'Belgravia's Finale Ends Not With a Bang, but a Whimper
At times, Belgravia was exactly what period drams ought to aspire to be - entertaining, with plenty of fancy dresses, soapy gossip, and entertaining upper-class problems. Unfortunately, the show's final hour veers far too frequently into essentially pointless melodrama, complete with continually scheming servants, actual murder attempts, blackmail and more. The show witholds the one thing we've all been waiting for - for literally anyone to tell poor dumb Charles Pope who he really is - until there are exactly seven minutes remaining in the episode, and then throws a two-minute wedding scene at the end as though that makes up for everything this hour does wrong. It really didn't have to be like this.
In a different world, we could have not had this whole stupid subplot about the lies a handful of random men in Manchester told to try and make Charles look bad, which was pointless and obviously never going anywhere. We could have skipped the bit where John Bellasis tries to kill multiple people, because while he is obviously a terrible person and it's understandable that the thought of losing an earldom might very well make a man despair, it's never been even remotely hinted at that he would just casually embrace murder in this way. Much as it pains me to try and defend John on any point, this episode really does just completely give up when it comes to his character.
Prior to this moment, John was skeevy and gross, but not openly-kill-a-man-evil, and most of his other non-murder related behavior here also makes absolutely zero sense. Why would he tell his sidepiece Susan this damaging information that could ruin his life? Why would he show her proof of it? And then leave her alone with those documents? Why wouldn't he try to promise her marriage or money or literally anything in exchange for her fetching the real copies from her mother-in-law's house? However, I can 100% believe he'd laugh in her face about the prospect of marrying her and tell her to get an abortion. The rest of it? Not so much.
