'Genius' Season 1 Episode 5: What Is the Price of Einstein's Academic Aspirations?
Nobel-winning physicist Albert Einstein may have long been regarded as the very definition of genius, but his personal life and romantic dealings were far from being stellar. Will finally achieving his dreams also mean the deterioration of his family life?
According to the official synopsis for the upcoming fifth episode, it just might. As he begins to experience the academic life he has long been striving for, he also starts to falter in the fulfillment of his familial responsibilities. What will this mean to his relationship with his wife Mileva (Samantha Colley), especially after he failed to afford her the recognition she deserved for helping him write his academic papers in the previous episode?
Episode 4 saw the young Albert (Johnny Flynn) struggling to gain recognition from his peers while he tried to keep up with his job as a third-class patent clerk. His wife, provided him not only encouragement and support but also an able mind with which to exchange and build on ideas that would eventually lead to Albert's general theory of relativity.
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This fourth paper — which is about how time is not absolute — finally got Albert recognized by one of his time's leading physicists, Max Planck.
But things at home have not been going so well. On top of seemingly neglecting Mileva's contributions to his papers, his wife has also failed to see eye to eye with his mother, Pauline (Claire Rushbrook), who believed that a wife's duty was to tend to the house and her son, and not to try and match her husband's intellectual pursuits.
All of these triggers should build up into more serious issues as Albert gains academic recognition, and Mileva is left tending to their home with no means of pursuing her own intellectual aspirations. And with Albert's imminent reintroduction to his first cousin, Elsa (Emily Watson), who would also become his second wife, is the unfortunate end of Einstein's first marriage just around the corner?
"Genius" season 1 episode 5 airs on Tuesday, May 23, at 9 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel.
