Family & Global Tensions Rise in the Penultimate Episode of 'Outrageous'

Hindsight is 20/20; it's a saying that's glaringly apparent in the penultimate episode of Outrageous's first season, in which the consequences of multiple, seemingly small choices come home to roost. Narrating the story from a post-war world where it's easy to see the threads connecting various Mitford family misfortunes, Nancy, as the storyteller of her own life, declares that "with hindsight, all of us might have made very different decisions with our lives. Including me." But in the world of the show, the characters are afforded no such luxuries, and the fractures in the Mitford clan expand to what often feels like insurmountable chasms.

As such things go, this is probably the season's most low-key episode, at least in terms of the presence of overt Nazi propaganda, life-threatening incidents, or door-slamming family arguments. Yet, it's also full of big emotional moments, as one sister engineers a seemingly permanent break from the family, and another discovers her marriage has been crumbling behind her back. A third takes her destiny into her own hands. It's a fairly balanced hour in terms of overall narrative focus, unless you count poor Pamela, who seems to be the forgotten family member with no real story of her own outside of babysitting Deborah during her dates with Derek Jackson*. Even Muv and Favre get more focus than she does here!

(*History buffs know that this is the man that Pam herself will eventually marry, but at this point, the show isn't doing much with their interactions.)