ComeWhatMay

More shows should do that; wrap up while leaving places to go as was done here if they do not have the green light for another series. It shows respect for the audience and humility on the part of the show runner. I was not a fan, but PBS should have shaved off the last bit of Beecham House given their fondness for cutting and Victoria‘s, of which I was a fan, hiatus looks permanent. And I still see people going on about Sanditon.

“You slept with the boss’ missus!” Heh, Geordie. Happy Birthday, Will. Leonard is well rid of his father. Not all parent-child relationships can or should be. Sidney was the reason things never turned out well for Sidney. He just wavered and wallowed. Glad Will, with a kick in the rear from Geordie, stepped up for Matt—and accepted what he cannot change with his mother. Happy there will be another season and I am sure filming from September on will take every pandemic precaution possible.

mishy beat me. Renewed for series six! Robson made me smile. You appreciate steady gigs in the entertainment business so much more with age. Filming safely will require a lot of precautions and respect for each other’s safety on the part of the actors and crew.

Yes. People are together for a reason comes to mind.

Will was losing it up there. Next week will be interesting. I do not think he is self-destructive like Sidney was, rather a long work in progress, but we will see. Lots of time to do better between abandoning your first love and baby as a selfish youth and living large off blood money in advanced age. Too pat an ending I agree with the Chapmans, but I see why they each want to stay put too. Vic is vile. Glad Marie was persuaded to step up. Hope we see Will step up for Matt. He knows what it is to have no one.

My mother and her siblings did their best to cover for their mother growing up. Basically, you know she’s not right, but she’s what you have and you love your mother. Adult Cathy still covering for Diana while walking on eggshells and then calling around to try and find someone else to take Diana and that hang up hit home too. Even today, with medications and better treatment options available, a lot of families try to pretend things are okay when they are not and the consequences can be disastrous. Edited to add: Even with the money for the best available, some families do not want to risk the exposure of seeking treatment, then and now.

As noted by HelenBaby up thread, Cathy’s mother Diana is most likely bi-polar. My own mother grew up with a mentally ill mother in the ‘30s and ‘40s. The shame, the concealment, the rudimentary “treatment”... As we know, marriage isn’t perfect and people aren’t either. You can screw up royally and get another go at it if the foundation, fundamental decency, love and forgiveness is there—see Geordie—but Jack Chapman felt no more guilt taking and using that ring than he did ditching his first love and baby. Some people put themselves first 100% of the time. Proposing to someone you just met is nuts and the not religious, ambitious and going places Ellie is no vicar’s wife. Good on Ellie for saying so. Will has a lot of work to do and demons to put to rest too.

The third Princess Margaret will be well-played. Congratulations to The Crown on wisely casting World on Fire’s jewel in the crown, Lesley Manville.

Agree. Violet, as much as I liked her in the short time we or Sidney knew her before crossing an ocean with her, was grieving when they hooked up and Sidney ought not to have slept with her then to start with... What they were headed for here too required a strong partner, not fickle and unstable Sidney who sabotaged his other chances at happiness. They wanted Norton to stay, but the way they wrote Sidney makes me glad he is gone.

When Will was baptizing the baby, I thought of his abusive upbringing and of his “dealt with” baby that he surely had no say in what happened to... I honestly wondered about Jack Chapman from the beginning. He bailed on his first love and their baby “to see the world.” It’s disgusting that he gave that ring to Sylvia. Abusers isolate their prey. First thing I thought when I saw the return to sender. How things start is usually how they end, re: Will and Ellie. “The sound of splitting hairs.” Heh. Norton’s eye was on the exit early, I remember Robson musing early on that he would leave, the show brass had to know, and given that, it’s unfortunate Sidney just spiraled and never really progressed after series one. Will tries to do better and I like to think it’s the show learning from the past. Will/Tom was hot as Hell in that alley. Sidney who? Bless Esme ratting on her grandmother and Kathy for being the opposite of what she clearly knew. No more outings to say the least.

