Pride & Prejudice Minute

We wrap up the final minute with the last content of the American ending. Darcy asks Lizzie what endearments he is allowed to call Lizzie. Lizzie jokingly makes a list of terms. But Mrs. Darcy may only be used when he is completely and perfectly and incandescently happy. Darcy then asks how “Mrs. Darcy” is this evening, and showers her with soft kisses.

We wrap up the official ending of the movie with Lizzie leaving her father’s study after getting his consent to marry Mr. Darcy. And we are left with a very happy Mr. Bennet. Then we start on the American ending. Here, Lizzie and Darcy are already married and living at Pemberley. It is night and they enjoy an evening outside in front of the lake. Lizzie asks Mr. Darcy to not call her ‘My dear’ because that’s what her father always calls her mother when he’s angry with her.

Lizzie shows her father how much she really loves Mr. Darcy. Both of them get emotional and Mr. Bennet gives his consent, after which they give each other a big hug.

We see a very nervous Darcy sitting and pacing in front of the house, waiting for Lizzie and Mr. Bennet to be done with their discussion. Meanwhile all the remaining Bennets are keeping a close eye on him. All of them are very surprised by this new marriage proposal. At the end of the minute we are back in Mr. Bennet’s study where Lizzie has just explained to her father about the service Darcy did them in regards to both Lydia and Jane’s weddings. Then Lizzie basically just starts spewing about how much she actually likes Mr. Darcy, saying how both she and him have been a fool about many things.

Lizzie enters her father’s study to discuss the marriage proposal Darcy made to Lizzie with her father. Her father does not seem to believe Lizzie really loves Mr. Darcy at first, because when he was here before he had been very unpleasant. But Lizzie explains herself and says that she was very wrong about him before and that he has done something for them.

We end the romantic proposal with Lizzie and Darcy bathing in golden sunlight, foreheads and noses touching each other. Afterwards we return to Longbourn, where Lizzie is impatiently waiting for Darcy to come out of the room where he is talking with her father. As soon as he exists, she enters and as she closes the door she gives Darcy a bright smile.

All the other terrible proposals of this movie are forgotten to be replaced by the most romantic one in cinema history. Instead of immediately responding with a clear resounding yes, Lizzie goes for something more original. She steps closer to him, grabs his hand and says “Well then” and then kisses his hand.

Darcy meets Lizzie in the fields in front of her house at dawn. They both look very much in love with each other. They both start apologizing to each other for everything that happened between them, and Darcy says that everything he did to fix both Lydia’s and Jane’s marriage was done all for Lizzie.

While Lizzie is out walking in the fields in front of her house at dawn, overthinking everything that has recently happened, she is caught by surprise as further away in the landscape she sees Mr. Darcy walk towards her.

We see Lizzie sitting up in the very early morning in front of a lone candle, lost in thought. When birds start to sing, announcing a new day, she gets up and decides to take a stroll outside the landscape in front of the house.

Lizzie tells Lady Catherine she refuses she will never marry Mr. Darcy. And then she firmly stands her ground and points Lady Catherine to the door, where of course all the Bennets are gathered. Lizzie flees the scene soon after, leaving a very confused group of Bennets behind. We end the minute with a shot of Lizzie trying to sleep, but failing, so she gets out of bed instead.

Lizzie is alone with Lady Catherine, who comes straight to the point of inquiring whether the rumours about Lizzie wanting to marry Mr. Darcy are true. There is a lot of insulting back and forth. We end the minute with a little rage from Lady Catherine.

Lady Catherine catches everyone off guard by barging into Longbourn in the middle of the night to talk in private with Lizzie. For it has come to Lady Catherine’s attention that Lizzie intends to marry Mr. Darcy.

We are preparing ourselves to go to sleep with Jane and Lizzie, although there is way too much excitement about Jane’s marriage to Bingley to get close to sleeping. We end the minute with a visitor arriving at Longbourn at night. All the Bennets are gathered around the door, which opens to let the visitor in.

The camera glides along the windows of the different bedrooms of Longbourn. We start at Mr. & Mrs. Bennet, continue to Kitty & Mary, then see one of the servants walking up the stairs while singing a song, and finally we arrive at a window where we already hear Lizzie’s laugh.

We have a mixture of abundant happiness and reserved sadness as we see the Bennet's first reaction to Jane & Bingley’s marriage announcement. Lizzie is not there because she is sulking outside the house. We also see Mr. Darcy do pretty much the same before he walks away. We then switch to nighttime, where we join Mr. & Mrs. Bennet in their bedroom where they are talking about how good a match Jane and Bingley are for each other.

