- "Well... that is a very spirited young lady!"
- ―Winston Churchill[src]
Vicky Prentiss was a young British woman who worked as a bus fare collector in London and wrote articles on behalf of the women's suffrage movement. She was the daughter of Peregrine Prentiss and Mrs. Prentiss. In 1916, she and Indiana Jones fell in love.
Biography
In 1916, Prentiss was working in London as a ticket collector. In May of that year, she encountered Indiana Jones—who did not pay special attention to her because she was collecting tickets on the bus where Jones was already trying to seduce a young war widow, whom Prentiss had given a pro-suffrage flyer. After being rejected by the first girl, Jones continued the bus ride along until the bus was forced to stop due to the upcoming attack of a German zeppelin—something Jones had not seen up to that point and did not fear at the start as a result. Prentiss tried to save his life by moving away from the gasoline-filled bus to a supposed safer place, which ended up being nearer to a zeppelin bomb hit. As they were knocked down by the bomb explosion, they shared a close moment and he noticed her beauty. However, she refused to meet him again, and after the bus resumed service, he got off at Paddington Station.
Later that evening, Jones, using the flyer, went to the meeting of the East London Suffrage Movement keynoted by Sylvia Pankhurst, and found a seat behind Prentiss. Initially irritated by his presence, she re-evaluated her opinion of him after he caused a male heckler to shut up, and helped give a nervous Maisie Kemp the courage to continue. After the meeting, she accepted Jones' invitation to get tea, where they realized that they had both traveled extensively as children, she as the daughter of a diplomat, and he as the son of a world-traveling lecturer. As they walked in the park after the tea, they encountered a single mother forced onto the streets with her children. Prentiss was impressed by Jones' compassion in arranging for the children to get a bite to eat and ability to provide help to the woman in making her rent to avoid eviction without her feeling like she had accepted charity. Reaching her home, Jones asked to see her again, and she agreed to take a trip with him the next day to Oxford, after she got off of work.
Arriving by train at Oxford, they stayed with Miss Seymour, Jones' former tutor. Prentiss felt a little out of place with her beau's submissiveness to the older woman, who had also known Prentiss' father. Prentiss and Seymour verbally sparred over the issue of women's suffrage - Seymour was sympathetic to the cause, except for the drastic measures that had been used to bring attention to the cause. Despite feeling like she had insulted her host, Prentiss was relieved to find out from Jones that Miss Seymour liked her and had invited them to accompany her as guests at a dinner party with Winston Churchill.
At the dinner party, when Churchill discussed the issue of allowing the military men abroad to vote, Prentiss brought up the issue of women's right to vote. Jones kept trying to change the subject, but Churchill and Prentiss argued, and she ended the dialogue by accidentally launching part of her dessert - a trifle at the guest of honor, which landed on his head. Embarrassed, she fled from the dinner party. The next morning, she apologized to Seymour, and explained why she felt so strongly about women's suffrage - her mother, an early suffragrist, had been made disabled after being forcibly fed during a prison hunger strike. Seymour felt that if she had been in Vicky's place, she would have done the same thing at dinner, even the dessert mishap.
Realizing that she could use a vacation, Prentiss contacted her work and took a bit of an extra holiday, and took Jones to meet her parents. They also bicycled around the countryside around Oxford, where their romance continued to bloom, and they professed their love for each other.
Back in London, Prentiss submitted an article for the suffrage movement's periodical, and Jones suggested the title "Deeds, Not Words" - a quote from the speech by Pankhurst that he had heard. Jones informed her that he and Remy Baudouin had received their orders for the Belgian army, and he was heading out the next day. Prentiss went to a fancy dinner with Jones, and after dinner, she correctly guessed that Jones was about to propose marriage. She tried to head him off, saying that she wasn't ready for marriage, as she felt that as a woman, she could not accomplish the things she wanted to do in life if she were married. Rejected, Jones left the restaurant. The next morning, Prentiss showed up at the train station, unsure whether to see Jones off to war. Jones caught sight of her and called to her, and she turned to gaze at her love one last time before he rushed onto the train.[1]
Vicky and Indy are reunited in the 1990's.
Though Jones lost all contact with Prentiss, she remained on his mind, and he mentioned her several times to others over the years.[2][3][4]
In 1992, Jones overheard Prentiss talking at a New York restaurant where he and his financial advisor Bob Traynor were eating. Although he didn't recognize the voice to be hers, it reminded him of his experiences with her, and he told the story to Traynor, and showed him the ticket from that initial bus ride when they met. However, after he finished his story, Prentiss, using the phrase "Deeds, Not Words", walked past Indy's table, and he then recognized her. The two were then reunited and embraced warmly.[1]
Personality and traits
In her youth, Vicky Prentiss, her sibling(s) and mother traveled with her father, a diplomat, to a number of countries. Her father would then speak to her in each country's respective language. As a result, she developed great skills in learning languages; By 1916, she spoke (in addition to her native English) fluent French, German, Italian, Hungarian, Greek, Swedish, Arabic and Welsh. When she met Indiana Jones, the two were impressed by how similar their upbringings had been.[1]
Behind the scenes
The character originally appeared in the episode "London, May 1916" from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. In a rare appearance by a character other than Indy in both the main body and bookends of an episode, Elizabeth Hurley portrayed the youthful Vicky of 1916, and Jane Wyatt portrayed the much older Vicky of 1992. When the episode was subsequently reedited into the second half of Love's Sweet Song, the bookends were removed (as were most of the show's other bookends), thus completely removing not only George Hall's portrayal of the older Indy, but Jane Wyatt's portrayal of the older Vicky as well.
Appearances
- The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "London, May 1916" (First appearance) → Love's Sweet Song
- The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Paris, October 1916" → Demons of Deception (Mentioned only)
- The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones – Tales of Innocence (Mentioned only)
- The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Istanbul, September 1918" (Mentioned only) → Masks of Evil