"Mirror" Reflects Cromwell's Doom in the Penultimate Episode of 'Wolf Hall'

The penultimate episode of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light finally sees Thomas Cromwell's luck run out. It's a testament to this show's quality that this development — a well-documented historical fact! — manages to feel shocking. A sense of vague doom has followed Cromwell throughout this series, a constant feeling of being under threat that the man himself clearly understands, considering that he walks around heavily armed. Yet, even as we watch Henry slowly turn against his previously most trusted servant, it's easy to assume that Cromwell will somehow manage to avoid the arrest everyone else can see coming.

"Mirror" is an hour in which a surprising amount happens, but whose most important scenes are the ones we don't see. The real action of this episode unfolds in the story's margins and gaps, during moments that occur off-screen or in the background of other scenes. It's the first time we've ever seen Cromwell so distant from the story's main action. However, it's challenging to ascertain precisely how far he is from its center until he's arrested, and it becomes clear just how many people have been working against him without his knowledge, and how many conversations must have taken place without him.

There are many candidates in the former category: Norfolk resuscitating the rumor that Cromwell has designs on Mary, even as he positions yet another attractive young niece in the rooms of a queen the king doesn't particularly like; Gardiner, pointing out how closely Cromwell's beliefs skirt Lutheranism and heresy. There is also Fitzwilliam, desperate for anything that might convince Henry it's not his fault the new queen displeases him, throwing blame at his former friend. There were even secret negotiations with the French, clandestine meetings, and gift exchanges with young lady's maid, Katherine Howard. Cromwell misses it all.