View Season One

INDIVIDUAL EPISODES ANALYSIS

 

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In these individual episode analysis of House of Eliott, we not only describe the events in detail, but we try to penetrate the psychological, social, and life forces at work that enable the main characters to progress, accomplish, and find fulfillment in life. Along the way we bring 'the "Character of Life," and its subtle principles, including the phenomenon of "Life Response," -- i.e. the onset of sudden good fortune through shifts in consciousness. This is indicative of our overall approach to this section of Human Science; i.e. to bring out the mysteries of existence and keys to accomplishment and fulfillment through fine cinema.

 

Episode 1 (1)

THE DEATH OF BEA & EVIE'S FATHER & THE FUNERAL

  • Events concerning the death of Bea and Evie’s father begin the story.
  • Bea and Evie’s father is inflexible. He reacts in anger to their attempt at a little freedom. In fact, his reactionary anger leads to, is the cause of his death.
  • We meet with Arthur and his mother Lydia. Even she knows that Arthur is a penny pincher as witnessed at the funeral that follows. We already see his dark side, including his elicit use of money.
  • Arthur lies even at the funeral.
  • Beatrice is gleeful about her father’s death, which attracted the negative response of hearing Evie crying about her father’s death. It is one thing to be happy to be rid of a negative influence, but gleeful goes too far. In fact, she would be wrong about her father to a certain degree in the end. (This gleefulness is an indicator. In fact, the reverse of the gleefulness is the bitterness she will experience throughout the story, which will due her for the most part no good. The gleefulness is a cover for the bitterness she repeatedly express in the future..)
  • Bea assuages Evie’s pain, showing that she (Evie) had nothing to do with their father’s death. (It was his inflexibility towards the two of them and elsewhere that brought about the physical attack that ended his life. Bea is right in many ways, but not right to the point of bitterness. Bitterness is never right. It shows a lack of understanding of the truth, and the power to live one’s life unfettered from such psychological dark influences.)
  • Bea is as much a mother as a sister to Evie.

NEW FREEDOM

  • They are now happy with their freedom, until they see Arthur, who indicates that they have received little from their inheritance. Arthur is deceiving. They are now free to be and rise, but suddenly an obstacle stands in their way. When a positive arises, such as an opportunity to move upwards substantially, it gives the right for a negative to oppose, especially when they have not secured their own station and power yet in life. We see this again with Saroyan. And yet in both instances they are able to surmount the obstacle, through their grit, strength, drive, goodwill, goodness, and other positive qualities.

(In the film, Seabiscuit, Red fails to deal with the opposing force that rises when he is about to run the race of his life with War Admiral, causing him injury, and missing the greatest opportunity of his life. It was that same opposing force when an opportunity to rise presents itself; but in his case, he was unable to overcome it.)

  • They aspire, dream to design dresses. This reflects their essential aspiration for accomplishment in life (within the context of their freedom).
  • Arthur says Bea has a disconnecting manner. In other words, she sees right through him!
  • Their father spent money for nice clothes to enjoy himself for a reason still unknown: not on high-risk stakes as Arthur deceivingly claims. (Their father was restricting, reactionary figure, but not a monster as Bea believes throughout the early part of the story.)
  • Interestingly, the clothes they find become the basis for developing their own designs. (I.e. her father has had good will for her in life and beyond.)

FINDING WORK

  • They then immediately commit to finding work of their own; especially now that the inheritance is paltry (due for the most part, as we shall see, to the shenanigans of Arthur).
  • They worry about not having the skills, which they believe their father deprived them of. (High skills in society is now one of the central keys to advancement in life. Back then they perceive this as well, as Bea and Evie were aspiring modern woman for their times.)
  • Arthur worries about the reputation that will come to the family if Evie takes the job as a dancing partner. (What a hypocrite, as we shall see!)
  • Bea and Evie both make the concerted effort to find work.

A CRITICAL MOMENT & JACK'S ARRIVAL

  • A critical moment in the story: Evie sees a poor beggar woman collapse on the street. This changes their fortunes as she meets Tilly and then Penelope as a result, the later a social worker, who introduces Evie not only to social consciousness but to Penelope’s brother Jack who would forever be bound up in their lives. Evie’s goodness and concern for the fallen woman, opens the door to a vast array of allies in their pursuit to establish and expand House of Eliott.
  • Even here at the outset, Evie and Bea are spanning social spheres from the poor to aristocracy, which is a breakdown of the classes.
  • Bea decides not to ask for money any more from friends in order to survive. Just after this, Penelope appears to Evie with news that Jack could offer Evie a job. Life has responded in a positive way to Bea’s commitment to no longer borrow from others. (This is powerful life response indicating a principle of non-dependence regarding money.)Also, Evie’s earlier helping of the beggar woman, that in essence aided in Penelope’s cause comes back to Evie through Penelope with positive news.
  • In one incident Evie’s spontaneous goodness attracts Tillie, Jack, and Penelope, all forces for Evie and Bea’s substantial accomplishment later on.

WORKING FOR JACK

  • Evie and Bea go to meet Jack, Penelope’s brother, who is a portrait photographer.
  • At the interview, Bea tries to speak in Evie’s behalf about her skills. She is trying to prop up her sister in Jack’s eyes so he will hire her. As a result of that effort of self-givingness, it is Bea, not Evie, who get the job! Another powerful life response, this time to Bea’s self-giving behavior. It is similar to in ‘Pride and Prejudice,” Eliza’s concern and helpfulness towards her ill sister Jane, that in effect attracts Darcy to that locale, enabling Eliza and Darcy to begin a relationship that will end in their marriage.
  • Aunt Lydia’s attempt at matchmaking and her overall meddlesomeness in trying to manipulate the two girl’s lives continually fails. (She is not unlike Jane Austin’s Emma in that way.) She is also on the trailing edge as she acts this way; i.e. she acts opposite to the rising positive energies of the emerging generation, which creates the backfire effect. This is similar to Lady Catherine in’ Pride and Prejudice,’ whole meddlesomeness to stop the relationship between Eliza and Darcy actually help firmly establish it, leading to their engagement and marriage soon thereafter.
  • Their father spent considerable money apparently on the woman he loved – rather than on their mother. However, Arthur lies and says he actually cavorted with whores! He could make up such a story because that is precisely what he does.

(A thought: Do we ever find out if Arthur had a vendetta against Evie and Bea’s father in their relationship in running the club, and therefore might associate him with whores, or might even be getting back at him through his daughters?)

  • Bea accepts the job working for Jack.
  • Jack’s studio would be the future home of the House of Eliott. He is intimately involved in the unfolding of the business at every step of the way. In his own way, he will be a third partner, as he will help resolve many issues for them; and will even grow as a person in his work and in general through problems that HofE will encounter, and that he will be involved in resolving.
  • The decision of the two girls looking for work is reaping dividends, especially without asking for money from others. This self-reliance has a powerful positive pull on life. It is a high value and attitude of Self -- i.e. of self-power to attract positive results from life.

