The episode is set in 1529 and depicts Cardinal Wolsey's falls from power. It features three extended flashbacks, each of which is introduced with a caption - "eight years earlier", "eighteen months before Wolsey's fall", "four months before Wolsey's fall". A leap forward in the main narrative after the second flashback is also captioned with "three weeks after Wolsey's fall".
However, the first extended flashback actually depicts two time periods, the second of which is not captioned. The first scenes of the flashback show Cromwell taking up a position with the Cardinal, the following scenes show him leaving his family to go meet with his employer. In the dialogue in the scene that follows Wolsey mentions that King Henry VIII and his wife Catherine have been married 18 years, indicating time has moved forward to some point in 1527/8.
However, the first extended flashback actually depicts two time periods, the second of which is not captioned. The first scenes of the flashback show Cromwell taking up a position with the Cardinal, the following scenes show him leaving his family to go meet with his employer. In the dialogue in the scene that follows Wolsey mentions that King Henry VIII and his wife Catherine have been married 18 years, indicating time has moved forward to some point in 1527/8.
Claire Foy (Anne Boleyn) & Kate Phillips (Jane Seymour) also worked together on The Crown (2016) as Queen Elizabeth II and Venetia Scott respectively.
The three card trick that Cromwell performs is often called follow the lady.