Will can be an escape hatch, but that is the limit of what he can do sadly. He secured his mother a plush pad and lunches at The Savoy after genteel poverty in their falling down manor house with an abuser. He hath done what he could. Thomas ran her down so much and who knows what her own father was like. These things tend to be generational. Will broke a cycle, but it may not be in his mother to do herself. St. John is titled too and Amelia is all about appearances. Some people’s priorities are not what they ought to be. Ellie and Kathy are showing how women, single and married, began to step out of the boxes set before us and are welcome portrayals, but it was a hard, tough slog and still is, in many ways.

St John is a prick and a bully, just like Thomas. Men like that have a radar for women conditioned to tolerate their bs and repeat a cycle they should break. Will, you tried.

I am glad the show/network ultimately decided to carry on with a new leading man. I like Will/Tom and the father/son dynamic with Geordie.

I suppose the cuts accommodate the cruise company ads and drive DVD purchases from devotees and the associated revenue? I bought early Downton and they got me again here. In that finale scene I referenced, given what PBS left out per their usual, but also inserted as if they got a rough cut to have their way with as Camera One noted, I thought it impacted how the characters came across. For me, the PBS cut was kinder to Lois’ characterization. I commented on the scene based on the DVD/UK. The cliffhanger was rough before the COVID-19 induced delay. The interviews after the US airing were smart. Yes, that was him, and he was killed off in the finale as you noted. Tomasz was not seen in episode 6 and it made me wonder where he was then too.

Now that you mention it, I remember reading about the same phenomena on Downton Abbey forums. I confirmed last night that PBS not only included dialogue not on the UK version DVD, but also unfortunately removed dialogue in the scene with Lois, Robina and the baby. In the UK version, which I prefer, Robina does not remind us/Lois that Harry is married to Jan's sister, but instead Robina reflects to Lois that Jan has already lost everything he ever believed in...

It was the father Uwe, but yes, infer is the name of the game here, I think. A few DVD notes for those who can and choose to buy—Privileged Harry’s inexperience, immaturity and naïveté in the uncut opener is so much more glaring, especially after viewing the full series. Lots of character evolution there in 7 episodes, amounting to the introduction of the concept to him that “you can’t always get what you want...” I’m not sure telling Lois why he married Kasia would have helped Lois’ treatment of him with regard to their baby. Harry ultimately did it because he loves Kasia and if he told Lois that it would only have incensed her more, I think. Harry married Kasia as much for himself as he did to save her. He made no provisions for her family. He was/is that triple threat of looks, money and smarts. The world was his oyster before the war. “Charm and good hair” was Lois’ Harry. And one other thing that may only interest me. I am pretty sure PBS included dialogue that is not on my DVD in at least one instance. The scene with Lois, Robina and the baby is one example. Pretty sure the DVD does not include “Harry is married to his sister.” If it does, mea culpa. I would rather PBS did not splice and dice. As my city had fires burning last night, it brought new meaning to the title of this show.

My late Grandmother, born in the early 1900s, would say, “there is a little truth in every bit of humor.” Remember Lois’ remark to Douglas the day after the baby was born and he wanted to do an extreme makeover of the sleeping arrangements Lois and Tom always had? “That was the plan all along.” The writer may have been going for hurt and angry, but I have seen exes weaponize children, and let’s just say I saw a lot of familiar tells with the Lois character. Robina might have clocked what was going on too, especially given her personality. Appealing to someone’s “conscience” and “common sense” with children in need involved really should not be necessary.

She’s a cutie. Mine was salt and pepper from day one. Bowker wants six series to cover the full length of the war for the U.K., and its anyone’s guess what he will decide to do, save the outcome of the war, of course. It’s his baby. I respect that even if he made me want to throw something with that cliffhanger. I will say as a writer and editor, admittedly not for entertainment, one should not try to fix issues with characters you created in your narrative through interviews or by erasing them in your story. Whatever you do must account for all that came before. Mileage varies as we used to say on TWoP, but I think he has something special with the two actors who play Harry and Kasia and I hope he makes the most of it.

