‘The Durrells in Corfu’: Season 2 Episode 6 Recap

When we last visited the Durrells, Gerry was giving Donald advice to woo Margo, a Greek-Anglo cricket match went terribly wrong and Vasilia broke things off with Larry (who wasn’t really that heartsick about it). Most importantly Louisa is left with a decision to make about her future with Hugh that could take her away from her beloved adopted home.

In this final episode of The Durrels in Corfu Season 2, a population explosion is taking place on Corfu. With a potentially fatal wound thrown in the mix, however, Dr. Petridis (Alexis Conran) can’t handle all the medical emergencies alone. Considering we won’t be seeing the Durrells for a while, I’m going to break down this week’s monumentous events according to the involvement of each family member.

Margo - Just when we thought the lone Durrell sister might be maturing a bit, the old Margo reared her shallow head. Poor Donald, singing the Latin declensions song in his funny, shiny world. Little did he know that after fighting so doggedly for the affections of his beloved Margo, her head would be turned yet again by a more exotic and frankly narcissistic Turk named Zoltan (Merch Husey).  Is it any wonder the broken-hearted tutor jumped his pompous rival when the best breakup speech Margo could offer was the “our relationship didn’t have the yeast to rise” analogy?  Sadly, nothing could have pleased Margo more than having two men fight over her.

Will Margo be more sensible next season? I seriously doubt it, but I can predict with almost 100 percent certainty, she won’t be sharing her thoughts on courtship with her mother anytime soon.

Gerry – Young Master Durrell, now freed from Donald’s persistent nagging, can concentrate uninterrupted on his otter breeding project. He’s sure his female otter is pregnant and may be displaying signs she’s in labor.

Gerry runs to Theo’s house where he finds his mentor hosting a meeting of the Corfu Lunar Society. That moon landing prediction was quite impressive, eh?  After introductions Gerry lures Theo away from his lunar nerd friends to witness the birth of two otter pups born in dignified silence. Alas one the pups doesn’t survive, but Gerry’s made a good start on boosting the otter population in Corfu. 

Leslie – Upon finding a mysterious young woman in their kitchen, we ascertain that she is Lugaretzia’s favorite (and heavily pregnant) daughter Lenora (Anna Antoniades) who has been sent to fill in for her ailing mother. It’s no great mystery where this storyline is going, only who will be delivering the baby. In short order we discover it is to be Lugaretzia’s favorite Durrell child, Leslie.

When Leonora’s water breaks, Leslie is the first on the scene to respond to her cries. He dispatches Larry to summon Dr. Petrides and as he’s not a midwife, he goes in search of a book about on giving birth. That tome, it turns out, is an ancient encyclopedia that suggests the physician be blindfolded in order to protect he mother’s modesty. Like Leslie, we may wonder when this text was written!

Before we know it, the head is crowning, and Leonora’s baby girl is born. Leslie confidently ties off the cord with string and cuts it. For a moment, he thinks another baby is emerging, but Gerry informs him it’s the placenta. The new mother calls him up to see the baby, Lugaretzia kisses him on the forehead and he promptly collapses on the kitchen floor.

Leslie is quite appropriatley named the baby’s godfather. Margo’s monk friend, Pavlos, performs the christening ceremony and Leslie recites his vows in Greek. He goes on to tell the congregation that his father died when he was very young so he takes his responsibility seriously. Leslie says he used to feel unlucky in life, but delivering Leonora’s baby has made him feel very lucky indeed.

Turns out, Leslie’s heroic deed has given him some good fortune with the ladies as well. Or at least with one of Lugaretzia’s nieces.

Louisa - Since we last saw her, Mrs. Durrell has been preoccupied with all matters regarding Hugh Jarvis. Can she trust him after the kiss he shared with Vasilia at the cricket match? And if she can, should she accompany him back to England? She’s bringing it up to anyone who will listen – Spiros, Larry, and a nesting Florence. She even tries to have a woman to woman chat with Margo, but never gets a word in.

