Lessons in Chemistry Recap: The Preacher’s Daughter
Now that Elizabeth has a platform, she has to reconcile how to use it.
A few episodes ago, when Elizabeth Zott told Reverend Wakely that her relationship with religion and faith was “complicated” because of her childhood, she wasn’t lying. In fact, she may have been understating things. In “Poirot,” we see where Elizabeth came from and why she turned to truth and science — and why she completely cut her parents out of her life — and it’s not pretty.
We meet a young Elizabeth back in 1934, Alabama, as she watches her father completely bamboozle a congregation into believing that he can expel demons and receive fiery signs from God when he asks for them. She’s so young, though, so why would she ever think to question that her father might be lying? It’s her beloved brother John who lets her in on what their father, the “preacher,” is up to. He shows her how their father pulls off the ol’ sudden burst of flame on a chair trick by having John light a pistachio shell on fire. It’s not an act of God — it’s chemistry, baby. As Elizabeth grapples with what that means, John makes sure she knows that, if anything, she should try to be the opposite of their father. “I think that living a lie will eat you up inside. Whatever hell is, it must feel something like that,” he tells his sister. While in the moment John is talking about his dad and the repercussions his lies might have, Elizabeth only figures out later that John’s also talking about himself. John is gay, and because of his father and the world they live in (but mostly their father), he’s forced to keep it a secret. Even worse, when dear old dad isn’t lying to steal money from people looking for faith, he’s calling his own son disgusting, spitting on him, and generally making John hate himself. In one of the cruelest moments, Elizabeth recalls a time when her father made John ride in the trunk of their car to punish him. Sure, Elizabeth was young, but she sat there and said nothing, did nothing. You know she carries that guilt even still. It is tragically not a surprise to anyone when, one day, John shoots himself in the head.
In those brief flashbacks, it’s easy to see how Elizabeth became who she is today. She’s constantly asking questions, seeking truth, and trusting in the science of things. She is honest to a fault. It’s also easy to see why these memories of where she came from are creeping in now. Supper at Six is a massive hit. Among other things, this means that Elizabeth has a legion of loyal fans who trust her implicitly. So when Big Phil tries to remind Elizabeth who’s boss by informing her that she needs to say that their new sponsor, a shortening brand, is her secret ingredient to all of her cooking and she couldn’t recommend it enough, she takes issue with it. It couldn’t be the furthest from the truth. At first, she refuses. Phil retaliates by suspending her for three shows without pay — which means no one else on the crew is getting paid for those days either. Elizabeth is stuck in a tough position, not wanting to give up her principles but also knowing she has people’s livelihoods in her hands. In the next show, she hawks for Swift & Crisp. Phil thinks he’s broken her in, finally. But the lie is killing her, and when she begins to incorporate a Q&A with the audience and has to lie to their faces, the uneasiness grows. She’s let Phil turn her into something she’s not.
Elizabeth has lost herself — or, at least, the person she promised her brother she’d try to be — in other ways, too, and we see that really play out within her friendship with Harriet, which has very much felt lopsided from the beginning. Finally, Harriet calls her out on it.
Emotions are running high over at the Sloane house. Yes, there are some tensions between Harriet and Charlie since their work keeps them on completely opposite schedules, but there’s something else much bigger at play here. The Civil Rights Movement is intensifying, and as the Sloanes watch Martin Luther King Jr. get arrested for participating in a sit-in in Atlanta, Harriet finds herself a formidable mix of scared, angry, and inspired. She wants to channel those emotions into action and decides to put together a peaceful protest to stop the construction of the freeway (yup, it’s still happening). Charlie’s against it, citing how dangerous it could be not just for them but also for their kids — not to mention they both have careers to think about. Harriet can’t believe that Charlie is scared of what his white colleagues at the hospital might think about his “radical” and “disobedient” wife. Charlie’s hurt by the accusation — he’s never been one to buy into the misogyny that dictates so many marriages, and Harriet knows it, but Harriet wants her husband’s support in this.
She also wants Elizabeth’s. Just as Harriet and Charlie are having this big conversation, Elizabeth calls to talk about … how she wore pants on television today, and while it pissed off her boss, she thinks it really made a statement. The juxtaposition of what’s important in Elizabeth’s world versus Harriet’s is not lost on anybody except Elizabeth — and that’s the point. She is so removed from what’s happening outside her bubble that it’s infuriating. Harriet stands there and does some bare minimum listening as Elizabeth goes on and on about her fucking pants She does not slam the phone through the wall, but no one would’ve blamed her if she did.
Thankfully, Harriet doesn’t let Elizabeth get away with being oblivious for too long. When the two women come face to face just before the freeway protest, Harriet asks her friend to not just attend but talk about it on the show. Elizabeth balks. The studio would suspend everyone again, and as much as she’d like to help Harriet, she just can’t. With all the restraint Harriet can muster, she tries to impress upon Elizabeth that this isn’t just some favor for a friend. This is bigger than them, bigger than their friendship — yes, Harriet is having flashbacks to when Calvin ditched her cause once he fell in love — this is about the people “all over this country who are struggling to be seen.” Elizabeth has a platform — which, Harriet also points out, is almost exclusively white women — and people listen to what she has to say. Harriet will press on without her, but what a disappointment.
