To Move a Mountain: A consideration of Sanditon, Ep. 8, Gone with the Wind and The Sound of Music

"To Move a Mountain" or 

"A Clifftop View of Grief"

I have now watched Sanditon's Episode 8 countless times since first viewing it in July. It's a conundrum. The first time I watched I was almost in disbelief that the show that only moments ago had been bringing me such joy, now felt like it was abruptly ripping off one of my limbs. The shocking end was so severe I sat in silence, stunned. I couldn't even cry at the time because I was so dazed. 

Sidney did the thing I thought he'd never do. Our Jane Austen hero--our dashing, strong, heart of gold Sidney said goodbye to his true love Charlotte. I kept thinking there must be some mistake. There must be a bonus scene coming up, after the credits even. Surely, Sidney wouldn't just stand by and watch Charlotte leave Sanditon. He might be as stunned as I was and need a few minutes to process, then he would jump back on his horse and chase her down the clifftop road. I should add, I don't blame Sidney and I'm not angry with him for his response to this completely unfair situation (well maybe angry he didn't speak to Charlotte first). I'm mostly sad and so frustrated about it.  Perhaps then Charlotte would jump out of the carriage, run over to Sidney and say "Sidney, don't marry her. I know you love me. We can figure this out together!" It's Charlotte after all. She is fearless and time and again, we've seen her step up and get things done.

But no, it didn't happen either. I was so confused as I watched Sidney breathless with despair and Charlotte crying in the coach as the camera cut off suddenly with a closeup of her despondent face.  "The powers that be" wouldn't be so sadistic as to end on a heartbreaking separation of our lead couple, would they? Guess so. The confusion I felt quickly transformed into an aching, giant pit in my stomach. We were given a clifftop view to the enormity of grief, as endless, daunting and deep as the ocean. The feeling of immense grief I felt kicked in the worst feeling of all, regret. It brought me back to my own first and only real heartbreak in my twenties.  You never forget that feeling. But I kept thinking on Charlotte and Sidney. What could've been? I've been wondering ever since because even after 4 months of processing it, I have found no peace about the conclusion of Episode 8. I know it wasn't intended to be the end of the series and I can't accept it as a finale in any capacity.

And so here I am, incessantly thinking about it and realizing I'm a grown woman obsessing over a fictional couple. It's just a story but nonetheless it torpedoed its way into my heart.  Maybe it's the symbolism that gets to me, the pain of bad things happening to good people or maybe it's just me needing to believe in my "And she lived happily ever after" Jane Austen mantra.  In my fictional escapes, I don't want to accept that love doesn't necessarily prevail and we don't always get what we want. I already get that. 

Coincidentally, in my first blog post on Sanditon I mistakenly referred to Charlotte as Charlotte Parker because that is how much my mind processes her and Sidney together, forever. I just need the story to catch up to my mind.

After analyzing the episode countless times now, doing closeups on both Charlotte and Sidney's faces and letting Ruth Barrett's gorgeous soundtrack sink into my bones, I had to find a silver lining to process it. It's the only way I can live with the show. I found myself thinking about how in fiction anything is possible--even miracles. As bleak as things appear, everything's on the table for season 2 and Charlotte and Sidney can miraculously be reunited. I must say it again--it's fiction! We want this. Real life is already a tragedy enough to fill thousands of volumes of books.

We turn to art and stories so often for escape and not just to mirror the harsher reality of life. We want and need to have hope. It's healthy and built into our coping mechanism for life. It's worth noting that in real life people really do move mountains for love too. It's the greatest force on earth. 

There are two iconic films I think about in relation to the ending of Episode 8 and how to grapple with it. They are Gone with the Wind and The Sound of Music. When I say I'm grappling with Episode 8, I'm thinking about how to come to a resolution about the gut-wrenching cliffhanger and set the stage for Season 2. I like to imagine what happened just after the camera cuts away at the end of Ep. 8 and what could happen still.   

