With Love, Meghan Episode Four: Love is in the Details

 

WITH LOVE, MEGHAN: LOVE IS IN THE DETAILS

Original Airdate: March 4, 2025

Special Guest: Delfina Figueras

Mentions of Joy: 3

Passive-Aggressive Moment: 0

Gushing Praise for Markle: "I enjoyed this morning's hike because I saw you being you, and I love that. I love when you are doing your thing, and yeah. I absolutely, I'm obsessed with that face of M". 

Here's to the ladies who lunch or rather hike and picnic. Love is in the Details, our fourth With Love, Meghan episode, is the first one to literally put me to sleep. If you thought that one wealthy woman cosplaying tradwife was bad, try having two.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is looking forward to having her dear friend Delfina Figueras drop by her rented home/studio. She has a wonderful day all planned out for her gal pal. She will make sun tea for them. She will make dog biscuits for Delfie to take back home to Argentina, where Meghan interned at the U.S. Embassy. They will go on a hike. She will teach Delfie to make focaccia, which Delfina loves. It'll be the bestest time ever.

Meghan shows us Making Take-Home Treats, mostly for the dogs. Eleven minutes into Love is in the Details, Delfina shows up. She is a very tall woman, and the two are delighted to reminisce about their polo husbands. They hike and even do what I presume was an impromptu dance along the trail. Exhausted, Meghan supplies Delfie with a premade lavender towel. Now, it is time for Meghan to show Delfina how to make focaccia. In turn, Delfina provides a little mate, an Argentine tea that Meghan fell in love with back in the day.

I have no idea who Delfina Figueras (or Blaquier, as she uses her maiden name too) is. She is listed as a "landscape architect and friend". I want to say that Mrs. Figueras is a dilletante, who goes into the kitchen setting with more curiosity than need. She is someone who was born wealthy, married wealthy and has remained wealthy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  However, her background may explain why she at times looked amazed at what was required to cook. 

In this sense, I see why Delfina and Meghan have such a mutual appreciation society. Both have servants who do the work. They themselves do not need to cook or clean or bake. They may know how to. They just do not need to do so in order to live. They can flatter themselves and each other on how much fun they are having making focaccia and cooling down with lavender towels. I just wonder if the average viewer would do likewise.

Love is in the Details (a phrase that the Duchess uses during the show) showcases the way Meghan Markle wants the world to see her. Here, she is not just instructor but mistress of the kitchen. It does not help to see how Figueras looks on with a curious fascination on learning how to make focaccia. Seeing these two wealthy women essentially cosplay as housefraus makes for dull viewing. I did not realize how close I was to literally nodding off until my phone fell onto my lap. In some ways, it was almost amusing seeing Delfina, forever gushing about Meghan as a person and a domestic doyenne. 

It is more amusing when you think that Love is in the Details keeps to Markle's view that her guests should essentially be put to work. I get that the premise of With Love, Meghan is to have the Duchess' friends over for a lesson that will be joyful. As with previous guests, however, Delfina did not look like she was enjoying herself. Rather, she looked to be there to praise Rachel Meghan Markle. I noticed that while Delfina Figueras gave perhaps the most outlandish praise to the Duchess that With Love, Meghan probably will ever have, the Duchess did not reciprocate. 

Everything surrounding both Love is in the Details and With Love, Meghan has a very odd sense of forced frivolity. The music is trying too hard to reflect some kind of relaxed atmosphere when it feels anything but. The conversation is either Meghan imparting instructions or her guest telling Meghan how great she and the activities are. Seeing these two women do a dance is a bit cringe inducing. However, more than that, it does not feel spontaneous or joyful. It feels performative.

We did get what is becoming a curious trend: the vaguely threatening comment. "It doesn't have to be perfect, but it can be a little bit more presentable", the Duchess says. I cannot remember what it was about: the sun tea, the focaccia, the lavender towels. Whatever it was meant for, it just stood out for how curious it sounded to me. 

Here, on the fourth episode, I thought to myself that With Love, Meghan would be what Meghan Markle would have done if she had not married Prince Harry. I can see her doing this show had her run in Suits ended with her not being married to a British prince. This is basically a television version of her online lifestyle The Tig website. Never having read The Tig, I can only hope that it was not as boring as Love is in the Details. 

I cannot imagine how people outside the Sussex Squad would enjoy seeing two wealthy women chatter on about nothing while gushing over one of them. Love is in the Details, but no number of lavender towels can liven up the dullness of With Love, Meghan. 

2/10