As Elizabeth thinks it over, though, she can’t help but connect it to the guilt she feels about her brother. She couldn’t have saved him, but she could’ve been in his corner. She is a person who stands up for what and who she believes in and, up until these past few weeks, has prided herself on being honest. So, of course, Elizabeth ends up talking about the protest on air. She has the camera close in on the flier as she talks about why she’ll be going, even as Phil yells to stop. When he comes over to her after the show, he is once again throwing his weight around — she and the rest of the staff will be suspended for four days for her stunt. But Elizabeth refuses to take it from him this time. She has the power in this situation. If Phil could replace her, he would have done so a long time ago. He stands to lose more money airing reruns than she does, and she is more than happy to compensate the entire crew for their lost wages out of her own pocket — it will still cost less than how much Phil will lose. And she’s right. And Phil knows it. Elizabeth is done letting the man (and A Man) dictate her life.
And so comes the big freeway protest. It goes about how you think it would, which is to say, it’s a moving declaration against injustice, and then, as Harriet leads the group to sit down as the police arrive, it turns into something quite difficult to watch, as Harriet’s friends and neighbors are dragged away and beaten right in front of her.
When Harriet and Charlie, who were both arrested, arrive home safely, they sit outside the house and hold each other. Harriet immediately wants to spring into action, helping those who were hurt and figuring out what to do next, but Charlie needs time to process. He was terrified, which was exactly why he was worried about doing it in the first place. It’s not because of his job or his reputation at work; who cares about that? He’s just scared of losing his wife. What if she’s the one beaten up and put in the hospital next time? They’ve worked so hard to build a life together and to find success and happiness. “What does it matter if you’re not here?” he says, breaking down. She holds him and assures him she’s not going anywhere. “I’m here,” she tells him. These two! THESE TWO. I would die for these two!! I remain deeply interested in the huge change the series made to Book Harriet — the Sloanes add so much to this version of the story, and Aja Naomi King is such a highlight.
A lot is going on in this episode, but we haven’t even gotten to the bit that is going to propel us into the last few episodes of the series: Detective Mad Zott is hot on the case of What’s the Deal with My Dead Dad? When Mad tells Wakely that she’s hit a dead end with all the St. Luke’s stuff, the Reverend encourages her to take a step back and go over the evidence she does have. She needs to find a new way forward. When Mad and Linda find a cease and desist letter Calvin had made by Harriet’s firm, well, they know the new way forward. Linda and her brother attempt to steal Calvin’s case file from their mother’s work and immediately get caught, as kids are wont to do, but a lot of good comes from the attempt anyway. Mainly, it finally forces Elizabeth to really talk to her daughter about Calvin.
Elizabeth and Mad share a gorgeous little scene in which Elizabeth apologizes for not talking about Calvin more — through her daughter, she’s realized that “not talking about the people we miss doesn’t make it better, it makes it worse.” Mad shares the little hat box of mementos she’s collected about her dad, and Elizabeth shares some of the things she has that belonged to John, including those pistachio shells. Things in the Zott house will be different from now on.
Because of this chat, Mad gets her hands on that case file and discovers letters written to Calvin asking him for money. The one letter not about seeking out money, however, becomes the most important one, and Mad brings it over for Wakely to look at. The person who wrote this one, an Avery Parker, mentions a specific St. Luke’s boy’s school. Now Mad knows exactly where to find more information about her father. But that’s not the only discovery happening here. When Wakely looks over the letter, he stops when he gets to the front of the envelope with Calvin’s name. “Mad, your dad is Calvin Evans?” he asks like he knows — or rather, knew Calvin. It sounds like Detective Mad Zott is about to get a big ol’ info dump on her dearly departed dad.
Lab Notes
• Okay, is it stretching it to think that Wakely, in the seven years since meeting Elizabeth and knowing the Sloanes as well as he does (he’s shown over at their house!), was never told or never heard that Elizabeth’s late partner was a famous scientist named Calvin Evans? Yes, but I’m also willing to buy it for the story. Hey, that man is probably very busy!
• Fran Frask is back! Elizabeth runs into her at the grocery store and learns that she left Hastings soon after Elizabeth did (I told you that meeting about firing Elizabeth because she was pregnant did not sit well with Franny). They kind of hit it off in a former war buddies type of way and Elizabeth invites her to a taping of the show. It’s not long before Fran offers some friendly advice on how to improve a few things, and it’s advice that makes a lot of sense. Elizabeth hires her as her Chief of Staff immediately.
• I’m sorry, was that a little crush I saw develop when Walter gets introduced to Fran? Could it be? Please say yes!
• I could not love Walter any more than I do after he deliberately disobeyed Phil as Phil tried to stop Elizabeth from talking about the protest. When he tells the camera to push in on the flier, knowing it could cost him his job? Walter forever!
• “I knew it from the moment I saw her; that is a star right there.” Phil can truly, madly, deeply, get bent.