Excellent penultimate episode Mirror finds Henry and Cromwell in an aptly reflective mood.
Warning: contains spoilers for The Mirror and the Light episode 5.
What was Henry trying to tell Cromwell by recalling that business with the untaken trip to the Weald?
To Henry, Cromwell has proved first a disappointment and now, thanks toGardinerand Norfolks poison, a traitor.
Henrys not one to suffer disappointment, as his less-than-regal response to Anna of Cleves showed.
), he settled on the worst courtship idea since Oedipus made eyes at his mother.
Her height, her bonnet, her breasts, her displeasant airs…
The real problem was simply that Anna had failed to be astonished and delighted by her prince.
Henrys ego couldnt take the humiliation, nor any of the blame.
Regifting the clock was really the only move Cromwell made towards saving himself in Mirror.
Was it wise, asked Risley?
Not at all wise, no.
How often do you get the chance to change the map of the world?
Just once in two or three generations?
he asked in this episode.
Getting that over the line and divorcing England irrevocably from the Emperor and the papacy is his only concern.
Henry gifting Catherine Howard rubies that once decorated her cousins unfortunate neck.
Fitzwilliam and the rest of those jackals conspiring to pull off that cruel stunt in the privy council chambers.
So many manoeuvres being made out of sight, so many whispers happening beyond Cromwells earshot and our own.
Like him though, we could scent the danger in the air every new exchange sounding another uh-oh.
At least Archbishop Cranmer, perhaps Cromwells only friend at court, wasnt part of the hunting party.
Like a splinter in the flesh of the nobility, Cromwell has been plucked out.
Cromwells done the first.
Now for the last.
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Lightconcludes on Sunday December 15 on BBC One.
