Rivals season 2 episode 6 spoilers follow – MAJOR ones.
Is it just us or are TV deaths getting easier and easier to spot these days? Like studio lights brightly blasted at its audience. It's a good thing then, that Rivals doesn't simply rely on that heartbreakingly sombre end of episode six to deliver what might very well have been its finest episode ever.
This tender and intimate episode was serving up first-class drama and intrigue from the get-go. From the moment Archie Baddingham bounded up the stairs, excited at the prospect of having sex with Caitlin O'Hara for the very first time.
Their innocent lovemaking – juxtaposed with the more lustful romps the show is known for – took a turn moments later, when Caitlin ended up trapped in Archie's darkroom, with photographic evidence of his dad's affair with her mum, Maud (Victoria Smurfit).
Archie's mum Monica (Claire Rushbrook) then arrived home, and was quick to get to the truth. And in that moment, Rivals was presented with an opportunity.
The show could have embarked on a devilish plot of cutthroat revenge (you know, its status quo) but instead it deviates from the energised, tit-for-tat antics of the feuding trio and slows the pace right down, offering a sweeter, more earnest episode that allowed for the raw exploration of these characters in the most breathtakingly beautiful way.
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The tension at the dinner table between Archie, Caitlin, Monica and David Tennant's Tony (the last to arrive at the Baddingham abode) spiralled into a deliciously dark and intense scene, once Tony learned that he had been rumbled.
However, it could not compare to the powerful electricity that crackled between Lizzie (Katherine Parkinson) and Monica during their own scene, which followed.
Over a cup of tea and biscuits, truth was spoken out loud. Plainly and without the splashy, outlandish dramatics. These two women sit on opposite sides of the same coin – the adulterer and the betrayed – yet despite this, their marital experiences mirror one another, almost too perfectly.
Both are made to suffer by neglectful and emotionally withholding husbands, and in that moment shared something beautiful at the kitchen table. Their sacrifices, their pain, their longing and their regret.
In doing so they spark a little courage in each other. Quietly, in between the sadness of their words and barely-shed tears, grew a kernel of strength that shaped the trajectory of what was to come next.
When Monica revealed to Tony that she wanted a divorce, this is arguably the cruelest we've ever seen the broadcasting tyrant. Her newfound empowerment frightens him. Her resoluteness frightens him. That she holds all the cards frightens him, and this scene becomes a poetic mixture of vulnerability and power.
The strength of her "no", followed by her disgust at who he has become, brings out Tony's viciousness. A weapon that brings him comfort. He slaps her with the contemptuous words: "You haven't a sexual bone in your body, you are dead from the waist down."
However these words, designed to destroy, sting but do not break her as she tells him, "I wasn't always."
No, she doesn't break, but something in Tony does – and it is wonderfully dramatic.
Though we adore Rivals for its over-the-top drama, it was the absence of it in lieu of something more stark that made this scene hair-raisingly perfect. Sadly, fans will never get to see this emboldened Monica destroy Tony's very existence, simply by just being.
In her haste she all but bundles Caitlin into the car and races back to the O'Haras' in the middle of the storm to tell Declan (Aidan Turner) of the affair between Maud and Tony. It is during their wild and windy journey that the car is struck by a tree, and though Caitlin survives, Monica does not.
While the signs foreshadowing her demise were plain to any avid telly watcher, it didn't take away from the power of this episode because it was never about the shock factor. Her death wasn't just a plot device to make the audience gasp, it was the natural progression of the story.
Instead, the carousel of characters caught in their most intimate moments was what gave this episode texture.
It was the honest and vulnerable talk between Lizzie and Monica, it was the reigniting of Declan and Maud's passion and commitment to one another, knowing that it hangs in the balance.
Even that knowing glance between Taggie (Bella Maclean) and Cameron (Nafessa Williams), followed by another charged look between Taggie and Rupert (Alex Hassell), played a part in this masterful episode.
All these moments became the emotional bedrock for the final scene in which Rupert, Tony's bitter enemy, casts aside their vendetta in a moment of compassion to break the news of Monica's death.
"I'm terribly sorry Tony... Monica's dead."
Tony's disbelief as the words wash over him was a surprise in itself, made more surprising by the tremble of his words. "Monica? My wife Monica?" he said, in an attempt to wrap his head around a world where that could be true.
As he drops to the ground, snatching breath into his lungs, it is possibly the truest expression of his ability to love that Rivals fans have ever witnessed. It is so magnificent, we got chills. That this person, who presents as a twisted monster of a man, had genuine love in his heart for the wife who was treated as a pawn in his game. Brilliant television the likes of which Tony could not dream of making.
To be clear, the chills we felt were not solely for Tony, or for Monica's death. Those moments were merely a by-product of this truly masterful episode, that proved Rivals doesn't have to be all about salacious drama to be good. In fact, it turns out, when it plays things close to its chest, that's when Rivals is at its best.
Monica's death stung more than we knew it could, however there is joy to be found in her final moments. That she was finally able to live in her authenticity, even briefly, was extraordinary to see.
Hats off to Rushbrook who breathed fire and passion into Monica before her light was snuffed out. She was awake for the first time in years, revived with a new lust for life and no one could take that away from her, not Tony, and not even death.
Rivals is available to watch on Disney+
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
