“Call Girl’s” fourth episode was easily its best yet. An odd mixture of S & M and tests of friendship and trust, it delivered a tight story over its typically brief running time. It begins with Belle (Billie Piper) in bed with her accountant (Simon Kunz), who apparently trades his services for hers. They appear to have a friendly, relaxed relationship, but it seems the accountant (who I believe went unnamed in the story) wants something a little different. He has thoughts and fantasies that fall outside her typical business dealings. Yes, the guy wants to delve into the arena of sadomasochism, which is hardly Belle’s specialty.
So she visits her manager, Stephanie (Cheri Lunghi) for some advice, and the woman clearly doesn’t have any, but she knows someone who does. During an outing with Ben (Iddo Goldberg), Hannah finds a new source of frustration that rivals her inability to be honest with him: He reveals that he’s marrying Vanessa, and that the engagement was made at least six weeks ago when he was on holiday. Hannah’s enraged. Why is this the first she’s heard of it? Ben explains that much of it has to do with her own secretive life.
Back at Belle’s flat, Mistress Sirona (Sally Dexter) arrives, with a slave (Darren Clarke) in hand (so to speak). She’s there to give Belle tips on how to be an effective mistress. As soon as they enter, she orders the slave to undress, as he’s not allowed clothes indoors. Belle offers them something to drink, and Sirona gives the slave permission to answer. He says that yes he would like something to drink, and Sirona tells him he’s welcome to drink from Belle’s toilet, but Belle instead gives him a dish to drink from. At this point, the scene is funny, sad, or erotic (I suppose) depending on your tastes and prejudices. I’ve never quite understood the whole S & M scene myself, but this episode did a really good job of explaining its quirks and why it’s at all appealing to anyone. Sirona shows Belle all the various places where a slave can be safely whipped, as well as pointing out the many areas that should be avoided – after all, this is fantasy role play; nobody’s in it to actually get hurt. Afterwards, as the slave cowers beneath the dining room table licking his mistress’ boots, and the two women converse, Sirona unveils her S & M wisdom. For a slave, it’s the release from power that’s the turn on. It’s not he who is doing all these filthy, degrading acts, it’s his mistress who’s making him do it. Belle gets it and is ready to give it a spin.
She goes about redecorating her living room into a makeshift dungeon and purchases a variety of whips and paddles as well as kinky leather mistress outfit. When the accountant arrives, she orders him to undress just as Sirona did her slave, and gives him only a thong to wear. The pair go through many of the same motions that Sirona used, although Belle admits to us that she has no idea whether or not he’s even enjoying it, or when the session is over. Since there’s no sex involved, and therefore no orgasm, how is she to know when he’s satisfied? In the midst of her boredom, she calls Ben, has a conversation which infuriates her, and she ends up taking it out on the accountant through a series of beatings that become just a tad too intense for the poor guy, and he ends up yelping the agreed upon safe word, “Red.” Both people seem embarrassed and humiliated, and the session clearly didn’t work out the way it was meant to.
As the episode draws to a close, Hannah again visits Ben, and her secrecy is still the hot topic. As she leaves, she texts him the information to her website, giving up her secret life and finally sharing it with someone. We don’t see Ben’s reaction; we can only assume that he’s now in the know.
For an episode that could have been played for laughs, the goings-on here seemed to be treated with an awful lot of respect, which is a good thing. The scene with Belle beating the accountant over her frustrations with Ben was in particular very strong, and kudos to Simon Kunz for being brave enough to convincingly play this complex man. Mostly though, the episode really kicked into a higher gear the relationship between Hannah and Ben, which is the area of the series that continues to be the reason for tuning in. Where are these people going together, and is it somewhere we’ll also want to visit?
