I want to start by saying I LOVE the Miss Fisher Philes podcast and really love the addition of Jo Jo Stiletto to Mary and Chandler’s excellent commentary.
The recent podcast on Season 3, Episode 1, Death Defying Feats really got me thinking. Unfortunately the comments were closed so I decided to write up my thoughts here.
I believe Jo Jo suggested that the episode, and especially Jack’s speech about being a ‘liberal minded man’ is hinting at a future polyamorous relationship between Jack and Phyrne. I might have stated that too strongly. It could be that they are just hinting at a willingness for the show to consider it.
My first response was to shout NO! at my car radio. It really troubled me. I love thinking about Jack and Phyrne in an unconventional but still monogamous relationship in the future. It blew up my assumptions. Plus a bunch of fan fiction ideas I had. But the more I thought about it, the more interesting the notion became.
First, I don’t think that Jack Robinson is going to consider polyamory in 1929. I think that hoping for Jack and Phyrne to be polyamorous is a projection not an interpretation. Jack is a respected DI in a world that is about to become considerably more conservative when the depression hits in the end of 1929. Even if he wanted to, and I don’t believe he does, he couldn’t.
Why don’t I believe he wants to be polyamorous? Because he falls hard. He stayed married for years because he believed that the vows meant something. He denies himself pleasure by living a solitary and work-addicted life. Phryne is cracking that veneer but I don’t think he has the emotional capability to navigate a situation where he loves more than one woman or can love one woman but have relationships with many. Whether you agree with polyamory or not, it is not for the faint of heart.
But second, the books actually do have Phyrne in a polyamorous relationship. The book fans would be okay with a polyamorous relationship on TV, but the author and the tv writers steered away from that in the way that they wrote Jack and the Phrack relationship. In the books, Phyrne is acknowledged as Lin’s concubine. She is in love with Lin as evidenced by all the times she talks about missing him and preferring him as a personal and sexual partner. She still has other sexual partners, but he only has her and his wife. Though, I think it fair to say that Phyrne is less polyamorous than she is in a kind of ‘open relationship’ in which neither party judges the other for sexual activities but they have a preferred central relationship. The TV show could have done this with Jack but it chose not to. Jack is portrayed throughout as a ‘one-woman man’.
Last, I think exploring Jack and Phyrne as a potential monogamous coupling is just as interesting as a polyamorous one. Both the books and the show give the viewer glimpses of how Phyrne is as broken as Jack is. While she is a super-hero (I agree with Mary and Chandler about that), her ability to form close bonds is very restricted. She has Mac and Dot, but the person she reaches for in her grief over Janey is Jack, whom she recognizes as also being broken. She was hurt by Rene and the person she reaches for again is Jack, who while broken, represents a model of a loving partner in a relationship (remember she still thinks he is married in this episode). I think that TV show is showing how Phryne and Jack are bonding through the parts of them that are broken and need healing. My sense is a polyamorous relationship would not provide that healing. At least not yet.
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