Sanditon Review: Episode 6 (Season 2 Episode 6)

The end of the season is upon the citizens of the small, seaside town and along with it is all heartbreak, revelations, and a happy ending for a pair on Sanditon season 2, episode 6.

The season finale runs through everyone’s story at a clipped pace, leaving you barely a moment to catch your breath and process the emotions each scene brings out. It all culminates in a jumble of emotions that makes you tear up by the time the epilogue “2 months later” card appears.

My heart hurts for Esther as Edwards’s plans come to their intended end. With no one around to help, her time is running out. It’s only about the midway point of the episode where I do something I do not think I would ever Do.

I never thought I’d be grateful for Clara, but here we are.

Clara and Esther’s moment as the former confesses to the latter about Edward’s plans and her specific part in the agenda was incredibly moving. The actresses’ subtle choices in the way they invoke emotions are perfect, and after the season the pair have had with caring for George and such, it makes complete sense.

It’s why Esther’s is one of the genuinely happy endings of the season.

Though it is telegraphed from early on that George would be going home with Esther, it doesn’t take away from the impact of the moment. Esther reading Clara’s letter to her at the end of the hour telling her that Esther would be a better person to take care of George is just a beautiful, organic end.

It is a well-earned ending for Esther, considering all that she suffered either at the hands of Edward and Clara last season or what she was put through throughout the season in her slow descent into a manufactured madness.

On the Heywood side of the hour, we get a tale of two sisters with vastly different endings and one who can consistently never catch a break.

Charlotte, Georgiana, and Alison are recapping the events of last night’s ball. It culminates in some revelations and realizations, from Charlotte realizing that Alexander is an honorable man, to Georgiana’s affection for Mr. Lockhart, to Alison’s growing feelings for Captain Fraser.

Charlotte: Perhaps there is a lesson to be drawn. Soldiers are not to be trusted.

Alison: Not all soldiers are untrustworthy. I know one who is in every way admirable.

Charlotte: I cannot think who you mean.

Alison may be leaving, but the little time in town left leads to what she’s been looking for: a love match and a husband.

Captain Fraser bids her goodbye with a wrapped gift, and he informs her not to open it until she returns to Willingden. The minute he says that she has become a good friend, it feels like all hope is lost.

But leave it to the secret romantics of the season, Georgiana, and Charlotte, to give Alison the push she needs to seek him out. Their eventual reunion and his proposal are understated and extremely sweet.

Alison: I was always so determined I would never be a farmer’s wife.

The younger Heywood eventually grows on me in the same way Marianne Dashwood does in Sense & Sensibility when the veil is pulled from her eyes, and she sees her perceived courtship really was. So, seeing her happy, idyllic ending is beautiful and sweet.

While Alison gets her happy conclusion, Charlotte ends another season in heartbreak and tears.

It’s absolutely gut-wrenching to see Charlotte open to Alexander after everything she went through with Sidney to have her heart broken again. Her parting words to Alexander at the Sanditon House drawing room are so devastating to watch as Alexander attempts to open up. At the same time, Charlotte decides to close ranks around her heart again.

Granted, the end of the last season wasn’t due to the story but casting changes, but this feels exceptionally cruel for Charlotte, especially after everything with Sidney, with how they ripped them apart, in his marriage to Eliza everything that followed.

Charlotte: Enough.

Rose Williams does the heartbreak very well and does a fantastic job of making sure that you feel the heartache as much as Charlotte does.

But no matter the heartbreak, it still doesn’t explain or justify that bombshell that comes entirely out of left field in the form of Charlotte’s engagement to Ralph Starling.

Why couldn’t she have just decided to continue her job as a governess? Is this a way of guarding her own emotions against any further heartbreak by marrying someone she does not love?

Or is this just a justification for another season wherein we see potentially Alexander return and try to win her affections?

I understand that Colonel Lennox’s parting words to Alexander caused some doubt in his affections and ability to have a happy relationship with Charlotte. Still, it’s a frustrating and sad moment to see him speak to her about it.

Charlotte deserves a happy ending, too!

Meanwhile, Georgiana is dealt a hard blow with Mr. Lockhart’s potential proposal when she finally discovers the truth about his intentions. It’s honestly one of the more surprising aspects of the final hour as it is revealed through Sidney’s last letter to his family that Mr. Lockhart is the one who was contesting her claim to her own inheritance.

She’s dealt a further heartache when Mary reveals that her mother is still alive and out there somewhere, despite what she was told as a child that her mother had died during childbirth.

This has the potential to be a heavy but essential story for Georgiana. We have never really had any insight into that part of the long-lost parent arc in any period drama. Seeing that we have grown with Georgiana over the last two seasons and know that she’s always had this bit of a missing piece of her childhood, it is excellent that this is what they are potentially setting up for season three.

Will she be able to find her mother in that span of time? Only time will tell.

Random Thoughts

• I know that he’s the easy target for a villain for another season, but can we never see Edward again, please?
• I am curious to see where Arthur lands next season after that development throughout this season and his second proposal rejection.
• Am I the only one that thinks the contents of the letter, aside from the invaluable information that Sidney relays, feel like a convenient plot device to absolve Tom when it comes to the guilt of what he forced his brother to do to save them all?

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

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Sanditon has already been renewed for a third season which has already completed production. 

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