Episode 4.8: Heirs and Graces
Director: Don McBrearty
With: Ian Clark as Simon Tremayne, Michael Mahonen as Gus Pike, Damon Redfern as the Duke of Arranagh and Albert Millaire as Pierre LaPierre
Original CBC Airdate: February 28, 1993
Original Disney Airdate: April 26, 1993
Run Time: 47 minutes
Time Frame: Winter 1907
Synopsis: Hetty is alarmed when the new hotel owner, Simon Tremayne, refuses to invite the Duke of Arranaugh to the Avonlea Founder's Day celebration. When Felix discovers royal plates among the hotel owner's possessions, speculation is sparked about Mr. Tremayne's mysterious background.
Highlights/Analysis: Imagine you're an owner of a hotel, a male in your late forties or fifties, and someone that you've never met before walks into your office and tells you the following: Your grandfather had his son's marriage to a commoner anulled and you were declared illegitimate. Your father quickly remarried a more suitable bride and she soon had a son, your half brother... And on your fourteenth birthday, you were banished out of embarrassement." Now wouldn't this just make your day? Well that's exactly what Alec king told the new owner of the White Sands, Simon Tremayne, and he was correct! Gus gets Felix a job at the White Sands hotel, but Felix's role as personal representative of the new owner, Simon Tremayne, makes him highly unpopular among the other employees. It seems like everyone in town is claiming to be the first settler of Avonlea. The first mention of the town founder occured in the first season when Margaret Lloyd claimed that the Lloyd family were the founders (1.5: Old Lady Lloyd).
Criticism: Simon's renouncing his birth right as Duke of Arranaugh to manage a run-down hotel is hard to believe. Who has ever turned down the opportunity to be a royal? Sheesh.
Rhetorical Questions:
If founder's day is a traditional celebration, then why wasn't the original founder determined before?
Where is Cecily? Couldn't there have at least been a 'Cecily, stay here' remark from someone?
Did we have to hear that Simon lived naked among the Zulus?
Memorable Quotes:
"I wished you wouldn't have done that... Whatever you did to make Hetty look so triumphant." -Janet King
"I was more hoping the White Sands could offer me something." -Felix King
"Felicity, this is the worst idea you've ever had." -Sara Stanley
Sap Meter: 3 Flirting between Gus and Felicity. Gus tells Felicity that he had never seen anyone look more beautiful and remarks that her father is going to "lock her up forever."
Notes: (1) An edition of the Avonlea Chronicle was dated September 15. An advertisement on the bulletin board is dated November 1907. (2) Hetty comments that her Great Great Great maternal Grandfather was Thomas Ewett Carlisle. 'Carlisle' of course was the town where the King family resides in 'The Story Girl' and 'The Golden Road.' (3) Simon Tremayne's first appearance, replacing Methley.
Grade: B- The episodes with royalty are always usually a bit far fetched, even for television.