MUSINGS: Alignment with a Higher Intent:

  • There is an evolutionary movement (biological, social, and spiritual) that is unfolding in life. It actually ranges from levels of progress to transformation.
  • When each side makes a transition in consciousness, inner or outer, they are not only aligning to one another, but to this evolutionary force or vortex.
  • It is in fact through the alignment of these two sides, that they are able to join, to be pulled along collectively by this evolutionary force.
  • In House of Eliott we see the evolution at the biological (i.e. personal), social, and spiritual level. When the individuals make a change they are aligning with condition that better themselves, the society’s emerging aspirations, as well as a higher universal, even cosmic and spiritual intent. (EP)

Episode 2 (2)

JACK'S WORK HABITS

  • Evie discusses the letters from her father's lover.
  • Bea is forceful in trying to get the informal Jack into being organized and disciplined. (This quality would semi-consciously attract her to him.)
  • Jack flatters his elderly clientele. It is how he charms and gains their business. (He even touches up the photos to flatter them.)

ARTHUR'S INFLUENCE

  • So many times thereafter when the two sisters discuss something that is unflattering about Arthur, he appears on the scene. (Here where Evie discovers that her father had a lover, rather than cavort with whores as Arthur has suggested.) We can say that both parties are thinking of one another and so they 'coincidentally' meet. (It is no coincidence.) But each time also reveals Arthur's negativity, as e.g. he appears here when we discover he has been untruthful about the father's relations.

EVIE'S ASPIRATION

  • Evie does design, and says she wishes she had a proper job. Her aspiration is fulfilled through the combination of design and a job via the establishment of the House of Eliott. It is the power of intention attracting. Also because she is energized through her creative aspirations for design and she seeks employment in that regard she releases extra concentrated energy that attracts the object of her desire.
  • (To reiterate from earlier entry-) Evie's concern for the poor woman who collapsed attracted Penelope to Evie, and then Jack via Penelope. It is a powerful response to Evie's goodness.

MEDDLESOMENESS OF LYDIA & ARTHUR

  • Aunt Lydia encourages Evie to get married, not to make dresses, which is low achievement and social status in her mind. The truth will prove to be the opposite. The reactionaries encourage the "practical" of the past; which turns out to be a false reading of the truth. Such are the indicators of the trailing edge.
  • Bea is so angry about her father's character that she accepts Arthur's claim that the father was with whores. Bea needs to release her anger. Anger is always a sign of some ignorance and falsehood (with the possible exception of righteous indignation.) We see that the vital emotions can take one into wrong places, and to wrong conclusions too. (Gradually Bea will release much of her anger towards her father, as the truths of his life slowly unfold.)

A NEW SOCIAL LIFE

  • Jack gives a party, which the sisters are thrilled to attend. (Their social life has been all but cut off in the past.) Piggy and Jack pick up Bea and Evie and take them to the party. This is a sweet and happy experience for the once protected and sheltered girls.
  • Arthur is very jealous of Evie flirting with Jack.
  • Beas starts using Jack's office (where she works as Jack's helper) to get offers to do dresses.

MEETING THEIR FATHER'S LOVER & DISCOVERY OF SEBASTIAN

  • Evie goes to meet her father's lover, who reveals that she and Evie's father had a son; thus, Evie's stepbrother. It is Sebastian.
  • Arthur calls Bea in to reveal more of her father's debts due to stock market failures. He is lying again. He has taken this up consciously or subconsciously as retribution for Evie's earlier free behavior at the party, and her cavorting with Arthur. This is a vendetta against the sisters, ostensibly because he feels rejected. (What wonders what relationship Arthur had with his own father.)

Episode 3 (3)

WORKING AT PARTINI

  • Lydia arranges for Evie to interview at the couturier Partini. (It will (as revealed in a later episode) end in a serious argument and split. That outcome will once again reflect Lydia's meddlesomeness, and her reactionary social opinions and intentions. Still it will serve a purpose in that Evie will transcend the situation, enabling the development of her own business with Bea. The negative can be an even greater spur to the positive than the positive.)
  • Bea mistrusts Arthur, whether in funeral dealings, or after speaking with him about her newly discovered stepbrother, who she believes should have right of inheritance from their (common) father.
  • Lydia is somewhat bothered by the fact that Evie is moving up at Partini's It seems like she only wanted Evie to have a basic job, and get married; not be successful at it. It is a negative response to her (Lydia's) original intention.
  • Arthur's negativity has more than met its match in Bea. She is shrewd, able to penetrate the surface, organized, and persevering. She sees right through him. This is precisely the type of person he cannot hold off, as he has the nature to pray on people (in particular Evie now) through deceit.

FORCED TO MOVE OUT & THE END WITH PARTINI

  • Evie and Bea are forced out of their home because of their father's past debts (i.e. according to the duplicitous Arthur).
  • Bea and Evie move in next door to Arthur's studio. (Psychically he is keeping them under wing, while tending a subconscious romance for Bea.)
  • Bea has an organized mind that sees possibilities for greater efficiency around her -- including maximum utilization of resources (of fabrics) at Partini now that she is also working there with Evie.
  • With Bea no longer working for Jack, he cannot find things around the studio. It is another indicator that he needs her.
  • Tilly is instrumental in making Evie and Bea see how much they are really worth.
  • Bea is normally utterly logical, reasonable, and principled. (Though she does get bent out of shape from time to time it is usually fleeting.)
  • After they leave Partini after the falling out, they regroup, and look at things in the most positive light, especially Evie. This is the perfect attitude toward the negative.
  • Sebastian suddenly appears on the scene. (He will later be instrumental in the downfall of Arthur. It is one response to their positive attitude in light of recent difficulties.)

Episode 4 (4)

BEA'S ANGER TOWARD HER FATHER

  • Bea shows her anger towards her deceased father through her hostility to Sebastian who visits him (alleged) to half-sisters. (He is after all the son of the woman Bea's father had a long-term romance with.)
  • Bea's anger is misplaced in one sense, because Sebastian will be the one later on who exposes Arthur; and yet Sebastian will be the one who almost causes Evie to die in a plane crash had she gone along.

EVIE'S UNDERSTANDING NATURE & THE CONNECTION WITH SEBASTIAN

  • Evie is more understanding of Sebastian because she felt less abused by her father, and is not so mad about the revelation of Sebastian and his mother Mrs. Pearce's involvement with her (Evie's) father. She also likes him in a romantic sense.
  • In this situation thus far, Evie is more rational.
  • Sebastian explains his situation, and shows his good qualities, despite Bea's hostility.
  • We wonder if Sebastian is really their half brother. (It will turn out he is but a stepbrother.)
  • Evie's concern that there wouldn't be enough work for Tilly (and thus providing for her well-being) attracts positive circumstance. Concern for the well-being of others attracts.

