'The Long Song' Episode 3 Recap
Welcome back to the third and final recap of The Long Song. As the mini-series concludes, Amity Plantation is in chaos. Facing labor unrest and financial ruin, Robert’s sanity unravels and his relationship with July quickly disintegrates. In the end, despite years of hardship and heartache, July is reunited with loved ones once more.
Before getting into the details, let’s set the scene from last week. July and the other plantation workers are officially free, though their day-to-day lives have changed little. Catching the eye of the idealistic new overseer, July sets a plan in motion to improve her station by making Robert Goodwin her husband. He marries the plantation mistress but saves all his loving for July, who not long after gives birth to his daughter. Encountering pushback from his newly freed workers, Robert’s goodwill soon crumbles, putting July’s hopes for a happy life in jeopardy.
As Episode 3 begins, Christmas time has come round again. The sugarcane must be harvested before it spoils, but the field hands are refusing to work over the holiday. Robert’s next move is to double his workers’ rents, thus forcing them to accept a seven-day workweek. He condescends to them that this is for their own good. But when they still say no to his demand, he loses his patience, grabbing the pipe from their spokesman’s hand and smashing it.