I would like the series 2 DVD now please. Based on the Salon interview with Jonah that debuted before the finale aired on the US East Coast, they have a lot to do when they can get going again and I hope the commitment to see at least series 2 made remains. That cliffhanger is brutal. Also, I never saw a triangle, etc... Actors in interviews... I am reminded why I stick to the show normally... And it seems I saw things differently than a lot of the Twitter crowd, so here goes... I can see why Webster has not been told Nancy is his birth mother. The story of his beginning is as ugly as it gets, rape, and “Auntie Nancy” loves him. Love for a child manifests in a multitude of ways, including keeping your mouth shut. Not helping Albert escape when he could have will haunt Webster. Why do I feel like we will see at least the Rosslers son Klaus again at some point? Going into labor on stage in 1940. As if... Harry and Kasia are beautiful together. Get up that hill and get your man, woman. We have seen how quick Harry is on the trigger and how great a shot he is. He did not want to kill in front of Kasia, but he will kill every last one of the remaining Nazi soldiers to bring her to freedom even if it means she cannot accept who he is now. Sacrificing herself will not work this time. Harry will be captured, tortured and killed rather than leave without her and face Jan. He loves her just as much. Paging their fairy godmother, badass Nancy with a coach! Or some backup! Some first kiss... We’ll see if Vernon is genuine, survives and if Lois grows to know and really love him. With Harry at the center of her no then yes, if it all comes up roses for her in the narrative I will be surprised. Handing Harry’s loved daughter to a man she does not know to give his name and raise is the ultimate low blow. If you have a choice, you do not take a chance with a child’s life. Her father is stepping up given his failings with his gruesome twosome and the envelope from Robina (and Harry) was packed so this rash action that we could see negatively impact her newborn daughter—they need to wait six weeks for a wedding night—is not necessary. With Lois’ repugnant brother presumably on the way home, I hope that cash from Harry and his mother is in the bank—save the carriage money. Goodbye. Robina can’t be friends with Douglas and enjoy some kind of backdoor access to her granddaughter when he told her sobbing, heartbroken son he must miss out on knowing and being loved by her—and we know Douglas also badmouthed Harry to Jan. I know people who had to give up children, there is no greater pain to tell one to carry. Douglas seemed to grasp on to that by the time he relayed Harry’s visit to the unrepentant Lois. Beyond what he would do in death with the will, Harry showed his love for his daughter by not telling Lois’ father how low Lois went. Yes, Lois didn’t know Harry put a ring on it, but she knew he did all the rest, was a wreck and not thinking straight when she jumped him. She debased herself and the knowledge of the circumstances of her conception would one day bring her daughter pain. Harry learned what not to do from his mother’s behavior about his father. He realized without being told he could not barge in there on a woman who just gave birth even to see his baby, apologized, again, as where he put himself that night was on him, let Douglas do his bit of tongue lashing as Lois’ dad, as two children allow him to visualize being in those shoes, and drove away. The ice queen melted. Then went in for the take down. Lesley’s Robina sorted Lois’ score to settle after her emotional observance of Harry’s gorgeous bilingual goodbye with Jan. Julia’s Lois had her foot in the stirrup of the high horse the entire time but could not mount, because Robina spoke in very careful subtext and appealed to petulant Lois’ “conscience” with regard to Jan who “worships Harry” and “common sense” with regard to taking the money. “Do you want to hold her?” Loved Robina’s “what for” and Lois’ “doesn’t matter.” Lois is not going to cede any ground. “Why wouldn’t I visit?” She wants