I'll start with Gone with the Wind. Sidney always expresses so much through his intense, soulful eyes whether it's flirting, anger or vulnerability. In the final scene, his eyes reveal his utter devastation as he watches Charlotte's carriage leave Sanditon. He may be a strong man on the outside, but he's broken within. Watching him conjured up none other than consummate diva Scarlett O'Hara for me. What on earth could Victorian era Southern belle Scarlett have in common with Regency stud Sidney? Well, not much on the surface. But hear me out—they are both full of moxie and shrewdly intelligent. With passionate, dark tempers they are often misunderstood. Aren't those qualities the heart of who they are? Yes, they lost their true loves for very different reasons and one could say Scarlett is a selfish person and Sidney is selfless. But I focus on the fact that they both know what it's like to be completely back against the wall desperate when all has been lost when it comes to love and money. It's that desperation that fuels anger and a resolve to fight back.

I was haunted by the desperation in Sidney's eyes on the clifftop. The weight of the world was on his shoulders with a crushing debt to be paid back through the engagement to Mrs. Campion. He was forced to let Charlotte go as the alternative was seeing his brother in debtor's prison. It pained me so much.  I started to will him to turn his devastation into motivation and fuel his mission to win back Charlotte. I kept thinking of Scarlett O'Hara and wanting him to raise his fist in the air in defiance, let the profound sense of anger wash over him, and shout back at the world “No! I don’t accept this!”  I want him to resolve to fight back against the cruel and twisted fate life has dealt him. Why should he accept this? He's a self-made man and he can create his destiny.

When we last see him, Sidney is standing on the clifftop, almost gasping for breath. Completely gutted.   His labored breathing reminds me of a wounded animal clinging to life. I've always viewed Sidney as a wild stallion full of exotic beauty and brute strength that couldn't be tamed until Charlotte came along, but more on that later in another post.

There are two iconic lines that Scarlett says that give me hope for Sidney. From Filmsite https://www.filmsite.org/soun3.html : "Then, standing alone on a rise in the field, suffering the deprivations of war, an indomitable Scarlett slowly rises and with clenched fists raised toward heaven, resiliently and defiantly vows that she is unbroken by her tribulations. The Tara theme of the film also rises on the soundtrack. She will be transformed and will soon rise from the ashes of the war-ravaged land at Tara, remembering what she was taught by her father in happier times - it is one of the film's most dramatic, famous scenes":

"As God is my witness, as God is my witness, they're not going to lick me! I'm going to live through this, and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again - no, nor any of my folks! If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill! As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."

It still gives me goosebumps. Scarlett with clenched fist shows that her fighting spirit is intact. On the clifftop, I can imagine these very lines went through Sidney's mind as he watched Charlotte's carriage ride off. He is shaken to his core but we need him to rise from the ashes of the Sanditon fire just as Scarlett rises from the ashes of war. The first step is allowing his desperation to transform into determination. We need him to channel his anger and passion to fight for what he truly wants. He wants Charlotte to be his wife. As he said, he had never wanted to put himself in someone else's power before he met Charlotte.

Sidney thought he needed to say goodbye to Charlotte to have a proper parting as she taught him previously, but he had no idea how devastating it would be. Initially, he wanted to ensure that she wouldn't think badly of him because her opinion was so important to him. He thought he'd find peace getting this validation from her and that might be enough to close the chapter. But as he shuts the door to her carriage and she looks away, we see the agony painted across his face. His mouth drops open a bit as if he's stunned and incapacitated by what is happening. With her maintaining strength and dignity in the face of this heartbreak, encouraging him to live up to his promise and try to make Mrs. Campion happy, he recognizes her selflessness and all he admires in her. Once again, he sees her actions make him a better a man. Without a doubt, he now knows that Charlotte is the love of his life. He realized right then she was taking an essential part of him--his best and truest self--with her. As he watches her carriage ride away, it hits him like a ton of bricks that he can't live like this as the shell of a man.

In the continuation of the scene in my mind (after the camera cuts away), I see him fall to his knees in agony shedding tears . But then after releasing his pain and regaining his breath, I see him like Scarlett, defiant. In my version, he raises his fist in resolve and makes a declaration, whispered to the cliffs around him as he watches Charlotte's carriage get smaller in the distance: "Wait for me." I know in my heart that he will do whatever it takes to win her back in season 2, and in the story that lives on in our hearts, because fighting for Charlotte is also an act of self-preservation for him. We have an innate will to survive and Sidney is fighting a battle for his very soul.

