Drinking tea and listening to the rain on my roof puts me in the perfect mood for Ladies of London. It may be summer in their world but isn’t it always raining in England? Or is that just an ugly American stereotype? What evs. Bring on the accents!
Marissa is getting bossed around by her nanny and she loves it. She asks Matt about the rumor he started that they’re moving to California. It’s always been his dream. Marissa loves her life in London. She can’t imagine leaving. But she is looking forward to letting her hair down and hanging with the girls. She’s had a stressful year and she’s ready to party. Unfortunately, she seems to have forgotten how stressful this group of girls can be.
Caroline Fleming is meeting with the therapist she never lets speak. She really blew it in Denmark by telling the press about her father. Her stepmother hung up on her when she tried to apologize. They’re pissed. She’s tortured by her relationship with her family. She chose not to live the life they expected and they’ve never forgiven her. Nothing she does is good enough. They even took her husband’s side in the divorce. She cries actual tears.
The girls are excited to see Marissa. She has to cancel last minute when little Sadie has to go back to hospital. Everyone worries. Sophie goes to Julie’s so they can rehash their storylines. They check in with Marissa. Sadie is already doing better but she won’t be out of hospital in time to go to Mapperton with the other ladies. Julie is understanding but nervous. The last time Marissa wasn’t at an event (Sophie’s divorce party) Caroline Stanbury raked Jules over the coals. Now she’s superstitious that it’ll happen again.
Marissa is relieved that Sadie is alright but she breaks down from the stress of it all. It’s heartbreaking.
The Ladies (minus Marissa) head out to Mapperton. Sophie drives with my beloved Adela. Caroline Stanbury brings her makeup artist Luke (of course) and Caroline Fleming brings Liz Hurley’s ex-husband’s fiancée (I refuse to call her anything else). They drink the entire way there. Julie is all aflutter. She brings in an “Executive Butler” as her secret weapon. She hopes to out-butler Caroline Stanbury.
The troublemakers show up three hours late so Julie is already on edge. The fabulous Anthea gives them a tour of the house. Caroline Stanbury complains. She yawns. She’s much too fabulous for this stodgy, aristocratic hoohaw. Julie shares the house rules for everyone but Caroline Fleming (since she knows how to behave). I can already tell this isn’t going to go over well. #1: No complaining about the food or passing food around the table (Juliet). #2: No lying about going to the loo so you can smoke on the front lawn (Caroline). #3: Be back for dinner by 8pm (the troublemakers). “You’re in my manor house. You have to have manners.” Caroline Stanbury and Juliet are beside themselves. Julie just ensured break each and every one.
Sophie and Adela are the only ones staying at the house with Julie (#DreamTeam) so the troublemakers leave to freshen up at their inn. It’s gorgeous. I’m getting the travel bug again. Caroline Stanbury lies in bed complaining about Julie while everyone else gets ready for dinner. She has no interest in being on time. The other troublemakers are actually annoyed with her for making them wait. She doesn’t care.
They arrive over two hours late. Caroline Fleming is extremely apologetic. Caroline Stanbury isn’t. Julie seats Caroline Stanbury and Juliet on either side of her. They feel like they’re being punished (they are). Julie assures them she put them there because she wants to work it out with them. She’s an eternal optimist. Caroline Stanbury sees it as a power trip. “I’m not here for your amusement. You’re here for mine.”
Julie shares that they’re going fishing tomorrow. Guess who’s annoyed about it? Everyone’s sick of her attitude. Julie feels disrespected as a host and turns to Caroline Fleming to back her up (she does). Then Adela jumps in. She calls Caroline Stanbury spoiled. She calls her rude. She says if Caroline comes with them she’ll just have a nasty attitude the whole time. Caroline’s guarddog Juliet calls Adela out for picking on her. Caroline Stanbury threatens to shove her fist down Adela’s throat. Friendship. It turns into Caroline Stanbury and Juliet against Julie, Adela and Caroline Fleming. Sophie wants to be the peacemaker and Liz Hurley’s ex-husband’s fiancée is pretty much cut from the scene entirely.