to start s*** and her face when she realized Harry loves Jan. He loves both his children. Keep Harry’s secret?! She told Harry in steadily crueler ways to stay away? That she would tell the baby he was dead. What did she plan to do? Visit the house with the little girl and dangle her in front of Harry and Jan? Just a bit sadistic... We might get to see Jan, hopefully equipped with perspective and appreciation for both sides of the platform exchange and what it did to Harry who imagined horrible things happening to his wife, married his sister not him and could have ditched him rather than forge papers, connect the dots of what he has seen as children do, but he would not benefit from this information pointed out to him now. It would understandably crush him—as it would Kasia, who could also piece things together over time and have at Harry over it. And, someday, maybe, per real-life reunions I was privy to, Harry would have a chance to have a seat at that table with his daughter and talk it out as Harry did with Robina, but we probably won’t see it, and if it does happen in a flash forward, Lois should not be there. They really could let it lie given the time period with Vernon swooping in. With my own family history, I know how Harry could be shown to look in on and open doors for his daughter from afar. Like “Auntie Nancy” still does for Webster. I hated that Robina, even through tears and mostly without eye contact, said Harry was not cut out for fatherhood and Lois made the right decision, but that decision was not about her daughter, we have seen and Robina had just shown herself how she knows it isn’t true at all (“he’s remarkable to have survived my mothering”—true and makes her not one to evaluate his or anyone’s parenting ability), and we saw Lois’ face betray her again and her reminded that this is how she wanted it, or said she did, that is. I think Lois was surprised Harry told his mother that because she did not know how much that relationship has evolved. She probably also wonders what else Harry told his mother. I get the sense from their goodbye and Robina’s exchange with Douglas upon Grzegorz’s return that Harry told his mother more than we saw him tell her and she sees him in a new way now, and well, good. Even a little more of what went down for Jan’s sake should he not make it home would infuriate Robina and explains her very careful interaction with Lois, who has taken something precious from them both. His baby daughter is truly the only Bennett Harry owes anything to at this point. Harry did love Lois and she knows it... Connie and I had the same WTF face there. Lois does not half rewrite things in her mind to absolve herself. Maybe Connie starts calling her on her BS next series? Regarding Grzegorz, I know he is struggling and feels as the surviving man in the Tomaszeski family he should take over from his brother-in-law, but he is putting words in Jan’s mouth with similarly frustrated Douglas. Jan, a little Stefan clearly, wants Grzegorz to go back and fight, not take care of him. Jan has a home with Robina and when he is home from the front, Harry, whom he loves very much. Get Kasia home to him and it will go miles toward healing as he must feel so guilty for taking her spot out on the train with Harry. He was unfazed by the kissing on the platform his sister and brother-in-law did and he saw what they have between them. It’s why he was horrified by Lois’ way with Harry that fateful night... On to my wish list for the start of series 2, whenever we get it... Here’s to a happy outcome on the hill and happy arrival in the front drive replete with a reunion of the Tomaszeski kids and Kasia meeting Robina. And if Kasia is pregnant before they hit England I will not be surprised. When Harry sees his ring around her neck it’s on, just like the war making it wise to make the most of their time together before he is back in the thick of it. I really do not think he gets her back by chance on this operation, you know. “Get your affairs in order” Major Taylor, call him the “finder of lost loves.” Stay safe, everyone.

