The Other Bennet Sister Episode 4 introduces us to a dashing new suitor angling for Miss Mary Bennet’s (Ella Bruccoleri) attention in the BritBox show. Mr. William Ryder (Laurie Davidson) meets Mary by the punch bowl and is soon dazzled by her wry wit and unique spirit. In fact, he soon seems to be her biggest fan, cheering her on while Mr. Tom Hayward (Dónal Finn) watches.
In The Other Bennet Sister Episode 3, Mary left home to work as a governess for her kind-hearted aunt and uncle in London. Almost immediately, she meets one of their dearest friends, Tom Hayward. The two share a natural rapport and soon it seems that Mary might be developing a crush. However, Tom already has an understanding with the sweet Miss Ann Baxter (Varada Sethu), putting our girl in the friendzone.
In this week’s all new episode of The Other Bennet Sister, Mary is contemplating giving up on her new life in London. After her aunt, Mrs. Gardiner (Indira Varma), gives her a little pep talk, Mary agrees to attend at least one last party. There, she meets William Ryder and discovers that even if she can’t be the belle of the ball, she can beat everyone else in the room at word games. The Other Bennet Sister Episode 4 ends with Mary winning a bouquet for her efforts and the admiration of Mr. Ryder.
“She’s playing by a different set of rules system to the other people that are in this polite society which they find themselves in,” The Other Bennet Sister star Laurie Davidson told DECIDER. “And I think Ryder is already — I’m going to use a bizarre reference, but he’s already unplugging from the matrix in a way. Do you know what I mean?”
“That’s so good,” Davidson’s The Other Bennet Sister co-star Dónal Finn said.
“But he’s like, ‘Wait a minute, this is all kind of nonsense.’ And actually he sees in Mary someone else who is not really fitting into that and questioning things.”
Davidson went on to tease that Ryder and Mary will “share small acts of rebellion” that will bring them closer in the weeks to come.
An addition part of Mary’s appeal? She seems totally unfazed by the fact that Mr. Ryder is a single man in possession of a good fortune, who therefore, as Jane Austen famously wrote, must be in want of a wife.
“Normally he speaks to someone of the opposite sex and they just kind of throw themselves at him and Mary is completely unlike that,” Davidson said. “I think he finds it unbelievably refreshing, if not a little insulting at the very beginning.”
Although The Other Bennet Sister has only been streaming on BritBox for a week, it’s already a massive hit across the pond. Davidson revealed the moment he realized how big the show had gotten was when he, like, Ryder, found himself the center of a lot of female attention.
“Yeah, I did go to a charity coffee morning organized by one of my mum’s friends and there were about 35 women of similar age to my mum. I had my new baby with me and I thought, ‘I’m just going to hide behind my child. She’ll be passed around and I would not do the socializing,’” Davidson said. “I was swamped on.”
“Mr. Ryder was called at me from across the room many times. So that was a good indication of how the show’s doing,” he said.
“What were their feelings?” Finn asked. “In talking about Mr. Ryder?
“Well, I think, you know, ‘You was robbed!’ was passed around,” Davidson said. “It was very well-received.”
New episodes of The Other Bennet Sister come out on Wednesdays on BritBox.
