Family & Global Tensions Rise in the Penultimate Episode of 'Outrageous'

Hindsight is 20/20; it's a saying that's glaringly apparent in the penultimate episode of Outrageous's first season, in which the consequences of multiple, seemingly small choices come home to roost. Narrating the story from a post-war world where it's easy to see the threads connecting various Mitford family misfortunes, Nancy, as the storyteller of her own life, declares that "with hindsight, all of us might have made very different decisions with our lives. Including me." But in the world of the show, the characters are afforded no such luxuries, and the fractures in the Mitford clan expand to what often feels like insurmountable chasms. 

As such things go, this is probably the season's most low-key episode, at least in terms of the presence of overt Nazi propaganda, life-threatening incidents, or door-slamming family arguments. Yet, it's also full of big emotional moments, as one sister engineers a seemingly permanent break from the family, and another discovers her marriage has been crumbling behind her back. A third takes her destiny into her own hands. It's a fairly balanced hour in terms of overall narrative focus, unless you count poor Pamela, who seems to be the forgotten family member with no real story of her own outside of babysitting Deborah during her dates with Derek Jackson*. Even Muv and Favre get more focus than she does here! 

(*History buffs know that this is the man that Pam herself will eventually marry, but at this point, the show isn't doing much with their interactions.) 

The show is clearly planning (hoping?) to continue telling this story into a second season, as much of this episode is about laying the groundwork for events to come, even as several major narrative threads involving Unity, Diana, and Nancy come to a head and a steadily increasing sense of dread, both for the family and the world at large pervades much of the hour. 

To the surprise of no one with access to Wikipedia, Diana survives the accident that closed the previous episode and mercifully won't end up with any permanent scarring (the important stuff!). Banged up and actively despising the restrictions at the hospital she's been sent to recuperate in, she leans into her father's evident hatred of her "dismal" accommodations and the pair concoct a scheme to break her out and smuggle her to the airport. (She's planning to go and recuperate with Mosley in Italy, and quite rightly assumes her dad will decide he hates her fascist paramour less than the "ghastly" hospital.) 

It's honestly quite adorable, actually; the show hasn't shown us much of Baron Redesdale's relationship with his daughters, and their treatment of the whole affair like a jailbreak is charming, if not completely necessary to the events of the rest of the episode. 

A near-death experience seems to be galvanizing for Diana, who suddenly decides that life on the side may not be for her. While healing in the picturesque Italian sunshine next to her illicit lover, she begins a campaign to convince Mosley it's time for them to (finally) get married. He's cautious, insisting that even if they have the ceremony secretly in another country, the British embassy will have to post the banns announcing their union, and one enterprising journalist could ruin everything for them. 

If you, too, have forgotten why it is that Mosley, a man who is pretty much charged with inciting political violence daily in the papers, cares so much about the potential scandal making the woman every person already knows he's sleeping with his wife, well... you're not alone. But Diana's determined and not above using her younger sister's powerful new friends to pave the way.

Speaking of Unity, she's also ready to leave her old self behind. Under the guise of an apology for the whole "antisemitic letter to the editor" business, she announces it's best if she moves to Munich. She's not sorry at all for the things she wrote, merely that they got upset about it. After all, the nasty things she said about Jews are standard fare in the Fatherland. Surely, that's evidence Germany is where she belongs. She's willing to ask the Fuhrer for the money for her finishing school fees, a fairly devious threat, considering rumors are already flying that Unity is Hitler's mistress. Word he's paying for her upkeep would only fuel the fires of scandal further. As drop-the-mic exits go, it's pretty solid, leaving her parents flabbergasted about where they went wrong with their daughters. 

The only thing Unity seems somewhat sad to say goodbye to is Jessica. Although Outrageous hasn't necessarily shown us many clashes between the sisters about their vastly opposed political ideologies, just a glance at their shared room — one side plastered with hammers and sickles and the other with swastikas — speaks volumes. But the two have always backed one another before any of the rest of the family, and even when they've disagreed, they've stuck together. 

Jessica is visibly despondent: upset that her sister is leaving, angry she's choosing the Nazis over her family, disbelieving she said such horrible things about Jews with her full chest. It's evident how much she still loves her, and how raw her feelings are over everything that's happened. It's such a good scene, it's hard not to wish the show had found more time to dig into this wildly unique relationship. 

Jessica's despair doesn't dampen Unity's spirits for long. Soon she's back in Munich, lunching with Hitler, and plotting to help Diana find a way to marry Mosley. While these two siblings have clearly been forced closer out of one part ideological necessity and one part loneliness (black sheep stick together, after all), the bond that has developed between them seems genuine enough. 

Does Diana take advantage of her sister's connections and position among the Nazis? Absolutely, as she does multiple times during this very episode. However, she also supports her choices and her new life in Germany in a way that most of her siblings do not. (Although Pamela has, apparently, at least been to visit.) 

Hopeful that they can convince Hitler to do them a solid and forbid the posting of any banns of marriage surrounding Mosley's wedding, Diana also continues her attempts to manipulate the political fortunes of England. Though Winston Churchill was basically in what is colloquially referred to as his "wilderness years" after the Conservative party's defeat in the 1929 general elections— he would remain out of power until the start of World War II — he and Diana are still quite friendly, and she's keen to orchestrate a meeting between him and Hitler in the hopes that he'll see how much good he and fascism have done for Germany. 

Churchill, unsurprisingly, isn't having it, insists the Germans are gearing up for war, and that Hitler's persecution of the Jews is unforgivable. He believes England will have to stand up to him eventually and warns Diana against trying to meddle in political affairs.

Next to her sisters' storylines, almost everything involving Nancy often seems to feel like an afterthought in the larger world of the show. Perhaps that's simply a natural reflection of the literal larger-than-life scandals and events her siblings seem to find themselves entangled in, and maybe that's why she doesn't notice the many, many flashing red flags waving wildly whenever her husband is onscreen. 

From awkwardly stilted conversations with her friend Mary about how important it is to have real female friendships outside her family to Peter's disinterest in sex and the sudden "business trips" that require him to be away from home for days at a time, it couldn't be any more obvious that the two people Nancy trusts the most are having an affair. But maybe when you're used to dealing with problems that literally involve Adolf Hitler, the prospect of a little infidelity seems almost quaint by comparison. 

That doesn't make it all any less awful, though. Nancy, for all her worldly writer bona fides, seems to be genuinely terrible at reading people. That she spends most of this episode daydreaming about finally starting a family of her own and praising her husband for his "dedication" to his new job before literally stumbling in on Peter sleeping with another woman in their marital bed is a gut-punch, the sort of emotional earthquake that would thoroughly rock any other series. 

Unfortunately for Nancy, her husband's affair is maybe only the third most shocking thing that happens during this episode. Sorry, girl. 

The hour ends with Nancy drinking champagne about her feelings and declaring that she's going to have fun instead of worrying about messy things like international diplomacy and geopolitics, and while there's not really a hint of what that means, let's just say the other MItfords have set the bar for "acting out in a way meant to be shocking and/or garner attention" fairly high.

The Outrageous Season 1 finale will air and stream on BritBox on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.