They did indeed, but it does not matter with regard to what you note. Those questions you list were not answered. Lots of fill in the blank for the viewer. I think they tried to explain it away (I bet at least one tech adviser on set hollered foul and Brown’s grandmother and Bowker’s I believe were singers during the war—they surely know better) with characters referencing her supposed talent as opposed to other ENSA acts, and as much as I enjoy the show, it does not fly for me either. As for the RAF officer, I am with you on it being weird too with the potential to be a disaster. The Chopin playing squadron leader fixating on an unmarried heavily pregnant woman could have creepy origins in a show all about connections between the characters.

I am glad Robina expressed her relief at having her son home safe. Huge character development for the ice queen. Ugh, Tom. He’s just gross. If they need to kill somebody off for realism, I vote for him. Harry switching to French to correct his mother was a nice touch. She’s been caring for Jan as a admittedly chilly grandmother would and it would not be right to do so overtly in front of him. Demba and Harry think the other is the hero and neither wants to be called one. Love that so much. If you have family or friends in the armed services, it’s so wonderfully familiar. Julia’s Lois looked at Jonah’s Harry just briefly after the “charm and good hair” exchange like he was good enough to eat. He just wanted to help her with the baby and she went off on him when he is still looking for enemy combatants getting out of the car. She went to the house with that gift for Jan looking for something from him that was already gone. The startled bystanders when she told him she would tell the child he was dead were very fitting as that’s one of those things you just do not say. Jonah’s Harry took one step after her and did the right thing not to take any more. He is in a no win situation. Demba saw it at the house. Two children are caught in the crossfire here if he makes an issue of things. He has to be the bigger person to recall what Nancy said to him back in Poland. I have to remember there were not exes co-parenting and getting on with things in 1940. There still are not now if you have a bitter parent or two in the mix as all too many do. It was all as Lois secretly wants which is the Harry who left for Poland to reappear and marry her, and the heck with Jan and what this would do to him, or a payoff, right, Douglas? The girl in Poland he hopes is dead so his daughter can be lady of his family’s former landlord’s house is his young friend Jan’s sister. I get Douglas prioritizing his daughter and grandchild over someone else’s child, but I still found that entire conversation gross. Jan has been through Hell. Harry was beautiful with Jan. He has a child entrusted to him who needs him and has only him and his slow melting mother with his birth family ripped away. Kasia sobbing her heart out in a bunker clutching at Harry’s ring and the photo (the same one her husband had been looking at) and her husband and baby brother sitting there desolate in their coordinating pajamas got me. She needs them and they need her. Albert should have done what the Nazi who warned him told him to do and he wanted to do and leave. Webster should have helped him go as he asked. Webster’s false optimism is clearly a family trait. Hi Nancy! Hi Randy! Webster kept Albert there for him because he could not bear to let him go. Forged papers?! Harry took care of Jan as Kasia asked him to do at great risk to himself. Major Taylor is a spooky dude. And he knows everything about you, Harry... He and I know a quick death is not what you want. Mother and daughter Rossler broke my heart. Nancy was good to remind Herr Rossler he still has his son to think of even though his wife and daughter are gone. Hold tight to what you have left. Vernon said all the things Lois wanted to hear from Harry and it was written all over her face. Not sure what I think of Vernon and his exuberance to lock it down with Lois and “her” baby. I get wartime expediting things, but this is an extreme portrayal as Vernon and Lois literally just met and have never even kissed. There’s a child involved. Harry, nor Kasia, knew he (and I really hope it becomes they) would take on Jan. In light of the debacle with the perturbed Lois and amused Randy with Vernon’s Austen-style pontificating at him about her being taken advantage of, oh if he only knew, I echo andromeda331 that it’s hard to summon sympathy for someone who you know right there has not leveled with herself or anyone else about how she got to where she is. Lois made her bed and “broke her own heart” as a certain Mrs. Hughes once said of a certain Mary Crawley. And it’s striking to me the absence of malice from Harry from the get go and the abundance of it from her since before conception. It’s ugly.

People omit things and tell big and little lies. That’s all I have for why the Randy character did not just say he is American. Yes, Lois hiding herself or a cover story would be what I would have expected to see, save with her father and Connie. Vernon is supposed to be an anarchist so unconventional would suit him. We also know nothing about his background. And, Lois did not just say she was not married, but that the father of her baby was married. That’s the thing, along with giving him the envelope from Harry’s letter, that makes me think she might have a purpose in blasting selected details of her circumstances about...

Yes. He’s Randy O’Connor, Webster’s brother. He went to Canada like the Tom Hanks character in Every Time We Say Goodbye to enlist with the RAF as real pilots did before America entered the war as Shanna Marie noted.

I see Kasia as an amalgamation of female resistance fighters. This group made me think of her as well. History.com

