It’s (finally!) time to refill your Artful Dodger prescription

Despite the years-long hiatus between seasons that is frustratingly becoming the norm for streaming series, The Artful Dodger’s sophomore season wastes no time in revamping the stakes and the relationships that made its first outing so delightful. Jack, the thief-turned-surgeon with a heart of gold has met his match in Belle, a brilliant wannabe-doctor whose mother may actually be ruining her life. But whereas season one focused more on Jack and his efforts to keep his criminal past hidden, season two sees Lady Belle taking center stage as she clashes with her equally strong-willed and self-assured mother over both her personal and professional future. This she does against a backdrop of subplots involving killers, cholera, and conmen. Oh my.

Truly, Belle runs the emotional gauntlet this season, what with losing her first patient in surgery, discovering a shocking (but seemingly easily processed) family secret, and trying to put her mother’s expectations for a life well lived before her own. It is this last stressor that casts the longest shadow over Belle’s arc. Banned from seeing Jack and practicing medicine—lest he be returned to death row and her chance at legitimate medical training be, well, cast into the fireplace—Belle would normally be at a loss for how to fill her time. But of course, her mother’s carrot-and-stick approach does little to dampen the attraction between Belle and Jack, who are no better at keeping their distance than they are at hiding their illicit rendezvous. Though most acquaintances are kind enough to turn a blind eye to their obvious canoodling, the weight of the potential consequences of her actions weighs heavily on Belle. Let’s just say it’s good she’s fully healed from her aortic rupture, because the heartache brought on by these competing pressures is palpable.

For Belle holds not only her own and Jack’s fates in her hands, but also those of countless patients who would go underserved or misdiagnosed by the classist and sexist powers that be in Port Victory. Alternately rolling her eyes or rolling up her sleeves each time the men in her life (other than Jack) dismiss her opinion, Belle “if she’s got an instinct, she’s probably right” Fox time and again proves her medical acumen—whether she’s treating her own parents, the women of Devil’s Elbow, a child (whose psychotic attacker is never punished much less investigated), or indeed, the entire colony during a cholera outbreak. No longer limited by her heart condition, Belle charges through season two, determined not to let anyone or anything hold her back.

Jack, meanwhile, continues to be equal parts supportive and vexing for Belle as he struggles to find a balance between the thrill of thumbing his nose at the law and being the upstanding citizen he believes is worthy of her. The new challenge thrown at Jack this season is Inspector Boxer, who initially poses a threat on two levels: as a competing love interest for Belle and as a policeman pressured to pin the Devil’s Elbow murders on him. And though Jack is momentarily jealous of Boxer’s prospects with Belle, Boxer proves himself too good a man and a detective to stand in the way of their relationship or Jack’s freedom, a welcome change from the corrupt lawmen of last season. This doesn’t make it any less sigh-inducing, however, when Belle and Jack break up just as all other obstacles to their relationship are removed—even though Belle’s fear that she is just another “adrenaline rush” for Jack is plausible, given his proclivity for crimes against toffs (i.e., elitist snobs). “Every time I think we have a future together, you set it ablaze with criminality,” she rightly observes. (Nevertheless, their breakup did bring about a hilarious scene where Jack piques Belle’s curiosity with a bizarre medical case, eliciting a “damn you”—practically their term of endearment—as she turns to follow him into the exam room.)

Further diminishing Jack’s role this season is the entirely unexpected but decidedly welcome development of Fanny’s character, who steps in as Fagin’s eyes and ears inside the governor’s house, with the side benefit of lending Fagin’s scams an air of legitimacy and respectability. Having spent the first season as not much more than her sister’s alibi, Fanny spends this season getting into mischief of her own making, when her plans to play the dutiful daughter and find a suitor take a sudden and violent... twist. (Sorry.) Though it at first appears that Fanny’s naïveté and gullibility will make her a pawn in Fagin’s schemes, it is heartening to watch her forge her own unladylike path in Port Victory. “For such a long time, I’ve felt worthless,” Fanny laments in episode 4, admitting that she’s “never felt welcome anywhere before.” The spark in her eye upon joining Fagin’s gang, however, is both undeniable and downright adorable.

