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Stephen is able to turn Catherines entire office against her with shockingly little effort.
And finally, he comes for Nicholas, who we already know to be a peculiar, frail person.
Like shooting fish in a barrel, really.
Their absence from this episode has unexpected reverberations.
But without Nancys novel constantly insisting that Catherines a bad person, Stephens conduct feels more outlandish to me.
His eccentricities once easily dismissed as the affectations of a lonely man read maniacal.
This episode picks up with Catherine in the car Robert called for her at the end of the last.
Instead, Catherine ends up in front of her ailing mothers house.
Still, Catherine doesnt burden her mother with whats happening to her now.
She lays in her mothers bed, thinking about how old the room smells.
The subtext is clear: Stephen neednt bother coming between these women.
Time will steal Catherines mother from her soon enough.
Who welcomes her adult daughter into her bed without prying.
(The audience, of course, isnt privy to Catherines confession, which gets drowned out by voice-over.
So, so much voice-over.)
Catherine and her mother arent the only parent-child pair getting reacquainted in episode five.
With his wife out of the house, Robert is free to move Nicholas back in.
But the two arent as close as Robert believes.
After dinner, Nicks eager to flee his dads aggressively cheery facade.
Hes even having sympathetic thoughts for his mother, whom he despises.
Then again, they already are alienated, arent they?
Robert doesnt know anything about Nicholas.
He doesnt ask about his friends or his new girlfriend, assuming she exists.
Stephen suggests a post about Hesses bildungsromanDemian, too.
No, not books, Tommy tells him.
(Neither Stephen nor Alfonso Cuaron are above a lil cross-generational jibe.)
Until now, Catherines professional life has really only been gestured at.
She has a colleague named Jisoo a research assistant or something to whom she has mentioned Stephen Brigstocke before.
Catherine has another colleague named Simon someone with roughly equal seniority, I think who completely sucks.
Which is why I found what happened at work in episode five so baffling.
Stephen shows up at Catherines office with copies ofThe Perfect Strangerfor Jisoo to distribute to her colleagues.
I must admit that I find this aspect of Kevin Klines performance confounding.
He hunches over; his voice goes grumbly.
I should ask Catherine about this, given Ive known her for years, and these allegations are bananas.
But instead, Jisoo goes running to Simon, Catherines known frenemy.
Never mind that just a few episodes ago, Jisoo was tickled to see him teased by Catherine.
She then distributes copies ofThe Perfect Strangerto the entire office like a one-woman Scholastic Book Fair.
Is this all because Catherine waived her off a story without saying pretty like?
Even if Stephen is right about Jisoos unchecked ambition, destroying Catherine wont make her any more successful.
(It will, however, leave Jisoo less well-connected.)
When Catherine arrives, the confrontation she has with Simon and Jisoo turns ugly fast.
Hes grandstanding, parroting Stephens allegations in front of the entire office and lecturing her about integrity.
He doesnt even have enough shame to use his inside voice or read the book first.
Catherine, quite rightly, tells him to mind his own business.
This is a personal matter.
It doesnt become a professional one just because Stephen Googled their office.
When he doesnt feel sufficiently listened to, he grabs Catherines shoulder.
This is clearly a big mistake.
Jisoo calls after her boss by way of goodbye.
(Another lil cross-generational jibe.)
Besides Robert and her work, theres only one more thing left for her to lose: Nicholas.
She heads to Stephen Brigstockes house to confront him.
To stem the bleeding.
To save her boy.
But she cant even convince Stephen to come to the door.
To be the source of pity rather than its object.
And its all besides the point anyway because Stephens game is already afoot.
He manages the task easily, of course.
Stephen even sends Nicholas the dirty photos of his own mother.
He calls his mother in hysterical tears.
But Nick doesnt want to clean himself up.
He wants to let himself drown.
He wants his parents to stop asking about Italy.
We cant be sure when the episode ends that he wont get his wish.
He is forever young, forever on his gap year, about to start at university.
Now our son has a future.
She can crawl back into her mothers bed, but it wont make Catherine a child again.
The reality, of course, is that theres nothing Stephen can do to give his boy a future.
