> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Fug the Show: Downton Abbey Recap, Episode 608 - URL: https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io/downton-abbey-recap-episode-608/ - Published: 2016-02-22T17:00:02.000Z - Updated: 2016-02-22T23:21:56.000Z - Author: Jessica - Tags: #wp, #wp-gallery, #slideshow, #Import 2026-10-07 07:46 ## Downton Secrets ![downton abbey recaps](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bf/b9/bfb99790-924d-4e41-a7e6-5e3c6e04fe57/content/images/static-gofugyourself-com/uploads/2016/02/img_2211.jpg) Edith's frock is glorious as she and Cora walk around Downton's perfect grounds and discuss the fact that Edith still hasn't accepted Bertie Pelham's proposal. Oh, Bertie, you utterly wonderful human; I love you. That actor, Harry Hadden-Paton (he's v. posh; went to Eton w. Wills and the whole thing) has the most wonderfully kind face. I am just really invested in this working out, okay? Edith has earned this. A HUGE TOOTHED OLD MAN LEFT HER AT THE ALTAR. Unsurprisingly, Cora is the first of many people in this episode to be like OH MY GOD EDITH YOU HAVE TO TELL HIM ABOUT MARIGOLD!!!!! but Edith is, simply put, scared to ruin one of the only good things that has ever happened to her in her entire miserable life. But, Edith. You HAVE to tell him. Please tell him. He's so nice. TELL HIM, EDITH. ## Best Little Whorehouse in Downton ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2212.jpg) This plot with Mrs Patmore falls under the topic of Amusing To Watch, Boring to Recap, and thus I shall sum up, because this recap is already WAY LONG: As predicted by some of you, Mrs P's B&B has been frequented by people who are married....to people other than the person with whom they are frequenting said B&B. Mrs Patmore may have to testify in court about these affairs -- ultimately she doesn't; and, parenthetically, don't we think our friendly local policeman here is really like, "GET A GRIP, DOWNTONITES" given all their many many many many run-ins with the law? -- but, more than that, it's now rumored that her B&B is "a house of ill-repute," which the rest of the house finds HILARIOUS. (Except Carson, who is a total pill this entire episode, more or less.) This PR nightmare is solved when Lord and Lady G, and Rosamund, go very publicly for tea and lend Mrs P their highly respectable support, to the dismay of Carson, who Lord G literally has to scold for being cowardly and unkind. ## Downton Repeat Offenders ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2213.jpg) "You're not here for me again, right? Great." ## Downton Off Screen Convenient Deaths ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2219.jpg) In other highly dramatic news, Mary looks FANTASTIC in this red coat, and she and Tom discover via the newspaper that Bertie Pelham's cousin, the Marquess of Hexham, who was always off being gay (I assume) and wonderful in Tangiers has died there, of malaria. Mary is all, "Ooooh, poor Edith, now her lame boyfriend is unemployed!" and Tom has to tell her to cram it -- for the first but by far not the last time this week. ## Downton Dating? ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2221.jpg) Dickie Merton is making me nuts. HE'S the lord of the manor and yet his children and their betrothed run roughshod all over him, all the time. He didn't even know Crookshacks had invited Isobel to her wedding to Larry The Terrible! He perks that he thinks this is "a good sign," because he doesn't know that Crookshanks wants Isobel to be his nursemaid in later years and is using his love for her as a way to get him out of his own lovely house. "She's a kind and gentle soul," he insists. "IS SHE?" Isobel wonders, so pointedly, that any other person would be like, "...why? What have you heard?" I think Dickie Merton, although very handsome and rich and jaunty, might be a little bit dumb. ## Downton Chortles ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2222.jpg) Mary's laughing now -- at the idea that Mrs Patmore is the unwitting proprietor of a suspected no-tell motel -- but she should enjoy it while it lasts, because this episode is about to take her on an emotional ride. You know how pride goeth before a fall? Six seasons of pride are about to kick Mary's chair out from under her. Also: shoutout to the moment in this scene where Mary tries to remind Anna about the time they all went shooting, and Mary met Henry and Edith met Bertie, and poor Anna uses the phrase "otherwise detained" to remind Mary that SHE WAS IN JAIL THEN, REMEMBER? ## Downton Heirs ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2229.jpg) Sooooo, guess who's NOT unemployed but is now in fact the Marquess of Hexton himself? BERTIE FREAKING PELHAM. You can imagine the jealous dismay on Mary's face when she finds out that, if the wedding goes through, Edith will outrank her. BY A LOT. (The "you have got to be effing with me" look on