Caroline rants that she feels strangled by Julie’s rules. She grew up in this kind of lifestyle and she won’t live this way any longer. After saying her piece, and getting ample attention, she calms down. Adela decides they should just let her sleep. “She’s exhausted because, you know, she’s been driven down here and had her makeup done.” Liz Hurley’s ex-husband’s fiancée laughs and points. She almost earned a name for that. Caroline yells at Adela and storms away from the table. The truth hurts.
Next week: Caroline Stanbury is still pissed. Sophie tries to reason with her but Caroline won’t listen. The rest of the ladies have a great time fishing. Caroline Stanbury refuses to bring her children to their cousin’s birthday party because she’s mad at Sophie.
I felt legitimately bad for Caroline F. with the whole family taking her ex’s side. That’s cold.
I want to like Caroline S. but she makes it so damn hard!
I too, felt bad for Caroline F and almost cried with her. It’s a shame that her family is so into money and all the crap that they refuse to live and let live and be happy that she’s happy! I’m still on the fence with Jules but I did feel for her in this episode. The “troublemakers” were extremely rude arriving so late and then being grossly late to dinner, I honestly would have started eating without them.
i still like Caroline S, I think she’s lashing out because she’s not handling the loss of Gift Library very well. I know it’s hard to give women with the tough exterior and strong personality a break but I’m willing to for a least a couple more episodes then I hope she starts to pull herself together. I can understand why she feels betrayed by Sophie because I would too a little and expect her not to blab my words to anyone especially someone I don’t get along with but to bring the children into it is just wrong. I really hope Caroline S snaps out of it soon.
I like that Adela speaks her mind to Caroline S. that may be why they have a strong friendship, however, her timing was not good. I think she needs to stop jumping in. I think she should let whoever Caroline S is arguing with defend themselves and only speak when it concerns her, otherwise, this is how friendships end.
As for Juliet, it’s interesting that we’re now 3 episodes in and she has not had 1 single segment of providing us an update like all of the other ladies had in the 1st episode. As a matter of fact, Sophie & Liz Hurley’s ex-husband’s fiance’ have had more introduction and camera time than Juliet.
That is super weird about Juliet. Punishment for her bizarre behavior last season?
I’ve noticed that too. It’s almost like Juliet was originally supposed to be a “friend” this season but, after fighting Caroline’s battles all season, she was promoted back to full time “Lady”.
It’s really weird that Juliet is now in the “friend of” category. Adela has had more air time than Juliet.
I love this show! I’m fascinated by Caroline S and her make up artist. Why are they always together? She hangs on him and it shows them lying in bed together. He is in a robe she is wearing PJ’s. I know my hub wouldn’t appreciate this and I am amused that hers must not care.
Well he’s clearly gay. I’m sure her DH is not worried about anything “happening”.
Julie reminds me of the second Mrs. DeWinter and Caroline S is Mrs. Danvers 😀
And Mapperton is Manderley!!! The staff does treat Julie like I imagine the staff treated Mrs de Winter the second — not undeservedly so…Julie is way out of her league here.
Caroline Stanbury is being a total and complete bitch to everyone and I say this as someone who adored her English bitchiness prior seasons. Stanbury is just giving off the impression that she’s doing the show under a contractually obligated duress. So either you kiss her ass like Juliet or Stanbury is going to be rude to you and accuse you of disloyalty?
I think my opinion of Stanbury shifted with the whole Gift Library thing. Clearly a vanity project so Caroline wouldn’t have to be around her children. Investors lost their money, her employers lost their livelihood and Caroline S…took a sumptuous vacation. Poor Caroline.
Loving the rest of the cast this season! Felt terrible for Caroline Fleming. When you have family issues there is always some hope of resolution and forgiveness and now it looks likely that she’s never going to get that closure with her Dad.
And Marissa… just wow! It’s nice to know that Sadie is well, ive had a few family members and close friends with preemies and it is an experience I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. I had no idea about the club closing. Do they still have their restaurant and hot dog place?