Scarlett closes Gone with the Wind with her iconic declaration. Even though Rhett has left her for good saying, "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn" she vows to fight for him:

"I can't let him go. I can't. There must be some way to bring him back. Oh I can't think about this now! I'll go crazy if I do! I'll think about it tomorrow. But I must think about it. I must think about it. What is there to do? What is there that matters? I'll go home. And I'll think of some way to get him back. After all...tomorrow is another day."

Our final image is of a resilient Scarlett. She decides to go home to regain her strength and create a plan to reunite with Rhett, the man she realized was the love of her life. And in the sequel, she eventually got her man. Hey, maybe another author wrote the book, but it's fiction and anything can happen! Scarlett is restored to her stubborn, determined self. She's a fighter who will never quit. We need for Sidney to have this transformation as well and to embrace his inner fighting spirit and not accept living a half-life.

I saw wheels start to spin in Sidney's eyes standing on the clifftop when he realizes just how emotionally impacted he is by Charlotte's departure. I don't think he understood the depth of his love for Charlotte when he did the sensible thing in engaging himself to Mrs. Campion as an act of duty to his family. He chose marriage as a business arrangement. I think there is a real glimmer there in his eyes--like a match being lit that makes a spark. This spark is the very first awareness dawning on him that he can't abide by this fate. As a passionate man, he will realize he must choose love over duty because the alternative would lead to the death of him.

Sidney is also by nature a man of action and "a man of affairs" as his brother Tom. He is smart, he is strong and he is brave and I see the resolve in his eyes as the smallest seed of hope that is planted on the clifftop. After all, this is a man that was brave enough to sail thousands of miles from his home to Antigua to begin anew, brave and strong enough to jump off a moving carriage at full speed to save Georgiana, a man who raced to the scene when Old Stringer broke his leg and one of the first to grab a fire hose to battle the flames during the Midsummer's Ball tragedy. He is not a man to stand idly by.

So on that clifftop, it's this internal awareness of who he really is that will change the course of his life. And that's enough for now. He doesn't need to know what his plan will be, or any of the steps yet, but it's important to see him not rolling over in acceptance. There is a huge mountain now between him and Charlotte. Yes, he will likely fall into some of his old ways, closing himself off, drinking and boxing to dull the pain. But Sidney will find a way to climb this mountain when he learns to channel his anger into energy. He's done it before and he can do it again. Love is the most powerful force in the world and Sidney is armed in spades with true love.

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The other movie that comes to mind when I watch the end of Ep. 8 is The Sound of Music. This movie makes me think about how Charlotte is a lot like Maria. She has the same spunk and bravery mixed with innocence and kind-heartedness. Sidney's family adores her just as Captain Von Trapp’s children adored Maria. She also has an awakening into womanhood with Sidney just as Maria does with the Captain. Now, we just need Charlotte to be brave enough to go back to Sanditon to fight for the life that she wants, just as Maria left the Abbey. We need her to lean into her resiliency. 

When Charlotte learned Sidney was engaged to Mrs. Campion she left Sanditon to retreat to her hometown of Willingden. But she shouldn't stay there. Maria leaves the safe refuge of the Abbey to go back to the Captain's house even though she knows he's engaged because she missed him and the children. The Reverend Mother told her "you have to look for your life." We can not live life passively. You have to go after and seek what you want out of life.

There are three pivotal scenes of dialogue that especially remind me of Sanditon. Initially, Maria accepts her fate and wishes the Captain and Baroness "every happiness" on their upcoming marriage, just as Charlotte wished for Sidney when he told her he was obliged to engage himself to Eliza Campion in Ep.8.

I've pulled these lines from FilmSite: https://www.filmsite.org/soun3.html

The Captain walks down the steps to greet Maria and to ask why she left - but she is devastated and can't answer. She decides to stay only until he finds a new governess:

Captain: You left without saying goodbye, even to the children.

Maria: It was wrong of me, forgive me.

Captain: Why did you?

Maria: Please don't ask me. Anyway, the reason no longer exists.

Baroness: Fraulein Maria, you've returned. Isn't it wonderful, Georg?

 Maria: May I wish you every happiness, Baroness? And you too, Captain. The children tell me you're to be married.

Baroness: Thank you, my dear.

Captain: You are back to, uh, stay?

