'The Forsytes' Recap: Episode 1

The Forsytes airs Sundays at 8:00 pm on WTTW and is available to stream. Recap the following episode.
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In the wealthy Forsyte family, you do your duty. That is why Jolyon, Jr. (we’ll call him Jo and his father Jolyon) has returned to London from a grand tour of Europe and given up his artistic ambitions to begin working at the family investment firm, which he will one day inherit, and marry. His fiancée is Frances, a widow with an eight year-old daughter whose family connections will cement the Forsytes among London’s elite. 

Ten years later, in 1887, it is Frances’ daughter June who is preparing to be married off “strategically” like an “asset,” as her mother puts it. A ball is being planned for her eighteenth birthday, and her mother has a list of potentially beneficial eligible bachelors, among them Charlie Armstrong, the scion of a mining family. 

But Charlie is lazy and his father is near death, Jo’s cousin Soames has learned. Soames advocates for the Forsyte firm to sell all its stocks in Armstrong’s company in preparation for the decline of the mining company under Charlie’s leadership. Jo warns that such a move could tank the markets and cause great harm to investors. A steadying influence could be found to reassure investors in the mining firm despite Charlie’s deficiencies. 

Even though Jo is slated to run the company once his father, Jolyon, Sr., retires, Soames and his own father, Jolyon’s brother James, believe the ambitious Soames is a much better candidate. But the brothers’ father insisted the eldest boy of each generation would inherit the company. The competition between them infiltrates even the furnishings and technologies of their houses, which are direct neighbors. 

James and Soames want to position Soames to take over by the time Jolyon dies. They go behind the backs of the Jolyons and sell the mining stocks.

Unlike Jo, Soames remains unmarried. While walking in the park, a young woman catches his eye. Coincidentally, her father has a heart attack as Soames passes. Soames rushes to help, and gives the woman, Irene Heron, his card as he sends her father off in a carriage. Her stepmother perks up when she hears Soames is a Forsyte.

Irene is pursuing ballet but must return to Paris if she wants to further her studies; she and her father moved back to London after her mother died. Her stepmother finds ballet not respectable, but her father tells her on his deathbed that he has provided for her continued studies in France in his will. 

Soames sees an obituary for Professor Heron in the newspaper and attends his burial. Irene approaches him first, telling him she has no family but her stepmother. Then her stepmother appears, and asks Soames for help with the family’s finances. He brings them to the Forsyte offices and learns that most of the retired Professor Heron’s wealth was in shares, one in particular: the mining company which Soames has just tanked by selling all the Forsytes’ shares in it. The Herons have barely any money left. Irene will not be able to go to Paris.

She starts selling off furniture, but her stepmother quickly hatches another plan when she receives a letter from Soames. She hustles Irene off to the polo grounds where Soames is playing and has invited them to tea. 

Later, Soames calls on Irene at home. She tells him her stepmother is not around, thinking that the older woman is the object of Soames’ attention. He explains that he instead would like to be Irene’s friend, and she gratefully accepts. 

Soames’ maneuvering behind Jo’s back with the mining stocks has angered Jo, who storms away from the weekly Forsyte dinner presided over by the matriarch Ann, the mother of Jolyon and James. Frances and Jolyon commiserate about Jo, who is overly sentimental for business. But they believe he could become a great leader of the firm if he is forced to, and hatch a plan.

Frances has been busy preparing June for her ball, bringing her to a dressmaker in Soho named Louisa. June comes to envy Louisa’s life, believing it simpler than her own, after spending time with Louisa and her two children. 

On the day of the ball, June spills wine on her new dress. Frances summons Louisa, who reluctantly assents to come to the Forsyte home to repair the dress. As she is packing up at the Forsyte manor, she notices a small glass bird that June had been clutching earlier. 

Before she can leave the house, June introduces her to Jo – who already knows her. Louisa and Jo had a romance while they both toured Europe, he for art and she as a lady’s maid. Jo loved Louisa and is hurt that she never wrote to him after they separated; he didn’t know how to contact her. He also wishes she had told him when she became widowed. But Louisa always knew they could never be together, given their gulf in class. You would not have been allowed to love me, she tells him.

Most of this conversation has taken place outside, but Frances did note the fraught initial meeting between Jo and Louisa. 

The next day, Jo goes to Louisa’s store and nearly knocks, but prevents himself. Who shows up instead is Frances, ostensibly to thank Louisa for fixing June’s dress. But she also grills Louisa on her past: has she spent time in Europe? She meets Louisa’s twin children, and learns that the son’s name is Jos, short for Jolyon. Frances takes her leave.

During the ball the previous night, Frances and Jolyon had put their plan into action. After June and Jo danced together, Frances called the room to attention for a speech from Jolyon congratulating his step-granddaughter on her birthday – and announcing that he would be stepping down and handing the company over to his son. 

James guesses that Frances is behind the plan, which will make it more difficult for him to position Soames to beat out Jo as the head of the family firm.