LYDIA'S ABUSE

  • Lydia abuses the Evie and Bea for leaving Partini (after the argument over a problem with one of the dresses Evie worked on). Her being in the trailing edge, meddling in their affairs so that they have a decent job so they can prepare for marriage, backfires. It is a negative life response to Lydia's not well-intentioned initiative.
  • "Reputation is all," says Lydia to the two girls after they leave Partini. Later on her reputation would be ruined because of her son's actions. It will be a life lesson for her that will indeed be shattering. Her focus on social propriety is a negative trait that will grossly backfire on her.
  • We could say also that when a negative person accuses others of a wanting quality or possibility, they tend to attract it themselves.

WORKING FOR DUROQU

  • They find work with the couturier Duroqu, who heard they had left Partini.
  • Their first meeting with Duroqu was tense, as they haggle over wages; an indicator of their final relations.(Principle: the initial contact is an indicator of the final outcome.)
  • In fact, the outcome of their work would be the same as with Partini -- ending in a contentious argument. (It would also be yet another humiliation for Aunt Lydia.)
  • Sebastian visits Arthur, indicating that he is entitled to share of his (alleged) father's estate. Arthur says there is no provision for Sebastian in the will. Sebastian is outraged.

LYDIA & THE IRRESPECTABILITY OF ARTHUR

  • Aunt Lydia advocates respectability, and yet her son Arthur is hanging around with the floozy Daphne at the club. (Once again Lydia meets with a negative response to her behind the times advocacy of respectability (for the two girls and elsewhere. The trailing edge will demand something of others that they themselves are violating.)
  • In fact, Arthur would eventually become partners with two individuals that would lead to his downfall. (Yet another indicator of how off base Lydia is with the times, and what a 'subconscious' hypocrite she is. (She did not after all know these events were transpiring with her son.)
  • The question is why is Lydia obsessed with the need for respectability? One answer is that like Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice she has married above her station, and thus feels that has to maintain a certain dignity to keep up her end (i.e. her family's end) in relation to her (dead) husband’s family.

EVIE'S ASPIRATION

  • Evie's aspiration for creative design work is attracting customers through Duroqu (without his knowledge of the fact). Interestingly, the customers themselves are initiating the interest, not Evie. Life in this way is responding to her aspiration. (When a thing comes of itself, without your initiation, it is sure sign of something worth pursuing; that in fact, you should pursue.)
  • Evie is a dynamic, creative force in action. Duroqu is staid and egotistical. He abuses her for being creative -- even as he accepts credit for it. An artistic hypocrite is he; on a power trip. (Point: Duroqu does not want her to be creative because Lydia did not want it for her nieces. But her meddlesomeness backfires through Partini and Duroqu.)

FALLING OUT WITH DUROQU

  • Duroqu copies Evie's dresses, and does not give her credit. (We saw a predecessor of this when he scolded her for making a suggestion for improvement, i.e. a modern look, for one of his clients. He did not want her to speak out, but then he later goes around her, deceives her, and develops a series of dresses from her ideas. In this instance, he is highly unethical.)
  • When Duroqu fires them because Evie designed a dress for one of his clients (that was initiated by the client), it will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened for Evie and Bea. (A negative is a more intense positive, if only we learn to embrace it. I.e. it is a positive in disguise.)*Daphne's mother, Mrs. Spencer, a counter force to Lydia and her obsession with respectability, is the agent by which Evie's design of the gown created for one of Duroqu’s clients is exposed. Daphne's mother thus becomes the instrument for more of Lydia's loss of respectability. (It should also be pointed out that later on Arthur would use Daphne; and this may be a subconscious way for Mrs. Spencer to have pay back against the mother of the man who uses his daughter. (Also later on Daphne will be the instrument through which Arthur is exposed, when she reveals telling evidence about the club to Sebastian.)

Episode 5 (5)

GETTING THEIR OWN WORK

  • Jack urges Bea to get a separate phone at his studio to respond to inquiries for their dress lines, which are now coming through Jack's phone.
  • Bea and Evie are now swamped with work. (Now that they have taken a positive attitude after the Duroqu situation, and now that Bea has made the commitment to implement Jack's suggestion, life is responding from all quarters. In the latter case, life is responding to a mere decision and commitment, even without an action yet. Principle: life can respond to a mere decision to act on something. We saw that with Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice when he decided to give attention to his daughters, which cancels the elopement, even before he has a chance to act on it!)

SEBASTIAN & EVIE MEET

  • Sebastian and Evie suddenly meet. This "accident" turns out to have happened because they were thinking of one another. Evie wanted to see Sebastian; and Sebastian liked her. They have a common emotional interest, and so they meet. It parallel how Darcy and Eliza meet several times 'by accident." It is because they are one each other's mind with great interest and Intent. Principle: when to parties are intently focused on one another, life's conditions bring them together.
  • Sebastian reveals that he is not Evie' half brother but is a kind of stepbrother to the two sisters. I.e. their father and his father are not the same, though their father and his mother were long time lovers.
  • Now that they are not blood relations, this opens up the possibility for a relationship between the two.

ARTHUR'S LOVE FOR EVIE

  • Arthur loves Evie. She will have nothing to do with it. She can see straight through his treachery. He cannot see his own. He thus suffers in his unrequited love for her. He is unable to see the black spots that prevent her from loving him. (Alternately, Darcy in Pride and Prejudice has the character and conscience to see his limitations of attitude, and change it out of love for Eliza.)

CONTRASTING CHRISTMAS PARTIES & THE IMPACT OF DAPHNE

  • The contrast of the two New Year's parties is striking. One is vital, happy, filled with good will and cheer -- the other one of staid, calm boredom, without sparkle.
  • There is also a third party going on at the club, where Arthur hangs out, and where Daphne is becoming ever more debauched.
  • Daphne goes to see Lydia, who reveals the goings on at the club. "The family's good name," as Lydia says, “is under threat.”
  • Daphne, in a state of confusion visits Bea and Evie. She is very distressed. Bea however is willing to let her in, and sympathizes with her plight in life. This reaction of Bea's will later prove to be critical, in that she will return the favor by revealing all of Arthur's malfeasance to Sebastian, which will bring him down, and free Bea and sister Evie from the Arthur's treachery against their fortune. Principle: Life responds to one's goodness by bringing in return favorable conditions. This is a powerful unfolding that is one of the great keys and subtle lesson in the story!

ARTHUR'S PROPOSAL TO EVIE

  • In Arthur's proposal to Evie, he summons up all of his capacity for sweetness, which however masks the unscrupulous nature that he has presented at every step of the way. (It will be his love for her that will reveal a chink in his armor, where he can show his humanity, yet be rejected for his very flawed nature. Unfortunately, he hardly does anything about it. If anything, he continues to pursue his near-evil ways.)

