Diksha Sundriyal
Hulu’s ‘Rivals’ takes the audience into the heart of the English upper class, where feuds develop and dissolve as frequently as the affairs between the said people. The focal point of the story is the animosity between Tony Baddingham and Rupert Campbell-Black. Tony is the owner of an independent TV station, while Rupert is an ex-Olympian-turned-politician and an infamous philanderer. The dislike between the men is mutual, and it is their hatred for one another that they pass on to the people around them, giving rise to even more rivalries and feuds in their circles. By the end, Tony finds himself alone as Rupert gathers the support of all the people that Tony has wronged so far. SPOILERS AHEAD
Does Venturer Win the Bid?
For Tony Baddingham, his TV production company, Corinium, is everything. He has worked hard to build it from the ground up, and he has given it his blood and sweat, so much so that it remains the only that he cares about now. He has not refrained from making difficult choices and decisions to make his company a success, which is why, when his enemies think about putting him in his place, their first thought is to destroy Corinium. While Declan O’Hara had been brought into Corinium with the thought of transforming its image, he is later thrown out of the company owing to unending conflicts with Tony, especially when the latter begins to wonder if Corinium is becoming synonymous with Declan, the success of whose show has been a great plus point for it.
When Declan joined Corinium, he was told that he would have entire creative control of his program. Slowly, however, all of that is taken away from him. Moreover, Tony starts to blackmail Declan to make him do his bidding, but Declan eventually leaves, not caring what the consequences may entail. After going through a dark period, Declan decides to take the fight to Tony, and he is joined in this venture by Rupert and Fred. Rupert had already been at odds with Tony for a long time, and Fred started hating him when he found Tony and his friends making fun of his wife, Lizzie.
Together, the trio dedicates itself to establishing their company, which they name Venturer, on the name of the horse all three of them liked and loved. While creating the company was easy, it was the task of getting it into the market that would prove to be the biggest challenge. What they needed to establish their stronghold and to run Corinium out of business was to win the TV bid that would get Venturer the contract, wresting away everything from Corinium and, hence, from Tony.
While it might be a chance for the trio to humiliate Tony, this is also a chance for him to teach all three of them a lesson. So, he is ready to do everything in his power to make sure he succeeds. To prevent moles in Corinium, he created a policy where anyone seen in the vicinity of any person related to Venturer would be fired on the spot. He also commits corporate espionage by stealing the documents detailing Venturer’s bid from Fred’s home. However, even before the bid can be made, Venturer has to prove itself worthy of the competition. They have to show that they are ready to take on Corinium, for which they must win the first round, which will decide whether or not they are allowed to place a bid.
The competition takes place at Corinium grounds, where Tony and his opposing trio put forward points supporting their case. Tony tries to paint Venturer as a bunch of amateurs who know nothing about TV. However, Declan’s monologue wins the audience in the end, and a day later, Venturer gets a phone call revealing that they have won the right to enter the bid. This, however, does not mean that Corinium and Tony have been defeated for good. If anything, it means that this is the first battle won in a war that is yet to be fought. In any case, it’s a win, and it gives a lot of confidence to Venturer.
What Happens to Tony?
While the people at Venturer celebrate their win, Tony seethes in anger and resentment. It has less to do with Venturer winning the preliminary fight and more to do with the fact that Cameron, his mistress, had been cheating on him all this time. Tony and Cameron had been having an affair since she was brought on board Corinium, but they both knew it wasn’t going to mean anything. Tony wouldn’t leave his wife, Monica, who already knew about her husband’s dalliances, even if she didn’t know exactly who he was having it with. Cameron only cared about her career, and if an affair with Tony would get her what she wanted, she didn’t mind it at all.
But then, Tony strands her in Spain, where she goes to an award show, and she ends up crossing paths with Rupert. He makes it look like it was a chance meeting, but he had planned it to get Corinium secrets from Cameron. Eventually, Cameron discovers the truth, but due to Tony’s indifference towards her and Rupert’s show of affection for her, she ends up becoming a spy for Venturer. She and Rupert are very discreet and hide their affair so well that no one suspects it. Not until they are caught sharing a moment on camera and Tony realizes exactly what has been happening.
The night that Venturer wins the bid, Tony is more worried about losing Cameron. What angers him further is that of all people in Colchester, she had an affair with Rupert, even when she knew how much Tony hated him. Instead of firing Cameron or breaking up with her, Tony becomes even more desperate as he doesn’t want to lose her to Rupert. He tries to convince her to stay with him, even promising to finally divorce his wife, but things get very physically confrontational. In self-defense, Cameron picks up an award statue and hits Tony in the head with it. The last we see of him is bleeding on the floor of his office as a horrified Cameron watches on. While this is a rather violent end to Tony’s arc this season, it doesn’t necessarily mean he is dead. Considering that he is the main villain of the show and the entire conflict is posed around him, it would seem very anticlimactic for him to die like this.
With him out of the fight, Corinium wouldn’t have much to go on, and Venturer would win by default. That is, unless a new person, someone more despised than Tony, is brought in his place. Still, it seems too early for him to be taken out of the fight. Moreover, it seems uncharacteristic of Cameron to leave Tony bleeding on the floor. Most likely, she will call for help and it might even arrive in time to save Tony, even if leaving him confined to his bed for a while. His survival would also increase the bitterness he already has for Rupert and Venturer, making their rivalry even more interesting. This is why there is a good reason to believe that Tony isn’t dead just yet.
Do Fred and Lizzie Get Together?
