Short and sad, but the happy conclusion is coming up next!
Being reminded of Darcy did hurt, way more than Lizzie could have expected. Two weeks since she left Pemberley, then three, then over a month without any contact. No word from him, but there was no forgetting him. Everything reminded her of him. She was writing up a report about his company, for goodness sake. Pemberley permeated her every thought, and Darcy basically was Pemberley.
During that first harrowing week after she came home, there was no place for something as frivolous as costume theater. After that, she was too moody to be playful. Eventually she tried a little impersonation of her mother's antics, but Jane clearly didn't enjoy it. To be honest Lizzie didn't really have her heart in it either. When Caroline burst in on her during another impersonation, Lizzie was just trying to distract herself from the very things Caroline then brought up with brutal bluntness.
Now she was all alone, and totally in the dark about why Darcy had done the things he'd done or what he thought of her. Now, costume theater seemed less a silly distraction and more the only way to keep a hold on her sanity.
She couldn't repress a sad little smile when she pulled Jane's flower off the newsie cap. It was pathetic, really, thinking of how he was the last person to wear this. As if objects had any value invested in them from the people who touched them. It got even worse when she reattached the flower to play Gigi's part. She was practically caressing it now, thinking of him and that long-suffering sidelong look he had given her when he put the cap on his head. She was going to have to edit out a lot of wistful, longing moments when she cut this episode together.
After she made that painfully awkward phone call and shut off the camera, she put away her phone and just sat there, staring morosely into the distance. Somehow the newsie cap ended up in her hands again, and she clutched it like a lifeline.