Summary
After Molly has fallen asleep, Tilly tells Teddy that she moved away to Melbourne to boarding school, then London, then Spain, Milan, and Paris. After Tilly says that the town hates her and her mother, Teddy talks about the fact that the townspeople tried to send away his brother Barney, who is developmentally disabled. Tilly tells him that she used to watch him as a child, looking through a telescope. "I'll look after you, if you want me to," Teddy says to Tilly, but she leaves the room to put her mother to bed.
A woman comes to visit Tilly and asks her for some daywear. She is followed by Gertrude's mother, who requests some lingerie.
Later, we see a woman, Una Pleasance, arriving in Dungatar. She looks around at the women, all dressed in beautiful dresses, before going to Tilly's to commission her. There, she tells Tilly that she's a dressmaker and seamstress and that she was invited to town by Mr. Pettyman to compete with Tilly, as an act of revenge.
Teddy brings Tilly some flowers, as Farrat reads an article about the arrival of Una Pleasance. Teddy tells Tilly that her talent is wasted in Dungatar, before telling her that they ought to run away together and kissing her neck. That night, she goes to his trailer and tells him that she cannot be with him because she is cursed.
Gertrude gets fitted for a wedding dress for her wedding to William. She does not like Una's design, which is frilly and over-the-top. William arrives, but Gertrude resists showing him the dress, climbing out the window and running away. She runs straight to the general store and tries to hide from William, before running off to Tilly. Una arrives at Tilly's a few moments later and asks to see Gertrude, but Tilly tells her it's bad luck for the groom to see the bride before her wedding day.
Suddenly, Gertrude emerges in one of Tilly's dresses, which impresses William very much. "I've decided to go back to Tilly," Gertrude says to Una. Later, William visits Teddy and asks him to be his best man. Teddy reluctantly agrees, as William's mother bemoans the "commoners" that her son is friends with from the car.
At Molly's house, Teddy gets fitted for a suit. Molly wants him to strip, as Tilly has all her clients do, but Tilly is reluctant. Teddy takes off his clothes, much to the shock of Tilly and Molly, and Tilly begins to measure him. "I don't believe in curses," Teddy says, referring to the fact that Tilly told him she was cursed. He asks Tilly to make herself a dress to come to the wedding with him, even though she thinks it will cause people to gossip, but he won't take no for an answer. They kiss, as Molly drinks Teddy's whiskey.
Una bemoans the fact that Gertrude's wedding has ruined her business, as Mr. Pettyman tries to comfort her, seducing her in the process. Mrs. Pettyman spies them from the window and comes back inside, suspiciously. She tells Pettyman that she's going to Tilly for a dress for Gertrude's wedding. As Tilly measures her, Mrs. Pettyman tells Tilly that her son Stewart fell out of a tree and died. She confides that she is traumatized by the loss of her child, before noticing the record sleeve for South Pacific on the chair and putting the record on.
Tilly shows Mrs. Pettyman a sketch for a dress, which she loves. Mrs. Pettyman then tells Tilly that Beulah Harridene was there when Stewart died, and saw the whole thing. Tilly rushes to Farrat and asks to see Harridene's witness statement from the day of Stewart's death, offering him a feathery dress in exchange.
Analysis
In their private moments on the date, Tilly confides in Teddy that she and her mother share more than a love of dressmaking. They also share the fact that the town has always maligned them, Tilly for the death of Stewart, and Molly for no crime other than the perception that she is sexually loose. In spite of all of the friction in Molly and Tilly's relationship, they share both talent and tragedy, the fact that the small town cannot accept them. The film examines the prejudices that emerge in rural communities, and the fact that anyone who is perceived as different is seen as a threat.
Tilly is closed to the affection that Teddy shows her, even though she enjoys his company. When he alludes to the fact that he wants to be with her and take care of her, she hastily leaves the room, unable to accept his show of affection. Even as Tilly begins to warm to certain elements of being in Dungatar, she remains suspicious and careful about whom she trusts and how intimate she allows herself to become with others. Her past continues to haunt her and create barriers to her moving forward in the present.
The ambiguity of the past is not the only obstacle with which Tilly must contend in the film. Additionally, various characters strike back against her for returning to Dungatar and having success as a dressmaker. Soon after the various women in the town begin commissioning her work, Mr. Pettiman hires Una Pleasance to come and compete with her as a rival dressmaker. The townspeople who do not approve of Tilly put up a fight, trying to intimidate her and get her to leave. The arrival of Una Pleasance only makes Tilly's life more complicated, as she tries to reconcile herself to her own past.
Una Pleasance turns out to be less of a threat than it seemed, when Gertrude Pratt winds up asking for Tilly's design for her wedding dress over Una's. There is hardly any struggle between the two designers. Tilly is the superior dressmaker because she makes dresses that make the women who wear them feel good. While Una's designs are over-the-top and unflattering, Tilly makes dresses that transform the wearer. This is Tilly's talent, her knack for transformation and for helping others transform themselves. In this sense, Una is no match for her.
Tilly learns yet more about the death of Stewart Pettyman when she is visited by Mrs. Pettyman herself, who is angered by the affair between her husband and Una. The fragile mother of the boy who died 25 years ago confides to Tilly that she feels permanently damaged by the loss of her son, venting her frustration with her husband, and revealing that the schoolteacher, Mrs. Harridene, was present at the moment of Stewart's death. This gives Tilly more information to go on, and she goes in search of more answers about the death for which she has always taken the blame.
