Love Conquers All in the Finale of 'Tom Jones'

Tom Jones winds up with a happy ending — did we ever doubt it? Not really, although this episode plunges us briefly into the darkest moment of the series before wrapping up everything in a parcel of sweetness and light, along with a neat grace note that grants Tom fortune and status. The stalemate that strands Tom and Partridge penniless in a squalid riverside hut, and Sophia as a prisoner in her grandfather’s London house ends.

A woman can reach her lowest ebb and never know that the dark night is ending. But a man can face defeat and exile and come back fighting one last time.

First, Aunt Western arrives, and while she’s been critical of Sophia in the past, she’s now even more annoyed with the Squire, but still insists Sophia must marry someone. Squire Western gets sentimental about carrying on the family line, and to a certain extent Sophia agrees with him, although her idea of doing so is  to honor her mother, Bereba. Aunt Western’s other pressing issue at the moment is that since Sophia lost her maid, no one can do her hair properly.