Episode 6 (6)

RAISING CASH TO FILL ORDERS

  • Bea has been desperately trying to raise cash. She has been turned down everywhere. (HofE have orders, but need the cash to fill them, and thereby expand the business.)
  • Finally, in a desperate state she meets with Desmond. He suggests he would get funding for Bea and Evie if they had a backer, in particular Arthur. (He appears unaware of the unscrupulous ways of Arthur.)
  • Bea is brave enough to give up her contempt for Arthur to ask that he be her guarantor. She has swallowed her pride. Arthur, however, refuses, which is just as well!
  • Jack comes through and offers Bea and Evie money to tide their business over. It is a response to Bea's strong effort to secure money, and, in particular, to be accepting of the possibility of Arthur being the guarantor.

SEBASTIAN'S REALTIONSHIP WITH ARTHUR

  • Sebastian meets Arthur again to ask for money as (alleged) inheritor of his father's estate, even though the father is not really his father, but a stepfather. Arthur refuses, claiming that Sebastian is no blood relative of Evie and Bea's father. Arthur then goes on to say that Sebastian's mother in fact slept around a lot, and therefore Sebastian could be the son of one of a number of men. (But is this true?) For this insinuation, Arthur’s ire toward Arthur increases.
  • Now Sebastian decides to track Arthur to see if he is doing something wrong or questionable that can be used against him. (It will later be discovered by Sebastian that Arthur is cavorting with call girls, and involved in illegal alcohol and drug trafficking at the club. Though Sebastian makes this brazen accusation about Sebastian's mother, it will in fact be Arthur who is behaving in this vulgar manner.)
  • As Arthur continues his treachery and debauchery, the financial condition of the club comes under scrutiny.

THE DOWNFALL OF ARTHUR

  • Desmond says that Bea and Evie have flair and ambition, and are only lacking luck. He has other ideas in mind to help them in a practical way to attract luck.
  • Sebastian discovers through Daphne Arthur’s shady dealing with his partners at the club. (To reiterate: it is a positive life response for Bea to gain this information through Daphne who she took in in an hour of need.)
  • Also, Evie, after her meeting with Desmond, wondered how they could create luck. Luck then descends on them that night when the police raid the club on Sebastian’s word, arresting Arthur and his two partners for their part in illicit drug and alcohol trade. (An interest in creating luck does so. It does so in this case because of the additional past positive energy generated by Bea towards Daphne. When multiple positive energies are released it reinforces the capacity to invoke a powerful positive response from life.)
  • This is also payback for Lydia, because she is now disgraced and socially ostracized by her son's actions. She was concerned with social propriety, when her own son was acting impiously right under her nose. It is unconscious hypocrisy. It is a bitter lesson for her.
  • More 'luck' comes when Lady Finehurst apologizes for earlier disallowing Evie and Bea from working on her dresses due to their association with Arthur (as a relative, and he being Evie's guardian). This is a remarkable turnaround for a member of the aristocracy to make. She then places another order. The negative force is now been blocked, releasing extraordinarily unusual positive outcomes.
  • Order now come pouring in, in this newly non-poisoned, positive atmosphere.
  • Arthur then meets with Bea and Evie and tells them that their father was 80% owner of the club! And all of the interests and dividends from the club now go to them! (There were also other monies of their parents' estate due them that Arthur was hiding, including money from the actual sale of the estate.
  • Bea however is non-vindictive and does not press further charges against him. He is however forced to leave the country.
  • We see that Sebastian and Daphne played key roles in the end of this sordid affair.
  • We see that how Evie and Bea attract events that lead to the end of Arthur. (1) Evie remains positive after the falling out with Partini, which attracts Sebastian who will help end Arthur's power. (2) We see how Bea's self-givingness toward Daphne enables Daphne to be the vehicle of information about Arthur that brings him down. (3) And we see how Evie's positive interest in attracting luck creates yet additional positive energy for the final outcome. These gestures on Bea and Evie's part attract conditions that end the tyranny of Arthur, and open the doors to very positive developments for the two sisters and their business.

Episode 7 (7)

RAPID EXPANSION

  • House of Eliott (i.e. Bea and Evie) now have plenty of money, they set up shop, and prepare for the grand opening.
  • Madge appears as one of a number of new hires.

DESMOND'S BACKGROUND CHALLANGED

  • Sir Desmond is a powerful force and seems to be a man of exemplary character -- at least as expressed through his intention with Bea and Evie.
  • And yet the social worker Penelope visits the prison-mate Fox who questions the very means by which Sir Desmond has risen to the top. Fox accuses Desmond of stealing other's ideas. (Desmond will later refute this in detail.)

HUGO'S POSITVE INFLUENCE

  • Hugo encourages Evie to be creative: to allow her creative juices to flow. (At times one can have a suitor who you do not love, but who you still care for and can help you dearly as a friend. Hugo, and even more Jack, over the longer-term serve this purpose for Evie.)

LYDIA'S LIMITED VIEW REMAINS

  • After all that has transpired, Lydia still looks down on Evie and Bea's venture in House of Eliott. (The only way she truly "changes" is when she moves out of the country to meet up with Arthur. Perhaps her change from falsehood can only fully occur when she is with Arthur, so he can embarrass her again and further her progress! Maybe that is why she is going.)

BEA'S CONCERN ABOUT EVIE'S REALTIONSHIP WITH SEBASTIAN

  • Bea is concerned with Evie going out with Sebastian. Bea thinks that he is an adventurer. (It is never revealed to Bea and Evie (as far as what is presented to the viewer) that he had a hand in the downfall of Arthur.)
  • We could say that Sebastian has already played out his role in terms of Bea and Evie, by being instrumental in the downfall of Arthur. Any further role could be harmful.
  • Sebastian and Evie take a flight aboard one of the planes he flies in his work as pilot/courier. Even here there is static from the owner, an indicator of future difficulties related to flying and Evie, which will indeed be extreme)

CONFIDENCE BUILDS

  • Evie has real confidence that the business will grow; which is to a very positive attitude that tend to attract positive circumstance.
  • Immediately thereafter, there is an opportunity to have an entire wardrobe done for a movie star that Jack has been photographing. (This is one opening/response to Evie's positive outlook.)
  • The contribution of Bea's aspiration for more work, and Evie's positive attitude about the future, attracts a bevy of new orders. (One could say that if one were to maintain such points of view, one would rocket to the top in one's field. This is the frontier of human consciousness. How to overcome our negative propensities, while maintaining the positive ones with intensity, releasing enormous energies that attract the infinite potentials of life.)