Michelle Dockery's face is perfection; she is also so wonderfully nasty when she notes to a disapproving Cora that Bertie won't want to marry Edith now. Cora really should have clapped her upside the head). It's seriously the best news Lord G has ever heard -- he does everything but jump up and down with clappy hands. "GOLLY GUMDROPS! What a turn-up!" he says. The possibility that Edith may pull her shit together better than any of them, at the end, is the greatest thing that's ever happened to him. But later, Edith worries to Rosamund that Bertie's popping by Downton on his way to Tangiers to break up with her. While Rosamund doubts this, she impresses upon Edith MIGHTILY that she MUST tell him about Marigold, or live to regret it. "With my luck, I'll regret it either way," Edith sad-sacks in classic Poor Edith fashion. EDITH. YOU HAVE TO TELL HIM. ## Downton Gossip ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2236.jpg) Robert remains DELIGHTED about the Bertie Pelham Promotion -- and I'd like to take a moment to thank *Downton* for teaching me how to properly say "Marquess," which is one of those words I feel like I've only ever seen written. (I knew it wouldn't be like the French "marquise," but my guess was it was more like "Marcus," the name. It's actually just like it's spelled.) "For poor old Edith, who couldn't make her dolls do what she wanted, it's rather wonderful," Robert tells Cora, who is very concerned about jinxing the entire thing, especially given The Marigold Secret. TELL HIM, EDITH. YOU ARE STRESSING ME OUT. ## Downton Walks ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2238.jpg) HIDEOUS! So, Tom and Mary have a LOT of convos about her love life in this episode, and while I think these scenes are a little repetitive at this point -- and we're relying on Branson telling us that Mary's mad for Henry and he's perfect for her, rather than seeing it -- Michelle Dockery and Allen Leech are really, really good together. I totally buy that they love and trust each other in a platonic way, and also that Tom is one of the few people who really tells Mary the truth. Here, the conversation is rather intense: Mary tells Tom that she's sure if she and Matthew had been married long enough, the fire would have burned out, and Tom basically tells her that's bullshit. He also scoffs beautifully when she pulls that old "but we're from different worlds" chestnut vis a vis Henry. She does, I think, hit the nail on the head when she tells Branson that, the second time around, you know how much you have at stake if you get it wrong -- she's emotionally petrified. And by the end of their walk, emotions are running so high that Mary basically gets Branson to actually admit-without-admitting-it that Marigold is Edith's daughter. And that's when the icy hand of dread crept into my bosom and took hold of my heart. ## Downton Bertie ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2245.jpg) Edith is wearing the most perfectly bonkers '20s coat. She and Bertie very nearly interrupt an argument between Rosamund, Cora, and Robert about whether Edith owes Bertie the truth. (SHE DOES.) This also sounds repetitive, but it's actually a very pointed and emotional conversation about a whole lot of things (including how bitchy Robert can be to Rosamund about her being childless). This episode, at long last, felt like things were HAPPENING on screen, with all sorts of great terrible convos where everyone is twisting the knife a bit. Additionally, poor Bertie is REALLY sad about Cousin Peter's death, and we get the impression is that his mother is a bit of a terror. Bertie Pelham is one of those people that I just want to hug. Rosamund clearly agrees, since she's like "HOW CAN YOU NOT TELL THAT MAN THE TRUTH?" ## Downton Thomas ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2251.jpg) In downstairs news: Thomas does not get a job, and Carson continues to be more grumbling and irritable and unmoving than ever. (Later, Mrs Hughes calls him "an old curmudgeon," but "HER old curmudgeon," and kisses him, but, honestly, he really needs a talking to. I love Carson -- Jim Carter has the most perfectly sonorous voice and I adore him -- but he's been VERY AGGRAVATING and unsympathetic and more uptight than usual lately.) ## Downton Dining: Always a Fiasco ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2253.jpg) I spend this entire tea time terrified that Mary was going to tell Bertie Pelham The Truth About Marigold. She doesn't...not yet. NOT YET. However, she spends this entire meal staring at him like this -- which is, honestly, so funny and plotty and ragey -- and then demands to know if he's here to "settle things with Edith" before he goes to Tangiers, which of course STRIKES FEAR in the heart of Edith, but which Bertie handles with his usual kindness. (His answer is that he hopes so.) If this works out for Edith and Bertie, I fear for his sweet demeanor suffering under