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TURN Season 3 Premiere Review

BY The Screen Spy Team

Published 8 years ago

TURN Season 3 Premiere Review

By Chris B.

Turn's season 3 return begins with a hanging and ends with a betrayal: this premiere is worthy of the Bard himself.

Sgt. Hickey and Major Bradford pay for their treachery with their lives, but not before revealing that Culper’s name is known to the British, though not his true identity.

Andre has gleaned the name of Samuel Culper from Ben Tallmadge’s personal notes; after passing along a compliment to Simcoe on the performance of the Queen’s Rangers at the Battle of Monmouth, he sets the beast after this new prey. Simcoe quickly deduces that the name could be an alias, and thus, all are suspect.

Abe and Robert Rogers form an unlikely and uneasy alliance. While Rogers blatantly claims that he is using Abe as bait for Andre and intends to kill him, Abe explains that unless Robert helps him swap out the correspondence of Hewlett for a forged return letter shunning interest in this “simple farmer,” and places the body believably to make it seem the courier died on his return trip from York City, then Rogers’s bait will be most undesirably dead:  “If you want to use me, you going to have to help me.”

Cicero makes use of his reading skills, to the dismay of his mother. When Abigail catches him, she chastises him; the next time, though, it is Andre who catches him with book in hand. But the Major is not a brute, and so he encourages Cicero to practice reading on what he assumes is harmless correspondence from Ms. Shippen in Philadelphia, a message officially addressed to Rebecca Franks that is actually a thinly veiled message for Andre.  What he could not imagine is its information of an engagement for marriage between Peggy and Benedict Arnold. This rattles Andre visibly, but he recovers, writing her a solid reply of love and assurances behind a mask of congratulations.

Richard visits his wife’s grave on this, the anniversary of her death.  He apologizes to her for not being able to keep their oldest from dying in battle and for not doing a better job of raising Abe as “a moral man.”  He promises to do better with young Thomas, swearing to dedicate his life to the boy, fixing the wrongs that he committed in raising Abraham, one he deems infected by that which truly vanquished Caesar: ingratitude. He begs her, “Grant me the strength to do what I must.”

The deed in question?  It truly is what Antony would term the “most unkindest cut of all”: this father turns in his own son as a traitor. Et tu, Richard?

A Dagger of the Mind

Rogers quotes Macbeth to Abe as he ruminates on the “tangled web” of deception that’s been weaved around them both.  He claims that he is not seeking vengeance against Andre, merely justice for the wrongs that have been heaped upon the once-loyal Ranger.  “All men are created equal” is a line from America’s Declaration of Independence that rankles Rogers in particular, since none of the commissioned officers, like Gage or Andre, had viewed him as such:  “All those…who looked down on me, who spat on me, who took credit for my scalps, cursed me with half pay…they refused to see me as an equal, just as Britain refuses America.”

Similarly, Benedict Arnold is determined to get what he desires.  He rides his carriage through the streets of Philadelphia, nodding and waving to the cheers and greetings, as if he were in a parade.  However, the wealthy elders of the city have their cockles up at the activities of their new Military Commandant.  They accuse Arnold of using his position for personal gain, at the expense of their interests.

Arnold, though, feels quite entitled to take whatever he wishes, such as the furniture shipment brought to his mansion, since he has yet to be reimbursed for the large sum of his own money he has spent on the war effort.  This he screams in the face of the seizure commissioner who dares to object, physically tossing him to the ground and sending him fleeing.  Hence, none of the rich old men seem willing to stick their necks out publicly; lucky for them, Peggy happens to be walking nearby and overhears their complaints.  The next scene has her sweet talk a young boy into dropping a note in the Congressional meeting house; while we don’t know its contents, it is likely no coincidence that a few scenes later, Arnold is served a warrant signed by Congress, alleging “corruption, impropriety, and perhaps worse.”  When a furious Benedict decries slander due to an absence of evidence, Joseph Reed (an old rival) holds aloft an anonymous letter “from a concerned patriot” that substantiates the claims.  Arnold vows to fight the charges to the bitter end, to which Reed counters, “I’ll see you there.”

The dangerous concoction that is scorned ambition and a lust for glory is one that, like Macbeth, infects Rogers and Arnold.  It is said that a wounded animal is most dangerous, but when that wound is to his pride, a man becomes a force of destruction, to himself and all around him.

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