PENELOPE'S CONCERN ABOUT DESMOND

  • Penelope thinks that Fox may have true knowledge about Desmond. She then tries to confront Bea and Evie, but they are too busy with work. So she confronts Desmond directly. He then explains the whole story involving Fox. At the end, he even suggests that Fox visit him after he is released from prison so that he can help him. (Desmond dies later on through events unexplained. Perhaps it involves Fox who resents Desmond still.) For a character like Desmond he has to walk a fine line between his goodness and interest in building up others and individuals he may have unconsciously harmed in the process. The entire matter of Desmond, Fox, and the former's death is never fully explained, as the series came to an abrupt halt after the 3rd year, when events were indeed still simmering. (EP)

GETTING PAID BY THE ACTRESS

  • HofE completes their work on the actress’s wardrobe, yet she sails for America without paying them. They are initially very upset. Bea goes to Jack to see what they can do. (This is good because it takes the edge off her fear, and besides Jack is the person through whom the actress came.) As it turns out, Jack too has not been paid by the actress. They all wonder what to do. (They are using their minds, instead of dwelling in their negative emotions; which is a positive step. A spiritual person might offer the matter to the spirit, or take to absolute calm and equality within and draw the resolution to the matter.)*Shortly thereafter a courier arrives with the payment from the actress!
  • We could say that coming together, sharing the problem, and contemplating what to do created a power that attracted the liaison with the payment.)

Episode 8 (8)

OUTFITS TO HIGH PLACES & A NEW LINE

  • HofE's outfits will be worn by participants at the royal wedding, as well as by other members of high society.
  • They are undertaking a line of outfits for the coming season.
  • It is suggested by Sarah White that passion and commitment are the keys to success of HofE. She is an unaffected, open-minded member of the aristocracy.

BEA'S REUNION WITH CAPTAIN WHITE

  • Beas meets her past lover Captain White, who is the husband of her main aristocratic client, Sarah White. She is shell-shocked because she was very much in love with him, and the relationship broke off allegedly by his father. Captain White was the only man she ever loved.

JACK CAN'T GET BUSINESS

  • Jack meanwhile is having trouble attracting business as portrait photographer.

PENELOPE'S FRUSTRATION WITH THE MISSION

  • Penelope feels that the mission to help the poor and destitute is not getting any support from anyone, and is completely frustrated.

SEBASTIAN'S INVITATION TO PARIS

  • Sebastian asks Evie to fly to Paris, but Bea her guardian now does not approve of her relationship, let along the flight.

BEA'S DISCOVERY ABOUT CAPTAIN WHITE'S LETTERS

  • Bea discovers that all of the love letter sent by Captain White during their romance to her were intercepted. (She perceives that it was her father who has done it, and therefore her bitterness towards him now moves to hate.)

LYDIA & BEA'S MEETING

  • Lydia invites Bea for a visit. Bea says you cannot hold grudges forever. (She knows somewhat from experience.) Lydia ends up offering her own old dresses for the inmates of the mission Penelope does work for. Lydia has certainly been softened through the scandal of Arthur. She is trying to break virulent old habits. It is admirable for a person to try to redeem themselves in light of her past mistakes.

BEA AND EVIE SQUABBLE

  • Evie is angry about Bea's rejection of her flight to Paris. (In every case where there is anger there is a fault underneath. Evie's anger is a predecessor of the tragedy to come, and her mistaken relationship with Sebastian. Even Bea's anger at her father is misplaced in the sense that you can't, as Lydia suggest, hold onto grudge forever. An evolved person never holds a grudge even for a second, despite all circumstances. Anger is thus a sign of something not worked out, a falsehood underneath.)
  • Likewise, Bea is angry at Evie and Jack for various matters. She is in fact agitated by having seen Captain White, which disturbs her, and the revelation about the letters. (The same principle as above applies.)
  • Even righteous indignation (Against a party that has clearly wronged another), which is a form of anger that can be accepted as a justified form, is more often than not a sign of weakness.
  • Desmond suggests that Evie apologize to Bea for whatever she said that caused a row between them. (Bea was upset about Captain White and the letters. Evie of Bea not accepting Sebastian. Both sides are wrong at some level or to some degree in such a row, since anger is expressed.)
  • Desmond however says she should not apologize to Bea because she wants her to accept Sebastian, but because she acted like a fool in getting so upset. Desmond has the wisdom of psychological insight. (It is similar to the Inspector General in Trollope's 'Lady Anna.")
  • Evie wants to go to Paris with Sebastian. They both say how they had spoken horribly to one another.
  • Immediately after they secure the loan from Desmond, which is a response to their reconciliation; in particular the power of forgiveness. Release of such powerful positive energies through movements of forgiveness have a great tendency to attract positive results from the environment.

THE FLIGHT & THE DEATH OF SEBASTIAN

  • Desmond suggest an alternate to Evie's Paris trip; that she be chaperoned by a connection of his there. Desmond is looking out for her interests. (Subconsciously he is very concerned, after learning of the row between the two sisters over Sebastian, and wants things to go smoothly.)
  • Hugo, who is another of Evie's suitors, while being a helpful friend in the past, learns of the trip. (He will play a great role in the outcome.) He is somewhat jealous of Sebastian's relationship with Evie; even though he knows that no commitments have been joined between he and Evie. Hugo thus offers to drive her to the airport.
  • The day arrives. Evie asks Hugo to drive faster to get to the airport on time to meet Sebastian.
  • Sebastian waits anxiously for Evie to arrive in front of the plane.
  • We see Hugo's car overheat (allegedly) due to driving too fast.
  • New Hugo is lost.
  • Sebastian takes off without her.
  • Hugo and Evie arrive at the airport, but it’s too late. Sebastian is in the sky.
  • Bea has reconciled with Captain White, and they are now able to go on with their separate lives.
  • Hugo comes to HofE with word that Sebastian has been killed in the flight.
  • Hugo reveals that he intentionally prevented them from arriving on time at the airport. (Out of his love for her we could say that he has saved her life by arriving later for Evie being on the plane. In his courtship of Evie, he has always been deferring despite his flame inside. Also, he has helped Evie in encouraging her on the creative side in the past. All that good energy saves her. Still she is extremely bitter, because he clocked her from the rendezvous and trip to Paris, even though she likely would have been killed.)

Episode 9 (9)

EVIE'S RECOVERY FROM TRAGEDY

  • Jack interrupts as Bea tries to organize papers in the business. She is bothered by this. It is a predecessor and indicator of the way their marriage would unfold.
  • Betty and Agnes appear as new tailors at HofE.
  • In response to the tragedy with Evie, she throws herself into her work.
  • In a heart to heart conversation -- the first since the crash -- both Bea and Evie see that they have something else to live for and in common that energizes them -- their business, House of Eliott.
  • Out of the discussion, Evie reveals that she is excited about developing a new dynamic line, which Bea however is not fully ready for. (It is Evie's willful, creative energies that drives the company, and attract positive circumstance.)

