Downton Mourning
So, in case you forgot, poor Cousin Matthew was driving home all happy and blissed out because Mary had just had their firstborn son, George -- just like the current royal baby! -- and the wind was blowing through his golden locks and the birds were singing and the air was clean and fresh and the world was glorious and then HE CRASHED HIS CAR AND HE DIED and I know Dan Stevens left the show, so what could they do -- "Oh, you just missed Matthew. He popped up to the attic!" forever? -- but WHY GOD WHY NOOOOOOOO, etc. This season picks up six months later and Lady Mary is DEPRESSED, Y'ALL. She spends literally all her time staring sadly out the window. Not that I blame her. But basically this entire episode is about People Getting A Grip, especially her.
Downton Gossip
Big news at the Abbey is that O'Brien -- that wretched old bitch! I always wanted to shove her down a well! -- has quit in the dead of night and left to go be Rose's Mother's Lady's Maid in India. Everyone is obviously in a tizz about this, even that fantastic rug that is surely worth a fortune. No one is going to MISS the old battleax, obviously -- well, maybe Cora -- but they ARE all worked up about the fact that they're now short-staffed. Also, as a note: I totally forgot that Lady Rose is the new Lady Sybil (RIP) and staying at Downton now, and so it took me a minute to realize what on earth was even happening, before I recalled all the Good Times that O'Brien shared with Lady Rose's Mother, fixing her hair and being properly appreciated for once.
Downton Thomas
Speaking of Servant Scandale, Thomas -- everyone's favorite sexy plotting evil bitch -- has decided he doesn't care for the new Nanny at all, because she's bossy and she won't let him chat with Baby Sybil (whom they're calling "Sybie"). In Thomas's defense in this particular episode, he's not wrong about Nanny being a complete harridan, although I think this was accidental rather than instinctual. Also, I love Thomas. He's the worst in the best way. Additionally, I love Rob James-Collier, in part because he's running the London Marathon to raise money for MS and his fund-raising website is literally EvilButler.com.
Downton Money Problems
Another big plotline in this episode involves the nuts and bolts of what's going to happen to the estate now that Matthew's gone to the great Abbey in the sky: part ownership of it has gone to George, part of it belongs to Lord Grantham, and a sliver of it belongs to Mary. And the question is, will Mary act as regent (so to speak) for George while he's underage, or will Lord G get to run the entire thing? And Lord G is basically like, "I can TOTALLY run this whole thing, I am NOT AT ALL the person who essentially lost ALL OUR MONEY in a PONZI SCHEME and who has proven over and over again that, despite having very good intentions, I cannot make a good decision if someone's life depended on it WHICH IT HAS." And Branson is basically like, "um.....Team Mary, because you are a terrible Estate Runner," and Lord G is all, "but Mary has lost her one true love! She can't deal with this right now! YOU CANNOT KNOW WHAT THAT IS LIKE," and Branson is all, "ARE YOU KIDDING?" and Lord G is all, "oh, right. Sorry." And then they admired one another's lovely tweeds.
Downton Purples
Clothing note: Mary is still in deepest mourning, in both her wardrobe and her soul, but given that six months has passed, everyone else has moved on to half mourning -- namely, purples and greys are back! -- or no mourning at all. It's the 20s, the mourning traditions had been loosened a bit, so that's not too escandelo. (The Wikipedia about this is very interesting. I of course knew all about it thanks to primarily reading books wherein the heroine ends up in mourning because her One True Love got gored by a bull in some otherwise romantic assignation in Spain or something.)
Plot note: everyone spends a lot of time wondering if Rose knew that O'Brien was about to run off with her mother to India, which she swears she didn't. Edith offers to put an ad looking for a new lady's maid in The Lady when she's in London, and it turns out The Lady still exists and they still run ads for nannies, butlers, groundskeepers, and the like, which I think is fascinating. Cora is obviously very put out about the whole thing in a very Cora way, which means, she's basically resigned to making do and purses her lips a lot.
Downton Coats
Rose impulsively -- either out of guilt or because she doesn't really think things though -- goes into town and places an ad for the new lady's maid in the window of the local post office. She is also wearing THE BEST COAT AND HAT EVER.
