The Fallout From James's Visit Worsens as 'Belgravia: The Next Chapter' Continues

This episode marks the halfway point of Belgravia: The Next Chapter, and everybody in London's poshest neighborhood is just straight up not having a good time. It's possible viewers aren't either. Don't get me wrong, this episode has a couple of genuinely intriguing twists but with 50% of the show under our belts, it seems fair to ask—what's the point of all this? There's progress, of a sort, this week in that almost every character we've met thus far (except for maybe Davidson) is some various shade of unhappy, but at this point in the life cycle of a season, shouldn't we be able to at least easily identify to what end?

Ostensibly, the big arc of the season is the estrangement between the Trenchard brothers. Yet, after four episodes things between them remain at an impasse. It's true, James seems desperate to reconnect with his brother in any way he can, though he refuses to give Clara any more details about what caused their break. (Is anyone beginning to suspect that the big unnamed secret between them is that one of the Trenchard parents told one of the Trenchard sons that Frederick is illegitimate?) For his part, Frederick remains stubbornly uninterested and often outright rude.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but we're halfway through the show and there's been no discernable movement on what is ostensibly its central plot. At this point, how many people even care about whether this relationship is salvageable? Or what tore it apart in the first place? What on earth kind of backstory could possibly be worse this level of sturm und drang?