How Netflix’s ‘Bodies’ Created a Beautifully Devastating Victorian Love Story
Spoiler Alert
Stop me if you’ve heard of this show: it’s a recently released program featuring a romance between two men of differing backgrounds, one serious and straightforward, the other lighthearted and empathetic. It takes place in a period of history generally agreed upon as being unfavorable—or even outwardly hostile—to non-heterosexual relationships. Despite this, the show in question manages to tell a genuine, moving love story, ultimately offering a message of hope through the connection between two of its male characters.
Did you assume this show is Max’s Our Flag Means Death? Good guess, but you’re wrong.
Granted, Netflix’s limited series Bodies is neither a comedy nor a love story. The bulk of the plot revolves around an unconventional murder mystery, as the same dead body appears in four different time periods. However, romance enters with detective inspector Alfred Hillinghead (Kyle Soller), who, amidst his tireless work to solve the case, finds himself unexpectedly falling for journalist Henry Ashe (George Parker), his partner in the investigation. Their romance provides a solid emotional anchor to the 1890 timeline, and as the show went on, we found ourselves falling in love with their love. Here’s why.
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Love At First Sight
Basically, this was a meet-cute at the scene of a murder. It was relatively obvious from the moment detective inspector Alfred Hillinghead stepped in to have journalist Henry Ashe’s camera returned to him at the scene of the titular body’s appearance that these two were the definition of love at first sight. At the very least, an immediate bond was evident from their initial interactions, however businesslike—and as Henry walks away down the filth-coated alley, camera in hand, he does the classic romantic “look back” at Alfred. When Henry turns to face forward, Alfred looks back at him. When Alfred turns away to focus on the crime scene, Henry looks at him again. Finally, as if they’d not done enough wistful staring, Alfred casts one more lengthy glance at Henry, making for a grand total of four longing gazes. The electricity in the air could’ve restarted that body’s heart. Plus, Soller and Parker have impeccable chemistry from the start.
Of course, there’s no downplaying or stepping around the fact that Alfred did have Henry arrested for indecency when he discovered the latter was photographing non-heterosexual couples at the time the body appeared, but Henry emerges from that ordeal unharmed, and by the end of the second episode and after a deeply charged handshake, they’re working together on the investigation. It’s a testament to the instant strength of their connection that they’re drawn together again so quickly and that their shared belief in doing the right thing is the catalyst for their eventual romance.
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A Complicated Beauty
At this point, it’s worth mentioning that Alfred is closeted (because it’s the 1890s) and has a wife and daughter (because, in the 1890s, that’s what upper-class men were pretty much expected to do). We catch brief glimpses into his marriage and his home life, and while it’s evident that he loves his wife and daughter and they’re content enough, he isn’t able to feel for his spouse the way he comes to feel for Henry.
Alfred and Henry work and flirt their way through the initial stages of the investigation, but everything changes after Alfred’s drugged at the house of their main suspect, Julian Harker (Stephen Graham). He stumbles his way back to Henry’s home, where Henry comforts and reassures him and pulls his mattress down to the floor for Alfred to sleep off the effects of the drugs. “Please hold me,” a tearful Alfred whispers to his partner. From then on—and especially from the following morning on, when a sober Alfred awakens and passionately kisses Henry, one thing leading to another—there’s no going back.
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Sacrifice for Love
Alfred walks a difficult line for the next few episodes of the series, caught between his love for Henry and the very different but meaningful love he has for his family. As Harker himself would later tell the noble detective inspector, the passion he feels for Henry Ashe is no crime; they simply had the misfortune of being born at a time when society didn’t permit them to truly express that love beyond closed doors. As a result, Alfred struggles—and his struggle worsens when Harker blackmails him, demanding he frame Henry for the murder or see a series of staged, compromising photos from the night Alfred was drugged released to the papers.
In the face of that horror, Alfred makes a heartbreaking choice: he goes to Henry and urges him to run rather than face the false, grisly fate Harker would ensure befell him. They share one last passionate kiss, and then Alfred departs… to take the blame for the murder himself rather than irreversibly tainting the reputation of the man he loves. His willingness to give up his life for Henry speaks volumes about the strength, truth, and depth of their devotion, even at a time when “larger society” scoffed and spat at any union that wasn’t heterosexual.
Bodies is a science fiction show, and without getting into spoilers, there’s something additional going on with Harker that ties directly to the central mystery. Harker’s determination to see his plan through to the end results in Alfred’s tragic death and Henry never realizes what his lover did for him.
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[WARNING: MAJOR spoilers for the ending of Bodies follow.]
Defying Tropes
At first, it seems a familiarly bitter end for an LGBTQ+ couple. “Bury your gays”—a storytelling move in which LGBTQ+ characters and pairings are treated as more disposable or prone to intense suffering and anguish than their straight counterparts—is notorious for a reason. In recent years, it tore apart fan-favorite pairings like The 100’s Clarke and Lexa, as well as Killing Eve’s Eve and Villanelle. Bodies could’ve easily furthered that trope had it made Alfred’s fate unchangeable. Thankfully, it went a different and far more welcome route.
Since Bodies deals heavily with time travel, certain major events are malleable, even death. Without spoiling the conclusion, the show’s ultimate ending sees Alfred restored to life (hooray!), but the circumstances of his revival mean that he and Henry have no memory of their relationship (NO!). While that’s sufficiently devastating, their storyline ends with them sharing yet another intense, longing gaze across a smoky London alleyway, seemingly implying that they’re destined to fall in love regardless of the circumstances that send them into each other’s path.
And on that note, Bodies deserves another commendation. Before his death, Alfred and his wife have a meaningful conversation about his sexuality. Rather than having her erupt into a rage, reject him, or call him any number of slurs, his wife tells him she already knew—and in fact, she’d guessed specifically about him and Henry. While she’s heartbroken, she’s not bitter or spiteful, and when Alfred’s unceremoniously hauled off to jail for a murder he didn’t commit, she’s distraught. Since the storyline takes place in the 1890s, Alfred’s “coming out” could have gone quite differently. Bodies made a conscious choice not to further torture the character, instead making that moment one of quiet dignity amid some unavoidable pain both for Alfred and Charlotte. In that way, the show yet again defies stereotypical and tired storytelling. Even better, neither Alfred nor Henry is solely defined by their sexual orientation; while being gay during a hostile time period is a definite component of Alfred’s storyline, his central role in the show is that of a detective, not of a man struggling with his sexuality. Both he and Henry play an essential role in solving the crime.
Most of all, Bodies delivers: it offers love, loss, heartbreak, and hope through the stories of all four detectives. And in Alfred and Henry, the show delivers a moving romance that speaks to the power of love to defy even the most overwhelming odds.
Bodies, limited series, Netflix
