Loveday Writing

The episode kicks off with Magda setting up her ‘Young Sophisticates’ line of clothes nearby model gowns, much to Mrs. Ambrose’s chagrin. Adam then delivers a single red rose to Fay, which is revealed to be from Mr. Marlow, which she places in a store bouquet.

Later, Lisa and Angela tell Magda that a few middle-aged women looked at the Young Sophisticates line and that women their age aren’t used to shopping at Goodes, a sentiment that Magda agrees with. Lisa then suggests writing an article about the new line for the student newspaper and to get Angela to illustrate the clothing. Magda tells her she’ll ask Mr. Ryder if they can put a discount advertisement in the newspaper.

George is also starting his first day as Goodes’ pianist and asks Angela to go to The Beat with him for a drink to celebrate his new job, although Lisa agrees to go along, unaware she is being a third wheel. When a young woman shopping asks if George is single, Angela tries on one of the new Young Sophisticates dresses, intending on wearing it to impress him.

When Fay leaves for the day, she finds Mr. Marlow waiting for her in his car down the road, meanwhile as Mrs. Ambrose leaves Adam asks her to teach him how to become a salesman, as he wants to sell menswear at Goodes. When she quizzes him and he reveals his knowledge, she agrees to speak to Mr. Ryder.

When Lisa, Angela, George, and Petra go to The Beat and meet up with Clive and Richard, it’s revealed that the Sydney Morning Herald are going to report on bikini wars as well, with their article making a huge splash. When Clive makes a remark that they only made a splash due to the photograph and asks them to give him the phone number of the model in exchange for drinks, Lisa reveals it was her to their shock.

Meanwhile, Fay goes out with a friend who asks her what her plan is with Mr. Marlow. Fay tells her that she thinks Rudi is having an affair, and that she can be herself around Mr. Marlow and she thinks he’s in love with her. When her friend asks her who she is in love with, she admits it’s Rudi, but she’s unsure if he still loves her. Later, Rudi comes home and tells her that he met some of the big shots at Hexham, Mr. Marlow’s company, and that Mrs. Marlow invited him and Fay to dinner with them at the Australian Club. Fay lies down in bed with him and expresses her frustrations with him, only to realise that he has fallen asleep. Meanwhile, Angela and George go for a walk and get to know each other. Angela tells him about her fashion career dreams and that nothing will mess up her plans, and they kiss.

The next day, Mrs. Ambrose proposes to Mr. Ryder that Adam start as a stockboy and then move into sales. Meanwhile, when Lisa is putting some stock away, she finds Elias asleep on the floor. He tells her that he was kicked out of his boarding house and asks if Dorothy is still looking for a boarder at their house.

Meanwhile, Magda apologises to Fay for her earlier behaviour. Lisa then comes in and tells her that she discovered that a lot of women’s clothes and perfumes are sent to Mr. Egan’s office, as part of her efforts to catch the Goodes design thief. Mrs. Ambrose then invites Fay to go to the races with her, as part of an effort to prevent women returning model gowns after the races – Mrs. Ambrose informed her that at Harrod’s they’d go to the races and compliment customers on their outfit, which would mean they were seen wearing them and couldn’t get refunds. Mrs. Ambrose also tells her that she’s had her eye on Fay as she knows the meaning of customer service and her poise has never wavered, despite her fatigue.

Later, a young woman, Sally, comes in to see Lisa for a discount on model gowns. We then cut to Magda and Lisa with Sally in the fitting room where she tells her that she got the gown Mrs. Egan wore from a dressmaker in Redfern. Angela goes home to tell her family to hold off on making copies of the Young Sophisticates line until the new catalogue comes out, so they are not caught. Her father also tells her that they’ll shut the shop for the afternoon of the races to prevent her from being caught.

Later, Rudi and Fay go out to dinner with the Marlow’s. When the dinner ends, Rudi puts on Mrs. Marlow’s coat, and Mr. Marlow puts on Fay’s coat and tells her he wants her, which Mrs. Marlow overhears. As they go home, Rudi apologises for neglecting her and that once Janosi Transport signs with Hexham, things will be different. Fay interprets this as him wanting her to be different, but he rejects this notion.

Meanwhile, Dorothy and Elias bond, and after he goes to bed, Dorothy tells Lisa that she knows she failed two subjects. The next morning, Elias suggests to Dorothy that she goes for a seamstress job at Goodes so she doesn’t have to clean for a living. Stefan then comes by to collect Elias’ rent for the loan sharks to pay off the gambling debt. Stefan than asks Lisa to tell Magda that he wants to see her. When Elias goes to work, he finds Adam working as a stock boy, and Adam tells him that Mrs. Ambrose put in a good word.

When the customers can’t find the right size when trying on the Young Sophisticates line, Elias suggests that the size tags were changed on purpose to undermine her. By the time Mr. Ryder and Mrs. Ambrose come by to check up on her, order has been restored.

Just as Fay and Rudi are getting ready to go to the races, Rudi gets a call that a shipment for Hexham needs to go out and he needs to work. He encourages her to go without him as the Marlow’s love her. Meanwhile, Lisa and Magda are going to Redfern dressmakers to find the imitator, Stefan comes by and asks her to forgive him and he’ll repay her. Magda says it was never about the money, it was about him lying to her when she was completely honest. As they are talking, Lisa runs into Angela’s sister-in-law to be, Nadia, who tells them about the shop.

At the races, Mrs. Ambrose, and Fay approach their customers., complimenting them. The Marlow’s show up and greet Fay. Mr. Marlow tells Fay he’ll look after her and Mrs. Ambrose witnesses this interaction. Fay then runs into Christina, who is on her way to meet up with her trucker boyfriend. Fay follows her, and Mr. Marlow then follows Fay. Fay sees her get into Rudi’s car and drive off. She turns around and finds Mr. Marlow, they end up going back to his house and having sex.

When Nadia lets Lisa and Magda into the shop, Lisa notices that sketches are drawn in the same style as Angela’s. Later, Lisa goes back to the shop and asks if Angela is there and Angela comes to the door. Lisa calls her out for lying and Angela asks her to come inside. Angela tells her that they copied Mrs. Egan’s dress before she started working at Goodes and admits to stealing the Look Book. Angela also tells Lisa she is trying to learn about fashion. Lisa tells her to tell Magda, but Angela points out she will lose her job.

The episode ends with Fay returning home and overhearing sex noises. When she walks in, she finds George, not Rudi, having sex with Christina. She collapses into tears at her front doorstep.

Overall, this was the best episode of the season so far, with a couple of the season’s story arcs coming to a head with the not-so-surprising twist reveal at the end of the episode that Rudi was in fact not having affair, just after Fay gives into temptation with Mr. Marlow, as well as Lisa discovering that Angela was the Look Book and Goodes dress design thief.

It all felt too easy for Fay’s suspicions to be right about Rudi and her being proven wrong was a good dose of karma that will play out in the remaining episodes. I also felt that Lisa discovering Angela’s deception through the sketches that she discovered earlier was the perfect way for her to finally put two-and-two together, as it paid off the earlier scenes in the season of discovering Angela’s sketchbook, and it steered away from the cliché way of revealing Angela’s deception by having Lisa simply spot her in her family’s dress shop.

I also appreciated Mrs. Ambrose showing a soft spot for Adam by helping him get into sales and bonding with Fay over the races and the outfits their customers would wear, as she values them both for the same reason – their great work – Fay with her impeccable customer service, and Adam for studying the fashion industry to become a great menswear salesman.

It will be interesting to see where Fay, Lisa and Angela go from here.

Stray Observations:

Another song anachronism – Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer, released in August 1998.