'The Count of Monte Cristo' Goes to "The Ball"
Despite still getting almost nothing in the way of character development, Edmond still manages to keep multiple revenge plots spinning in (surprisingly) enjoyable fashion.
As it kicks off the back half of its season, The Count of Monte Cristo seems to have accidentally stumbled upon an important realization: This show is a lot easier to enjoy when its lead character isn't so much a character at all, but more a force of nature.
This is perhaps unfortunate for those of us who, however fruitlessly, had hoped that the titular Count might evolve into something more than a cardboard revenge Terminator, or that star Sam Claflin might get the chance to display more range than he's been allowed to do thus far. Five episodes in, that now seems fairly unlikely to happen, but "The Ball" finally has enough scheming and overt manipulation to be something close to fun.
If you're curious about how Edmond managed to amass such a truly outrageous amount of potential blackmail material, or how he's learned to do things like manipulate world markets to impact his enemies, or negotiate with sultans for the purchase one of their slaves — given that the man couldn't read before he met Abbé Faria — well, you won't find those answers here.
What "The Ball" does have going for it, though, is that it's the first time where the Count's ridiculously plotted machinations are enjoyable to watch.
The wheels of Edmond's justice grind exceedingly small this week, as he takes advantage of Danglers' seemingly endless avarice to engineer a complicated financial fake-out involving a secretly sent telegram and a fake rumor about an uprising in Spain that leads his enemy to lose a small fortune (over a million francs) as a result of selling his Spanish stocks. This plan not only requires him to be aware of the affair Danglars' wife is having with the Secretary of the Interior Lucien Debray (Matthew Wilson), but also to know that she uses her illicit relationship to trade on insider government financial information.
Elsewhere, the Count also inserts himself into multiple relationship dramas, promising Albert to help him get out of the arranged marriage to Danglars' daughter, Eugenia, that he does not want, and helping young Maximillien Morrel (Robin Greer), engineer a run-in with his love Valentine de Villefort (Amaryllis August), who's meant to marry Alfred's friend Franz.
(The thing this episode truly teaches us is that Count of Monte Cristo is secretly a huge gossip. Also, apparently, there are only all of three families for people to marry into.)
Oh, and he's bought the freedom of a heretofore never mentioned young woman named Haydee (Karla-Simone Spence, of excellent The Confessions of Frannie Langton fame), the daughter of Ali Pasha, an Algerian leader who was betrayed and assassinated by Ferand Mondego. Haydee was sold into slavery to the Sultan of Amir, so it's a plus that Edmond has rescued her, even though his primary motivation was clearly to use her against his own enemy.
The Count is hopeful she'll be able to identify Fernand as the man who killed her father and then....profit, I guess*. At any rate, he's moved her into his home, given her the entire upper floor, and bought her a new wardrobe. Publicly, she's referred to as his "protegee," though no one remarks about how strange it probably would have been for him to move an unmarried young Black woman into his house and teach her about chemistry.
(*Sorry for the underpants gnomes reference, but Edmond is not particularly forthcoming about how Haydee's knowledge will help bring their shared enemy down.)
But who cares! Haydee confirms Fernand is her father's killer, and the next phase of Edmond's plan can move forward. Maybe the girl will get to poison him, who can say?
To be fair, "The Ball" does contain several moments in which Claflin actually gets the chance to play a version of the Count that's a smidge warmer and more human than his Terminator-style revenge machine persona. He seems genuinely thrilled to have discovered Morrell's children, and even gets a bit choked up at learning that the family kept the letter he sent when he anonymously paid off the older man's debts.
He also seems to genuinely like Albert, and while thwarting a successful marriage for Danglars's daughter is probably just a bonus sidequest in the world of his larger schemes, helping the young man avoid a loveless match is very on brand for him.
As for the Count's own love life, it's unfortunate that the hour's most uncomfortable scenes are those between Edmond and Mercedes. The Count of Monte Cristo hasn't been all that big on showing us much of her perspective on what's happened, which makes her sudden mooning over Edmond's alleged grave and feeling weird about being in the Count's presence for reasons she can't quite identify feel awkward and forced.
(It's also possible that Claflin and Giradot just have negative chemistry, but I haven't quite decided about that yet.)
At any rate, this hour certainly sets up some intriguing plot threads for the episodes still to come, particularly if you can manage to let go of the idea that we're meant to understand anything about what the show's titular lead is feeling. (Don't love it, to be honest, but it's an improvement!)
The Count of Monte Cristo continues with new episodes airing and streaming on local PBS stations and the PBS app on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET through mid-May 2026. All episodes are available to binge on PBS Passport for members and on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.
