The Essex Serpent Review: Everything is Blue (Season 1 Episode 4)

Luke throws Cora an Aldwinter birthday party that doesn’t go quite as planned on The Essex Serpent Season 1 Episode 4, “Everything is Blue.” It’s an hour that is full of both repressed and acted upon longing. (Not to mention a fair bit of sexism, religious-based fear-mongering, and straight-up misogyny.)

Luke and Cora’s relationship has been full of mixed signals since the two met, and things are compounded this week when he gives her an exceptionally fancy necklace — one that’s not only way too nice for someone you’re supposedly “just friends” with, but that she’ll never wear because of the brand/scar her abusive husband left on her neck.

Granted, Luke can’t be expected to know about that since Clara’s never told him that her dead husband hurt her, but it just goes to show that their relationship isn’t exactly that deep. (Though even I felt bad for him when she refused to wear it and I don’t even like Luke that much!) 

However, virtually every relationship on this show appears to be covered over with some manner of deception and/or half-truths. Despite having given us no real indication that she’s ill, it turns out that Will’s wife Stella has some sort of wasting respiratory illness.

It’s of the sort that’s severe enough that Luke encourages her to visit his clinic in London ASAP. And the rest of the townspeople don’t blink when she makes batty suggestions about how she wants to watch her husband dance with another woman. 

The Essex Serpent doesn’t fill us in on whatever happened after what we saw at the end of last week’s episode. “Falling” concluded with Will basically admitting his attraction to Cora and yanking her toward him by the end of the scarf he lent her. Hot, yes, but unhelpful when it comes to really establishing what is going on between them.

Did they kiss? Declare their feelings for one another? Protest that Will is in fact married and his wife was five feet away in the house? Sputter that they just can’t do something like this? All of the above? Who can say! 

The only hint that something happened is how wildly awkward everything suddenly is between the two of them. Will, who is very mature, tries to come up with a reason to skip Cora’s birthday entirely, and the pair spend the entire party trading looks that run the gamut from openly lustful to jealous. 

Their dance together toes the line between ridiculously obvious and weirdly hot, as though the two of them are just so stoked to be touching and in such close physical proximity to one another that they can’t do literally anything to hide it. (Admittedly I did laugh when their dance basically made everything so awkward that it broke up the party.)

But, despite the fact that Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston have great chemistry, I still can’t help but feel like we’ve missed a step somewhere in Cora and Will’s story. I mean, yes, this time period means repression of any emotion is all the rage but I wish I had a clearer idea of what these emotions even are. 

Why is Cora so attracted to a man who is so old-fashioned? Who doesn’t believe in science and discovery the way she does? Perhaps Will is impressed by a strident woman when he has a fairly reserved and retiring wife at home, but I’m not sure that’s enough for him to commit adultery over. 

And not just commit adultery — sleep with in broad daylight out on the marsh! (Am I the only person who found their dance together a whole lot sexier than them actually doing the deed?)

Elsewhere, Naomi is convinced that her sister was killed because she was a sinner (which I think is code for “whore” in this instance?) and is desperate for some sort of parental authority to absolve her of her own mistakes and tell her she’s not immediately marked for death herself. 

She asks her father, who is drunk and useless, so he just tells her to go seek out Will. She searches all over for him but he’s not at home or at the church (because he’s at Cora’s party) and all she gets for her trouble is essentially another lecture from creepy Matthew (who I only just realized apparently works for Will?) about how she’s a sinner that needs to repent or the serpent will get her. 

The upshot of all this is that the last we see of Naomi is of her wading into the waters of the marsh with a giant crucifix wrapped around her neck. We don’t know if she’s attempting to kill herself or simply offering her body up to the serpent just in case it really does want to eat her, but she’s missing when morning comes—an absence that adds to the wild mania of everyone else.

When Naomi’s dad discovers Cracknell’s dead body he freaks out and alerts both Will and the rest of the town. Matthew is convinced it’s the work of the devil, and furious that Will hasn’t been listening to him, the town’s in danger, and Naomi was obviously taken by the creature.

Will tries to remain rational insisting there’s no monster but Matthew (who really is an [expletive]) keeps insisting that the serpent is feeding off the sins and that everyone needs to repent.

Cora, displaying excellent timing skills, arrives at precisely this moment, just in time for the crowd to viciously turn on her — Matthew starts quoting scripture about how women are essentially to blame for all evil, others call her a witch, and it all gets very ugly very quickly. (Despite being a man of authority, Will is not a great advocate for Cora here and once they find the brand on her neck, he essentially just tells her to run.)

Would these people have harmed Cora if given the chance? I think it’s more than a bit likely, and she’s quite right to get herself and her family out of Aldwinter as quickly as possible.

I mean, essentially five minutes after all this Matthew essentially performs some mild animal sacrifice on Crassnell’s goat and starts painting blood on people’s houses in a very weird perversion of the Passover ritual, as though this will somehow keep the serpent away. 

In fact, I wish Cora would stay well away from this entire town full of people, but since there are still two episodes to go in this series, that seems pretty unlikely. 

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

• One of my favorite costuming details on this show is how it makes sure Cora dresses to hid the scar on her neck, but that she does so fabulously. That birthday party dress was spectacular.
• I loved the bright blue nighttime sky effect. It looked almost magical, which really bolsters the idea that Aldwinter exists in a place where out-of-the-ordinary things can happen.
• I have to admit, though I have no idea what happened to Cracknell. Did he just have a heart attack while feeding the livestock?
• Starting to be really concerned that Cora’s son is basically going to grow up to be Victorian Dexter Morgan or something. Just…fully unfazed by a dead body and uncurious about what happened to a man he considered his friend.
• So, can we talk about whether Martha is in love with Cora? It really really feels like it, even though she sleeps with Luke this week.

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

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New episodes of The Essex Serpent stream Fridays on Apple TV+.

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