Recap / Sharpe S2 E2 Sharpe's Enemy

Portugal 1813
Wellington rests his army prior to resuming his offensive against Napoleon.
But in the No-Man's Land between the two armies,
the mountains of Northern Portugal.
other forces are still active...
Sharpe and his Chosen Men are sent to retrieve the wife of a British general from an army of British, French and Portugese deserters led by Sgt. Hakeswill.

Tropes that appear in this episode:

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Teresa is introduced earlier near the beginning of the adaptation, as is Ducos who accompanies Dubreton to his first meeting with Hakeswill.
• Adaptational Villainy: Hakeswill is bad in the novels, but here he's even worse; when his band of deserters find Lady Farthingdale, she said she's there to pray for her mother and that makes him lay off for awhile because Hakeswill has a small modicum of respect for mothers. Here, he tries to rape her and is only stopped because it would damage the ransom value.
• Affably Evil: Pot au Feu, the French quartermaster and one half of a Big Bad Duumvirate with Hakeswill, is noticeably cordial and welcoming for a deserter, offering to cook for his captives.
• Age-Gap Romance: Lady Farthingdale is much younger than her husband. Subverted as it's not really a romance anyways.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: After telling Colonel Dubreton to find another wife, Ducos tells Sharpe that he’ll force Sharpe to find another wife.
• Anything but That!: After shooting Teresa, Hakeswill finds himself surrounded by Dubreton and a troop of French cavalry, who threatens if he harms Isabella, Dubreton will hand him over to Sharpe's mercy. Hakeswill surrenders.
• Arch-Enemy: Hakeswill to Sharpe. Also Ducos, after Sharpe smashes his spectacles and humiliates him in front of his superiors.
• Armchair Military: Lt. Colonel Sir Augustus Farthingdale wrote and published a book called Practical Instructions on the Art of Warfare, with Special Reference to the Engagements Now Occurring in Spain, having never seen battle, commanded troops, or set foot on Spanish soil.
• Asshole Victim: It's very satisfying to see Hakeswill meet his end.
• An Asskicking Christmas: The climax takes place on Christmas Day.
• Attempted Rape: Hakeswill attempts to rape Lady Farthingdale twice.
• Badass Boast: Teresa, to Sir Augustus: "If you were a man, I would call you out, force you to fight a duel, and kill you."
• Badass Bookworm: Played With. Sharpe is not a voracious reader, but he picks up at least one useful quote from Voltaire that applies perfectly to his philosophy of war, and he employs it as a Badass Boast to the French forces:
  Sharpe: (in French) God is not on the side of the big battalions, but of the best shots.
  ...
  General Chaumier: The English Major reads Voltaire, Madame?
  Sarah Dubreton: Yes. He's very clever.
  • Also Sarah Dubreton, who under the noses of the deserters uses a stealth reference to Alexander Pope to tell her husband where in Adrados she and the other hostages are being kept.
• Bald of Evil: There's not a hair on Kelly's head.
• Batman Gambit: Sharpe tells Colonel Dubreton and his wife that he has horse (cavalry), foot and artillery. He knows the arrogant Ducos will be dismissive of this, which comes as a surprise to the French soldiers sent to take Adrados and they are beaten back by volleys of rifle fire, fake cavalry and rocket artillery.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Obadiah Hakeswill and Pot-au-Feu. They're also in a Big Bad Ensemble with Major Pierre Ducos.
• Big Book of War: There's a guide to what a good soldier should be, written by an officer who's never been to the front. The men who can read - or know someone who can read it to them - find it hilarious.
  Sharpe: Listen to this, lads: "Soldiers should not form liaisons with local women in a warm climate."''
• Blah, Blah, Blah: Nairn, reading an official letter from the Prince Regent:
  Nairn: "'George III, of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith...' et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, 'to our trusty and well-beloved Richard Sharpe, Esq., greetings. We do hereby constitute and appoint you to be Major in our army now in Portugal and Spain and' blah-blah-blah."
• Blatant Lies: Farthingdale, feebly protesting that he honestly loves his Trophy Wife.