A lot of people have a lot of affairs in ‘Rivals,’ but there is only one couple for whom the audience is made to root for adultery. Lizzie is a neighbor of the O’Hara family and is the wife of James, a beloved TV personality. He is too obsessed with his own image and popularity to pay any heed to his wife, who is starved of attention and affection. Any time she tries to initiate it, her husband rebuffs her advances. Then, there is Fred, who loves his wife, Valerie, but doesn’t feel the connection with her that he would like to. When Lizzie and Fred cross paths, there is an immediate spark between them. Despite the changing tides of alliances around them, Lizzie and Fred’s friendship develops as both of them start to realize that they harbor strong feelings for each other.
Had it been anyone else, the extramarital affair would have already started. However, Fred and Lizzie, particularly Lizzie, find themselves caught up in the bounds of morality. Despite her obvious attraction for Fred, which she pours into an erotic novel, Lizzie feels that an affair with him is not worth compromising her morals. This is after she knows that her husband is already indulged in affairs of his own. Eventually, she and Fred decide to meet at a hotel, but Lizize chickens out at the last moment. Later, when they talk about it, Fred believes that perhaps this is the right course of action.
Despite her inhibitions, Lizzie starts to question her strong sense of morality. When she talks about it with Rupert, he tells her that she won’t be doing anything that people around her aren’t already doing. He encourages her to pursue the affair with Fred, but that is not enough to convince Lizzie. It is after she talks to Sarah, who she knows was having an affair with James, that she decides to stop caring about anything else and focus on what she wants. Later, she finds Fred while everyone is waiting for the verdict at Declan’s place, and they finally seal the deal by having sex under a tree.
Does Maud Leave Declan?
As important as it is to succeed in one’s career, it is also essential to find time for one’s family. A lot of people find that work-life balance, but Declan O’Hara is not one of them. While he loves his wife and children, he seems more dedicated to his work, and this has always been a source of rift between him and his wife, Maud. When they used to live in London, Maud worked as an actress, but she put her career on hold for a while to support the family while her husband concentrated on his work. Over time, Maud found herself robbed of her career as well as her husband’s attention, which led her to seek gratification elsewhere. This led to an affair, which created more problems in her marriage, with Declan eventually accepting a job at Corinium and moving to Rutshire.
If Maud didn’t have a career, she at least had friends in London, but in the rurality of Cotchester even that is taken away from her. She misses her life of glamour and parties while her husband buries himself in even more work. Even when his job slips out of his hand, and a decision is made to go back to London, it all turns out to be a fantasy. Declan becomes even more ambitious as Venturer comes into the picture, and he completely forgets to factor in what his wife may have to think about it. As he drowns in developing Venturer, it dawns on Maud that he will never have time for her. He will always remain focused on what he wants, and what she wants will never even be taken into consideration.
Even when Maud tries to talk about it with him, he can’t seem to be able to take a moment’s break to hear her out. In the end, she decides that when he has made his decisions without her consideration, then she shouldn’t bother to make her own decisions with his consideration either. He cannot make time to discuss things with her, so she must make the decisions on her own. Keeping her sanity in mind, she decides to go back to London on her own. Declan and Tag can stay in Cotchester, but she can’t live there anymore. To get things started, she accepts a meager role in a play, even though she’d have thought it beneath her a while back. It might not be much, but it is enough to get her foot back in the door, and she is ready to take whatever she can get. So, as Declan and his partners celebrate Venturer’s first win over Corinium, Maud leaves him to go back to her life in London.
Do Rupert and Tag Get Together?
While Rupert Campbell-Black has a lot of affairs in ‘Rivals,’ there is only one girl that he truly wants to have something more with. Most of the time, it is simply about having fun and causing trouble for Rupert, but after he meets Tag, Declan’s daughter, he feels a completely different wave of emotion. Perhaps this change comes about because Tag seems to be the only person immune to his charms. Slowly, however, she mellows to him, and it becomes clear that they are both very attracted to each other. But there are a lot of problems, and the glaring age gap isn’t even the worst of it.
After Rupert gropes Tag at Fred and Valerie’s party, he inflames Declan, who vows revenge on him. Eventually, Declan decides not to ruin Rupert’s life, mainly because Tag begs him not to, which leads Rupert and Declan to become friends. This is also when Declan tells Rupert to stay away from his daughter, and in honor of their newfound friendship and mutual respect, Rupert decides to do as he is asked. Still, this doesn’t change the fact that he has feelings for Tag, and even as he keeps her at an arm’s distance, her feelings for him grow even further. Things almost get bad again when a picture of Rupert and Tag makes it into the papers, and Declan confronts him about making a move on his daughter. It is here that Tag discovers why Rupert has been staying away from her. This incident also shows how easily Declan could lose his cool if Rupert went back on his word, but that does not keep him away from Tag as they share a kiss at the end of the show.
By this time, Rupert is already in a considerably more age-appropriate relationship with Cameron. He has also become partners with Declan in Venturer, with the latter finally starting to trust him again. At the celebration party, however, he and Tag find themselves alone in the kitchen. When he tells them that Seb, who she’d started dating recently, is a good boy and that they’d be good together, she tells him that while Seb is good, he is not Rupert, whom she actually wants. While Rupert tries to explain to her why they cannot be together, the conversation ends with a kiss. However, just because they have kissed doesn’t mean that they can be in a relationship.
There are too many things around them keeping them apart, not to forget Declan’s warnings to Rupert to stay away from his daughter. An affair between Rupert and Tag could create conflict for Venturer, ruining the company even before it has found its feet. Still, if the Jilly Cooper novels, on which the show is based, are to go by, Tag ends up trading the O’Hara surname for Campbell-Black, which confirms that she and Rupert are eventually going to end up together. Still, it is a long and winding road full of many twists and hurdles, which the couple will have to overcome before they can even begin to think about a future together.
