The Hour: "Episode Five"

Do the ends justify the means?

That was the central question at the beginning of the fifth installment of The Hour.
Bel and Freddie learn that Rosa is dead. Bel is horrified by this news. They are the ones who convinced her to talk, a move that cost Rosa her life. “Oh God, what have we done? What have we done?” she laments. Even though Bel is the one who has been pushing the story all along, she believes they should stop looking into nightclub owner Raphael Cilenti.

Everyone else thinks that Rosa’s death means they are getting close to something big. “Don’t back down now. We’ve rattled his cage,” Randall tells his team. Freddie’s reaction is particularly upsetting for Bel. He doesn’t feel guilty at all. “We’re journalists. This is what we do,” he tells her. This conflict brings the whole Bel/Freddie star-crossed couple tension to its head. Freddie tells Bel that it’s over with his wife Camille. She’s gone to visit friends and he doesn’t even miss her. “I miss you,” he tells Bel.

This whole Bel/Freddie/Camille love triangle never quite worked. In a six-episode season, there’s not a lot of time to build a convincing relationship between Freddie and Camille. She always came across as a deliberate obstruction to the inevitability of Freddie and Bel getting together. I didn’t ever really believe Freddie truly loved Camille. The trick of a star-crossed couple is to make what’s keeping them apart credible, and Camille didn’t do that.

While Bel and Freddie are continuing their predictable march towards each other, Hector has made his decision. He’s going to leave The Hour for its competitor, ITV’s Uncovered. It’s what his wife, Marnie, wants now that she’s hosting a cooking show for ITV. “I’ve been a pretty awful husband. She’s a remarkably good wife. Together we’re dynamite apparently. The golden couple,” he tells Bel.

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Then, in typical The Hour fashion, Hector drops the news that he’s unable to give his wife any children—that the couple’s infertility problems lie with him. The move to ITV is the least he can do for his wife. There were several scenes that reminded viewers of the couple Hector and Marnie used to be—that perhaps he wasn’t always the philandering husband and she wasn’t always his beleaguered spouse. The final shot of the spouses snuggling in bed was particularly lovely.

Bel discovers through Bill that ITV has no intention of keeping Hector with Uncovered. The plan is to move him to the network’s entertainment division. Bel urges Hector to read the fine print on his contract.

Freddie, Bel and Hector are discovering there’s a connection between the nuclear arms race, El Paradis and ITV. It’s an idea that’s as confusing as it is convenient. All of the action leads to a raid on El Paradis. Before Stern and his men raid the club, Cilenti tells Bel “You women are all the same—showgirls and whores.” A real class act, that man. Cilenti remains a bit of a cookie-cutter villain, but when Freddie goes back into the club instead of fleeing the scene of the raid, I did fear for him. I did believe Cilenti would have killed Freddie if he had the chance.

My favorite scene of the night came when Stern told Kiki he was going to arrest her and she tells him that she’s going to walk out the back door of the club. “I hope you go to hell,” she tells him in her parting shot. It was a great scene between the pair and even better once Stern found all the photos Kiki had hidden behind her mirror.

Despite any issues I may have with this season’s clichéd story lines and questionable pacing, I still really enjoy the series. That’s a testament to the show’s well-established characters and the powerful performances. Romola Garai is doing particularly great work as Bel. Garai makes even the smallest scene soar. Bel’s anguish over Rosa’s death was palpable. You can feel her fighting her simultaneous anger and attraction to Freddie. Plus, her hair in this episode was fabulous.

Next week is the final episode of the season, and in addition to making sure the expose on Cilenti finally airs, Bel and Freddie really do need to kiss.

The Hour: “Episode Five”