• Blood from the Mouth: Kelly bleeds from the mouth after he's bayoneted.
• Bullying a Dragon: After Teresa's murder, Sharpe vows to fight the oncoming French to the death. Farthingdale tries to pull rank on him and says they will discuss terms of surrender immediately. Sharpe turns towards Farthingdale, and the man standing closest to Farthingdale - French Sgt. Bigeard, who the book describes as being "large enough to strangle an ox" - immediately takes a step back.
• Chekhov's Gun: The rocket artillery, which make a crucial difference in the final confrontation with the French.
• *Click* Hello: Dubreton greets Hakeswill with a cocked pistol as Hakeswill tries to rape Lady Farthingdale.
• The Coats Are Off: Frederickson habitually takes off his eyepatch, horsehair wig and false teeth before entering combat, because as villainous as these things make him look, what's underneath them is even more terrifying.
• Colonel Badass: Dubreton holds the rank of Colonel and can hold his own against Sharpe.
• Coup de Grâce: The firing squad fails to kill Hakeswill outright, so the commanding officer delivers a killing shot point-blank to his heart.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The battle at the end with Sharpe's men, Fredrickson's men, and the rocket artillery against the French army. The British suffer no casualties.
• Dangerous Deserter: Obadiah Hakeswill helps lead a small army of them, with him as the most dangerous of all.
• Deadpan Snarker: Captain Frederickson of the 60th Rifles manages to outdo even Wellington at times:
  Sharpe: What are you smiling at, Captain?
  Frederickson: I'm not smiling, sir. A musket ball broke my jaw. I have false teeth. The sawbones stuck on the smile for free, sir. He also stuck on my hair. Hair belongs to a horse, sir.
• Deathbed Promotion: Sharpe gives the dying Kelly the rank of Chosen Man.
• Decomposite Character:
  • The books had Lady Farthingdale as Josefina from Sharpe's Eagle. In the TV series, they're different characters.
  • In the book, Sharpe personally delivers the Coup de Grâce to Hakeswill. In the episode an unnamed officer takes his place as Sharpe watches the execution from afar.
• Defector from Decadence: With a dash of Because You Were Nice to Me. Kelly switches sides when Sharpe, an officer he idolised and respected, gives him a chance to redeem himself, but he was already established as the one deserter with standards.
• Defiant Captive: Lady Farthingdale never stops trying to resist Hakeswill.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the novel, Hakeswill faces the firing squad and Sharpe personally administers the coup de grace. The film leaves the latter part out.
• Disguised in Drag: Perkins when the Chosen Men infiltrate a fort.
• Do with Him as You Will: Dubreton hands Hakeswill over to Sharpe after Hakeswill murders Teresa.
• Downer Ending: Sharpe's enemy fatally wounds Teresa.
• Dual Wielding: For his duel with Dubreton, Sharpe wields his sword in one hand and a frying pan in the other.
• Due to the Dead: Teresa is buried on the hilltop of Adrados, with Sharpe and his men performing ceremonial salutes with their rifles and Sharpe's sword, as if she was a member of their unit.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Frederickson, who looks like a stereotypical pirate dressed up in a braided jacket, is called "Sweet William" behind his back by his men.
• Enemy Mine: Sharpe and Colonel Duberton versus the deserters.
• Establishing Character Moment: This episode introduces Major Ducos, one of the main villains of the series, who wastes no time letting the audience know what sort of cold-hearted bastard they're dealing with.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Kelly's practically sickened by the other renegades' lewd actions toward the women.
• Gaslighting: Sharpe tells Harper to "sort out" the newly-arrived 60th Rifles, and Harper and the Chosen Men have a grand old time sauntering behind the riflemen, talking about the psychotic hardass and terror on the battlefield who is their new commanding officer. Subverted in that most of what they are saying about Sharpe is absolutely true, but they stray into gaslighting by saying that Sharpe shot an enlisted man for carrying a musket with a rusty trigger.
• Good Costume Switch: Kelly ditches his black head ribbon when he makes his Heel–Face Turn.