They still have 3 Bumpkin restaurants in London, plus Top Dog. And Matt’s nightlife group also owns a brand called Eclipse, which has a few bars in London and Barcelona. They’ll survive. 😉
Plus, Boujis isn’t a write-off. They reopened it after this was filmed as a members-only venue, but they got a lot of bad publicity when it was discovered they were filling up the Dom Perignon bottles with prosecco to make ends meet (the management blamed the staff naturally, though I can’t fathom exactly how a waitress profits from any savings on stock).
Can’t imagine ordering Dom Perignon at your table and not inspecting the bottle prior to popping the cork. Also the taste is very different from Prosecco.
The bottle comes to the table already open, with gaudy sparklers and barely-dressed waitresses. Boujis might be fancy, but it’s still a nightclub (not a restaurant). I think these tricks are probably widespread, but in Boujis’ particular case they’d been doing it for at least 3 years. They were swapping Grey Goose and Belvedere for supermarket vodka too, and watering down other spirits.
I suspect the reason they were doing this at Boujis was that the capacity is very small, and they have to pay for big-name DJs, so it’s probably hard to make the venue pay its way. They were charging £360 for the Dom and filling it up with £9 prosecco, so it’s a pretty profitable ruse (even for the rare customer who spots the con – but they won’t be many; Boujis’s customers were typically in their 20s and already drunk by the time they arrived).
I remember reading about Boujis when the princes were in college and this was a hot spot. They were famous for a shot called a crack baby if I recall correctly.
It doesn’t surprise me that boujis rarely got called out for switching the champagne – I’m a veuve girl but I’ve sampled the more expensive varieties and couldn’t tell much of a difference.
I’ve read that you can take cheaper vodka and put it through a Brita filter and it’ll taste the same as the more expensive brands. Haven’t tried it yet
Yes! The Crack Baby shots are amazing. They’d be great for a Christmas party, actually – they have vodka and champagne and Chambord and passionfruit puree, and maybe some kind of syrup. I might make those over the holidays. 🙂
That’s a neat idea about the Brita filter for vodka. If that works, I could save a fortune LOL!
The more expensive vodkas are more filtered so the Brita trick is brilliant and I’ll have to give it a go.
Just saw an article published July 2016 that says Top Dog was closed – and charging 7.50 for a hot dog I can see why.
Yes, those old biddies do treat her like Danvers did, it’s what started me thinking along those lines. Manderley, Mapperton. She really should have a Rebecca themed party and wear a copy of Rebecca’s ball gown. ha!
Brilliant analogy but which husband is Maximilian? And Mapperton is not as glamorous or gothic as Mandalay. It’s too bad we don’t have Rebecca in the cast!
I thought about that but they don’t give husbands enough air time to assess. I wish they did.
Poor Julie, the Brits really do look on her as the crazy American. Caroline S, there is a point where you pass from snark to bitter old bitch. Juliet is still annoying.
DejaBlue, I recognized the names but it took me a while to realize it was Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
Back when people used to have theme parties, a friend had a What Character In Literature Am I? party. Your character was written on a note and pinned to your back. You had to ask others questions to suss out who you were. I was given “the second Mrs. deWinter”. It was then that I realized her first name was never said in the movie! It’s a great trick trivia question too. It is my favorite movie of all time, …oh except for Rear Window.
I think “she’s exhausted because she’s been driven down here and had her make-up done” should have earned Adela a peach, or some fish and chips, or a pint of warm beer, or whatever these ladies hold. She’s got great delivery!
I hope Adele takes Caroline S.’s place when she moves to Dubai. That is, if moving means she’ll be exiting the show. Does it?
Poor Caroline! I didn’t get a great impression of her last season due to the way she handled her issues with Marissa. She is seeming more and more human to me, and to think! I can even relate to her!!!
I’ve always wondered what the deal with her family was in regards to her relationships, because after her divorce, her ex husband and his lawyer joined the board for the castle. When she was having her youngest child, out of wedlock with a popular football player, whose now known for being kind of an immature idiot, who squandered his chances of success-wait! where was I? sorry sorry, when she was having the baby, some Danish newspapers checked the public records for the castle and discovered that Caroline was removed from the board. But her ex husband and his lawyer remained. When Caroline’s father was asked about this he said that he guessed she had removed herself because she lived in London, which the journalist noted was odd since the ex husband also lives in london. anyway, she sold her part of the castle back to her father after her divorce, and publicly, it’s been stated that the castle is going to be given to her oldest son. This combined with the clips of her step mother made me feel very badly for caroline. I think she was being entirely truthful in the things she was saying. And I wonder what the fallout will be
Very interesting – thanks for sharing! I wondered what Caroline Fleming meant when she said her family sided with her ex.
