As the hour begins, Tallmadge is struggling to transport the captured, wounded, and still annoying British captain Simcoe (Samuel Roukin) across northern New Jersey to the rest of the American army. Above Tallmadge is Gen. Scott (Michael Gaston), threatening to court-martial him for mistreating Simcoe and dismissing his pleas to install “friendly eyes in New York.” Below him is a set of unreliable private soldiers from County Donegal by way of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, we don’t get to know most of the characters in the conflict that ensues, so its deadly conclusion packs only a feeble emotional wallop. On the other hand, it does offer this immortal dialogue: “This is New Jersey.” But then the judge makes the mistake of revealing his scheme to confiscate the farmland of the Strongs, the family’s Patriot neighbors back in Setauket. As we know by now, the only thing that galvanizes Abe into action is a threat to Anna Strong (Heather Lind). Soon he discards the rosette that identifies him as a Loyalist and starts collecting military intelligence big-time. Symbolically, taking off the rosette makes sense; practically, it would be more effective for Abe as an undercover spy to keep it on. Now if Abe had seen Anna being so chummy with their childhood friend Caleb Brewster (Daniel Henshall) back in Setauket, would he be eager to collect information for Caleb to take to Tallmadge? (You remember Tallmadge, right?) One character who becomes more prominent in this episode is Abe’s wife Mary (Meegan Warner). She reveals that they married only because her original fiancé, Abe’s older brother Thomas, joined the British army and got killed. Furthermore, Mary says, she and Thomas had met only once; their fathers had arranged their marriage. That’s the way many eighteenth-century marriages came about…in India. In Britain and its North American colonies, about a quarter of all first-time brides were pregnant on their wedding days, implying much closer acquaintance with their new husbands. Again, Turn seems to be treating the past as a source of exoticism, not as a specific, documented culture. Wouldn’t there be enough drama in Abe marrying Mary to ensure his late brother’s child would have a father when it’s born?
