Monday, October 8, 2012

Job Shared, Job Halved

Melodramatic Mondays
****

Belle brings another woman into the fray when she worries that one of her regular clients has started to lose interest.

The review for "Control and Relief" can be read here.

Hannah (Billie Piper) has not had a long-term relationship since her brief romance with Ben (Iddo Goldberg,) but Belle has had a standing date with Ash (Ace Bhatti) since the two of them first met. In a way, Hannah has started living vicariously through the fake relationship that Belle has with her client, and the threat of losing that connection, however tenuous it may be, means an end to whatever fantasy she might have been able to hold of having the ghost of a normal love life.

Ash has seen Belle on every second Wednesday since she started her job, initiating their girlfriend-experience and welcoming her gently into the industry itself. Belle has grown emotionally-invested in her visits with Ash, she sees a more innocent time of her life in him, she remembers who she was when she started, and how he gently and kindly proved to her that escorting could be a positive experience. At some point Hannah became dependent on Belle's fantasy relationship with Ash, experiencing a vague image of intimacy with him when she can't with anyone else, and having him move on to Naomi (Beth Cordingly) is the equivalent of him having broken up with her. She had known that the end of the affair was always in the cards, but she had not been ready for his tastes to have changed so soon, and she never thought it would end with him having found someone else to satisfy his needs. Hannah entered into this job in part to avoid experiencing the end of her relationships, in hopes of not having to go through the reality of breaking up with someone again, and is understandably devastated when forced to go through what should have been an impossible break up.

Belle and Naomi treat their preparation rituals as though they were a sleepover game, comparing their habits, bodies, clothes and toys, both having fun with one another without developing any sense of competitiveness or aggression. It's nice to see Hannah connecting with another woman, as she appears to have no girlfriends outside of her work, and the moments where they converse behind Ash's back and sync up their fake climaxes are very endearing. Hannah only realizes that she's connected with Naomi on a real level when Ash compares their debriefing to two nurses or teachers discussing their days, and it's in this moment that Hannah's ability to enjoy her work is fully appreciated by the audience.

In a fit of rage, Hannah deletes Naomi's number from her phone, in part because she's angry at having lost a client to another woman, but also because she feels betrayed, as though Naomi broke up a real relationship. Being angry at her friend is understandable, but given their lifestyle, it seems like an incredible overreaction. Hannah has so few friends outside of the workplace that it's incredibly unfortunate she would allow herself to lose out on this friendship based on something so fickle and immaterial.

Ben spends a good portion of the episode pretending that everything's fine, that nothing has changed in his relationship with Hannah, but due to his inability to cope with her being a prostitute, being unable to come to terms with his insecurities about whether or not she cheated on him when they were together, he finds himself unable to connect with her on the emotional level that friends should be able to. He has moments where he forgets, imagines that Hannah is the same girl he's always known, but finds himself immediately drawn back to the reality of what she does behind closed doors. As a gesture of their friendship he offers to pay for their lunch, but is taken aback when he sees the wad of cash she has, and the spark of friendship recedes back into the distance as he ponders once more who she is to him. His back-and-forth is understandable, but in the end he still asks her to be his best man, without a second thought to the way he's been treating her or how his fiancée might react to his ex-girlfriend being in their wedding party.

Being in almost every scene, it's absolutely vital that Piper is able to carry this series, and she does incredibly well here. Piper's chemistry with the rest of the cast is phenomenal and she has a very good rapport with both Goldberg's Ben and Bhatti's Ash. Appearing for the first time here, Cordingly inserts herself very well into the setting, creating a very believable friendship between Naomi and Hannah and making it seem as though she could have been there all along.

Director Susan Tully has a lot of very nice moments in this episode, exploring the various aspects of Belle's numerous relationships in unique and interesting ways. Hannah/Belle's interactions with the people around her are balanced against one another very well without intruding into each other's story lines and Tully makes it very clear where each of them stand with one another. Included is a black and white sequence where Hannah remembers how she got into the business, having gotten paid for sex without realizing it, from there allowing her one-night stand to turn her into a businesswoman. Hannah briefly questions whether she would have taken the money if he had paid up front, and even she isn't sure, but she's glad to have experienced it, or she wouldn't be who she has become today.

Nicole Taylor writes Hannah/Belle being worried for the first time about how her job appears to others, explaining to Ben that she enjoys it, no matter how seedy it might seem to someone outside of the industry. Having Ben be the only person with any knowledge of her occupation means that he's also the only person to whom she can confide her job-related troubles, a role requiring his knowledge and understanding of how she feels about her work and the real nature of how she relates to the men she sees. Even though Hannah understands that everything she tells Ben will be given a second look to consider the implications of being Belle, she tries to change the narrative of her problem, making it an issue about having lent someone a book and not getting it back. Ben is clearly aware that it's a work issue, but he relents and plays along with Hannah's ruse, responding as though the book is not the most important thing when, in actuality, he knows it doesn't exist.

It seems as though Ben's feelings for Hannah might get in the way of his upcoming marriage, though I imagine that any real relationship for Hannah would be saved for the end of the series and result in her retirement. I also can't see this being the final word from Naomi, as she's the first person that Hannah's been able to connect with in this manner, and it would be a shame to let their friendship die so soon.

The review for "Pro Bono" can be read here.

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