This developing relationship between Fanny and Fagin brings not only a new dynamic to The Artful Dodger as a whole, but also meaningful seeds of growth to both characters. Fanny, of course, would not have been able to come into her own without Fagin’s part-legitimate, part-ingratiating praise for her quick-thinking and document-forging skills. And under Fanny’s influence, Fagin ever so slowly learns to behave like a kinder, less selfish person, particularly when it comes to showing appreciation to his crew. (Though this, too, likely doubles as an insincere manipulation tactic in his ever-capable hands.) But whereas Fanny undoubtedly comes into her own this season, it is not yet clear whether Fagin took her lessons to heart; letting his friends be held at gunpoint while he runs away to hide tends to make his final claustrophobia-inducing quandary seem rather earned.

Novel or harsh, some eye-opening truths need to be heard from a third party to be truly taken to heart. This theme is echoed in at least one other set of characters—that of Lady Jane and Dr. Sneed. Sneed steps up not once, but twice to save the series's protagonists from Lady Jane’s otherwise unforgiving decrees, by playing the “overrun hospital needs all the doctors it can get” card. Unmoved by her daughter’s pleas, Lady Jane is forced to see reason in Sneed’s measured but direct argument as to first Jack’s, then Belle’s qualifications as essential workers in the Port Victory colony. “I think you’re wrong, my lady,” Sneed says. “The hospital needs every sharp mind it can get, and Lady Belle’s is—well, it’s extraordinary.” What a long way Sneed has come since his season one rivalry with Jack, and a fortuitous result for all the lives Belle goes on to save in the hospital—including her mother’s.

Speaking of whom, it must also be said that some unsavory truths need to come from precisely the person causing the tension. This was the case with Jack revealing how the upper classes bullied him in his youth, setting Belle’s mind at ease about his intentions and leading to their reconciliation. But more significantly, this was the case with the finale’s Fox family drama. Lady Jane’s near-deathbed confession provides some much-needed glimpses of her softer side, putting into perspective why she’s taken such a hard line with Belle. As is classically the case, the discord between Belle and her mother stems from them being too similar—brilliant, confident, stubborn, and disdainful of the patriarchy—and Lady Jane has sought to prevent her daughter’s first romance from playing out the same shameful way hers did. Her divulgence of such fears and of Belle’s true parentage gets her back in her daughter’s—and the audience’s—good graces, but it is the response from Belle’s father that nudges the scene into tear-jerker territory. Having spent much of the season as a bumbling pushover, Governor Fox shows that he will stand up against a threat to that which matters most to him—his family. And it should come as no surprise that the man who recently un-banished Belle from her family home was the same who unselfishly welcomed her into it in the first place. Watching the newly reunited Foxes team up against Uncle Dickey (a fitting name, when all is said and done) is simply icing on the proverbial cake.

The many and varied villains of this season never quite measure up to all that Belle and her family have going on. To be fair, it’s hard to take anyone seriously when they’re caught up in Fagin’s nonsense, pivoting as he was from selling fake land grants to running a fake saltpeter factory to faking his own death, but a vengeful Darius, a desperate Uncle Dickey, and a pee-soaked greaseball child-torturer (yes, it bears repeating that he receives absolutely no comeuppance for this crime) Uriah Heep (of Dickensian lore) instill as much ominousness and malice as they can along the way. It likely didn’t help matters that the competing subplot involving a surgeon serial killer invited considerably more intrigue—and the show did as good a job as any in limiting the true killer’s screen time to keep him from immediate suspicion.

In sum, even as it retreads some old ground (e.g., Lady Jane finding Belle and Jack in bed together, twice faking someone’s death to avoid vengeful parties, Fagin’s “it’s you or me” finale showdown), this season packed a lot in while bringing new characters to the forefront—exactly what a good season two should do. Enticingly, though, it also leaves the audience with a slew of unanswered questions. Beyond the obvious cliffhangers involving the fates of Dr. Sneed, Inspector Boxer, and Fagin, viewers are left to wonder about the more serious issues: was Jack’s pursuit of superior cauterizing tools as foreboding for Belle’s health as it seemed? Will the show delve more into the haves vs have-nots storylines within Devil’s Elbow? Did Jack really not realize the likely repercussions of leaving Fagin’s lifeless body and running off to rejoin the Navy? Does poor Phineas ever get a funeral?

As well as the less serious ones: will Jack ever learn to roll up his sleeves before covering his hands in blood? What schemes might Fanny conceive in Fagin’s absence? With Jack and Belle’s relationship all shored up (pun intended), how long before they publish their own medical journal? Will Fagin ever learn the truth about the central Australian landscape? How many modern songs can one period drama soundtrack hold? One can only hope that future seasons (that’s right, it better be seasons plural) continue to build on the fun, thrilling, lovable dynamic that is The Artful Dodger. After all, more episodes is just what the doctor ordered.