BEA & EVIE'S NEED TO RECONCILE

  • Bea meets Desmond, who wisely suggests that if Bea and Evie have difficulties about the future direction of the business, they should square things out for it to succeed. (We know that if the energies are divided within, life ted to not attract positive results without. We see it at the subtle level; Desmond sees it at the practical material level. Still it is wise, whether fully conscious of how reality unfolds or nor)
  • We see that Bea needs to BE more flexible. We see that that in some ways she is like her father!

PROBLEMS WITH TILLIE

  • The quality of the work that Tillie is performing is deteriorating. She is not physically well. Madge suggests she take some time off. Tilly feels obligated to support her family, and can't afford to lose wages. Yet her health is deteriorating. (Tilly shows great dedication and loyalty -- both the HofE and her family. It is s great trait, but she does not know quite how to do it, and so her health suffers.)

PENELOPE IS BEATEN

  • Penelope is beaten by other homeless poor when trying to help a fallen life whose history she is familiar with. Something is clearly wrong in her approach or in the mission, or her relations to it.
  • Jack has a practical, open-minded, and rational view about things happening outside himself. We see this when he gives reasonable advise to Penelope, who could have been beaten badly. Jack constantly surprises with his penetrating insights. You don't expect this from a playboy-like personality, but as we hall see later his family is from highly developed, intelligent stock.

EVIE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

  • A surprise birthday party is thrown for Evie. It is a sign that her life is turning around after the Sebastian debacle (although she never knew his role in bringing down Arthur). It is her 21st birthday (i.e. the commonly accepted "coming of age" indicator). She has really blossomed at this point!
  • The dancing of Penelope and Desmond together is a magical moment as it is a symbolic unification of wealth and wisdom with social awareness and cause. And yet Penelope collapses due to her excessive efforts at the mission. Perhaps we can say that Desmond's clear, powerful energies force Penelope to confront her sometimes irrational, single-minded determination to change the ills of society through the mission. She must learn to somehow be more practical, as brother Jack earlier suggested. (She will act irresponsibly again this way when she spoils the get together between the well to do and the mission in a later episode.)

JACK'S FEELINGS FOR BEA

  • Jack professes his deep admiration for Bea; in particular stating how well she looks no matter how busy she is. He is starting to fall in love with her. (He also admires her business, her strength, her organizing capacity, though later on he will be bothered by it mainly because his own energies are not being absorbed in productive use.)

AGNES INTERVIEWS ELSEWHERE

  • Agnes goes to interview at another company because she is unhappy with Bea at HofE. It turns out that her friend Tommy Dixon has suggested that he contact another organization. He does so for his own mercenary reason, not merely to help her or because he truly cares for her.

BEA & PENELOPE'S STRENGTH

  • Both Bea and Penelope are similar in that they are both strong, self-reliant/actuated individuals.

EVIE AND BEA's DIFFERENT APPRAOCHES TO WORK

  • Desmond at the first HofE board meeting suggests that Bea and Evie are drifting; i.e. they do not have fine-tuned goals -- i.e. a strategic plan. The issue of Evie's new line is raised. Desmond suggests that they make a plan to make it happen.
  • Bea then raises the question: what is the style of the new line? If there is a goal to achieve, in terms of presenting it within a year, what is the style that will fulfill it?
  • Bea and Evie indicate that they have two different approaches. Evie wants modern, creative designs. Bea wants traditional ones that the clients have demanded in the past. Bea believes that Evie's bold ideas might not sell. Desmond says that the plan for a new presentation within a year must go ahead.

TILLIE'S PROBLEM EXPANDS

  • Because of Tillie's problem, the tailors are feeling overworked, and there is dissention.
  • The disagreement between Evie and Bea's view of the new lines is reflected in the dissention of the workers. It is a negative response for them. This reminds us again of Desmond's admonition for the need to be a harmony of purpose.
  • It is revealed that Tillie's problem is that she has been working elsewhere to make ends meet. It has exhausted her. Bea and Evie work out a new raise for her. Tillie is so loyal that she would rather suffer than ask for a raise from HofE.
  • The inability of Evie and Bea to reconcile is also reflected by Tillie's near collapse. It also indicates that Bea has not been giving the staff the necessary attention they deserve.

Episode 10 (10)

DEDICATION & COMMITTMENT

  • Individuals in HofE show various forms of dedication, commitment, and values. Tillie is dedicated to her work, as well as her family. Penelope is dedicated to the extreme to her cause to lift up the downtrodden. Bea is dedicated to running HofE, her business. Desmond is dedicated to prosperity, and the methods that will create success. Evie is dedicated to her creative vision.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EVIE & BEA'S WORK VIEW

  • There is conflict between Bea and Evie. Evie wants creativity. Bea however is wary of taking risks.
  • what the customer wants vs. what new thing you can bring to the client
  • organizational efficiency vs. creativity
  • practicality vs. creativity
  • Customer Delights vs. Catching the wave
  • Bea tries to strike a balance; at least is more inclined to do so than Evie.
  • Bea concludes that there needs to be a balance. (As a reasonable person, she is coming around to embrace Evie's point of view while maintaining aspects of her own. She is in essence giving up some of her fear.)
  • Evie does not want to compromise. In a huff, she goes off to museum and comes up with ideas for new dresses based on the butterfly.

EVIE: THE TEMPRAMENTAL ARTIST

  • The artist can be temperamental, uncompromising.
  • Even 10% compromise might allow the artist's COMPLETE FULFILLMENT AND SUCCESS! And yet ..
  • Evie goes off to the museum to look for creative inspiration. She is having brainstorms of inspiration at the museum, which is itself a positive response to her intention of developing a creative vision, and for remaining positive in attitude. She will be capturing the emerging movements of society, not the past movements as Bea currently aspires to embrace.

BEA'S HUMULIATING EXPERIENCES

  • Bea goes to visit Lady Latner who asks that a horrid, childish costume dresses be made for her. This is a negative life response for Bea whose value is to simply do what the current clients demand. She is seeing the limit of this approach of catering to existing society through this absurd incident.
  • Humiliated somewhat by the experience, Bea starts creating her own designs. She also has a natural talent in this area.
  • When Evie shows her designs to Bea, Bea is cool to them. Bea also tells Evie that she (Bea) has taken on an absurd sort of project for one of their clients. Both responses infuriate Evie. It is a negative life response to her anger and the resulting trip to the museum. A negative response to her unwillingness to compromise. (The positive energy is now with Bea.) Evie's artist temperament of uncompromise is preventing progress; even progress for her own designs.

