The final episode of Miss Austen completes the story of why Cassandra burned her sister’s letters. It wasn’t because she was jealous, but because she wanted to protect Eliza’s memory.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Miss Austen season 1, episode 4.
Cassandra continues to focus on finding a home for Isabella in the present day, while we learn what came of the Austen women in the past. Is there a chance of love and happiness for Isabella, or will she continue to be a spinster for the rest of her life like Cassandra, but that’s not what Cassandra wants for the younger woman.
Cassandra tries to set up Isabella and Mr. Lidderdale in Miss Austen season 1, episode 4
In the present day, Cassandra rushes back to the house to talk to tell Isabella the good news. She thinks that Mr. Lidderdale could be the perfect match for her, but Isabella shares that the doctor has already proposed to her. She turned him down because her father didn’t approve, viewing him as lower than her. Now she thinks that Mr. Lidderdale won’t propose again because of his pride.
Isabella points out that Cassandra has shown her what it’s like to be a happy, single woman, and maybe that won’t be so bad. So, Cassandra needs to get back on the task of finding someone for Isabella to live with. It has to be Mary Jane, but her house isn’t big enough, so they will need to find somewhere bigger.
While Cassandra wanted to set Isabella up with someone to love, she does realize that maybe the two sisters living together is what’s best. She has some strict needs when it comes to finding the home, though. It will need a garden and a room to teach, because Cassandra doesn’t want Isabella to fall into melancholy.
As they look, Mr. Lidderdale explains that he has accepted another position and is leaving town in a month. Dinah is the one who figures out a way to set the two up while listening to Cassandra read another chapter of Persuasion. She makes herself fall down the stairs to force a call to Mr. Lidderdale. It works, as Mr. Lidderdale ends up kissing Isabella, and Cassandra knows what Dinah did — and is impressed.
MORE: Miss Austen season 1, episode 3 recap
Henry Hobday wants to help in the Miss Austen series finale
In the past, Cassie is now looking after her mother and her sister. They have gained some money from her brothers to be able to get some lodgings, but they are small. Jane is struggling to write because she feels like she has done nothing since she doesn’t have money from her novel yet. The publisher has bought it but not published it just yet.
Henry Hobday returns, sharing that he is to be married, but he wants to know if there is a chance with Cassie. He will even help with the situation with the Austen women, but Cassie makes it clear that her duty as a sister has to come first right now. Jane needs her.
There’s even another opportunity when Edward’s wife, Elizabeth, dies. He needs help with the children, and he wants his sister Cassie to come to help. Once again, she makes it clear that her duty is to Jane and their mother.
However, Cassie does see a plan form. Edward could put the three women up in a cottage on one of his estates, and then she can come to help the children. This helps to get Jane out of her melancholy, so she is able to write again, and we know how that story ends. Eventually, the works were published, and Jane Austen became the author that we know of her as today.
This is when things take a turn, as Jane suffers from a pain in her back that doctors can’t get to the bottom of. Cassie tries everything to help her sister, and that leads to her ending up back at Kintbury again, as she learns that Isabella’s father didn’t finish Emma. He doesn’t think much of Jane’s writings, especially when Mary shared that the books didn’t make a profit. Now the books being hidden around the house makes sense.
Why Cassandra burned Jane’s letters explained
Jane is done seeing doctors, and she wants to get back to her cottage. However, she is too sick to travel, and she remains in Winchester. After reminiscing with Mary, Jane then fears with Cassie that the world will see her as a pitiful woman, and she fears that people will learn of the melancholy in her letters. This is what sets Cassie out years later to find the letters and burn them. It really was to protect Jane’s legacy.
Back in the present day, Cassandra goes through the letters and takes out anything that is darker that Jane wouldn’t have wanted to be released. She leaves all the happier ones for Mary to find, and Dinah brings one last one that Cassandra missed. It turns out that it was the last letter Jane ever wrote to Eliza, noting that she knew Cassandra would always protect her legacy.
As for Isabella and Mr. Litterdale, they are engaged to be married by the end of Miss Austen’s series finale. It’s a beautiful, romantic way to end the story.
Miss Austen is available to stream on PBS Masterpiece.
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