Maria: Only until arrangements can be made for another governess.

That evening in a blue dress, Maria walks near the lake and gazes up at the night sky, thinking about her life and its dilemmas. From his balcony's terrace, the Captain also appears and looks down at her - connected across the distance. Elsa follows toward him and rattles on about what wedding gift she should give him: "...I do want you to have some little trifle for the occasion. At first, I thought of a fountain pen but you've already got one. And then, I thought perhaps a villa in the south of France, but they are so difficult to gift wrap...And where to go on our honeymoon - now that is a real problem. I thought a trip around the world would be lovely. Yet I said, 'Oh Elsa, there must be someplace better to go.'" After some mutual soul-searching, they both decide to gracefully break off their engagement: Captain: It's no use, you and I. I'm being dishonest to both of us and utterly unfair to you. When two people talk of marriage... Elsa: No, don't, don't say another word, Georg, please? You see, uh, there are other things I've been thinking of. Fond as I am of you, I really don't think you're the right man for me. You're much too independent and I need someone who needs me desperately, or at least needs my money desperately. I've enjoyed every moment we've had together. I do thank you for that. Now, if you'll forgive me, I'll go inside, pack my little bags, and return to Vienna where I belong. And somewhere out there is a young lady who I think will never be a nun.

The Captain readily joins Maria by the pavilion, and asks two questions:

"Why did you run away to the Abbey?"

"What was it that made you come back?"

According to Maria, she "had an obligation to fulfill and I came back to fulfill it..And I missed the children." He explains that "nothing was the same" while she was away and "it'll be all wrong again" after she leaves again. He attempts to persuade her to change her mind and stay longer. And then he tells her that his engagement to the Baroness is off: "There isn't going to be any Baroness...well, we've, uhm, called off our engagement, you see...Well, you can't marry someone when you're in love with someone else, can you?" He holds her tenderly by the chin and draws her lips nearer for a kiss. Relieved, Maria has had her prayers answered:

Maria: "The Reverend Mother always says, 'when the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window'."

 Captain: "What else does the Reverend Mother say?"

 Maria: "That you have to look for your life."

 Captain: "Is that why you came back?" (She nods) And have you found it Maria?

 Maria: "I think I have. I know I have."

 Captain: "I love you."

 Maria: "Oh, can this be happening to me?"

Like Maria, Charlotte initially retreats from the competition--Eliza aka, the Baroness. But at heart, Charlotte is a brave and determined young woman. She may be back home in Willingden licking her wounds but in season 2 we will see her regain her strength and confidence. I'd love to see her go back to Sanditon and actively fight for what she wants. She not only fell in love with Sidney, but she fell in love with the town of Sanditon and all of the possibilities there. So she must go back and claim what is hers. In my ideal season 2, Sidney and Charlotte are both active in finding a way back to eachother. Neither is passive sitting idly by.

The realistic thing might be for the Captain to marry the very wealthy and elegant Baroness. But the story allows love to prevail and the Captain realizes his heart lies with Maria, and the Baroness steps aside. 

I also think it would be an amazing twist if Eliza ended up being more like the Baroness in choosing to be dignified enough to call off her engagement. Could we see Eliza evolve in Season 2 and even become a character we sympathize with rather than a villain? Can she be redeemed? If she truly loved and respected Sidney, she would honor their youthful bond and she'd want to see him happy and thus release him. If she held her head up high, refusing to attach herself to a man clearly in love with another woman, she'd open the door to finding new love for herself too. Can you imagine how a redeemed Eliza would inspire dozens of new fan fictions in her search for love?

These two iconic movies remind me of what is possible despite Sanditon's current, heartbreaking cliffhanger conclusion in Ep. 8. In fiction, love can prevail no matter the odds. In fact, the greater the odds, the greater the love story and the richer and more rewarding the happily ever after will be. I am channeling fairy Godmother Lady Susan here--"Do not lose heart. The race is not yet run. When it comes to love, there is no such thing as a foregone conclusion." There is a happy ending waiting for us in Sanditon, just around the corner.

As Jane Austen said:  "My characters shall have, after a little trouble, all that they desire."

Someday soon, I know my beloved Charlotte and Sidney will be reunited. We must keep the faith. 

Those mountains will move.