Damien Lewis' performance

Yes, I have lots of them. I took notes on that in this last rewatching of it. I don't have the time to give you all the examples now, but I will later. I'm surprised you don't remember Fleur lying or manipulating, because it was one of her most outstanding characteristics.

Okay, I have the time now to answer you properly :)

Her first lie was about Val and Holly inviting her to their farm. She lied right in front of Val to Holly, saying Val had invited her when he hadn't. She was completely shameless about it, because Val obviously knew he hadn't invited her. She then pretended to Holly she wanted to become friends with her, and that’s why she wanted to come, when it had nothing to do with her wanting to be friends, it had solely to do with her desire to see Jon again. Then she lies to Winifred, right in front of Val and Holly, saying they’d both invited her to visit the next week, despite Holly saying it wasn’t convenient that week. Holly and Val were too polite to call her on it, or deny her. Later she told the same lie to her father, saying Val had asked her to the farm. All of this was very manipulative.

Once at the farm, drinking tea with Holly, clearly having no interest in getting to know her and becoming friends, Fleur again lies and says she’s there to get to know Holly. Holly, who's not a fool, knows Fleur is lying. Again.

She asks Jon if he’s a good liar. He says no, and she’s disappointed. Then says if they want to be friends, they have to keep it a secret from their families – i.e., lie.

Not a lie on Fleur's part, but telling of her, Jolyon asked Holly what Fleur was like, after the visit to their farm, and Holly replied “A rather having sort of a person.” (I.e., a Forsyte in the manner of Soames.)

Again not a lie, but another manipulation: When Fleur comes to say goodbye to Jon at the farm, she says she’s leaving then because she told her father her trip was only for the weekend and “besides, I want to keep him sweet.”

On the train ride on the way home, when it makes a stop, she holds down the handle of their compartment when a woman and her child try to get in, because she wants to be alone with Jon. Even though the train left the station seconds later, and she undoubtedly caused the woman and child to miss it, she laughed. No one else matters to Fleur, except Fleur and that she gets what she wants, which was more time alone with Jon.

When Jon arrives home and greets Irene and Jolyon, Irene asks him about Fleur – if he saw her, what she’s like. He said oh she was so-so, acts very nervous and evasive, and naturally this worries Irene and Jolyon, knowing it wasn’t like Jon to behave that way and knowing it had something to do with Fleur and her influence on him.

When she and Soames go into town to buy clothes together, she lies to him again, saying she needed to visit her club to post something, when she was really going to meet with Jon in the park.

Shortly after this Soames confronts Fleur, saying he knows she was with Jon at Val’s farm. She lies again, telling him she hadn’t seen Jon in three weeks, or written or spoken to him, adding “Cross my heart, hope to die.”

She lied to Jolyon about who she was when she went to Robin Hill when Jon was in Europe with Irene. Later she says to Jon about this, “It [her saying who she was] didn’t come up, and when it did, it was too late” – another lie. It did in fact come up early on in the conversation, and there was nothing preventing her from saying who she was instead of lying, but, it didn't serve her interests to be honest and straightforward. Justifiably, when Jolyon later meets her as Fleur, he's angry that she lied to him about who she really was.

After Monty’s funeral Soames asks again if there’s nothing between she and Jon, and again she lies and says there isn’t.

Jolyon comes to the cottage Jon, and Fleur, were staying in, and he was quite nice to her, even apologizing for how unpleasant he was to her when the four of them had tea at Robin Hill. He confided in her that he was seriously ill, that neither Jon nor Irene knew about it, and appealed to her better nature, asking Fleur to end things with Jon, because once he died, Irene would be all alone (knowing that Soames was still obsessed with her, and would come after her -- which he did). Fleur agreed to it, although understandably reluctantly, but by the time Jon returned to the cottage, she went back on her word to Jolyon, and had concocted her plan for them to establish residency in Scotland, where they could marry without parental permission. That was an awful, and dishonest thing to do. I do, however, give her credit for telling Jon that Jolyon had not come there to check up on him, and she did attempt to get Jon to go back home and make amends with his father. Once again, no character was written without any redeeming value, including Fleur.

When she came to Jon right after his father died, she asked him “Is it very awful?” that was the second sentence she said. When he replied “Pretty bad,” her very next thing she said was that the suitcases were still in Scotland, and the trains run every day. His father had JUST died and all she can think about it what she wants: to get married ASAP to Jon, she didn’t care about his grief. What a horribly selfish, insensitive creature, and Jon realized it in the moment, but was all too soon seduced by her and allowed himself to be manipulated by her.

After Soames comes to Robin Hill to try to plead Fleur’s case, and Fleur came to the back of the house, Irene approached her and very gently told her to “Go home with your father, my dear, give us all some time to think.” But what does Fleur do? She berates Irene, told her “Don’t touch me!” accused her of pretending to make herself look nice and lying so Irene could “have him all to herself," even though that was far from the case. She then spat at Irene “He’s mine, you understand? Mine!” Never mind Irene had said several times the decision was Jon’s, and had apologized to him for keeping him away from Fleur. What a b!tch!

Then she turns on Soames, when he comes and tries to comfort her! She hits him, pushes him, and yells at him, both outside the house and in the carriage. Soames had done nothing but coddle and try to please Fleur, even at his own expense. When she asked him to intervene and plead her case with Irene, he told her it would only "stir things up," and as we know, that's exactly what it did. But, selfishly, she insisted he do it anyway, regardless of his feelings, to which he replied to her "You don't really care about me!" And it's true, she didn't. She cared only about what she wanted, no matter what the cost to anyone else, including her own father.

After that, she won't even speak to him, and treats him abominably, right up to the wedding with Michael Mont. Soames asks Annette why she treats him this way. She says "This boy, Jon Forsyte, he’s hurt her. She’s angry." He responds "Why with me?" Annette replies, accurately and with some compassion "Because she can."

Fleur's final lie was to Michael Mont. He didn’t want to marry her unless she was through with her feelings for Jon, and loved him (Mont). He specifically asks her if she loves him, and if she didn’t, said they should call it off. “Face to face, can you tell me you love me?” She lied, deceiving him.

Michael Mont was the most likable and honorable character in the series. His only real flaw was wanting Fleur and not being able to see the kind of person Fleur really was, which was a lying and manipulative b!tch. He deserved much better than Fleur, who'd flirted with him (the scene in the boat after the train ride home with Jon, splashing water at him), whom he made laugh and she obviously liked him, and whom she deceived.

Fleur was beautiful, and had a certain appealing joie de vivre, but beyond that, she was overall a lying and manipulative person, lacking integrity and character. And so, I have a hard time sympathizing with her.