On ‘A Gentleman in Moscow,’ Ewan McGregor Looks for the Exit

The penultimate episode of A Gentleman in Moscow follows a series of events that come after Stalin’s death. It is now 1953, and Russia is on the verge of a new beginning. No one at the Metropol Hotel is celebrating, but at the same time, it doesn’t really feel like anyone is really mourning his death, either.

That is, except for the Bishop (John Heffernan), who makes the staff put on some weird funeral party for the late Soviet Union leader. Alexander (Ewan McGregor) attends as a waiter, but he can’t get his mind off Sofia (Beau Gadsdon), who is in the middle of a big piano competition. It must be hard, raising a child who goes out into the real world while you stay in the same hotel for your entire life. Poor Alex.

Luckily, it’s all smiles and good news when Sofia and Anna (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)—who has officially become Sofia’s stand-in mother—return from the competition. Sofia won! Not only that: Because she won, she now gets to join the conservatory’s tour of Europe, meaning she’ll get to go play in Paris, Prague, and Minsk. To celebrate, Sofia slides onto the piano bench at the Metropol and plunks out some Beethoven, later turning the tunes into swing-versions of his concertos. Stalin banned the blues, but hey—Stalin’s dead! Who cares?

Read more at The Daily Beast.