If there’s one thing characters in a Regency romance are going to do, it’s dance at a ball. Mary Bennet (Ella Bruccoleri) gets to attend her first real London ball on this week’s all-new episode of The Other Bennet Sister on BritBox. Unlike the balls Mary attended back home in Meryton, here, she has multiple admirers asking her for a dance.

Early on in The Other Bennet Sister Episode 5, Mary attends a ball and Ann Baxter (Varada Sethu) insists that Tom Hayward (Dónal Finn) dance with her friend. Because Ann and Tom have a long standing understanding that they will eventually get engaged, Miss Baxter has no clue that Miss Bennet might secretly have been crushing on Mr. Hayward. The dance that follows is adorable because Tom is perhaps even more awkward on the dance floor. His shoes are squeaking on the hardwood and he’s counting the steps under his breath.

Later, though, William Ryder (Laurie Davidson) asks Mary to dance and the two begin to leap and laugh at how ridiculous the overly formal and unnatural dance is. Soon everyone at the ball is watching the pair happily flaunting convention in the cause of having fun.

When the stars of The Other Bennet Sister — Dónal Finn and Laurie Davidson — stopped by DECIDER HQ a few weeks back, they explained how the two dueling dances are both about “connection, but in a different way.”

“I think it is a good moment actually in the show of highlighting how different and yet appealing these people can be to to Mary and her personality,” Finn said. “The counting the steps is just simply there to show that this is something that Tom is not nearly as ease-full about in society than Ryder is. And I think that lack of ease can make you feel like he is more like Mary.”

“The dance with Hayward is just about two people really kind of finding kindred spirits and connecting,” Davidson said.

Nevertheless, both actors also argued that Mary’s very different dance with Ryder was equally important for what it provided the heroine.

Finn explained that Mary and Ryder’s dance is “great” because “there’s a kind of a liberty and freedom to their expression.” 

“Yeah, it’s really interesting. I think that in the dance between Ryder and Mary, he almost brings her out of her shell,” Davidson said. “It’s a nice kind of experience for her to kind of be outside of herself in that sense.”

So who will Mary Bennet wind up with? A kindred spirit or a liberating force? You’ll have to keep watching The Other Bennet Sister to find out…

New episodes of The Other Bennet Sister come out on Wednesdays on BritBox.