Downton Mourning: 2
Meanwhile, Edith pops over to visit Isobel Crawley, who is ALSO still very sad about Poor Dead Matthew. She's all, "if you are a mother and your only child dies, you aren't ANYONE," and Edith sort of makes a face indicating that she thinks this is rather dramatic but kindly just points out that Isobel is still a grandmother, which is an EXCELLENT point, and basically what you need to know is that this episode teaches us, via Isobel (whom I love), that meddling in the affairs of others and bossing people around is tremendously good for the soul.
Downton Meddling
Speaking of nosiness, Mrs Hughes literally goes through Carson's mail and reads a discarded letter and then totally inserts herself into his business to try and solve a broken friendship between Carson and a man he knew from his Shameful Days In The Theatre, despite the fact that she has no idea what drove Carson and his Former Friend apart. Maybe his former friend tried to MURDER CARSON, Mrs Hughes!
Downton Valentine's Day
It's also Valentine's Day, and everyone gets cards and none of them are signed, which is very confusing -- is that a tradition in the UK? -- especially considering the Servants Love Pentagram that is Ivy/Daisy/Alfred/Jimmy. It turns out that Daisy's Valentine came from Mrs Patmore, who knew that Jimmy would be sending one to Ivy, and didn't want Daisy to feel sad, which is very sweet. Daisy wisely notes that she isn't upset about this, because if she doesn't have a lover, at least she has a friend. To which I say: INDEED, and also, DAISY, STOP MOONING OVER JIMMY. Daisy is always mooning over someone who is never going to like her. Remember when she was in love with Thomas?
Downton Mary
Mary is still wandering around like a wraith, and when she runs into Edith she tells her to have fun in London in SUCH a funereal tone that I laughed out loud. I do not begrudge Mary's Darkest Nights of the Soul at all -- it would have been awful for us to come back and have her be all over the whole Matthew thing -- but I also think it's smart of the show to make her wallowing also very slightly funny in its extremes. It's also smart of the show to allow Mary to tell people that she is pretty sure she's dead inside, but that she is still interested in George, because that all keeps her human and slightly less selfish. Poor Mary. Everyone she sleeps with, so far, has died in a shocking and untimely manner. Beware, eligible males of England!
Downton Dickens
Carson's friend, whose name I have already forgotten, is literally in a workhouse and coughing all over the place, like a Dickens character -- which is actually how Mrs Hughes describes it when she tells Carson that she, you know, went through his mail and then behind his back and rescued his friend that he totally doesn't want to have anything to do with and brought him into town and now he's living with Mrs Crawley and giving her zest for life back to her, via the opportunity to fix him. (Mrs Crawley DOES love to fix people's lives for them.) She does not tell him that it looked like someone was about to burst into a chorus of "I Dreamed a Dream" in said workhouse.
Downton Nazis
Remember how Edith and her newspaper editor are all in love with each other but he kinda forgot to mention for a while that he's married? To a crazy lady in an attic like Mrs Rochester? It's true. That all being said, he DOES want to get a divorce, but England won't let him divorce Mrs Rochester just because she's bonkers. However, he tells Edith and her very adorable coat, there ARE places that will let him divorce his loony-bin former-beloved and one of them is Germany!!! GERMANY SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT PLAN AT THIS POINT IN HISTORY. OF COURSE Edith is getting herself into the kind of muddle that ends with discovering that you're married to a Nazi.
As you know, I read MANY books set in this basic time period, and one of the hallmarks of a good one is when you realize one of the characters is falling in love with someone who is going to turn out to be a Nazi. It ALWAYS happens. Everything is perking along nicely and then the heroine's sister comes swooping in to note that she's met the NICEST German with the most fascinating little mustache and he's TERRIBLY organized! Some of his ideas are crazy but really he's the MOST interesting dinner guest! And then the smart characters in the book look up from their newspaper and say, "I have a bad feeling about this," and you, the reader, say aloud to your book, "DUDE NO NO NO NOOOO."
Downton TV Dinner
I realize we have not yet visited with the Dowager Countess, the most beloved 79 year old woman on television today. Violet here has gotten a bee in her bonnet about helping Molesley, Matthew's old valet -- you may remember him from such plotlines as his alcoholism and the time he hit on Anna -- who is now out of a job due to the fact that Matthew is dead and not in need of dressing for dinner. Molesley is rather in a bad way; the Changing Times means fewer families are in need of butlers or valets. Here, Mrs Crawley in fact tells The DC that she doesn't need any more help -- her life is literally so empty and meaningless now that (to The DC's horror) she eats dinner on a tray! It's on to Plan B, which is trying to pass Molesley off on a newly unButlered friend, which ALSO backfires because The DC's own butler gets suspicious that his OWN job is on the line and he (rather hilariously) sabotages poor Molesley. Molesley is like the Ziggy of Downton Abbey. He NEVER wins.
