Riveting drama, excellent acting; some plot questions

"Did she mean to induce a massive stroke in her father? Otherwise, he would have been around to reveal that purchasing the estate was her idea. No wonder she asked her son to say a prayer for her as well."

I don't think she actually meant to harm her father. I kind of wondered if she was secretly angry at her father too and just being putting on a nice act with him also but it didn't look that way when he died. Her husband actually caused the stroke I think.

"I'm also puzzled by the hotel set-up. Couldn't Minnie Driver's character expose that Flora offered to put her up at the hotel?

I thought of that too but I think he had done so many things that impugned his integrity and had to keep recouping his reputation over and over that it was the final straw. The damage was so far done by then. Plus most people wouldn't believe the word of the "other woman".

That scene in the garden I thought could've been more powerful if she hadn't been drunk and just told him straight out what she had done to him and why. It kinda looked like they were just both a big mess and the whole thing got ugly.

This is such a good production, I don't see why they'd want to do a remake.

There's none heart so black as the black black heart of the phony leper!--Monk

Did she mean to induce a massive stroke in her father? Otherwise, he would have been around to reveal that purchasing the estate was her idea. No wonder she asked her son to say a prayer for her as well.

No, not at all. (How could she have known he would have a stroke? If she had truly wanted him to pop off, she would have had to murder him outright, not attempt to "upset him to death"). Ultimately, she did not need her father's death for her plan. I think she was sorry that he died. Even if her father had been alive to tell the truth, do you really think he would have thrown her under the bus? I doubt it.

I suspect that was the point when she had intended to bring her father in on her plan. Getting her father to keep silent about it would prevent Duncan from realizing what she was up to. Duncan would have just continued to believe that it was a major blunder on the part of his father-in-law, and nothing else; he wouldn't have suspected a conspiracy.

Flora was waiting until things were too far along to risk her father stopping her. She probably felt she could get him to help her. He was, after all, terribly disappointed in Duncan. Flora's father had had ambitions of his own, when Flora married Duncan, which he thought to fulfill when Duncan became PM. When Duncan ruined everything, Flora's father wasn't only upset for Flora's sake, but for himself as well. He wanted to be father-in-law of the PM.

Flora had always intended to keep in good standing with the party; she planted the seeds with Sir Donald early on, and continually played him along throughout her plan. She knew with Sir Donald and the other political leaders on her side (Rosalind Clegg with the local party), she would easily win her husband's seat in the bi-election. But I think she meant to have her father by her side when she won.

I think Sir Donald realized at some point that Flora was setting up Duncan, and he didn't care. It was just more dirty politics (something Sir Donald was used tom, and accepted in various forms every day of his career). Duncan had become a liability, so he was easily sacrificed by the party. I believe that Sir Donald realized at some point that he was colluding (for want of a better word) in Duncan's ousting. Flora proved she was loyal and would put the party first, so Sir Donald switched his allegiance to her.

She asked her son to pray for her because of everything she had to do to complete her destruction of Duncan's career (whilst setting herself to replace him). It was an acknowledgement that she was using dirty tricks to achieve her own ends, politically -- a practice for which she had shown distaste earlier in the story.

1. I don't think she meant to induce the stroke, but she certainly took advantage of it by making sure that her father could never reveal her role in the purchase of the Manor.
She had the attending doctor "pull the plug" on the unconscious father 24 or 48 hours after the stroke without consulting with anyone. Now, it is not unusual for stroke victims to recover, although sometimes partially and sometimes days or weeks after the onset of the stroke. They can regain awareness, motion, speech, etc.
If the father had regained his faculties, albeit in part, he could have become a liability to her, which is why she acted to silence him forever.
2. On the hotel set-up, once the word got out that Duncan's credit card was used to reserve Jennifer's room, no amount of denial from Jennifer could have convinced the public, who were already predisposed against her, as a home-wrecker.
And even if Duncan claimed that his card had been wrongfully used, the accusatory headlines were already on the street. The reason Flora saved that trick for the end was that Duncan would surely suspect that she "lifted" his card and would confront her. She pre-empted that possibility by admitting that she plotted the whole campaign.
3. About the confrontation in the garden, I agree with other viewers who say it was unnecessarily hysterical, a bit over the top. But the story needed a climax and this one was in the tradition of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
The resolution -- Duncan to Brussels and Flora into politics -- was very satisfactory, I thought.

#1---What is she??? Blonde or Brunette(Alice"luther"Morgan says REDHEAD $IDE$ MATTER:)

#2---Does she cry when she orgasms like me???

#3---I hope that you're not 1 of those who SHOOT/KILLS THE MESSENGER??? Donald(lol)

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Chuck & Camilla(wonder if they have seen those phone sex scenes LOL!!!)

I would say that, realistically speaking, Laura may not have the complete plan worked out. She could be winging some of it, which is what a real person would do. Her objective is to do damage to her husband's rep, and she can try her best to spin the outcome the best she can should it go wrong (as she's seen her husband, and all politicians, do almost daily.)

But she has some big things on her side. Her father will most likely come down on her side and do as she requests, as he feels guilty about encouraging her to stand by Duncan. (More and more has come out since the initial revelation.) And as mentioned here, no one's going to care what the former mistress has to say...once the hotel story's hit the papers, Laura's achieved her main goal. And her husband's unlikely to attack her in public; it would just make him look worse to be slinging mud at the mother of his children.
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