So here it was! Raggedy flags, crowd scenes, moustachioed faces of determination and a single shot fired as an officer fell from his horse. This was the sweeping depiction of revolution the series promised and, cinematically speaking, it was brilliant. Build the barricade! Vive la révolution! This bit was never going to be pretty, and the importance of the last dramatic minutes of this episode was to show the radicalisation of Marius, a man as peaceful, kind and sensible as Jean Valjean who is, understandably, driven to desperate measures. “It’s easy enough when you don’t care about your life.”
The usual remarkable coincidences persisted with Gavroche, son of Thenardiers, taking his place at the same barricade as Javert-in-disguise. Eponine appeared at the “right” time in the “right” place to die for Marius. Her father saved his father. And now she must save him. Meanwhile, everyone had an impressive sudden knowledge of how to fashion bullets out of books that had been Marie Kondo’d because they didn’t spark joy. And, of course, here’s Javert with his completely random interests: “Is a man named Jean Valjean around? He’ll be in the thick of it, mark my words.” (Everyone else: “Jean who?”)
I don’t want to continually pick holes in Victor Hugo’s narrative integrity but, really, the scene where Javert appears in (rubbish) disguise rolling barrels on to the barricade but still foaming at the mouth about Valjean, a man who has nothing to do with the revolutionary movement … well, it did make the whole thing seem ridiculous. But we get it. This is a story about the intersection of personal destiny and politics. And the relationship between Javert and Valjean shows us that personal morality matters as much as – and is intertwined with – universal justice. So Javert can never give up his quest. “Sir, if I might suggest … surely it’s more important to respond to these intelligence reports …” Never mind problems of public order! We must catch the man who once stole a penny from a child decades ago.
In reality, Valjean was just a man who had used up all the candlesticks he’d hidden in the woods and was having to deal with a randy teenager who had turned into Perry from the Harry Enfield Show. I’m sure Hugo wants us to think about what it means to be a good person, but what he really succeeds in showing us is the long-term risks of being a soft touch. As Cosette was tending Valjean’s (self-inflicted) wound, I couldn’t help but think how silly he had been to risk everything by helping some random family. (Except, of course, that nothing in this story is random.) Cosette also seems to have inherited his recklessness by osmosis, being extremely scared of everything and yet going out into the garden in the middle of the night for no reason.
I was looking forward to the reappearance of Gavroche, and he didn’t disappoint. Neither did the slackers among the radicals. The young men are on the march to provoke people to rise up in anger! Just as soon as they have finished this carafe of wine. “If you’re not with us, then you’re part of the enemy!” “Is it really going to come to all that?” “To the death?” “To the death!” This was the most true-to-life depiction in this sorry tale. In any revolution, there will always be people who are only here because they hope that everyone will end up near a pub.
Least convincing romantic encounter
I have always wondered at the “great love” of Marius and Cosette. We need to believe that’s it’s “real love” for it to be tragic and significant. And yet it always comes across as the sort of first love where they just need someone to lose their virginity with. Maybe I’m being cynical, or I’ve seen too many “wanted” posters of Valjean inexplicably depicted as Johnny Depp. Anyway. In this episode, love blossomed in the estate agent’s garden of dreams in Paris. Cosette was bringing out the poet in Marius, while we were encouraged to overlook the fact that it was this sort of tomfoolery that brought her mother down. “There is someone who went away, taking the sky with her …” This is the sort of moon-faced nonsense that got us into this mess. If only everyone involved had a memory as long as Javert. Also: Marius made the railing wonky, thereby endangering Cosette’s life. That is not true love.
The Gwyneth Paltrow onion for tears on demand
Too dramatic an episode to be weepy, but I did have a heart-pang at the sight of Rosalie (Olivia Colman) being held in prison while everyone else escaped. Get her out quick, she’s got an Oscar to collect. For the first time in this (excellent) series, I felt the songs were missing. The musical version emotionally heightens the moment between Eponine and Marius, for example. And there’s something about the musical genre that really matches the pathos of Hugo’s rambling and coincidence-dependent tale. I know lots of people have been enjoying this series precisely because there is no singing, but I really missed it here. Controversial!
‘Ecoutez et répétez!’ Classic miserable lines
• “You don’t look very pleased to see me.” Well, your father has attacked the father of the woman I love most in the world and set the police on him so, no, I’m not.
• “Have you come to your senses and realised you were in the wrong?” In life the answer to this question is rarely yes.
• “So you want to plunge into misery with a woman round your neck.” Well why not? It’s what we all dream of!
