The New Look – Episode 4 “What a Difference” Recap & Review

What a Difference

Episode 4 of The New Look starts off with the people celebrating the arrival of the Allied forces. Since Coco has helped Pierre catch Spatz, she’s now off the Nazi collaborator list and is now portraying herself as neutral. As the episode progresses, French officers enter Coco’s home and inform her that they have orders to arrest her on suspicion of collaborating with the Germans.

A massive riot has broken out, and the people have started to punish the Nazi collaborator themselves. Men are beaten, while women are shaved and branded with a swastika on their foreheads as punishment. Meanwhile, Christian is still grappling with the haunting memory of failing to save his sister, who is now in a Nazi-run work camp.

Lucien Lelong gathers his designers, asking them to make a miniature dress that will be put on mannequins for display. This is because the Nazis destroyed every warehouse, creating a country-wide scarcity of fabric. Lucien believes this is the only way to keep the House of Lelong afloat.

Coco is put in a room with a French Officer, who presses Coco for questions, and the former states that she wasn’t in cahoots with the Nazis, let alone a collaborator. The French Office asks Coco if she has ever met with Schellenberg, and Coco blatantly denies it, saying she has never seen him at the Ritz, the hotel Coco stayed during the war.

Coco threatens to call Churchill if the French do not stop bothering her. Eventually, Coco is let go when Churchill orders them not to interrogate his acquaintances without his permission. This doesn’t deter the MI6, as they plan to use their spy whom they’ve already placed in Coco’s circle. Andre, Coco’s nephew, takes her to meet Oscar, and also plans to introduce his aunt to someone who can help with her situation.

Malcom also joins the lunch, who is a journalist writing articles about liberation. He offers to write a nice article on Coco, so people can know about her, and can hear Coco’s side of the story, and Coco agrees, thinking it will paint her in a new light. Oscar is helping MI6 to get his name off the Nazi collaborator list.

As the episode goes on, Pierre, one of Lucien’s designers, refuses to work on his idea and leaves the job. Pierre asks Christian to come with him so they can start their own fashion house, but the latter denies it. It is not the right time, Christian says. Once Pierre has walked out of the room, Lucien asks Christian to work on Pierre’s work, and Christian hesitantly agrees.

Christian also meets his father and tells her about Catherine being in a Nazi work camp. Christian also warns his father of not getting his hopes up, as there’s a high chance that Catherine may not be alive. Christian meets Lucien and informs him that he no longer has any desire to design dresses and is even planning on leaving Paris.

Oscar is told to turn against Andre, but he flips the script and tells Andre that MI6 is trying to trap Coco and that Malcolm, the journalist, is a spy. Fortunately for Coco, Andre interrupts her interview before she reveals any critical information that can prove Coco’s guilt. Coco decides to go to a safe pace for a while. As for Oscar, he kills himself before MI6 can arrest him.

As the episode nears its end, a psychic asks Christian not to leave Paris and not give up on his talent. She says by doing this, Catherine will one day return to her brother, Christian. He immediately returns to Lucien’s shop and creates dresses that later become the epitome of French Fashion.

The Episode Review

The New Look episode 4 is a captivating one but is also a double-edged sword. On one side, there’s the beauty of Paris and the stunning dresses created by the best fashion designer ever. On the other side, there’s the horror of World War II. We see people being killed, dragged out of their homes, and beaten because they collaborated with the Nazis. Some did it for money, while others had no choice – they had to say yes or face the firing squad.