Around the World In 80 Days Episodes 7 and 8

 Episode 7

 

The companions travel across America.  In the sequence of this trip covered in the story, Fogg and company are traveling at good speed in a stagecoach, hoping to connect with a train in the next town.

The coach is stopped by a Black Sheriff Bass Reeves.  His prisoner, a southern white man seems polite at first but soon reveals himself to be a leader of a supremacist organization.  He chastises Fogg for allowing the romance between Fix and Passepartout which Fogg hasn't noticed at all.

Not far behind are the captives Civil War compatriots, who plan to kill the sheriff and set their friend free.

Reaching the town where the train will arrive soon, Fogg and his companions stand with the sheriff against the killers, almost missing their train. 

Abigail can't resist sending her father a telegram to let him know they're all alive, as they were reported lost at sea in the previous episode.

Episode 8

 

Reaching New York, somehow Fogg still has his cache of postcards calling him a coward, including one for the Grand Central station clock sent just before he left on his journey.   He stares at the clock.

Once out, he goes to the liner that will take him home, but then runs back out and to the train station.  He is waiting for a woman under the clock, explains Passepartout.  

Estella does indeed come, and the two have fine moments talking about the lives they lived without each other.  She now appears to be too practical to be whisked off to England and adventures beyond, as I hoped would happen once she was actually there.

Making his way back to the ship, Fogg is beset one last time by Kneedling, but a New York gang interrupts and wants part of the action.  Fogg and Kneedling fight the gang, not exactly together.  When Kneedling is stabbed with a knife, the gang vanishes, leaving Fogg with Kneedling who hands him a telegram saying use any means necessary to stop Fogg from getting on the ship.

In London, a final frustrating block to Fogg's progress: the warrant from Hong Kong is still seen as active in Londom and he's put in a cell till the governor of Hong Kong can be wired.

Finally released, dejected because the bet was lost as time has run out, Fogg's ancient servant tells them they gain a day as they traveled so there's time to get to the club yet.  Running through the streets, they make it right on the second the clock strikes the hour.  Bellamy tries to say there was no bet but Fogg had a check delivered to the club before he left.

Bellamy's bankruptcy is discovered and the crowd at the club chants him out the door when Fogg gives him the check.  

The episode ends with Fogg, Passepartout and Fix running down the street laughing arm in arm, on their way to find a new adventure.

For myself, I enjoyed the series over all, particularly once they stopped making Fogg the butt of every joke, an object of scorn.  That went on far too long for a show in which his character is the main one.

Once the three were on the desert island, and they were down to their basic humanity, and the friendship that had been forged was allowed to shine, the last episodes were a pleasure.