TPTea Three: The Trouble with Maggie Cole Episodes 4 and 5

By Kelsey Derby

If this is your first time joining us for TPTea, welcome! We’re happy to have you. The TPTea is where TPT staffers get together and talk, bookclub style, about your favorite shows on TPT Passport. Recently, we’ve been reviewing The Trouble with Maggie Cole.

The show follows Maggie Cole, the self-proclaimed historian of a small English fishing village. See what happens when idle gossip escalates out of control and starts to affect people’s lives.

If you missed it, you can go back and read installments one (Episode 1 of the The Trouble with Maggie Cole TPTea) and two (Episode 2 & 3 of The Trouble with Maggie Cole TPTea) to get caught up.

In episodes 4 & 5, the show has really started to heat up. We’ve found ourselves on track for what is sure to be a ride of a finale episode.

zoom screen of four people

Upper left Brandon Wells, upper right Kelsey Derby, lower left Madison Van Oort, lower right Michael Brafford

We again had a conversation with Brandon Wells (BW), Madison Van Oort (MV), Michael Brafford (MB) and myself, Kelsey Derby (KD) (see our bios on the last installment here). There were lots of saucy moments to discuss and we jumped right into it.

We’ve rated these two episodes 4/5 teacups. Things are getting good people!

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SPOILER ALERT

**Please note this section contains spoilers for episodes 4 & 5**

Five moments that made us gasp

1 The big reveal was a… boxing accident?

headline: family secret revealed

KD: They really built that up didn’t they? I suppose it was surprising.
BW: I mean, it’s not a great situation, and I’m sure it’s super traumatic but like, it’s not a deep dark secret right?
MB: Yeah it’s not clear why they needed to keep it a secret from Maggie, nor how it really is that huge of a deal.
KD: Although now Maggie is getting a taste of her own medicine having her secrets splashed around town.

2 Alex stole money from his GRANDMA?

MB: Oh yeah, that kid is the worst. What is wrong with you? At the beginning I thought he was an okay guy. He seemed like he was having fun with his brother who had kind of given up, and then he turns out to be the worst person. Poor Grandma. This is like cartoon villain stuff.
KD: Well, and now it makes more sense why he hid it in the castle, or whatever, versus his own house where his family could’ve found it.
BW: Also, do they not have safes or like, what’s going on over there?
MV: Yeah, it just seems like outdoors is maybe not the best place for hiding money.

3 Karen kissed Peter???

BW: That was a gasper for sure.
KD: Well, that was interesting. I kind of thought the dad might be down, but he was not. I mean, Karen really points out, “you gave me all these signs and you said this thing to me and said that thing to me,” and I was kind of like dang she’s got receipts.
MB: And then the look on his face where he finally realized, oh man. She might kill me now.
MV: I think there might be another twist coming, she’s gonna pivot and turn out to be good somehow. That’s my hypothesis.

4 Roxanna letting Alex back into her life and subsequently horrifying her friend’s child

BW: I don’t know why she was so excited when he texted her.
KD: I kind of get it. I feel like she was very set on being okay with this guy, but I couldn’t believe it when he got so aggressive babysitting.
BW: That was crazy! He pretended he was gonna wait ‘till the kid goes asleep, and then he just scares the crap out of the kid anyways.

5 Becka taking care of Maggie

becka holding wine

KD: Shoot, I feel like she really stepped up to the plate and I appreciated that. She knows she has to do this for her husband now and she’s kind of just like okay, this is what I got to do, but I’m gonna bring wine into the picture.

Four things that need wrapping up

1 Liam (Alex’s little brother)

liam with peanuts

BW: Liam. Just in general. What’s Liam’s deal? I feel like they went out of the way to show him as kind of an ungrateful jerk kid at the beginning, and there has to be some reason why.
MB: I made a note of that. Why is that bartender with him? He’s so… well I guess we already talked about how there are not a lot of options in that town.
MV: She’s definitely out of his league.
BW: He’s got a car? I don’t know.

2 What’s up with Maggie?

BW: Do we feel that Maggie has become like an auxiliary character? We’re not talking that much about her anymore.
KD: That’s true, I was thinking that too. At the end of the fourth episode, Maggie, kind of gets a taste of her own medicine with the article about her son. That needs wrapping up.

3 That writer seems too smooth

BW: I think it just feels like he’s putting on a show. It just feels weird. I’m not buying it.
MB: Yeah, the whole thing, it might just be bad casting.
MV: Maybe there’s gonna be a big reveal.
BW: I hope so. He just strikes me as someone who’s smoother than he’s being. Mm hmm. Something’s not right here.

4 What is happening in that beginning scene?

MV: The author is gonna be the murderer. That’s my hypothesis.
KD: I think it has something more to do with Alex and the money, but it still feels very up in the air.

Three characters we love

1 Peter Cole

MB: I like the headmaster just because he’s an ordinary guy and kind of oblivious to what’s going on. He’s empathetic and he’s always there for his wife. I think he’s the most likable out of the bunch. Even his stupid problem with keeping the secret about the boxing incident was so ridiculous that you couldn’t dislike him for it.
MV: Except he was bashing veggie lasagna, which sounds delicious.

2 Emil, the shop owner

BW: I like the shop owner and how he makes the point about racism coming in different ways. In terms of people giving him too many chances and not calling him out on his stuff, I really liked that. And the fact that when Maggie just basically told him why he’s awful, and he appreciated that. That was something that made me feel like I related to him a little bit.
MV: Like Minnesota nice!