• Green and Mean: Pot au Feu is an antagonist who wears green. Downplayed as he's pleasant to be around unless you mess with his food.
• Handy Cuffs: A rope variant when Port au Feu uses the rope tied around his wrists to strangle a French soldier.
• Happily Married: Colonel Dubreton to his wife Sarah. He brings the ransom for her himself, and would gladly storm the place where she's being held, save that his superiors won't allow him to risk so much for his British wife.
• High-Class Call Girl: Lord Farthingdale married Isabella believing her to be the cousin of a duke, not learning until after they were married that she was actually a prostitute hired by said Duke.
• Historical In-Joke: Sharpe comments on the effectiveness of his recently used and very lethal Napoleonic rocket technology:
  Sharpe: Well, Mr Giliand, I wouldn't be surprised if one day we reach the moon with one of your rockets.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Hakewill's appetites are his undoing. If he hadn't kidnapped Lady Farthingdale again in order to rape her, Teresa and Dubreton likely wouldn't have caught up with him.
• Humans Are Bastards: Wellington comes down firmly on the cynical side of the argument, and perilously close to Hobbes Was Right:
  [T]o me and Bonaparte, the supreme virtue is order. We are not Whigs. We know that a man may love his neighbor over Monday, and massacre him over Tuesday, unless society keeps him in order!
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Kelly gets bayoneted by one of the renegades.
• Ironic Juxtaposition:
  Sarah Dubreton: I'm married to a French colonel. We fell in love before this war began. He's a brave man, and he'll come for me soon, I know he will.
  Isabella, Lady Farthingdale: I'm married to an English colonel. He's a coward, and he won't come at all.
• It Is Dehumanising: After Dubreton identifies Hakeswill as Teresa's killer, a seething Sharpe invokes this.
  Dubreton: This is the man who killed your wife.
  Sharpe: (glaring at Hakeswill) A liar, a thief, a rapist, a murderer. That's not a man. Take it away.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Ducos bluntly tells Sharpe that negotiating with the deserters is a fool's errand and that the women are as good as dead. Lack of Empathy is in full effect — and it's implied that his personal hatred for the British is dictating this stance — but it's hard to find fault with his logic, especially considering Hakeswill had just doubled the agreed upon ransom and sent Sharpe and Dubreton back empty-handed.
• Know When to Fold Them: Port au Feu surrenders when his men are trapped and he has a sword to his throat.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • Major Pierre Ducos. When Sharpe asks him what Colonel Dubreton is to do about his wife being held captive, Ducos responds "Find another."
  • Hakeswill orders one of the renegades to murder one of Lady Farthingdale's bodyguards simply for being an inconvenience. And that's not going into his treatment of women.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Hakeswill orchestrates it so that Sharpe and Harper, on a mission to ransom Lady Farthingdale, attack and almost kill a pair of Frenchmen... who are there for exactly the same reason, but for the French officer's wife. Fortunately, Sharpe realizes what's going on before anything irreversible happens.
• Little Useless Gun: Sir Augustus Farthingdale carries one of these, which he uses to get Harper's attention (the IMFDB page remarks that the gun is little more than a noisemaker).
• Man Bites Man: Lady Farthingdale bites Hakeswill when he shoots Teresa.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Harkening back to Sharpe's dim commentary on flogging, Kelly states that suffering this was why he deserted.
• Moving the Goalposts: When Hakeswill learns that Sharpe is delivering the ransom, he doubles it for no reason because he can.
• Ms. Fanservice: Famously. The drop-dead gorgeous Isabella Farthingdale spends the episode showing off her generous cleavage, even being forced to strip at one point. Even Sharpe can't resist a night with her.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Pot au Feu puts Kelly on guard duty when the latter protests against the maids being offered to the unruly renegades. Kelly, when found by Sharpe and the Chosen Men, does a Heel–Face Turn and locks the renegades in the villa, making them waste time trying to get the doors open and the place is turned into a shooting gallery as Sharpe and the Chosen Men kill them left and right.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Wellington verbally slaps down Farthingdale, he admits that Wellington and Napoleon are alike in considering order to be "the supreme virtue", and in this they are both separated from their men, as to the common soldier (French and English alike), the supreme virtue is anarchy, "to do whatever he wants and be damned to his fellows."