Oh goodness, Caroline Fleming nearly broke my heart when she was talking to her therapist. I can’t imagine having such a disconnect with ones own family, especially when they’re royalty and in the spotlight.
Caroline Stanbury (sp?) is just…beyond. In fact, in watching trashy Bravo shows for nearly a decade, I have the strongest reaction and distaste for her. And I’m talking hundreds of Bravolebrities. I think the excuse of her closing her shop is bologna. I had to close a bakery I opened and I never, ever, ever treated my friends and family like she has treated hers. She’s a gross, nasty, disrespectful, ugly person. Ugh.
Great recap. I don’t care for Julie and her balls. She is a pompous twit with hypersensitivity syndrome aka lymeopause. I think Caroline S sister in law is a twit. She did stab her in the back and didn’t care. Yes. I’ve lived in London for several years, it rains 300+ days a year. I think they CG’ed the sun because I’ve never seen so much of it as has been in these first few episodes.
Oh bollocks. I spent most of my adult life in London and the summers can be sweltering. Don’t get me wrong, though, just for June – August. You’d be begging for rain when you’ve just got out of the tube at rush hour in July. Perhaps you’re thinking of Edinburgh? Similar architecture, much smaller, much more water.
I hate that they make them reenact scenes that have already happened. Obviously, that poor woman’s child is in hospital and she’s just had her insides cut out. There’s no denying that. But by forcing her to relive it several times for the correct “take” she looks like she’s forcing it and it seems very disingenuous.
If they don’t capture the moment, which I’d rather they didn’t, they should just leave her alone instead of making her act it our again.
I love how Julie has gone from scraggly hair, goofy knit hats, a cheap dye job and yoga pants to sweater sets, subdued hair style and color, and modest skirts. She looks like she’s in costume, but she is playing a part so that makes sense.
I hope she can learn from her mistakes – laying out house rules, really?? – and grow into her position and her wardrobe with more grace than she’s exhibited so far.
First can I say at first I hated Caroline S! And loved Juliet! I never likedbSoohie always saw hidden motives. I don’t lime ADEL So far, she seems like a bitch with her humor which makes me think LisabVP from BH isn’t lying, the British are just snarky assh*led!
Julie is so unsure of herself band “proving” herself to no one who care! She wants to be likebCarolineF but in reality she never will be even with a title! She is to insecure, and needy, and weak. IMO!!
(Ifbyouvseeba long word run together like the beginning of this, my space bar on mybdevice isb screwy and hits b instead so b= sapce lol)
I think CarolineS has PTSD from her childhood! Her dislike for rules etc is much deeper than just veingba brat!
. She getsbalmost physically ill at these things!! Then on the car ridebeach time you could see her eyesbwerent bitchy or bratty, it wasba genuine fear, and she looked almost scared! Her friends making fun of her saying its rebellion are actually being very condescending to her! They need to be more understanding and not let her ego but not shove what she deosnt want down her throat!,
I also feel for Marissa these girls were never taped with her before or after her birth! And instead of galavanting to mapperton, someone should have stayed for moral support. She is breaking my heart!
Juliet, cracks me up (must be an American thing is.. Little rebel) but I love herbquerky off the wall comments lol, and her blind loyalty to her friends (so far). HOWEVER — who in the hell is picking out her cloths???? Omg these outfits are not even sheek! They belong in the 1940-50s maybe 20s . they are uggly they look like wall papper or curtains! Is she going for a gone with the windblook? Because it ain’t fabulous!!! Lol everyone else looks classy and here is Juliet wearing whaaaaaat????? Lol
Someonebtake her emergency shopping quick! I do not get it! Modesty is one thing but ugly is just ugly !!!
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