Downton Headscarf
Edith looks rather fetching at this London party that serves only to push her deeper into the arms of a dude who will either be a Nazi or get in serious trouble WITH the Nazis.
Downton Tableau
I basically just wanted to celebrate how beautifully composed this shot is, like a painting, and how gorgeous the location/set is. Mary is still staring out the window, of course. HER LIFE HAS NOTHING IN IT. NOTHING.
Downton Headscarves 2
That is really not Edith's color.
Downton Necklace
This screengrab is terrifically dark for some reason, but suffice to say, Cora's necklace is gorgeous while Thomas tells her that Nanny is "leaving the children to their own devices," which is not strictly true -- Nanny told Thomas to pass on a message to Mrs Patmore because she was "leaving the children to their own devices" in even going downstairs at all, much less going into the kitchen to talk to Cook. I was just reading something the other day -- it must have had to do with the childcare arrangements of Kate and Wills -- about how one's Nanny sort of lives in a netherworld between being part of the family and being a servant, which is what we're seeing here, in addition to the fact that this Nanny actually also IS The Devil. Thomas must not get People, or he'd know that.
Downton Meddling
Continuing the habit of people meddling in other people's lives, Carson has -- at the request of Branson, who knows that Mary listens to Carson -- popped in to tell Mary that she HAS TO PULL IT TOGETHER HERE. And Mary is very bratty about it, all telling Carson that he's overstepped his boundaries and patronizingly noting that it's HER fault for not teaching him better by example, and she's really a total pill -- although she looks great -- and Carson, bless him, is basically like, "SOMEONE HAD TO SAY IT, GIRLFRIEND" and storms out, by which I mean he walks calmly and purposefully downstairs to supervise dinner.
DOWNTON SO MUCH MOURNING
Mary is like, "literally, you guys, how much more do I have to do to prove that my heart will NOT go on? I AM LAYING LIKE A CORPSE NEXT TO A PICTURE OF MY DEAD HUSBAND."
Downton Baller
And then the DC comes in and finally serves up some truth like a boss, telling Mary first that she loves her -- it was very touching. I love you, too, Dowager Countess! -- and then firmly but kindly noting, "The fact is you have a straight-forward choice before you. You must choose either death or life." (She chooses life.)
Downton Bad Ideas
Remember Edna from last season? She was the maid who tried to seduce the newly widowed (widowered?) Branson and had to be dismissed and Mrs Hughes gave her a nice reference anyway because she felt....guilty about sacking her or something? Well, she uses that VERY SAME REFERENCE to get O'Briens' job as Cora's lady's maid, and Mrs Hughes can't tell Cora why Edna is a bad fit for Downton without making Cora feel bad that Branson had a pint with someone after Sybil's Tragic Death (or something) and ANYWAY, basically, Edna is Bad News. By the end of the episode, she is in cahoots with Thomas -- always a bad sign -- and lying to Cora and basically she's the worst. But also Cora just hires her on the SPOT, which is pretty dumb. At least go ask Mrs Hughes for the real scoop before you do anything, Cora! She also just accepts it when Edna ruins an article of clothing and is all, "I can't tell you why. I JUST CAN'T TELL YOU. NO, I CAN'T," which is the behavior of a weirdo at best. Cora needs to work on her instincts.
Downton Glamour
Edith at least finally gets to look fabulous while she kisses A MARRIED MAN IN PUBLIC like a COMMON TRULL.
Downton Terrible
The Nanny turns out to be just HORRIBLE to Baby Sybil -- she nastily calls her a "wicked little crossbreed" -- and Cora overhears her and she makes up for her previous terrible staffing decisions and sacks her with a vengeance, which is very satisfying. Then she has a maid sleep with the children because God forbid she or their parents step in for the night. (I know: It Was A Different Time.)
Downton Crying
It will not surprise you to hear that the combined work of Carson and the Dowager Countess has broken through Mary's walls and she and Carson make up. I love Mary and Carson's relationship.
