Fogg's life as the series opens. He lives alone but for his elderly and feeble butler, and spends his days at the Reform Club doing not-very-much with his friends, one of whom, Bellamy, is clearly no friend at all but a bully who demeans Fogg any chance he gets; Fogg can't even comment on an interesting newspaper article without Bellamy deriding him about it.
Passpartout's Dark and Troubled Past. He saw his father executed as a political dissident and left France to escape the trauma, also leaving his brother. When he returns, he runs into his brother again and finds out that he's a revolutionary planning a Suicide Mission to assassinate the French President, implying he's a Death Seeker. He's also bitter enough towards Passpartout for leaving to force him along on the mission so they can die together.
Passpartout and Abigail escape the assassination attempt with their lives, but not before Passpartout watches his brother shot to death.
Episode 2:
Fogg's total inability to stand up to Moretti's Testosterone Poisoning brand of bullying, from the initial Crushing Handshake to his yelling at Fogg and calling him a fraud, simply because Moretti is a Self-Made Man who has issues with those who are born rich and also resents how easily Fogg gets along with his son.
Passpartout dealing with his grief over his brother by getting in stupid fights.
Moretti himself. He's a businessman and recent widower who has trouble connecting with his son Alberto, and deals with it in the worst way, by getting angry and expecting Alberto to change to suit him rather than meet him halfway or try to understand him. He's not a bad man, he's just dealing with his son as he'd deal with a business problem because that's what he knows.
The morning after yelling at Fogg and Alberto, he sits at breakfast looking unhappy and somewhat ashamed of himself, but unsure how to make it right.
Fogg fixing Alberto's model rocket as if it's the only thing he thinks he can do right.
Episode 3:
Jane Digby's backstory. She was married at eighteen to an older man who was barely interested in her, and told by her mother to be "grateful" when she told her she was unhappy. After leaving to find something better, she was branded a harlot in the press and mocked for marrying "an Arab camel driver," although she seems to have found happiness with him. She does at least get some justice in the episode by telling Abigail what her father is really like; a Miles Gloriosus who stole other journalists' work and started the smear campaign against her in revenge for refusing to have an affair with him.
Passpartout is left traumatised after killing a man to save Abigail. Fogg is ill-equipped to offer comfort, coming across as callous to Passpartout's suffering and leaving him vulnerable to manipulation by Kneedling.
Episode 4:
Following last episode's Broken Pedestal, Abigail is left feeling rudderless as she realises the career and by extension her entire life has been about making her father proud; without that, she doesn't know who she is.
Passpartout is left traumatised after taking a life, leading to the moment of anger in which he drugs Fogg.
What's particularly sad is that he's clearly been struggling between his own conscience and the desire to take out his turmoil on a seemingly-callous Fogg. He already resisted the urge once by ranting at Fogg in French instead, but when Fogg appears indifferent to the troubles of a man arrested after going AWOL to get married while Passpartout is making him tea, he just impulsively gives in and slips the drugs in with the tea.
Everything about Fogg taking the drugged tea seems calculated to make Passpartout instantly regret his actions. He takes the cup and explains that he's not unsympathetic to the young man's plight, he just doesn't think it's a good idea to get involved in stranger's problems, but tells Passpartout to invite the officer over to sort the matter out. Just as Passpartout looks as if he'd like to reconsider, Fogg drinks the tea and it's too late.
It Gets Worse; rather than the harmless sleeping agent Kneedling described, the drug turns out to be datura, a dangerous psychotropic, and it soon becomes evident Fogg's in serious danger. Without Aouda's help, he'd have died.
Abigail learns during Fogg's In Vino Veritas that his voyage is motivated by lost love, not pride as Passpartout assumed. He dismisses the idea for a while, because he doesn't want to think that he's almost killed a second man over simple ignorance of his true character, but is forced to realise that it's true. By the end of the episode, he's become The Atoner.
Episode 5:
Abigail wrote an article about Fogg based on what she learned during his Mushroom Samba in the previous episode, without ever considering that she's revealing deeply personal information he doesn't even know he told her. She's genuinely remorseful when this is pointed out, and she and Passpartout work to keep Fogg from finding out, only for it to be brought to his attention in the most public forum possible, thus maximising his humiliation. To make matters worse, this happens right after Fogg learns that Passpartout has lied about his background, leaving Fogg with serious doubts about the trustworthiness of both his travelling companions.
Passpartout's plotline in this episode comes off like a Deconstruction of The Atoneras he makes an impulsive bad decision to help Fogg, which spirals so that the consequences rebound horribly on Fogg, meaning that Passpartout's attempt to redeem himself only leaves him with even more to feel guilty about. Breaking it down:
Kneedling's manipulations leave Fogg unable to access his money, so Passpartout turns to a chapter of his Dark and Troubled Past to raise some funds. Turns out Passpartout used to be a thief for a man strongly implied to be a Triad member, and the only way he can get the money is to return to that life by stealing a valuable necklace.