years of heinous Downton meals. ## Downton Parasols ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2260.jpg) Edith looks lovely in this color, as she tells Bertie that he's quite free to marry someone else if he wants to, and he sweetly tells her that he doesn't want to be let off the hook, and, in fact, that he needs her to help him be the kind of Marquess he wants to be -- someone who helps people, and does good, and bears up under press and public scrutiny. He points out that, in fact, now this match makes more sense than ever. He REALLY wants to marry her. He loves her. EDITH! YOU HAVE TO TELL HIM. Edith does not tell him. ## Downton Darling ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2261.jpg) Because Branson and Bertie are perfect and lovely, they perform a Punch & Judy show for the kids. This doesn't really move the plot along, but it was too charming to resist including. ## Downton Pop-In ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2264.jpg) Henry Talbot has a manner of just popping up places, doesn't he? Here, he claims he was doing "various car things" nearby, but OBVIOUSLY Tom invited him, and Mary is REALLY ANNOYED by this turn of events. Which, to my mind, is fair: She DID break up with him, after all. (I sort of wish Tom had just said, "I LIKE HANGING OUT WITH HIM, MARY, OKAY?" Let Tom's bromance flourish even as your love has died!) ## Downton Fights ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2267.jpg) In fact, Mary and Tom go on to have a fight about his inviting Henry, and then Mary and Henry have a fight about Henry showing up, the gist of which is him basically saying, "CAN'T YOU TELL WE'RE IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER" and "I'M GOING TO MAKE IT VERY HARD FOR YOU TO GET RID OF ME" and all sorts of other things that are dreamy if you actually ARE desperately in love with the man and can't be with him for Reasons, and semi-creepy if you're not. I think I am sort of getting what Fellowes is getting at with these two, however: They're equally FEISTY and both prone to sort of bratty foot-stomping couched in a icy British reserve. (And similarly extremely good-looking.) ## Downton Despair ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2271.jpg) Mary looks AMAZING in this black sequined dress as she storms into yet another convo about whether Edith Should Tell (YES) to yell at her mother for inviting Henry Talbot to stay for dinner/the night. (Cora's reasonable response is that she could hardly ask him to "pitch a tent under a tree," and I'm sure there's some sort of dirty pitch-a-tent joke in there that I can't quite get to.) Lord G is like, "HE'S OBVIOUSLY IN LOVE WITH YOUUUUUU" -- Robert is such a gossip now -- and once Mary storms back out, he and Cora and Rosamund agree that she and Henry are madly in love with each other. If you say so! People keep saying it, so it must be true! I think I've cracked the issue with this plot, though: There is basically no conflict between these characters. He's a gentleman, single, and HOT, and loves her. So Fellowes has had to sort of conjure roadblocks out of thin air. First, it's the driving -- which is totally fair, but which also cropped up later in the story than made sense -- and now it's that Mary Is Scared To Really Love Again And Has Loads Of Psychological Issues, which ALSO makes sense but needed a longer build up. I argue that it all comes together quite well in this episode, but boy did he pull that out of the fire at the last minute. Julian Fellows, you wrote your way out. ## Downton Dreamboat ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2275.jpg) God, but he's handsome. I want to rub my hands all over...but anyway. Ahem. At dinner, we learn that (a) Bertie is flying to Tangiers, which horrifies everyone, and if he dies all *The English Patient* in this, I SHALL RAGE, (b) Henry and everyone thinks Bertie is lovely, because he is, (c) Mary is in A TIZZY about a variety of things, including Tom shaming her because he thinks she's not into Henry because Henry's insufficiently rich. She storms out of the drawing room, and Henry gives chase. "I think we love each other very much," he says. "For some reason, you're fighting it. I'm not." Maybe she's scared that her KILLER VAGINA will TAKE YOU TOO. (One of you pointed out last week that Gillingham is still alive, AS FAR AS WE KNOW. You guys, he may be dead *inside* now.) Henry also wonders if maybe Mary doesn't want to marry him because he's too poor. "Aren't you better than that? It just seems that not marrying a man due to lack of money is as bad as marrying him because of it." At this, Mary (rightly) tells him that he's got a nerve, and she storms off as he yells angrily after her. So much storming in this episode! No one just enters a room. Also: I feel like a marriage between these two is going to involved a lot of crockery tossed at people's heads. ## Downton TELL HIM DEAR GOD ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2283.jpg) In which Edith doesn't TECHNICALLY accept Bertie's proposal but he takes her "no comment" as a yes and she doesn't tell him about Marigold. EDITH, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING. LOOK AT YOUR LIFE. LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES! Tell this supremely kind rich titled man the truth!! This scene was, I thought, really good -- Laura Carmichael is really underrated. Edith is clearly so torn. She wants to accept Bertie, but she knows she has to tell him the truth, but she CAN'T tell him the truth, so she just lets the cards fall as they may when she tells him that she loves him and he decides to take it as a yes. OH EDITH. ## Downton Vests of Evil ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2285.jpg) And then Hurricane See You Next Tea Time rolls into breakfast the next morning and YOU KNOW WHAT SHE DID. She did the "good for you for being so understanding about Marigold being the baby that Edith had out of wedlock with a married newspaperman who had a crazy wife in an attic, on whom no one has checked IN YEARS! YOU'RE A HERO, BERTIE. Remind me to tell you about the time she told everyone in the world that a super hot Turkish dude died after boning me." And, lo, I was SO ENRAGED WITH HER, even though I think we all knew this was coming. The show did an excellent job of getting Mary to a lunatic emotional state and primed to lash out, and then having her do it as soon as Edith pulls the plug on the grenade, both by noting that Mary can't stand it when Edith is happy, and by saying that Mary's "lost her man" and "been abandoned" by Henry. Mary is DEEPLY DEEPLY wrong, but Edith also played her TERRIBLY and lit that fuse (in part because she didn't know that Mary knew). I shall always admire *Downton* for having the balls to make its heroine kind of a raging bitch who occasionally is just UTTERLY AWFUL to people. I love Mary but I wanted to fling myself across that breakfast table and kill her with the grapefruit spoon myself. And when she drops the bomb -- or, to be accurate, forces Edith to drop it -- Bertie (politely) excuses himself, and Tom gives Mary the most disappointed look I've ever seen on his face. It's not even about this hideous vest. It's totally about her behavior. ## Downton In Over Her Head ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2291.jpg) While shit is getting real at Downton, Isobel pops over to see Crookshanks and finish what Violet has started. I love that part of the moral of this storyline is, "don't underestimate older women, because they will VERBALLY CUT YOU." Crookshanks has NO IDEA what she's doing with either Violet OR Isobel. "I won't rekindle Lord Merton's dreams until I'm invited to do so by Larry \[The Worst\] himself," Isobel tells her very calmly. "Is that clear?" Crookshanks's phony smile is getting tighter and tighter, and I can't wait until she ends up in the Downton well somehow. ## Downton Heartbreak ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2293.jpg) This is HEARTBREAKING. Bertie essentially tells Edith that he would have gotten over the Marigold thing, but he can't get over the fact that she didn't trust him enough to tell him the truth. "Would you have married me in a lie?" he asks. "I don't think so. But we'll never know now," Edith says. "No," he says. And Bertie is SO BROKEN UP ABOUT IT, but he still he leaves, agreeing with her that it's unlikely they'll ever meet again (leaving aside the fact that he's posh now and she's posh and they might be at the same posh parties, but whatever. I FELT YOU, BERTIE. You'll never meet again *emotionally*). It just breaks my heart. EDITH. I TOLD YOU! YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD HIM. PS: Nice weather you're having. ## Downton FIGHTS ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2296-1.jpg) So, that scene was tremendously enjoyable (in an angsty way) and SO IS THIS ONE. Because Tom rips several strips off Mary, and oooooh, is it good. He is just disgusted with her, and she's disgusted with herself but also totally defensive. "Don't lie!" Tom yells at her when she bullshits that she was sure Edith had told Bertie. "Not to me! You can't stop ruining things! For Edith, for yourself. You'd pull in the sky if you could!" Mary snaps that Henry was an ass to her when he visited, and she can't be expected to lower herself to that level, and Tom basically tells her that SHE IS AN ASS ALREADY, WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS FOOLING? "You RUINED Edith's life today. How many lives are you going to wreck, just to smother your own misery?" he yells at her. I LOVE IT when Branson gives people a piece of his mind. They ALWAYS deserve it. "You're a coward, Mary," he finally tells her. "Like all bullies, you're a coward." And then he (also) storms out, and her face is like, "Shit. He kinda has a point." ## Downton More Fights! ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2300.jpg) And THAT fight is followed by ANOTHER great fight, wherein Mary comes to (sort of) apologize to Edith and Edith just WILL NOT. Mary's all, "It never occurred to me..." -- which is SUCH A LIE -- and Edith goes, "JUST SHUT UP," and then this happens: Edith says, "I know you. I know you to be a nasty, scheming bitch," and Mary interrupts with, "Listen, you pathetic," and Edith interrupts her with a decisive, "YOU'RE A BITCH!" It was highly satisfying. As I say with regularity, I love Mary, but she honestly is just a real big bitch, and she's had this coming from Edith for YEARS. "You're not content with ruining your own life," Edith continues. "You have to ruin mine!" And Mary almost starts to cry -- Dockery was great in this scene -- and swears she HASN'T ruined her life, but can't get any more out because Edith (of course) storms out on her. "You're wrong, you know, as you so often are," are her parting words. "Henry's perfect for you. You're just too stuck-up and stupid to see it." This does not seem like the best endorsement of Henry....? Regardless: GOOD FOR YOU, POOR EDITH! GOOD. FOR. YOU. ## Downton Walks II ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2303.jpg) While shit is, and continues to get real, and will only get realer, at the house, Baxter is walking Molesley to school for moral support, and gives him some excellent advice about the children he is now teaching, which he takes to great effect. He then mentions to her, off-handedly, that Thomas said something along the lines of, "I'M MAKING AMENDS BEFORE I KILL MYSELF SORRY ABOUT HOW TERRIBLE I AM" -- I'm paraphrasing -- and Baxter puts two and two together and goes running home... ## Downton Tragedy! ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2306.jpg) ...to find poor Thomas has tried to end it all in the bathtub. I both feel very sorry for Thomas and find Depressive Can't Get a Job Thomas Who Has No Friends FAR less enjoyable than I ever did EvilButler.com. I appreciate this development from a dramatic perspective, but I feel like Thomas's character arc could have gone in a less bummer direction. ## Downton Poets Society ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2310.jpg) In short: Daisy has passed all her tests with flying colors, and after one bad day teaching, Molesley wins his class over by telling them all that he used to be in service. My brevity here should not be read as disinterest. I CRIED AND CRIED. I nearly went all Oh Captain My Captain on him. (I had no idea I was so invested in Molesley until like three weeks ago.) ## Downton Dressing Gown ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2312.jpg) Mary is in a real emotional muddle, but her dressing gowns continue to be wonderful. Her parents are about to VERBALLY MURDER HER for the Edith thing, when Thomas's suicide attempt prevents this by distracting them...to which Mary responds by kinda blaming them for the whole thing, because they decided not to keep him on. "That is below the belt, even for you," Lord G tells her, when she goes there. Mary is in a full-on emotional tailspin of self-destruction. It's a very difficult day for everyone at Downton Abbey. (Here, Mary is admitting to Anna that she's ruined absolutely everything and she feels like no one can believe that she knows her own mind and basically EVERYTHING IS THE WORST AND IT'S ALL HER FAULT. A lot of that is technically true.) ## Downton Vitamin C ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2315.jpg) That said, I'm happy to tell you that Master George (and Lady Mary) are very sweet to our recuperating Thomas, and, in fact, his attempt on his own life has gotten him continued employment at Downton for the foreseeable. (Everyone except the family, Carson, Hughes, Baxter, Anna, and Andy think he has the flu.) What I wouldn't give if this Tragical Thomas routine turned out to be a LONG LONG CON on Thomas's part, designed to give him lifetime work in the most dramatic way possible. (I do actually feel very bad for and honestly do love Thomas. But I also think his character arc from EvilButler.com to TragicMisunderstoodUnderButler.com got quite hammy. Not on the part of Rob James-Collier, who is always excellent, but on the part of Julian Fellowes, who always takes Thomas to a 9 when the story would be better with him at about a 7.) He and Mary have a moment where they both agree that they need to try to stop being total jerkweeds to people - a paraphrase - and I suspect that when Carson retires (possibly in a huff), Mary and George will have a space at Downton for Thomas. ## Downton Rescuers ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2316.jpg) AND LOOK WHO'S BACK TO SAVE THE DAY? And in a delightful call-back, she's come because Branson -- the only sensible one, in her correct view -- has called her home to fix things. ## Downton Crying ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2320.jpg) Which she does. I cried throughout this scene, which reminded me more than a little of the end of *A Room With A View* wherein Lucy Honeychurch admits that of course she loves Julian Sands, what did they all think? (If you haven't seen that movie, and you love Downton, you must remedy this immediately. It is my very favorite movie in all the world. We named Freddie in *The Royal We* in part after one of its characters, *and* it has full frontal male nudity.) I always like how honest Mary is with Violet. She just lays things out -- which she does with regards to Henry Talbot. They have a masterfully done conversation about Mary's suitors wherein Violet ascertains that Henry Talbot is both "clever and strong enough" for Mary and Mary cries that she "CANNOT be a crash widow again," and yet she doesn't want Henry to give up driving, because he'd only resent her. "You are the only woman I know who likes to think herself cold and selfish and grand," Violet says. "Most women spend our lives trying to hide it." She pats Mary kindly and announces, "I believe in love. I mean, brilliant careers, rich lives...they are seldom led without an element of love." And Mary cries, and I cry, and Violet instructs, "First, make peace with your sister, and then, make peace with yourself." They hug, so kindly, and I cried again just now re-watching that scene to transcribe it. Apparently the very best way for me to turn on the waterworks is to have Maggie Smith announce that she believes in love. ## Downton DELIGHTFUL ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2324.jpg) Remember when I said that I wanted "Cassandra Jones," the new advice columnist at Edith's NewspaperMagazine, to be Branson? WELL, SHE'S ACTUALLY SPRATT. That is so much better. (This is the moment where I burst out laughing and clapping with glee.) This is really perfect and a wonderful light moment in the midst of all the drama. Edith's mouth literally falls open. It's wonderful -- or, more aptly, it's bananas, the code word Edith and Her Editrix agreed they'd exchange if they thought they were meeting the real Cassandra Jones. That was a great, great pay-off. ## Downton Graveyard ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2327.jpg) I Cried: The Story Continues. So, Mary thanks Tom for calling Violet, and tells him she's sent for Henry Talbot, then admits that she has no idea how to make this up to Edith, because Edith has no reason to want to forgive her, which....feels accurate. She then goes to Matthew's grave and it's great and sad and touching and so well done: "The truth is, I love him," she tells Matthew's headstone. "I believe we are right together. But I so very much want to feel that you're happy for me. As I'd be happy for you, my darling. Remember, however much I love him, I will always love you." (I am totally crying typing this, just by the way.) This scene makes so much emotional sense to me, finally, coming here at the tail end of a romance that hasn't always tracked emotionally. This show, as we've all said before, is REALLY good at remembering the characters who have died, and it's always emotional and affecting because it feels so real. ## Downton More Crying ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2328.jpg) I Cried Some More: Part 2\. Isobel says that she is delighted that Mary is ready to move on -- after an exchange about forgiveness between the two of them that recalled, for me, the wonderful Christmas special where Mary and Matthew got engaged, AKA my favorite episode of this show ever -- and whenever Isobel is delighted, so too am I delighted. ## Downton Macking ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2335.jpg) This scene opens beautifully, with Branson noting that it's FINALLY time for him to bow out of Mary and Henry's relationship. Henry is like, "Well?" and Mary is like, "I thought about it and you're totally right. We are in love with each other. I've stopped fighting it." And then, next thing you know, they're not only engaged, they're getting married that Saturday. There is more to it than that, of course -- Mary explains that she's finally realized that they're equal in both "strength and passion," and Henry's response is, "Are you always so cool and collected? I HOPE SO." I told you he loves an icy bitch, God bless him. There's also an adorable moment where Mary notes that she's not 20 and she "doesn't tremble at the touch of \[his\] hand," and he strides over to her all manfully and announces that he's not 20 either, but he still trembles at the touch of her hand, and she giggles and says, "Me too. I don't know why I said that!" and they kiss and it felt very natural and charming and...fine! Yay! Good! Mazel tov! Let's get this one taken care of! A few nitpicks of little import: Henry says that the last time he was at Downton, he had a marriage license in his pocket, so they can go ahead and get married