'Miss Scarlet & the Duke' Confronts Eliza's Insecurity Head On In "Arabella's"

After the disappointment of the Season 3 premiere, Miss Scarlet & the Duke fully returns to form with this second episode, an hour that features some of the best character work from the show in ages. There's a lot to love about "Arabella's," an episode that allows Eliza to be the worst version of herself without apology and shows us she's capable of real growth. From its story that takes us back to the series' foundational themes of women trying to survive in a man's world to its intriguing new titular character, a woman that I suspect many of us ended up liking despite ourselves, this episode felt more like the start of a new season than its predecessor did.

The Season 3 premiere was...if not outright bad, at least something of a letdown. From its boring mystery that focused on people who we'd either never met or didn't care about to its main story's lack of a clear female perspective, almost everything about "The Vanishing" felt off. (I mean, how much can we say about an episode if the cold open mystery we didn't see is the hour's most interesting part.) That the show bounces back so entirely is both a relief and a delight and, thankfully, sets up several potentially intriguing arcs for the characters onscreen. (We all know this isn't the last we'll see of Arabella Acaster, right?)

Most importantly, it felt as though things were progressing for all the characters onscreen, and we, as viewers, learned something about them we didn't know. This is probably the most emotionally vulnerable we've seen Eliza since her father died. Her explanation for her intense dislike of Arabella and the other girls like her in school rings so true to the experience of every young woman who's ever been ridiculed for being different.