Will Review: The Marriage of True Minds (Season 1 Episode 5)

Family ties shake things up for everyone on Will Season 1 Episode 5, “The Marriage of True Minds.”

A lot happens to further the many plots, but Will Season 1 Episode 5 feels dull and uneventful. Maybe it’s the predictable adultery angle, or the quick introductions and hasty character developments that arise with newcomers.

The show is setting up Will and Alice as star-crossed lovers. Theirs is a great love that shall overcome all obstacles. They may not make a pact as extreme as Romeo and Juliet, but they do vow to marry their minds and their souls.

Alice: I will marry Keenan and you will have Anne, and together we will bear it out even to the edge of doom.

So, it’s intellectual adultery, then? These two can’t keep their hands off each other, so we’ll see how that plays out.

Their love story is actually handled decently, though. It’s over-the-top romantic and sentimental in a way you expect from something Shakespeare-related. While their relationship fits the premise, it remains somewhat uninteresting.

It doesn’t help that Anne, Will’s wife, is a tedious character. When Anne and Alice meet, Anne asks what she does at the theater. Alice replies with a slew of tasks and responsibilities, but adds at the end, “Nothing, I’m sure, compared to being a housewife and mother to three children.” I think it’s meant in earnest, but comes off as mocking and dismissive.

The two are naturally at odds since they love the same man, but if Alice found something admirable in Anne and vice versa it might be a less flimsy love triangle.

Out-of-town family disrupts the villain in the story, as well. The evil Topcliffe hopes to groom his son to be just like himself. He gives the boy a firearm as a gift, and agrees to let him live with him while he attends law school.

Wesley proves his worth by helping his father crack the code to the whereabouts of Southwell’s safe house disclosed in Will’s letter. However, witnessing his father’s brutality disturbs him to the point of yelling out in protest, mid-beating. Topcliffe rescinds his offer and dismisses him.

This turn of events is unexpected. I had written Wesley off at the beginning as one who would do anything to please his father. His repulsion to Topcliffe’s cruelty is refreshing. I hope to see more of his defiance as a thorn in his father’s side.

Marlowe’s plotline also takes an interesting turn. He goes to the extreme to break out of his writing slump. And by extreme, I mean EXTREME. He has his voodoo doctor friend bring him to the brink of death.

There is some sort of pagan ritual that happens, and then men bury him alive in the woods. Well, almost. His head sticks out of the earth like some deranged, poetic flower.

Marlowe: You have planted me well, but I fear a twisted thing may grow.

This all seems ridiculous, and it is, but it is also the most interesting part of this episode.

His delirious delusions manifest in a zombie-like child that crawls to him and cuts his face, and then a wolf that looks threatening approaches, but licks his wound instead. The men come to dig him up, and Marlowe self-proclaims to be “resurrected.”

This scene is visually stunning. The lighting and cinematography help make it wonderfully strange rather than silly or absurd.

I expect to see him go straight to his desk to write, but he visits a sick man, which I am guessing is his father, although it’s not made clear. “I’ve been up to my neck in it,” he tells him, explaining why he hasn’t visited sooner. The man replies, “Death never was your thing.”

Jamie Campbell Bower does a great job of steering away from melodramatic territory. There was a bit of “chewing up the scenery” on Will Season 1 Episode 3, but for the most part, Bower brings dexterity and ingenuity to Marlowe, making him more compelling than the title character and the historically more famous writer.

Stray Observations:

• “Everything In Its Right Place” by Radiohead is the only modern song on this episode, but it’s a nice track that plays well in its scene.
• “She’s real, and I’ve vanished.”
• The storyline with Presto and his sister is shaping up to be something horribly tragic.
• Richard’s only purpose on this episode is for a gratuitous sex scene and as a plot device.
• Hamnet’s story about a hero is a nice bridge to the main plots.

What did you think of this episode of Will? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Will airs Mondays at 9/8c on TNT.

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