On a visit to Hugh’s olive press, Louisa’s suitor continues the campaign to convince her to leave Corfu with him. His argument includes the weather, money and his plan to convert England to the joys of olive oil. Despite his insistence that it’s time to leave, Louisa still wants to think about it.

While it’s pretty clear that all this talking and waiting indicates her wish to stay in Corfu, it’s not until her chance encounter with the Rose Beetle Man (Drosos Skotis) and his caged birds that she is confident in her choice. When Louisa tries to explain the magical and unique quality of Corfu and its inhabitants to Hugh, he still doesn’t understand what tempts her to stay. He suggests it has something to do with Spiros which she denies asserting, as always, that the taxi driver is a family friend. Hugh expresses his disappointment, but says he’ll stay. Louisa shoots down that plan as she believes he’ll resent her if he remains on the island.

Then all hell breaks loose! Vasilia comes sauntering into the olive grove where Hugh and Louisa are talking. She rudely refers to Mrs. Durrell as “this” and declares that Hugh cannot leave Corfu, but he has had enough with her haughty self. He tells Vasilia that she is exhausting, vain and proud and asks why she can’t see that he doesn’t love her, he loves Louisa. In a jealous rage, Vasilia grabs a knife, used for harvesting olives I assume, and stabs the object of her affection in the side then makes a speedy retreat.

Louisa attempts to stop the bleeding, then takes Hugh’s car into town. She passes Sprios on the road and asks for his help . He says he knows what to do and heads off to the grove.

Meanwhile, Dr. Petrides is rather preoccupied seeing as his own wife has just gone through a spell of false labor contractions. Louisa briefs him on what has happened to Hugh and offers to stay with Florence in case anything starts up again. Considering the severity of Hugh’s situation, the doctor borrows the dodgy sports car and hurries off to his patient.

Of course, as soon as her husband has departed, Florence’s water breaks and she is in very active labor. The mother-to-be is scared because she has waited too long for this baby and wants it too much. Louisa tries to convince her that everything will be all right while obviously worrying about how things are going with Hugh.

Meanwhile Spiros has reached Hugh. Half-jokingly listing the reasons he has for letting him die, Spiros applies the appropriate first aid to keep him alive for Mrs. Durrell. When Dr. Petrides finally arrives (the car kept stalling), he compliments Spiros on his emergency care and it seems likely Hugh will make it.

When the doctor arrives back home, he finds his wife has given birth to a healthy son. He gives Louisa the news that Hugh is alive, but will need to go to a hospital in Athens to check for internal damage. Oddly Hugh is still sitting in the grove when Louisa pops over to say her goodbyes. Hugh apologizes for getting her embroiled with Vasilia and for not being more gracious when she turned him down. It’s a sad parting and you can see how devastated Hugh truly is.

All the trauma and sadness finally hits home as Louisa is riding back with Spiros. He notices her getting upset and pulls over so she can have a good cry. And yes, he comforts her by putting his arms around her. A victory of sorts for Team Spiros or at least all we're going to get right now anyway!

Time (and next season) will tell what path Mrs. Durrell’s love life will take. We still have yet to see Spiros’ wife and family after all.

And finally, Larry- As you may recall, Larry has moved back in with the family after Vasilia mercifully pulled the plug on their three-month long affair. Now his career, and his life in general, appears to be off-course. Besides giving his mother advice on men, he’s become the family’s errand boy. From fetching Lugaretzia’s rubbing oil to summoning Dr. Petrides to deliver Leonora’s baby, Larry keeps missing all the excitement. As a writer, this is very bad timing on his part. Perhaps the break-up with Vasilia affected him more than he realizes. One thing's for sure; it was obviously one complicated relationship.

However, after actually witnessing his former lover’s flight from a serious assault charge, let’s hope Larry has gotten insanely dangerous women like Vasilia out of his system for good.

Well, that does it for season two.  Louisa loves her children and the Durrells will stay on Corfu. Season three has been confirmed so somewhere down the road we're sure to be rejoining our favorite eccentric expats for some new adventures. Please share your reaction to the finale and your hopes for the coming season in the comments below!