'The Count of Monte Cristo' Recap: Episode 5

The Count of Monte Cristo airs Sundays at 9:00 pm on WTTW and is available to stream. Recap the previous and following episodes.
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Villefort is beginning to fear that a long ago cover-up is going to be revealed. After the dinner at Edmond’s estate in which Edmond told of an attempted infanticide, Villefort meets Danglars’ wife Hermine, who is the woman who gave birth to that child. Villefort told her all those years ago that the infant died, but now she doubts him. And if what Edmond said was true – that the coffin was empty – where is the baby now?

Villefort assures her that the baby was dead when he buried it and that Edmond is lying. He warns Hermine that it will be the end of both of them if the truth ever comes out.

Villefort sets a police officer to surveil Edmond’s Paris home. He learns that Edmond takes lessons in weaponry, and is skilled in it, and that his fortune comes from several mines – but that’s only hearsay. Villefort bribes the officer to continue to watch Edmond’s house, even though there is no longer any reasonable suspicion that Edmond might have committed a crime and thus merit surveillance by the police. When Edmond notices he is being watched, he tells Caderousse to never visit him again, not trusting him to keep Edmond’s true identity safe if he were tortured. Jacopo will now serve as a messenger between Edmond and Caderousse.

Danglars has also inquired into Edmond’s past but found nothing. It’s his due diligence as Edmond opens an account at Danglars’ bank and deposits a huge amount of securities. And Edmond has done his own digging, asking Danglars about his past and bringing up his snub years ago at Morrel’s company in favor of Edmond – the incident that led Danglars to scheme against Edmond in the first place all those years ago.

Edmond shocks Danglars by requesting a 300,000 franc advance on his deposit, but Danglars grants it, given the size of the account Edmond is opening.

Finally, Edmond turns to Fernand’s past. He has learned that Fernand allegedly murdered a man named Ali Pasha while serving in Algiers. To confirm, he buys the freedom of Haydee, the Pasha’s daughter, from the Sultan of Amir and brings her to Paris. He gives her the entire second floor of his house, to her discomfort, and asks her to identify her father’s murderer if she sees him; she witnessed the killing.

An opportunity arrives when Fernand and Mercédès’ son Albert visits Edmond with an invitation to the family’s spring ball and an offer to bring guests. Albert is due to marry Danglars’ daughter Eugenia despite his misgivings, thus uniting two powerful and wealthy families. Edmond promises Albert he’ll help him avoid a match he doesn’t want.

Albert has found out about another match: Hermine is having an affair with Debray, the secretary to the minister of the interior. Debray passes her inside information, which she then uses to trade stocks using Danglars’ money. 

Mercédès’ maid Marie overhears all this and shares it with her own lover, Caderousse. 

One tip that Debray gives the Danglars proves catastrophic, thanks to Edmond. The “count of Monte Cristo” visits a telegraph tower in the countryside and drugs its steward, sending a message while the man is unconscious. Edmond then gives the steward an antidote and leaves. The message – that there is an uprising underway against the king in Spain – is transmitted.

Debray warns Danglars to sell his Spanish bonds. The banker does so, initiating a sell-off. Once the message is revealed to be a mistake, Danglars loses some million francs. Blaming Debray, he demands that the bureaucrat repay him half of his loss, or Danglars will end Debray’s affair with Hermine.

There are more clandestine romances occurring. Villefort’s daughter Valentine is due to marry Albert’s friend Franz d’Epinay, whom Edmond met in Rome. But she has fallen in love with Max Morrel, who speaks to her while she is walking her ailing grandfather around the garden. Max urges Valentine to run away with him.

Max is the son of the Morrel for whom Edmond once worked. That Morrel has died, but lived his last years in peace, thanks to Edmond’s anonymous settling of his debts. After his death, his children Max and Julie moved to Paris, where Edmond makes their acquaintance by happenstance. They tell Edmond Morrel believed Edmond – who he thought was dead – helped him from beyond the grave. 

While Edmond is visiting the Morrels, Valentine runs up to frantically tell Max that Villefort saw her speaking to him and has forbidden her from seeing him anymore.

Edmond invites both Max and Haydee to Fernand’s ball as his guests, introducing the latter as his protégée. Haydee immediately confirms without a doubt that Fernand is her father’s murderer. 

Max is waiting at the door when Valentine arrives at the ball alone – her parents have stayed behind because her brother Edward has had one of his habitual seizures, although the medicine Edmond recommended seems to help ease it. Franz has returned from Italy, however, and interrupts Max’s conversation with Valentine, pulling her inside. 

Edmond finally has a one-on-one conversation with Mercédès, who warns him that people will gossip because Haydee lives in his house. He changes the subject to her and asks if Mercédès is happily married. She answers, not really. She has a strange feeling that she knows “the count” from the past, but she must be wrong.

Back in Italy, Jacopo has gone on Edmond’s behalf to bring the brigand leader Luigi Vampa to Paris. Vampa at first refuses, but Jacopo reminds him that Edmond saved Vampa’s cousin Peppino from execution.