take matters into their own hands, and the series sets the table for diverse and varied stories to come.

Harlots season 3 continues, as its leading women take matters into their own hands, and the series sets the table for diverse and varied stories to come.

The girls’ war with new brothel owners the Pincher brothers continues, as Charlotte seeks retribution for the fact that Isaac burned down the Wells’ house at the end of last week.

The insertion of a pair of terrible men into Harlots’ world has had the interesting affect of basically banding all the women together. With the exception of Emily Lacey, who remains attached at the hip to Hal despite the fact that she’s completely aware of what kind of man his brother is, the rest of the working girls of London basically join forces to help Charlotte steal back what’s hers.

It’s fun to watch, and deeply satisfying, as – thanks to the lives these women lead – we don’t often get the chance to watch them come together and get one over on men. As we see earlier in the episode, even the worst sorts of men get the benefit of the doubt, and we know that there’s no true justice waiting to punish the Pinchers.

Charlotte and her girls are, though, and through some savvy maneuvering, it seems as though they’ve scored both enough money to fix their damaged residence and set up a powerful enough deterrent (thanks to Lady Isabella’s willingness to name the men as potential robbers) to keep themselves safe from retaliation.

It seems unlikely that this truce will hold for the entirety of the remainder of the season particularly given that Charlotte seems rather keen to continue at least some sort of physical relationship with Isaac Pincher. (Why, girl? Why? Isabella is right there, and clearly the way better – and emotionally stable– choice!)

We’re all still shipping Charlotte and Lady Fitz in a very serious way in season 3, is what I’m saying.

However, most of this episode is devoted to table setting for the rest of the season. Lucy and Elizabeth Harvey work to get up their male bawd house, staging an elaborate PR stunt that both promotes their new venture and helps Charlotte out at the same time. It all involves Lucy Wells dressing like a man and stripping on horseback while taking bids for the clothes off her back, and it’s pretty much the most fun this character’s been since season 1.

I’m genuinely excited to see where this storyline with Elizabeth and Fredo takes Lucy in season 3, and it feels so good to actually like her again after all the bizarre dark stuff with Lord Fallon last year.

Elsewhere, in Bedlam, Lydia Quigley and her new protégé Kate continue bonding over their shared miserable situation, and the messed up circumstances that have led them both to where they are. Their relationship seems both honest and charming enough that you can absolutely see how a younger Charlotte Wells might have found herself drawn to this woman all those years ago.

Kate is being regularly sexually assaulted by one of the asylum doctors in the name of “treatment” for her sexual hysteria, and it’s just another horrific example of how men in this world regularly treat women as disposable or interchangeable outlets for their own pleasure. Lydia’s plot to free them both, escape the asylum, and publicly catch the pervert doctor in his crimes is another sequence that feels tremendously satisfying to watch.

So much so that you almost forget you’re watching – and rooting for – Lydia Quigley, a woman who has gleefully conspired in murder, kidnapping and all manner of other terrible crimes.

This is, to be fair, one of the beauties of Harlots. None of its women are perfect, and both the worst and best of them have faults and redeeming qualities. They’re complicated, and complex, and you can find yourself furious at one as easy as you’re suddenly inclined to forgive another.

With a pretty new young girl under her wing – who happens to be predisposed to live in the sex trade – it seems only a matter of time before Lydia gets her feet back under her. But since she has no money, no home, and is technically an escaped mental patient at the moment, it’s hard to predict how exactly that will happen.

Meanwhile, Will returns to London from wherever he went off to after Margaret’s transportation, bringing with him a new boxing favorite who immediately takes a shine to Harriet. He’s annoyed that Charlotte won’t let him handle her money problems and doesn’t tell him about her grand plan to bring down, but it’s probably time he realized his little girl’s all grown up now.

Down the street, Emily Lacey’s attempting to learn business from one of her latest marks, because she wants to make money beyond what it takes to live. For some reason, she’s trying to get Hal Pincher to join in on these plans with her – which will apparently maybe involve buying land in America? – despite the fact that he’s proven several times now that he’s always going to choose his reprobate brother over anyone else.

It must be said, however, Isaac’s intense dislike of Emily Lacy is fairly hilarious, whether it’s meant to be or not. (“Why are you always here?” he intones at various points.)

And Lucy is stretching her wings as the bawd of her own house, even if that business does serve men instead of women. She largely seems in her element, allowed to be as saucy and irreverent as she likes, but without having to traffic in the custom of the flesh that’s never seemed much to her liking in the first place. Elizabeth Harvey, however, certainly seems to still view Lucy as someone to be controlled or manipulated, which is probably because she doesn’t know that she’s also the kind of woman who will 100% stab her enemies if she has to.

It seems probably that this relationship is building to some manner of confrontation, especially as Elizabeth brings in an old partner to work with them, but for now, the ride’s enjoyable enough as it is. Watching the ladies’ molly house get off the ground is fascinating, and should lead to some fairly good drama along the way.

Which, of course, is pretty much something you could say about this season – and series – as a whole.  Bring on the rest of season 3.

New episodes of Harlots stream Wednesdays on Hulu.