Some of the dialogue cut from last episode was great stuff with Harry/Stan. They did it again here. Especially badly done, PBS. I am glad I bought the DVD, not just to get what I am supposed to from the show, but because there is just so much going on here. It still results in some fill in the blanks on my part. Such as... The men emerging from the mist... Only four and Harry’s exhausted and dejected face told me the remainder of his men are dead or maimed? I think Harry shielding the lost Claudette from the horrors around her until he got her to what he prays is a safe place allowed him to visualize and fully appreciate what Kasia did with Jan. You shield and remove children from war rather than allow them to exist in the midst of one if you can possibly prevent it. I am rooting for Kasia to get out. The killing is killing her. I share the discomfort with what she is doing, but I remember the girl we met, her sacrifice, her mother shot in her arms and her bombed out city. The fog of war, you know, and no one left as a touchstone but her hardened resistance friend. I also think Bowker goes out of his way not to have strict heroes and heroines based on interviews I have read. He is all about the flawed as we all are to varying degrees. That’s fine, but keep them in likable territory too if we are supposed to root for them. Lois? Am I? Webster and Albert the Jazz man in the hospital carnage and chaos... Again, GTFO. Getting rid of that body with easygoing Nancy should have been the final push Herr Rossler needed to get his wife and daughter out, if not himself as I get their son is a reluctant Nazi soldier. “Pied Piper” officer and a gentleman Harry is indeed charismatic. His tough love with Stan’s prejudice and wound and refusal to abandon the shell-shocked men he saw and finally understood his father in was profoundly moving and heroic. Harry seeing Robina in Stan made me chuckle. Similar prejudices and calling out Harry on his s***. Seriously, though, they both wanted/want him to be best that he can be, pardon the pun, and I think he’s come a long way. The salute from Stan when Harry dismissed him made me tear up as did Stan’s guilty face on the boat at having left Harry behind. I hope we see Stan again and that round with the not so “typical officer.” I see what the Hollywood studio saw on that beach. The look Jonah’s Harry gave that vile creep after he handled him. I do not think forsaken without warning meant the same to Robina as it did to Douglas based on the look on her face. Robina is caring for Harry’s young brother-in-law his wife heroically and selflessly sent in her place to save him and he is at war in harms way avenging her loss. Harry’s baby with Lois has her head spinning and placing blame, I gather. She’s Harry’s mother and whatever her clear failings, has his back in this, the way Douglas has Lois’ back. Watch yourself slating someone to his or her mother. I gather Harry was never allowed to kick a ball around. Douglas storming to Robina to see if she knew something... She is worried out of her mind too, but tries to bury it, which makes sense—her father was a military surgeon and it’s clear she was taught not to convey emotion from the cradle. And this war is an equalizer when it comes to information about loved ones in the line of fire. I know from family you went an inhumane amount of time not knowing anything at all. It was months (!) before my cousin, also deployed, learned his brother was killed. His CO helped him get through it. Connie is a great friend to Lois. It was... interesting... to see Lois reference Harry when Connie was worried about Eddie. And as you cannot write a woman whose address you do not have, Lois ended up giving Vernon the envelope from an old letter from Harry when he was at university that she carries around with her. So much for she does not want him back... She wants the iPhone 4 version of Harry, though, that doesn’t exist any more. Is Lois trying to out Harry with the seemingly nice anarchist Vernon on the slick sly to try and force his hand? Harry knows he messed up having sex and unprotected sex at that with her resulting in her pregnancy, hence his I am not kind to Geoff. I remember Lois sneering/smirking at Harry when he was about to cry after he found out. She lost me totally on the spot. She has known this has not been about her with Harry from the get go, with the “can we be pals again” cherry on top, and she is p*****. The school photo of Lois that Harry carries with that of him with his wife and his in-laws made a striking contrast. She’s still fundamentally the girl in that photo. He is worlds away from the “posh boy” as Tom called him that she gave the photo to... Love and war made a man of him. Grzegorz and Tom... Oh boy. More family drama queueing up for series 2? We’ll see. Tom is just so utterly foul. Douglas and his “bloody minded” wife produced quite a pair. Hand waving how Grzegorz managed to get to Dunkirk, especially in his condition. I think the fantastical nature of the show with the cavalcade of coincidences that knit it together is part of what I like about it, quite honestly. I also think they nailed the casting, especially for Harry (Jonah is so very nice to look at), Kasia (the look and feel of Zofia and Jonah together reminds me of Downton’s Dockery and Stevens, only better for Stevens reasons), Robina, Douglas and Jan.