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| © ITV; Image credit: ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com |
“Now, why didn’t the poets come to you, Mr
Carson? They’d have saved themselves a lot of time and trouble.”
Can we have
an episode of Downton Abbey that just
follows Mrs Hughes around as she makes amazing sarcastic comments to everyone?
Please, Mr Fellowes, can we?
Much of the
drama this week was concentrated in the servants’ quarters, starting with the
return of Bates from prison after Anna Marple managed finally to get him freed. I’ll admit I was glad to see him return,
if only because it meant the end of the deathly dull prison scenes. Slightly surprisingly, not much else remarkable happened to the Mr and
Mrs Bates following his return; he basically just spent the rest of the episode
sitting at the servants’ table and looking at cottages with Anna. My goodness,
I’m sure this is the kind of stuff he dreamed of being able to do again when he
was in prison, isn’t it?
In fact, the
biggest impact the return of Mr Bates had was on Thomas. Despite apparently
being some sort of evil genius (ha), Thomas, I mean Mr Barrow, hadn’t twigged
that Bates would want his old job back, and that Lord Grantham would want him
to have it. Unfortunately for Thomas, he played right into their hands by
falling for O’Brien’s schemes; he knows she hates him, and coming onto another
man without being certain of your reception would have been a very risky thing
to do. Doing it on the word of your former-ally-now-sworn-enemy seems foolish,
even for Thomas. Mind you, he did steal Lord Grantham’s dog to try and get
revenge on him for something (oh, Downton
Abbey), so maybe not. With Carson now in the know, things could get very
hairy for Mr Barrow before the series is out. Although I have to say, Evil O’Brien
is my favourite O’Brien of all, and it was amazing
to see her back at full force.
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| © ITV; Image credit: huffingtonpost.co.uk |
Getting
caught up in all this were Jimmy and Alfred, who are still caught up in a love
shape (of varying degrees of sides, depending on how Julian Fellowes is feeling
that day). Daisy seemed not to care so much this week, so it was left
to Alfred to try and woo Ivy by taking her to the pictures to see a film about a
“wronged woman who survives in the wilderness through her own wits and
courage.” (“Blimey, they’ve stolen my story!” – O’Brien) Unfortunately, she’s
still hung up on Jimmy and his pretty, pretty face, so she’s not interested.
Poor Alfred, just go for Daisy instead; she’s only aged about five minutes in
the last eight or nine years, so she’s a pretty good bet, and she’s totally
going to inherit a farm, she’s a better catch than rouge-wearing Ivy (whore)
any day. Speaking of which, Ethel’s sordid past is still causing problems for
Isobel, and Violet decides that it’s her job to sort things out. To be fair,
Violet is basically right here, even if she goes about it in a rather underhand
manner; the most telling line of the whole storyline was Violet starkly asking
Isobel, “And is poor Ethel to be the cudgel by which you fight your foes?”
Up amongst
the toffs, things developed in basically the way we all expected them to. Matthew
continues to try and save the estate, despite the best efforts of Robert and
estate manager Jarvis (who we’ve literally never seen before, but who is
somehow really important all the same) to resist his changes. Nobody does
exasperated-at-the-clueless-world-around-him quite like Dan Stevens, so this
storyline has suited him down to the ground. While I still wish lovely Lady
Sybil was still alive (sob), I have to admit Allen Leech has really come into
his own as Tom Branson over the last couple of episodes. I loved the scene with Tom’s brother in the kitchen, not for Tom’s
brother himself, but for the way he forced Tom to be all amazing and commanding
(“My mother-in-law has been kind enough to invite you to stay and dine, and
I’ll not let you snub her.”) They overplayed the “crass brother” hand a tad (Living
above a garage! A park nearby! Drinking BEER!) but it worked well enough in
forcing them to accept Tom back into the fold. The scene in which Violet suggested
that they give the estate manager job to Tom was a masterclass in “exposition
acting” from Maggie Smith; thankfully, even if the solution was obvious, it's a neat one that allows Branson to stay at Downton and has plenty of scope for drama in the future.
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| © ITV; Image credit: primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk |
For me,
though, some of the best moments of the episode came from the two remaining
Crawley sisters. Mary was back to being all aristocratic and sophisticated and
right, and it reminded me how much I missed that side of her. Her scene with
Tom in the nursery was one of my favourite of the night, because it was so in
character and quiet and sweet; Michelle Dockery delivered the line “Please give
them a chance to behave properly” to perfection. I also just loved Edith’s
storyline, simply because she actually got one and I love it when Laura
Carmichael actually gets to do things. Her editor friend (who doesn’t look at all like a younger version of the man
who jilted her at the altar, nope, definitely not) was charming enough, and I
loved her jaunty little hat and coat trimmed with the same jaunty material.
Perhaps the best moment of the whole episode was seeing Edith’s delight at her
grandmother defending her decision to consider the offer from the editor, then her
quiet deflation as Violet swiftly burst her bubble, “And another thing, Edith
isn’t getting any younger. Perhaps she isn’t cut out for domestic life.” Poor
Edith, nothing ever goes really right for her, does it?
And baby
Sybil has finally been christened, and she’s a Catholic. The final scene, with all the ladies in their muted
shades of lilac, and them all rallying round Tom, was just lovely. As long as
it doesn’t end Tom and Cora’s amazing streak of guilting Robert into doing
things by saying “it’s what Sybil would have wanted”. They’re both becoming
real experts at it, and it would be a shame to waste such a valuable skill.
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