Contains spoilers for this article Big Season 3 Episode 6.
For three seasons, one word defined Big, Hulu’s crayon comedy about Russia’s “Enlightened despot” Catherine the Great—huzzah!
Nicholas Hoult’s Peter III and his court seem to end it all with that word, whether it’s a champagne glass shattering on the floor, an arched statement over a bowl of raw strawberries, or a sudden change of law. She learned this quickly when Elle Fanning’s Catherine the Great arrived; No matter how bad things get for him or anyone else on this show, cracks are often hidden behind a mask. Anger and violence are acceptable in this world, but sadness is not.
So what does everyone do when their favorite deposed monarch to hate is met with a tragic, indescribably stupid ending? This is what happens in the second half of the season, after Peter is shockingly and fatally swept through thin ice in Episode 6.
Big Appropriately titled “Ice,” Season 3 Episode 6 highlights the dominance of tone that has always been created. BigWell, that’s great. Peter’s death throws his court into a kind of emotional turmoil that no one, especially his ambitious wife, Catherine, can’t handle. Unspoken grief lurks in the shadow of this show since Season 1, and with Peter’s death, everything is finally revealed. (Now This worth a “huzzah”!)
Like Logan Roy’s death in the last season of this year. Subrogation, Peter’s death is a victory over the climax. This ludicrous and deliberately unsatisfying farewell for an incredibly powerful character whose global influence underscores the inevitable truth that he is human just like everyone else, even if the branding convinces a few people to the contrary.
Death itself is not so surprising; many viewers probably knew (or had read at some point during the show’s run) that the real-life Peter III also faced an untimely death. But true BigThe “sometimes true” storytelling of the show—Peter’s death is going in a completely different direction—as well, since the exact circumstances of Peter’s death in real life remain unclear. No matter who they are, you never expect them to fall through the ice at the end of an important scene.
Hoult has long been very good at playing scum and freaks and BigPeter III is no exception. At the same time, her character’s grief has been an ongoing theme throughout the series. We saw it in the show’s third episode, when the court welcomed the construction of a new, bulky statue of his father, Peter the Great. At the time, Peter III seemed dwarfed by his father’s achievements as he fell asleep in the statue’s arms.
But over time, the show has complicated that legacy with revelations such as his abusive behavior towards his son. Peter III’s father has appeared to him occasionally since, as part of a sickly tradition, Catherine had hallucinated him in a hole he had dug for her when she gave birth. Then, apparently as usual, Peter III dreamed that his father called him a great disappointment.
Unfortunately, in this series, no one can truly be himself on the court – or at least no one feels he can expose their vulnerabilities. More often, they shoot each other in the stomach, give ridiculous gifts like live bears, and/or drink themselves to oblivion.
This beguiling environment only makes things worse for Catherine, a newly single mother and empress who can’t understand that her husband has just died in a completely ridiculous way. Witnessing Peter’s death includes Catherine’s best friend, Grigor (Gwilym Lee), who refused to submit to her denial for a long time.
Yet, for a full episode following Peter’s death, we observe Catherine partying with the same abandonment that Peter once did, and which she hated so much. As Nick Schager noted in his Daily Beast review Big In Season 3, Peter and Catherine’s bond has always been simultaneously undeniable and doomed. While she represents the past and the institutions that power it, she represents a more intellectual future that can only exist if at least some of these institutions collapse. What happens now that he’s gone?
For a full episode after Peter III’s death, Empress Catherine is in denial – playing tricks and furiously running away from her grief. After talking to Peter’s aunt, she becomes convinced that she is imagining things, even though she knows deeply what she is seeing. Before long, however, Grigor can’t stand it, and no moment in Season 3 is tougher than Episode 7’s closing shot, “Fun”; The court learns of Peter’s death the moment Catherine finally feels it.
Elle Fanning is mesmerizing in that scene as her face crumbles behind her eyes as she trembles as she holds herself still, the muscles in her face tense. This is the conflict face of a person whose desire for control is in full force conflict with his unrelenting need to grieve.
And most of the characters in this series must be grieving 24/7—not just Grigor, his wife Georgina (Charity Wakefield) and other nobles who grew up close with Peter. Douglas Hodge’s General Velementov is slowly dying; Catherine’s friend Marial (Phoebe Fox) marries her cousin; poor Orlo (Sacha Dhawan) is dead and eaten by bears and no one knows yet. And Peter died on the way to a war he could probably never win, along with a group of men, all of whom (like him) believed there was no other way to regain their honor and had nothing valuable to lose to ensure they stayed.
Peter’s death illuminates the emotionally repressed palace like a kindling box. While the resentments that simmer beneath the surface of relationships, such as Grigor’s relationship with Marial, suddenly erupt, Catherine’s rule becomes more erratic when the monarch begins lecturing her young son about why nothing makes sense anymore.
All this time he made sense of his situation because he believed it to be divine providence, but what if it was all bullshit? Is his rule God’s will or is he just deceived and sad? Squirming with this question, he starts playing a game every day, placing three guns, only one loaded, then picking one at random, pointing it at his head and pulling the trigger.
In the end, however, Catherine chooses herself—specifically, by shooting a prospective assassin with the same weapon she was about to use to unwittingly blow his mind. (How HE for fate?) From that moment on, Catherine becomes a different person. First you can look at how he deals with the treacherous priest Archie – he is already powerfully arming him before killing him (thinks). Then she cuts all her hair, dances on AC/DC, and sobs on the floor. Ah, the sweet release of sorrow!
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