NF Mercy Street S2: E:3- One Equal Temper

[Bryan_C]

Enjoy tomorrow night's episode! BTW, I will be catching the show later, thanks to that other show...

 

[lelliott19]

@chellers @JPK Huson 1863 @FarawayFriend @LoyaltyOfDogs @1stMN @Allie @NurseErin

and all other ladies...... is it just me? Or does Dr Jebediah Foster (Josh Radnor) look so much like Edward Porter Alexander that it makes it hard to concentrate on the plot?
(Gentlemen welcome to weigh in as well.)

Actor, Josh Radnor as Dr Jebediah Foster (pictured left) and Edward Porter Alexander (right)

 

[MaryDee]

There is some resemblance! Radnor appears to have a little more hair on top. I think I prefer Porter Alexander.

 

[Bryan_C]

I wasn't planning on watching the episode last night. I was just going to go to bed after the Super Bowl (I was rooting for Atlanta but what an amazing game that was) but I couldn't wait and decided to watch it anyway.

I was very torn about Samuel. Of course, we all can say he did the right thing and gave Caleb his train ticket so he could be reunited with his family. But I can understand he was so tempted not to do so. Anyway, the good news for him is that he gets consolation prizes- teaching medicine to Dr. Byron Hale and a relationship with Charlotte Jenkins.

So interesting that Mutt Murphy, the White man diseased with smallpox raises every objection about being confined with people who share nothing in common with him but the same dreaded illness. Then, he is saved by Samuel Diggs. Dr. Hale sees this and, in a "Nicodemus meets with Jesus" type moment, he asks Diggs to teach him what he should already know.

 

[huskerblitz]

Always like when they add dimensions to characters. Hale and Hastings showing some compassion. As well as Alice and Stringfellow. Looks like McBurney is the new guy to despise.

 

[John Hartwell]

Why is it that every time Pinkerton shows up I'm reminded of John Cleese?
There's something about that vaguely "absent" way he has, like he's never entirely present.

 

[huskerblitz]

Why is it that every time Pinkerton shows up I'm reminded of John Cleese?
There's something about that vaguely "absent" way he has, like he's never entirely present.

But yet they never sleep!

 

[Albert Sailhorst]

I think the writers are over-doing the "THAT Pinkerton" bit......Otherwise, the show has grown by leaps and bounds since last year with better plot and character development.

 

[MaryDee]

Yes, "that Pinkerton" is a bit overdone, but in a serious drama, a little comic relief is always welcome.

I liked the Quaker interlude and its effect on Miss Spy and Stringfellow. Also the episode with the two chaplains. Both food for thought!

I found myself reciting the last lines of Tennyson's "Ulysses" along with Dr. Foster and Nurse Mary at the end. I have never been a Tennyson fan, but had to read a lot of his work in a senior/graduate level class in Victorian Literature. "Ulysses" is one of his better poems.

At the risk of revealing a possible "spoiler," does this mean that Nurse Mary is out of the series? Or is Dr. Foster going to come down with typhoid after kissing her?

 

[John Hartwell]

At the risk of revealing a possible "spoiler," does this mean that Nurse Mary is out of the series? Or is Dr. Foster going to come down with typhoid after kissing her?

Since the whole story is based on her book, I very much doubt she is "out of the series." But, they've departed from her account so wildly already, who knows?

 

[MaryDee]

I knew the series is based on her book, but there really isn't much of her book in the series--which is why I asked the same question--who knows? I guess we'll find out in due course!

 

[Manassas]

Why is it that every time Pinkerton shows up I'm reminded of John Cleese?
There's something about that vaguely "absent" way he has, like he's never entirely present.

It's probably Cleese's appearance in "Silverado" (wearing a beard) that brings that reminder to you.
Actually, Pinkerton's intelligence reports to the North were so inaccurate, that for a while, he was actually accused of being a double agent.

 

[Blessmag]

The 'exchange' between the 2 preachers and then involving the room. Enjoyed that. Both preachers convinced they are correct; reality. Not judging either in this, but still reality!

 

[John Hartwell]

It's probably Cleese's appearance in "Silverado" (wearing a beard) that brings that reminder to you.
Actually, Pinkerton's intelligence reports to the North were so inaccurate, that for a while, he was actually accused of being a double agent.

It's more that tendency to pause in the middle of ... nothing, really ... eyes shifting about as if listening to something only he can hear. It may be only for a second or two, as if he momentarily "phases out." John Cleese does it so well, part of his studied weirdness.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

Why is it that every time Pinkerton shows up I'm reminded of John Cleese?
There's something about that vaguely "absent" way he has, like he's never entirely present.

I know, he seems SO distracted and far off for a man who appears to have such important tasks put before him. Guess that's because he's tired since Pinkertons never sleep?

I agree with @Albert Sailhorst that the series has grown into itself with more complex and mostly reality based plots. I think the acting has improved overall, too. My favorite character thus far is Emma. She's complex, is not fixed in her views and has matured from the prissy hoop skirt wearing Southern belle into a confident nurse who seems to have seen the light when it come to slavery and the Cause.

I too enjoyed the dueling ministers at the end. To me it seemed disrespectful for the Southern preacher to turn the Confederate's death into a reason to spout about God's will to keep people enslaved in a Union hospital no less I think I would've had one of the guards haul him out by his ear.

 

[Bee]

I suppose that they had to push Mary out of the picture, so that we can immerse in the sparks - past and present - between Foster and the newly arrived artist/illustrator. Not really interested in that sort of intrigue, myself. It would add depth to the series if they develop a respectful association between Hale and Diggens. Also, they may be playing a bit of Columbo with Pinkerton....."just on more thing"

Another review of the episode:

Mercy Street, season 2, episode three review: The mask of the enslaved, and a religious debate over slavery.