Unity's Horrific Views Shock the Nation as 'Outrageous' Continues

Unity's obsession with fascism, and with Adolf Hitler specifically, finally becomes too much for her family to ignore in Outrageous's fourth episode, and the Mitford family is rocked by scandal when the actual depth of her commitment to Nazism is made public. The first half of this season has largely soft-pedaled the darker aspects of what Diana and Unity's interest in fascism means in concrete terms, refusing to get too specific about the more odious views these women either hold or don't care enough to protest. Instead, the show, much like the Mitford family, has treated their flirtation with authoritarianism as a sort of genteel fad, something that most seem to assume will pass with time.

It becomes glaringly apparent this week that this is not the case, and it is horrifying.

Perhaps it's because Unity's behavior becomes both public knowledge and a public embarrassment that finally jolts her family out of their "it's just a phase" malaise, where their middle daughter is concerned. The Mitford parents are genuinely shocked to receive a letter detailing not only Unity's highly orchestrated meet-cute with Hitler but also the effusive joy she took in their conversation. Most of the family is, for some reason, thoroughly shocked by all of this—Nancy even insists it must be a joke, because I guess she has no memory of the events of the previous two years—but not Diana, who simply heads to Munich immediately to see her sister and to finagle an introduction of her own.