Belgravia Season 1, Episode 2 recap: Anne tells Caroline the truth

Caroline hosts a party

Caroline makes haste to Surrey and Charles’ small business. He’s shocked that a lady of such high stature would be paying him, of all people a visit. Caroline even makes him an offer to invest in his business and invites him to a  party at her home. She is overwhelmed by how much he looks like her late son and keen to become part of Charles’s life.

The cold war between Caroline and Anne continues with Caroline making her next move. She invites the Trenchards to her At Home, including Oliver and Susan — much to Anne’s annoyance. She also adds a cheeky note about inviting Mr. Pope to the event.

The servants guess right, James is rather thrilled about the invitation, believing their status to be on the rise. Of course, he isn’t aware that his wife has been meddling and spilling their darkest secret. Anne is backed into a corner at this point. She’ll have to attend, and maybe part of her even wants to see Charles.

The At Home party is tense, to say the least. It seems like everyone is on edge. Caroline is less-than-impressed with James’ lengthy diatribe concerning the Isle of Dogs and his work in East London. Reverend Stephen gets off on a tense note with the Trenchards when discussing business. James happens to notice that John is entertaining his daughter-in-law a little too well.  I  guess he wasn’t kidding  when he  said he liked “the sport of it.” No better sport than going after a married woman.

During the last ten minutes or so of the episode, things begin to get genuinely juicy. Sophia entertains the idea of John as the two flirt vivaciously with one another in the privacy of a side room, though things go no further than that, yet.

Elsewhere, Maria is thoroughly charmed by Charles, and the two converse about India and his business while getting some fresh air in the yard. Sparks fly between these two.

Finally, the tiff between Anne and Caroline comes to a head when Anne confronts the countess. She accuses her of wanting people to guess the truth about Charles’ parentage so she can keep her secret, and yet the society will know what happened between Edmund and Sophia.

This truth won’t harm Edmund’s memory, but it will hurt the Trenchard’s reputation and Sophia’s legacy. No one will believe she was bamboozled into a fake marriage. Caroline is cruel for planning such a thing, but then, Anne wasn’t exactly doing the kindest thing by dropping the major bombshell on her over tea and then disparaging her son’s name in her own house.

New episodes of Belgravia air Sunday nights at 9/8c on Epix and are also available to stream on the  Epix Now app.