TRYING TO STRIKE A BALANCE IN THEIR CONFLICTING VIEWS

  • When Bea tries to strike a balance, Jack suddenly appears on the scene. Advocates of Harmony Attract Positive Life Response.
  • Jack comes over to Bea's side in the dispute, indicating that Bea is more flexible and allowing for a degree of creativity. This a continuation, a follow-up of the previous follow-up life response to Bea when Jack arrives.
  • Seeing the complementariness of the contradictions and conflicts is the resolution we as conscious individuals are seeking. (I.e., here we need to see how both sides need one another for their further growth; how each has a truth that the other needs; that the set of these conflicts enables both sides o go further, to progress. From out higher consciousness thus we can see that the conflict on the surface is enabling higher resolution, progress in its deeper unfolding.)
  • (re: Lydia) A person who boasts about a personal quality -- e.g. of her being tolerant, as Lydia does -- is often the opposite of the boast.

JACK'S WORK PROBLEMS

  • (re: Jack) When people are nervous, they drink and smoke; never considering that one can move to a deeper consciousness to calm one's self, let alone have the equality to see that the negative can be learned from and even reversed through our higher consciousness.
  • Jack seems to attract work whenever he focuses on new work. Unfortunately, he is not organized enough to constantly aspire for work. It is the dilemma of a person working for themselves in a creative craft, or any entrepreneur for that matter.

EVIE BEGINS TO RELENT

  • Through Jack’s sister, Evie sees the pig-headedness of her ways, and returns to compromise with Bea. A big order suddenly arrives, which includes an order from the daughter of a client (a creative one coming from the younger generation, just what Evie's creative nature yearns for). A positive life response for the House of Eliott due to Evie's change in attitude.
  • Because Evie is willing to give in a little, Desmond and Rose appear on the scene to invite them to dinner, opening the door to the compromise. Lesson: A small opening of compromise (change of attitude) attracts an opportunity for even greater change!

THE DIPLOMACY OF DESMOND & HIS DAUGHTER TO RESOLVE E&B'S DISPUTES

  • The fine, passive diplomacy of Desmond is surpassed by the active diplomacy of his daughter Rose, who helps work things out by discovering points of agreement between the sisters.
  • Desmond's daughter helps turn the contradictions between Bea and Evie into complementaries. She has a great diplomatic skill. I.e. she is an active diplomat, helping resolve the situation between Evie and Bea. She has in one sense diplomatic skill even beyond her father, who is more passive though insightful in his manner of diplomacy. This is a great scene!
  • The role of the negotiator is to find where people agree -- even if it’s the smallest of things -- and work things out from there. Rose does this! (Jean Luc Picard of Star Trek is a master of this; one of the reasons he is so respected throughout the galaxy.)
  • This is a great episode on conflict resolution!

LYDIA'S INVITAIONS TURNED DOWN; & HER HUMILIATION

  • All of Lydia's invitations are turned down. It is social ostracism for Arthur's past deeds. A person can learn from negativity, or feel more bitter. It is our choice. (Desmond steps in to soften the blow by inviting her out, indicating there is a part of her that is changing.) Lydia swallows her pride, and performs a generous act.

EVIE MOVES OUT; JACK MOVES IN

  • When Evie moves out, Jack "moves in" (on Bea). With Bea having less say over Evie's comings and goings, Bea is forced to deal with her own feelings and energies. Thus, Jack steps into the vacuum.
  • Bea in part gives in to Jack's semi-proposal because of his remark that we are not getting any younger. She feels the social pressure to get married. (Gradually, over time, this pressure is receding in the current generations.)

Episode 11 (11)

THE INSPIRATION OF THE NOCTURNE LINE

  • Evie hereafter has an intuition of the Nocturne line (based on the music of Chopin and a Whistler painting). This is a life response to her willingness for compromise. It is also an alignment and response for Bea who had mentally striven to come up with ideas for the line. (Power of intention.) (Bea's intensity to discover a line, allowed Evie to be taken by the hypnotic music and come up with the Nocturne line; and vice versa.)
  • Another medium, music, enthralled Evie, and enabled her to develop the Nocturne theme. It began with the music, leads to her viewing paintings, which leads to the development of the theme. A different vital energy and medium for the artist -- here music and art, as opposed to just design -- opens up a new inspiration.

LYDIA'S HUMILIATION & RECONNECTING WITH ARTHUR

  • Lydia says, "as if I would ever boss other people around." Ignorance cannot see its own ignorance.
  • (In episode 10) Lydia, whose invitations to her party is turned down by the invitees due to Arthur's scandal, is still generous enough to give the check to the hospital fund. Suddenly thereafter (here in Chapter 11), she receives word from her son Arthur. (This is an immediate positive response to her generosity, and would later lead to her beginning a new life with her son in Boston.)

BEA OPENS UP TO JACK

  • Bea is also opening up in ideas through her budding romance with Jack. Her vital energies are flowing, including her romantic and artistic energies, leading to creative insight.

BEA & EVIE HAVE MEETING OF THE MINDS

  • Bea is now even willing to be involved in the mixing of colors. Bea and Evie are now shifting completely to the opposite of their previous uncompromising positions. Bea is advocating daring and mixing colors and Evie a certain conservative refinement in the designs. In such a long-term positive atmosphere between them, they can easily flip to the complete opposite! The power of a changed attitude, and work of Rose continue to vibrate forward.
  • Bea and Evie have now completely crossed over to each other’s point of view; to the point where they are beginning to look out through one another’s ideas, in terms of aspiration and inspiration. This is a tremendous development, and a sure sign of future success.
  • At one point, Evie takes Bea's point of view of doing the dresses in black; and then Bea says no, Evie’s original vision of blue is the way to go. It is a response for Evie having taken the person's point of view. Life cooperates when you take up another's position. It is a supra-mental capacity of man, awaiting him in the future.
  • Now they are willing to be more daring together. As a result, they turn down a customer of the old sort. That customer feels insulted and leaves. (Is the customer of the old guard and therefore suffers, or are Bea and Evie insensitive a bit here? Perhaps both. Yet the overall movement toward new creativity in their line is now well under way.)
  • At each point where Bea and Evie decide to go higher in their accomplishment, there's a little static generated from other forces, the parties they are breaking away from. Yet they have the confidence to slough them off and move higher. When we try to go higher in life, we tend to generate or attract opposing forces in addition to the positive ones. If we have the power, we can overcome such opposition. Sometimes the opposing forces become the very means of our higher accomplishment.
  • They have youth, self-confidence, and blossoming talents.
  • It is interesting to note that as this reconciliation between Evie and Bea take place, Lydia is contemplating moving away to be with Arthur. (As a negative force moves away the positive one blossoms, and vice versa.)

JACK'S LUCK CHANGES

  • Meanwhile Jack is having a similar experience as he moves up from photography to film. (As Evie and Bea's fortunes change, so does his.)
  • Jack can be a very wise fellow, when he deliberately considers issues before him.
  • Penelope is a wonderful character -- flaws and all.

DEALING WITH MADGE'S INITIATIVE & THEIR FORGIVENESS

  • Bea and Evie were fired from the two previous couturiers they worked for. The owners perceived that they did something wrong; which was not true. They were the victims of harsh treatment in those episodes that they didn't deserve. Madge (sp?) acted similarly under them, yet the sisters did not fire her. They have learned positively from their past experiences; and they have a more tolerant nature; less ego to protect that their former two employers.