this weekend. I did a LOT of research into British Marriage Laws when we were writing *The Royal We*, and I can tell you that everything he says is largely accurate, although whether he can get a marriage license without a bride in tow is questionable to me. (THAT was not a required piece of my research.) ALSO doubtful to me is the idea that Henry Talbot really thought Mary was going to be like, "Okay, you're right, let's get hitched" at that point in the story. Here, she's gone through a lot and she's sent for him, it sort of makes sense; but last time they met, he had no reason to think she'd be into it. BUT WHATEVER. Make out with Matthew Goode, Mary! MAKE OUT WITH HIM FOREVER. ## Downton Wedding ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2346.jpg) I do not think this length of wedding dress is that great on Lady Mary, but what IS great is that Edith comes back for the wedding and they have, at long last, a kind of rapprochement. "You know I'm sorry," is Mary's (terrible as usual) apology. "I assumed you would be fairly sorry unless you were ACTUALLY INSANE," is Edith's great rejoinder. And then Mary apologizes for real and Edith notes that now that Mary is happy again, she'll be nicer, "for a while." But Edith explains that she still came to the wedding because, "in the end, you are my sister. And only we will remember Sybil. Or Mama, or Papa, or Matthew or Michael. Or Granny, or Carson, or any of the others." This is where I started up crying again. "Until, at last, our shared memories will mean more than our mutual dislike." I found that extremely moving AND in character, which is the ideal. At this, Mary is silent and then wonders what Matthew would think of this. "Matthew loved you and wanted you to be happy," Edith says. "I'm sure he'd be very very pleased. In fact, I know he would...You look nice by the way." DOES SHE? There's no need to go that far, Edith. You showed up, after all. ## Downton Duos ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2349.jpg) I love these two old bats. That is all. ## Downton Vows ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2351.jpg) And thus Mary and Henry Talbot are married. (I will always love this show for how many weddings it has. *Downton* LOVES a wedding, and so do I.) ## Downton Happily Ever After ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2355.jpg) This doesn't seem so bad, amirite? As they get in the carriage, Henry says, "I promise you won't be sorry." Mary smiles. "I better not be," she says, although she's twinkly about it. I believe that's the exact exchange Wills and Kate had as they pulled away from Westminster Abbey. ## Downton Proclamations ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2357.jpg) "There they go, a new couple in a new world!" Lord G narrates, because it's not an episode of *Downton* without someone mentioning the new world, our changing times, the modern era, etc. He then notes that Edith has been very surprising of late, and he's sure they haven't seen the last surprise yet from her.... ## Downton Almost Done :( ![downton abbey recaps](https://static.gofugyourself.com/uploads/2016/02/IMG_2358.jpg) ...and as they cut to Edith, she is wearing this kind of amazing artsy dress, watching children play on Sybil's grave. MAYBE the final surprise is that Edith is going to learn to raise the dead for fun and profit in the series finale? No? Are you sure? NO SPOILERS! [Fug the Show: Downton Abbey Recap, Episode 608You guys. This episode. It was so good. So satisfying. SO full of people having fights we've wanted them to have for ages, and other people going fully Get-A-Grip in a most gratifying way. People had actual, legitimate psychological breakthroughs. Plots moved forward. I spent the last twenty-five minutes crying, solidly, for a whole variety of reasons. At other points, I was enraged (Mary, I could simply throttle you). I think I burst a vessel screeching, "EDITH YOU HAVE TO TELL HIM," and at one particular moment, I shout-screamed "HA" and clapped with honest, surprised glee. Downton has had its issues, but, oh, I am going to miss it terribly, and never more than right now, when it seems like the captain is well and truly steering the ship again. This episode was great. To the chapel, my friends! Housekeeping notes: This is the penultimate episode, so we're got only one left to go! Please continue to not spoil us on the final final ending, dear readers who've already seen the series finale. Said aforementioned finale is 90 minutes, and it will air in the US on PBS on Sunday, March 6th --- there's a week being skipped so as not to compete with the Oscars. Whatever shall we do when it's over?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bf/b9/bfb99790-924d-4e41-a7e6-5e3c6e04fe57/content/images/static-gofugyourself-com/uploads/2016/02/img_2211.jpg)](https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io/downton-abbey-recap-episode-608-02-2016/)