Downton Coats Again
"Hey Thomas, thanks for letting me know that Nanny was a wretched bitch. I'm wearing this glorious coat in celebration of having fired her!"
Downton Life!
As previously noted, Mary chooses life, and life involves attending a very boring meeting of men in tweed, all of them talking about the estate. Because this is getting very long, I'm going to cut to the chase: Mary wants to have a say in the running of the estate, and a secret letter from Matthew is found in a book, and like ten people read it before she gets to, and it leaves everything to her, and so blah blah blah Mary and Lord G are going to be arguing about the running of the estate all season, which ought to be very entertaining. NO ONE agrees that Lord G ought to be in charge: not Branson, nor Mary, nor the Dowager Countess, nor the ghost of Poor Dead Matthew. The Dowager Countess, in fact, got to spent the entire episode basically asking Lord G what the hell was wrong with him, which was fun for all of us but especially her.
Downton Letters
"We did all think it was weird that Matthew, a lawyer, wouldn't have a will, so we're relieved that Matthew's letter acknowledged that it was weird that he didn't have a will."
Downton Trouble
Rose has FABULOUS pajamas, and also is very good at talking people into things, as she manages to finagle Anna as an escort to some dance in York, where she starts a bar brawl and causes some handsome dude to fall in love with her while he's under the misapprehension that she actually WORKS at Downton. Of course, he comes all the way over to make sure that she's okay, post-brawl, and she lies to him that she's betrothed to a farmer. Anna even loans her a maid's uniform! ANNA. THIS WILL END BADLY FOR EVERYONE. DO NOT ENABLE ROSE.
Downton Interior Decorating
It's worth noting that Michael Gregson, Edith's most recent sure-to-be-disastrous love, does have an AMAZING London flat.
Downton Yikes
It's a shame, then, that this dress is rather awful on her. This does not reduce Michael Gregson's ardor, however. He REALLY wants to Edith to move to Germany with him, to live in sin, and he'd also like her to stay at his flat in London and surrender her maidenly honor to him. He's not particularly sleazy about it, and Edith resists....FOR NOW. I fear this will all end with Edith and her lovechild needing to be smuggled out of Germany in 1938, which -- the way this show likes to speed up time -- will probably be at the end of this season NO SPOILERS.
Downton Tutoring
Part of the deal with Mary getting to take over 50 percent of the responsibility for Downton is that Tom is basically tutoring her in how the place runs -- who's a good tenant, what they ought to do to pay the death taxes on the estate, all the stuff Lord G has screwed up in both of their lives, etc. You can't really tell on this screengrab, but the collar of her coat is velvet and it is GLORIOUS. We were in London this past week and never have I longed more ardently for a larger coat wardrobe. (Well, or that I had brought my entire coat wardrobe with me.)
Downton Forgery
Anna is really sad that Molesley is about to end up in the poorhouse, so Bates runs a rather elaborate scam, involving forgery, to make Molesley take some money from them to keep him afloat. Which is rather nice, really, but the best part is when Anna wondered how he managed to pull it off, Bates notes that prison was pretty educational. I hope this season turns Bates into a man who occasionally cons people for their own good.
Downton Lawyering
Lord G obviously had Matthew's Super Secret Letter sent out to their own solicitor to make sure it was legal, and it was: Mary's fully in the mix, legally and for real. Lord G is all, "wow. I'm so happy about this." But it's pretty clear that he has grave concerns about the whole thing, and frankly I think he should be GRATEFUL that NO ONE has pointed out to him that he is AWFUL AT ESTATE MANAGEMENT AND HE NEEDS ALL THE HELP HE CAN GET. Rose is mostly concerned about her headband falling off.
Downton Apologies
Oh right, this plot. Okay! So, at the end, we learn that Carson's Theatrical Friend has gotten a job via the machinations of Mrs Crawley, who feels alive again now that she's fixed up some poor unfortunate life. And they talk and it turns out they were in a love triangle, and the woman in question picked the other dude, but it didn't work out and then on her deathbed (!) she told NotCarson that she was in love with Carson the whole time and could he pass along the message. (a) WAY HARSH (b) Write him yourself, sister! (c) I'm so glad the lovely Carson made up with this person we never met before and will probably never see again. I just hope this is clearing the way for him and Mrs Hughes to make out in the cold storage this season. Downton!