One neat thing about season one of Mirror Mirror is that it never really falls into the "idiot plot" trap. None of the characters, particularly the villains, are actually stupid (except maybe Dennis Coigley, but he's not a character who drives the plot forward so he doesn't count), even when they make wrong choices or simply choices that end up getting foiled  anyway. This is something I wish season 2 had continued because it makes the story more interesting. 

Sir Ivor especially got to be shown as genuinely intelligent. His scheme, if Jo and Louisa hadn't gotten involved, not only COULD have worked out exactly how he planned it but still *would* have despite the girls getting involved because of what he set up in episode 6. 

Telling Nicholas to go downstairs and inform the girls they weren't allowed to visit him anymore because he needed to focus on his studies was actually *genius*. Diabolically so. Because it didn't just get rid of Louisa and Jo coming to see him *at that moment*, it also provided Sir Ivor with an excuse if anyone ever asked where Nicholas was. 

Remember, Joshua Iredale hadn't been poisoned yet, so if Nicholas got to him through Louisa and told him who he was Ivor could have been in big trouble. But if Louisa (who didn't know who Nicholas was at this point either) went to her father because her friend next door went missing and he insisted on Sir Ivor showing him the kid was, you know, still *alive*, he could easily say he sent his ward to school and it would line up with what he had Nicholas tell the girls. 

Despite Sir Ivor making a big speech about how he was sending him back to Russia with the Bolsheviks because he kept trying to escape (end of Episode 16), it's pretty obvious he was actually planning on doing that *anyway* (unless he got a better offer, obviously). It's not a short trip by boat from Russia to New Zealand and it's difficult to imagine him telling two revolutionaries who travelled for weeks with a suitcase full of money "You know what, guys? Because he's been sitting in his room and not giving me any trouble, I'm not going to sell him to you, no hard feelings, can you direct me towards a buyer that won't kill him?"

Clearly he was paving the way to cover what he was going to do from the beginning, as early as episode 6. 

I can't imagine Aunt Lily from season 2 ever hatching a scheme like this. And I think that's a big part of why she doesn't feel like a huge threat to the kids in her season the way Sir Ivor does in season 1. 

What Sir Ivor tried to do in episode 6 was actually really smart