• Not So Stoic: The normally composed Wellington completely loses his temper at Lord Farthingdale's ignorance and idiocy.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Kelly killed a French cavalryman at Talavera.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: When Sharpe and the French colonel are fighting, Hakeswill whispers that he hopes Sharpe isn't killed. When Pot-au-Feu asks why, Hakeswill responds that he wants to do it himself.
• Pimped-Out Cape: Lady Farthingdale wears one in her first appearance. Shame she loses it almost right away.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Pot-au-Feu tells Hakeswill to not rape the women because it will damage the ransom value.
• Redemption Equals Death: Sharpe persuades Kelly to make a Heel–Face Turn and Kelly is killed by one of his fellow renegades in the battle next day. Sharpe recognizes him as a Chosen Man as Kelly dies from his wounds.
• Redemption Promotion: Kelly was a Connaught Ranger before his desertion, a mere Mook with the deserters, and regarded as a Chosen Man by Sharpe as he dies.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Nairn asks why Wellington would commit British troops to rescue the wife of Lt. Colonel Farthingdale; Wellington sourly passes him a letter, informing the Army that Farthingdale has just been appointed His Majesty's official liaison to the government Portugal.
• Shameful Strip: Hakeswill forces Lady Farthingdale to pose topless for Sharpe when he comes to deliver the ransom.
• Shot at Dawn:
  • Teresa is gunned down by Hakeswill.
  • Hakeswill is executed by firing squad.
• Something They Would Never Say: Dubreton realizes that Sarah's seemingly despairing message for him is in fact a hint at where she and the other women are being held, being a quote from a poem about a woman unwillingly Taking the Veil.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Major Ducos would give Sharpe his condolences for having lost his wife, if only his wife hadn't been "the Spanish whore who waged war on France."
• Spiteful Spit: While tied to the post for execution, Hakeswill spits at the man who attempts to put the blindfold over his eyes.
• Stealth Insult: Wellington, reading Col. Farthingdale's book on how to conduct the war in Spain, "compliments" him by saying how remarkable it is that he managed to write and publish it before he even set foot inside the country. Farthingdale, being completely Sarcasm-Blind, smiles and happily accepts Wellington's words at face value.
• Stuffy Brit: Sir Augustus Farthingdale, who writes a book on soldiers' conduct and never set a foot on a battlefield. If anything, Wellington and Nairn are amused by it.
• Threw My Bike on the Roof: Sharpe gets heartbroken, and in utter frustration, he destroys a French spy's glasses. Said spy came to demand that the British surrender. The spy was a jerkass and had it coming. Nothing to gain from it, except it was a good way of showing the French Jerk who the alpha dog is.
• Trojan Prisoner: At the beginning, Port au Feu is tied up along with some French soldiers by a group of British soldiers, who are escorting a woman. It turns out they are all working together, apart from the woman, who is their captive.
• The Vamp: Lady Farthingdale seduces Sharpe.
• Villainous Rescue: It's the French who show up to cut off Hakeswill. Downplayed in that it's the noble Colonel Dubreton who leads this force, but it was sanctioned by French high command.
• We Have Reserves: Sir Augustus is more than ready to send Sharpe and all his men into the deserters' lair to retrieve his kidnapped wife, while said wife knows full well that her husband has no intention of confronting the kidnappers himself.
• Wicked Cultured: Pot-au-feu, at least when it comes to food.
• Would Not Hit a Girl: Subverted when Teresa tells Col. Farthingdale that she would kill him in a duel, if he was a man.
• You Can Keep Her!: Invoked, when General Chaumier gives Dubreton one last chance to rescue his wife from the deserters:
  Ducos: It's useless, she's a dead woman.
  Chaumier: (sighs) Pity it's not my wife.
• You Do Not Want To Know: Nairn, informing Lt. Col. Farthingdale that Teresa's nom de guerre among the Spanish partisans is La Aguja, "The Needle": "Don't ask why."

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