Jane and Bingley are finally alone in the room, where we see him get down on one knee. We don’t hear his actual proposal, because we focus on all the other Bennets who are closely listening on the other side of the door. We end the minute back inside the room, where Jane tells Bingley "Yes. A thousand times yes"!

Lizzie once again almost confesses everything that happened between her and Mr. Darcy to Jane. But she is interrupted because Mr. Bingley suddenly returns! This time, he gets straight to the point and immediately asks to talk to Jane, alone.

We see how Bingley is trying to work through what just happened at Longbourn. And he tries to come up with a new plan, which includes practicing with Mr. Darcy. Once they seem ready to give it another go we switch to Longbourn’s sitting room, where Jane is once again trying to convince herself that she is completely over the situation. Lizzie of course does not believe that. 

The visit of Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy becomes a bit of a mess. Lizzie tries to get any reaction from Darcy, but he tells her he will return to town tomorrow already and then avoids her for the rest of the minute. Mrs. Bennet finally steers the conversation to the topic of Jane. But that makes Mr. Bingley panic and after a hasty goodbye he just turns and leaves. After which Darcy also has to leave to retrieve his friend.

Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy enter the room. But really, instead of hearing what their business is, we get a short recap of all that happened around Longbourn from Mrs. Bennet. Lizzie meanwhile also has a little bit of her own agenda, because she asks Mr. Darcy how he has been.

The Bennet ladies are relaxing in the living room, their stuff thrown around everywhere. But then Kitty enters the room saying that Mr. Bingley is here! The room is immediately in an uproar as everyone tries to organize the room and themselves. During the chaos we see that Mr. Darcy is there with Mr. Bingley as well. Just as the servant enters the room to announce the two gentlemen, the ladies have settled down and the room looks as tidy as it has never been.

Jane tries to convince Lizzie that she is completely fine with Mr. Bingley’s return to Netherfield. Shortly after, we see Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy walking up towards Longbourn. The last few seconds are spent inside Longbourn, where nobody is any the wiser of the men walking up to their porch. So for now everyone is relaxing.

We wave off Lydia who leaves in her carriage with Mr. Wickham. Afterwards we enter town with Lizzie, Jane, Mary and Mrs. Bennet. There the ladies learn the news that Mr. Bingley has returned to Netherfield, and without his sister this time.

Lizzie learns the truth that it was not their uncle that paid for Lydia and Wickham’s wedding, but Mr. Darcy! We then see Lydia and her new husband starting to leave Longbourn. We end the minute with Mrs. Bennet watching her youngest daughter go and remarking “There's nothing so bad as parting with one's children.”

Lydia and Mr. Wickham are seated at the Bennet's family table. Lydia is boasting of her marriage while Lizzie looks on in distaste. At the end of the minute, Lydia mentions that Mr. Darcy had been with them before and during that marriage as well. Which immediately grabs Lizzie’s attention.

Mrs. Bennet revives at the news of her daughter getting married. Everyone starts moving around again, because soon after, Lydia and her newly acquainted husband arrive at Longbourn.

A letter arrives for Mr. Bennet in their uncle’s writing. Which can mean only one thing: news on Lydia’s situation. As soon as their father returns all the girls rush out so they can learn the contents of the letter. To their relief the letter states that Mr. Wickham will marry Lydia for the small income of £100 a year. Both their father and Lizzie conclude that this must mean their uncle laid down a very big sum to make this happen. 

We witness Mrs. Bennet's mental breakdown over Lydia running away with Mr. Wickham. Both Lizzie and Jane try to reason with her, but unfortunately the hysterics completely have their mother in its grip.

We get a little more context on Lydia’s running away with Mr. Wickham. Both Darcy and Lizzie feel it is their fault this happened at all, for they both know Wickham’s character. In the end action has to be taken and everyone leaves as quickly as they can. The minute ends with Lizzie in a carriage, racing through the night.

We return to the inn where Lizzie receives a letter written by Jane. She expects something light and happy, but instead finds herself pacing the room in tears, because Lydia has run off with Mr. Wickham. Mr. Darcy tells her that it is all his fault and he should have exposed Wickham sooner.

We return to Pemberley at Darcy’s invitation. There, we finally have an official meeting between Lizzie and Georgiana. The two immediately hit it off and Lizzie shares a story of a moment she had with Mr. Darcy while at Rosings. Mr. Darcy invites Mr. Gardiner to go fishing in his pond. At the end of the minute we return to the inn.