PREVIEW: PROBLEMS WITH VICTOR STRIDE

  • When Bea and Evie try to go higher up through Victor Stride, they open themselves up to a scurrilous journal article that attempts to link them back to Arthur and his scandal. When a person tries to rise up to a higher level without the necessary power, they are knocked down from above.

Episode 12 (12)

EVIE'S OPTIMISM & WITH-THE-TIMES OUTLOOK

  • Evie is consistently optimistic about their ability to make progress.
  • Evie expresses confidence, and will not be bothered by the harsh journal article. It shows that they may even have some of the power to rise up to that higher level. I.e. she is not bothered by the negative force from above, which as a result gives them power. Evie's confidence enables this -- a trait she has shown before.
  • Life responds to Evie’s positive attitude and strength when the journal reverses its previous serious accusations, now publishing an article that is favorable to the House of Eliott.
  • Evie drives the business forward with her creativity. Bea keeps it in balance (which is the expression of the power of organization.)
  • Evie however is the driving force in tune with the demands of a changing society.

PREVIEW OF INITIATIVE THROUGH MADGE THAT BACKFIRES

  • Preview: Bea and Evie's initiative to develop a new collection through Madge's boyfriend will eventually backfire, when the proprietor of that rival organization, Yolanda Homane nearly ruins them. (This is described in the upcoming theft episode.) This will turn out to be a tactic of their rivals, mirroring their own falsehood in this regard. It is out of character and regressive. It is an indicator that they have to shore up their values. Their energies and organization are strong; now their values need to rise to that same level. Through this false movement, they attract a fiasco that calls into being their own morality. (It will also rise again through the actions of Grace much later on in the story.)
  • Jack disapproves of their tactic, showing his common sense and ethics.

TAKEN IN BY VICTOR STRIDE & YOLANDA

  • Penelope is feeling disenchanted with the mission she works for. Her minister friend at the mission, Robert, Suggest that Penelope go with him to Africa. She says she is tired of the "charity charade," where they are forced to ask for money from wealthy donors.
  • Though Victor Stride has written a positive article about House of Eliott to reverse the precious scurrilous one, it will turn own to be a charade; a way to meet with them and get information about their designs.
  • In the meeting, Victor says he would like the Couturier magazine to have exclusive rights to their upcoming collection. He will end up deceiving them.
  • Evie has been star struck about the notoriety of Victor all along. She is young and gullible here. Her psychological weakness here will enable Victor to take advantage of HofE.*Evie and Bea agree to the magazine feature. Victor then proceeds to find out information about the line. (He is well on his way in his plan of deception.)
  • Evie reveals to Victor that Jack is doing photos of the collection. This revelation will prove to be nearly disastrous for them. (Evie's nativity, plus their own foolish initiative to get collection ideas from others through Madge have precipitated these events.)*The collection presentation begins. It is going extremely well. Yolanda then gets up and claims that these are all copies of her designs. It is false. How can Bea and Evie prove otherwise? The story of the "copying" of designs appears in the newspaper. Bea perceives that Victor is to blame.
  • Madge's boyfriend is suspect since he works for Yolanda. Madge is upset. She says that one thing she did was to spy on Yolanda in the first place. She knows this was wrong.
  • The resolution of the incident will indicate how Madge's effort, prodded on by Evie and Bea, attracted the negative response of Yolanda's action at the collection presentation and the newspaper article.
  • Jack realizes that his studio has been broken into.

CONFRONTING VICTOR STRIDE

  • Evie showed strength and an intuitive capacity to get at the cause of the scandal where the rivals (including Yollanda) blamed House of Eliott for plagiarizing the designs, when they in fact stole their collection before the presentation, which could have ruined House of Eliott. Evie's confidence and positive attitude save the day.
  • Evie confronts Victor about his involvement with Yolanda in the scheme. He admits he did it because he loves her, and he wanted to help her with her flagging collection. So they had someone break in and reproduce HofE's photos of the collection. (This is similar to what happens in the film Wicker Park, where the hero’s stalking of the girl he is infatuated with is paralleled to he being stalked by someone who cares for him. A negative initiative attracts a parallel negative initiative. )
  • Evie forces Victor to write the truth. And yet she does not implicate Victor. She is forgiving in the situation because she sympathized with Yolanda's flagging ability to come up with inspired designs and Victor's attempt to help her in that time of need. It is wrong what they did, but Evie has compassion for Yolanda's plight as a fellow artist who has lost her inspiration.

EVIE'S FORGIVENESS

  • Evie is forgiving of the woman (Yollanda) who tried to destroy her by stealing the designs. She even has sympathy for her plight; This is a telling part of her nature, and a powerful example of forgiveness and self-givingness. Life is bound to respond to it. Even though our enemies may try to destroy us, one can still sympathize with the cause of their actions and downfall.
  • Such forgiveness tends to attract powerful positive response from life. It is the release of negative energies of bitterness, which tends to attract the positive.
  • Because Jack resented that Bea would not devote herself fully to him in order to tend to her work, Jack became the vehicle for her and her sister's near ruin of the presentation, when the break in to steal a copy of the designs happens at his studios. Our negative attitudes attract a breach in our armor. He is not the cause of the treachery, only a vehicle for the theft. Yet he is in the final analysis too positive a character, and all is resolved.)

HOUSE OF ELIOTT REGAINS THEIR REPUTATION

  • Great benefit now comes to HofE, as their reputation is regained as the truth comes out, and they win back many loyal and new clients. Life did not have to move in this direction, but Evie's forgiveness, and the willingness of the two to confront the morality of what they did originally by sending out Madge to discover designs from Yolanda has opened the portals of life to the positive.
  • Lydia goes off to America to be with Arthur, who has gone there to start a new life.
  • Evie says that everything seems to be changing.

"WE'RE UNSTOPPABLE"

  • Will Bea marry Jack? Evie is pushing her in that direction.
  • "We're unstoppable." The combination of the creativity of Bea, the strength and organization of Bea, and now greater clarity in terms of morality and ethics (i.e. values) drives them forward. Also, the negative energies around them overcome gives them a new confidence and strength to move forward. They are lucky in one sense to have survived this incident, which has now taught them certain important life lessons.
  • One other point: Despite Penelope's protestations (and her good works for the underprivileged), there's a startling amount of goodwill and integration taking place amongst the 3 or 4 social classes through this group of individuals in the story. From lowest class (through the vehicle of Penelope, and Evie who attracted Penelope and Jack through her kindness to a suffering street person at the outset of the story; up through the middle class (that the two sisters are essentially part of), to the wealthy at the top (including Desmond). Even the upper crust aunt Lydia has been working for the poor.