Fridge / Sharpe S1 E2 Sharpe's Eagle

Fridge Brilliance

• Captain Leroy is easily the most politically astute officer in Simmerson's command. Among other things:
  • When Simmerson rips Sharpe for not being a gentleman, Leroy saves Sharpe from having to make an awkward reply.
  • Leroy bails Sharpe out of another fix - paying the Countess's servants - in such a way as to give Sharpe a plausible excuse for accepting his money in front of everyone.
  • He also recognizes that promising to capture a French imperial eagle would be a dangerous thing to do and pointedly tells Ensign Denny that nobody heard Sharpe make such a promise.
  • It may seem odd that it's the American officer who knows best how to navigate the English army's political scene. But as an American in England, with the American Revolution still fresh in the English memory, and being likely something of a nouveau riche to boot, Leroy probably had to have a very sharp political mind to get ahead in a place where birth and old money count for everything.
• We don't really need any fridge brilliance to know how bad a commander Simmerson is, but still we get a hidden clue after the South Essex camps for the night next to the bridge. One of Sharpe's men is standing guard on the bridge, meaning that Sharpe had to give the order to do so. Even with the French known to be on the other side, Simmerson didn't think to guard the bridge.
  • Alternately, he simply deems such a task beneath his men and tasks Sharpe's squad to deal with it.
• Wellesley has standing orders that no officers under his command are to fight in duels, meaning if Sharpe carries through on his challenge to Berry, the Colonel will have no choice but to demote one of his better officers. He then decides to send out a nighttime patrol led by both officers in question, presumably on the assumption that the two men will take advantage of the obvious opportunity to settle their differences without anyone violating the letter of his order against dueling. As a bonus, the whole thing gets neatly covered up with the losing party being praised for dying in battle against the French.
  • It is also very telling that Wellesley and Hogan never discuss the possibility that Sharpe would lose the duel, only that he'd have to be demoted afterwards.
  • Berry brags that no man can beat him with a pistol at 50 paces. Unfortunately for him, the unsanctioned nighttime fight with Sharpe is not a duel and Harper beats him with a bayonet In the Back at one pace.