He initially refuses to do so, but when other methods of getting money fall through he bites the bullet and does it... only for Fogg to be arrested for the theft and sentenced to a dozen lashes.
Passpartout and Abigail petition for Fogg to be pardoned, and Passpartout confesses to the crime knowing he could go to prison. They obtain the pardon, but Fogg is still subjected to one lash before they get it into the prison warden's hands. As he and Abigail help Fogg away, Passpartout tells him he'll be alright in French, which he knows Fogg doesn't speak; he's just so upset he's defaulting to his native language.
First he's prevented from accessing his money due to Kneedling lying to the bank staff that he's a fugitive who must be prevented from travelling until "the warrants come through."
He's then humiliated when his deepest, most painful secrets are revealed at a garden party in his honour, by someone (Abigail) who he's come to see as a friend, who took advantage of him while he was deliriously ill and in danger of death.
The next morning, he's arrested for a theft he knows nothing about and sentenced to a dozen lashes. He doesn't know Abigail and Passpartout are working to get him pardoned, and given his revelations about them it's clear he no longer trusts them, so to his knowledge he's all alone in the world as he waits in a prison cell for his Bewildering Punishment. He's trying to remain The Stoic, but is literally crying with terror as he hears another man being flogged knowing he's next.
The flogging scene itself. To add a twist of cruelty, Passpartout and Abigail have arrived with Fogg's pardon at the moment it's due to start, and Fogg knows that, so he has a few seconds to think he might be spared the pain after all, but the guard doing the flogging hasn't been told to stand down and so Fogg suffers one lash before it's called off.
At the end of the episode, Fogg dismisses the other two as he retires to his cabin alone, in obvious Heroic BSoD mode. But his trials aren't over, as he's soon confronted by Kneedling at gunpoint.
Episode 6:
The trio are marooned on an island after being set adrift by Kneedling. Fogg becomes depressed, blaming himself for costing the others their lives by dragging them away on his ill-conceived adventure (apparently forgetting that he tried to send Abigail back more than once).
Abigail telling Passpartout about her mother's "melancholy" (depression to a modern viewer) because she sees those symptoms in Fogg.
Passpartout breaks Fogg out of his depression by confessing his misdeeds. It had to happen, but it's still sad to witness the Breaking the Fellowship that ensues.
Particularly the way Passpartout tries to ease him into it by telling him it's his fault they're marooned, because he encountered the man who set them adrift before when he offered him money to sabotage Fogg. Fogg immediately asks him why he didn't say anything, he could have been prepared if he'd known... and then looks as Passpartout and asks him if he took the money. Gilligan Cut to Fogg storming across the beach screaming at Passpartout to get away from him.
Abigail tries to smooth things over, but she doesn't know about the poisoning and thinks Fogg's angry about the Hong Kong incident. So, she ends up revealing that Passpartout stole the White Dragon and got Fogg lashed, making him even more angry.
Still trying to smooth things over, Abigail points out that they've taken Passpartout for granted, especially given that he lost his brother and killed a man. This does seem to make an impression on Fogg.
The Yank the Dog's Chain Abigail's father suffers when he's told that Abigail is dead. A man from the Foreign Office informs him and Bellamy that Fogg is lost at sea, and Fortescue anxiously asks if Abigail is safe. The Foreign office man assures him that although a woman was also reported lost, it definitely not his daughter; the missing woman's name is Fix.
After settling things with Passpartout, Fogg tells his companions the true story of his relationship with Estella. They were supposed to get married in Paris and travel the world together, but due to Bellamy's Gaslighting he lost his nerve and left her on the boat to Dover. He's never seen her since, or the pain or shame of losing her.
Episode 7:
Abigail is horrified to learn that her father thinks she's dead after the trio were lost at sea.
Episode 8:
Fogg and Estella finally reconnect and discuss their past. They still care about each other a lot, but it's definitely too late for their relationship. Fogg cries as he considers the life they might have had, if only he'd been braver.
Estella: No, that ship has sailed. It sailed from Dover twenty years ago.
Fogg sees Passpartout and Abigail dancing, and is clearly torn up with envy at what they have together. Fogg may have reached the point where he's ready to move on from Estella, but the fact remains that he's a deeply lonely man who's now a Third Wheel among his best friends.
After everything he's been through, Fogg is prevented from winning his bet by an arrest warrant filed by Kneedling way back in Hong Kong and never cleared up.