Lizzie joins her aunt and uncle in the inn. They have just met Mr. Darcy, who has invited them to dine with them and also told them that he would very much like for Lizzie to meet his sister. Lizzie takes all this in like the world has turned upside down.

Last minute Lizzie finally makes her escape from her awkward meeting with Mr. Darcy. We see her trudging through a field at dusk, before entering the inn she is staying at. Only to immediately hide herself behind a curtain, because Mr. Darcy is there, talking to her aunt and uncle. After Mr. Darcy leaves, she makes her way over to their table.

Lizzie and Darcy face each other again for the first time after the whole failed proposal. Even though the atmosphere is not tense at all, it is very awkward. Lizzie tries to make small talk and in doing so reveals where she is staying. Darcy asks to accompany her back but that is way too much for her and she rather abruptly answers him with a curt “No.”

Lizzie finds the source of the piano music in Pemberley. It is Georgiana playing! She secretly watches her play with a smile, but suddenly Mr. Darcy steps in and reunites with his sister. A few seconds later they spot Lizzie, who immediately flees the scene, but outside Darcy catches up with her.

We accompany Lizzie as she explores one of the rooms in Pemberley (which is definitely not part of the official tour, judging by the papers strewn around a desk). At the end of the minute, Lizzie hears someone playing a piano. She slowly moves towards the sound, which seems to be coming from the next room.

We are still in the hall with statues in Pemberley, and we spend most of the minute focusing on a bust of Mr. Darcy, which Lizzie really seems to admire. So much so that she loses track of her aunt, uncle and the servant leading them around the house. She sets off on her own and we end the minute with her stepping into another room.

We are in a hall of Pemberley that is filled with beautiful sculptures. Lizzie is marveling at all of them, but we ended the minute with her mouth dropping open at a sculpture of Mr. Darcy.

We arrive at Pemberley, Mr. Darcy’s home. Where Lizzie and the Gardiners are all super impressed by the massiveness and beauty of the mansion. We enter inside a large hall filled with beautiful sculptures, and end on a close-up of a sculpture of a woman with a veil.

This minute, we are sitting under a gorgeous big tree in the Peak District while Lizzie and the Gardiners are having lunch. Her uncle mentions how he would like to visit Pemberley, Mr. Darcy’s home. But of course, this does not seem a very good idea to Lizzie, who was just trying to run away from the very owner of the house. Unfortunately for her, she doesn’t have a very good argument not to go, and so we end the minute with our party driving up the lane to Pemberley.

We learn that Lizzie did indeed join the Gardiners on their way to the Peak District, because we see Lizzie enjoying the gorgeous views there. We end the minute with the party stuck in a beautiful forest, because apparently one of the carriages has broken down. 

We continue the little conversation in the kitchen between Lizzie and her aunt and uncle, who are trying to convince her to travel with them to the Peak District. We then switch to a scene of Lizzie and Jane in bed, where Lizzie tries to confess everything to Jane, but unfortunately it doesn't work out. Next, we cut to a scene with new music where we only see blurred light moving in and out, as if you are traveling with your eyes closed.

Before listening, please note that in this episode we briefly discuss the dangers that men can put young girls in. If this is a triggering topic for you, please skip from around 06:40 to 08:07.

Lizzie tries but fails to convince her father of the dangers of letting Lydia go to the officers in Brighton. Afterwards, Mrs. and Mr. Gardiner invite Lizzie to join them on a trip to the Peak District.

Lizzie gets thrown into some sisterly drama again as Kitty comes sobbing to her about how Lydia would go to Brighton, but not her, which is entirely unfair. Lizzie doesn’t really like the plan for Lydia to go to Brighton at all and pleads with their father not to go along with it.

We read the last half of the letter Darcy delivered to Lizzie. And then we return to Longbourn. Immediately upon arrival Lizzie reunites with Jane, who tries to convince Lizzie that she is really quite over Mr. Bingley because London is so diverting.

Last minute Darcy came to leave Lizzie a letter, and this time we start reading the contents of the letter, in which he explains the 2 offenses laid against him. We don’t make it to the end of the letter, but in this first part we do finally learn the truth about Mr. Wickham.

We spend this minute mostly as Lizzie, looking in the mirror, standing absolutely motionless and unblinking as time passes around her. But suddenly Darcy enters the house and stands behind her to leave her a letter.

After the complete disaster of Darcy’s proposal to Lizzie, we return to the Collins’ house, where we see Lizzie trying to process all of what just happened in silence.