Miss Austen episode 3 recap: Cassy and Jane reflect on their prospects

Miss Austen explores Cassandra Austen’s powerful bond with her author sister Jane.

As the four-part BBC One series continues, the older Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) is now ill and is in danger of giving away the fact that she has discovered her late sibling’s correspondence. Meanwhile, decades before, the young Cassy (Synnøve Karlsen) has a chance for romance, but she might not take it, while Jane (Patsy Ferran) makes a decision about her own future.

Here’s everything that happens in Miss Austen episode 3…

After falling ill at the end of the last episode, Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) is now being nursed by her friend Isabella (Rose Leslie) and Isabella’s maid Dinah (Mirren Mack). But Cassandra is delirious and keeps talking about Jane’s letters, which she has been trying to keep secret from the rest of the household. Isabella reassures her there are no letters, but Cassandra insists that she must hide them, and sister-in-law Mary (Jessica Hynes), who wants hold of them, can hear from the corridor…

In flashbacks, the young Cassy (Synnøve Karlsen) is on the beach in Sidmouth with potential suitor Henry Hobday (Max Irons). As they discuss loss, Henry talks about how his mother has found it hard to stay in the family home after his father's death, but they hope to return to their Derbyshire estate soon. Back in the Austens’ lodgings, Jane (Patsy Ferran) and her sailor brother Frank (Jake Kenny-Byrne) tease Cassy about her new suitor, which leave their matchmaking mother (Phyllis Logan) on tenterhooks. But an embarrassed Cassy is angry with them.

Later, Jane tells Cassy she should accept Henry's attentions as she deserves better than the wretched future that awaits both her and Jane otherwise. As spinsters, Jane says they will be poor and objects of pity or derision and even though that will be her fate, she doesn’t want it to be Cassy’s, so if Cassy gets any offer of a means of escape she should take it.

Back in 1830, the older Cassandra is still ill and rambling about the letters. But when local doctor Mr Lidderdale (Alfred Enoch) comes to the door asking if he can help at all, Isabella is dismissive and denies that Cassandra is ill. Isabella also makes it clear that she knows that her sister Beth (Clare Foster) has been helping him deal with the sickness in the village. But after she gets rid of him, we see her have a moment of private anguish. What has gone on between these two?

In the flashbacks, Henry knocks on the door of the Austens’ lodgings and asks Cassy to walk out with him, as Jane and Mrs Austen eagerly watch from the window. At the beach, Henry struggles to get his words out but tells Cassy he has only known her a short time but knows she is a remarkable woman and he has loved her since their hands first touched in the shop. He loves her beauty and her intelligence and spirit even more and asks if she will marry him. Say yes Cassy, he looks like a keeper!

But we then get a flashback to further in the past at the church in Kintbury when Cassy's late fiancé Tom (Calam Lynch) begged her not to feel beholden to him if he died, but Cassy vowed never to wed any man but him.

We then cut to 1830, where Cassandra has got out of her sick bed and is sitting in that same church weeping…

As the flashbacks continue, Cassy is crying and admits to Jane that she refused Henry. Jane is outraged, but Cassy reveals what she promised to Tom and she can’t go back on her word…

In 1830, Isabella and Dinah find Cassandra in the church and she is clearly feeling better and says she owes her life to Isabella, who admits she once hoped to help heal the sick, but that time has passed… Back in the house, Mary again asks Cassandra about the letters and Cassandra claims never to have seen any, but Mary says that when Cassandra was delirious she let slip she had some in her possession, but Cassandra continues with her denials…

Flashbacks then reveal Jane wrote to Eliza in frustration over Cassy refusing Henry, as it would be a good match with comfort, wealthy, stability and love but Cassy is choosing insecurity and denying herself. As the older Cassandra reads the letter, she is upset that Jane could write that and didn’t she realise that she turned him down for Jane’s sake as well?

With a visit from young Mary (Liv Hill) – on the cards, Jane insists that she and Cassy escape to go and stay with their friends Catherine and Alethea Bigg-Wither (Ellie McKay and Ruby Richardson), who also live in Hampshire. The Austens marvel at the wealthy Bigg-Wither estate and they later dine with the girls, their father and their tongue-tied brother Harris (Tom Glenister), the heir.

But Harris has clearly been impressed by Jane’s wit and later asks her to marry him and she accepts. Cassy is horrified as she knows that Jane can’t love him. Jane says you can’t have love without money and she hopes love will grow, but she admits it is unlikely. But she says she is doing it so that Cassy will be free to marry Henry. Cassy replies that she won’t marry Henry anyway, it is over. And she tells Jane that as a wife, she will have a duty to help run the estate and have lots of children with Harris. Jane clearly hadn’t thought this through, as she despairs that she will have no time to write and the next morning she breaks off the engagement.

At the Austens' home, Steventon, Mary and her husband James (Patrick Knowles), Cassy and Jane’s brother, have arrived and Cassy overhears them talking to her parents. James has always been expected to take over from Mr Austen (Kevin McNally) as the local rector. But clearly at Mary’s insistence, James tells his parents that they also want to take over the Austens’ home with their children now and that Mr and Mrs Austen and the sisters can find somewhere smaller. As the Austens tearfully move out, Jane is taking it particularly hard…

In 1830, Mary arrives with her stepdaughter Anna (Carys Bowkett), who is thrilled to catch up with her aunt Cassandra. As the family gets stuck into helping Isabella finish clearing the house, Mary sneaks off for another desperate but futile look for the letters. When the women later gather there are recollections of how Jane hated leaving Steventon.

In flashbacks, the Austens arrive in Bath and move into poky lodging rooms. Jane has taken to her bed, but Cassy begs her to make the best of their situation. But there is good news when Jane hears that her first novel, Susan, is going to be published. Shortly afterwards, however, Mr Austen falls ill and is on his deathbed…

Back in 1830, still determined to secure Isabella’s future after she has to leave her home, Cassandra visits Beth at the school where she teaches and begs her to help Isabella, as Cassandra promised their father she would make sure Isabella was settled with one of her sisters. She hopes that if Beth and Mr Lidderdale marry, they will let Isabella live with them. Beth finds this hilarious as Cassandra has got the ‘wrong sister’...