Is it just me or did that romantic turn come out of nowhere?! Like the writers just threw it in last minute to give Victors death more gravitas?
It didn't need it, he has been there from the start. It was enough that there was an undertone of romance between Mae and Harry at the start of the season, even though it was abandoned quickly.
I wondered, too.
But because Lady Mae and Victor used to have an ongoing affair when she was still Lady Mae--quite the romps in bed--I suppose we are seeing now that she was not just using him for the sex back then...
...and that she genuinely cared for him.
A distracting affectionate scene between Harry and Mae was unnecessary to convey Mae's sadness about Victor it seemed...
Actually, I still assume that she was using him for sex back then. Her respect for him as an equal is a new development. That fact that he has matured and made a success of himself has caused her to see him in a new light.
"You two ought to be ashamed of yourselves . . . two grown men acting like . . . grown men!!!"
strhe, the plot twist of Mae and Victor rekindling their romance didn't seem like an afterthought at all to me! After seeing how in Ep. 4.5 Jimmy turned out to have such a violent temper, I actually thought Mae may have been finished with him then, considering how she'd suffered in her marriage to the similarly-tempered Lord Loxley. I was actually a bit surprised she continued seeing Jimmy after discovering how hot-headed he could be, but she did kind of qualify her acceptance of the date with him to the opera by inferring she'd go with anyone because she loved it so. Contrasting Jimmy with Victor, especially now that he's the owner of a beautiful and successful night club, made it plausible to me at least that Mae would find him even more attractive than before.
I just watched Ep. 4.6 tonight and I'm still in shock about Victor though. That was a truly stunning turn of events. I knew the show would probably have an increasingly sad final season since it's well-known that Harry Selfridge squandered his fortune, but I didn't anticipate that doom was in store for so many of the other characters!