persey

What happened to Tom is yet another instance of Fellowes' going for the cheap emotional payoff by means of character assassination. He was written out so we'd get the heart-wrenching parting, but brought back presumably as the endgame for Mary. But when he left, Tom no longer had a reason to go; he had a interesting and responsible job, was loved and valued by the Crawleys, and even knew how to wear dinner clothes. And having gone, he goes all maudlin and turns on a dime to return and upstages two people at the major event of their lives, but we get the joyful reunion scene, down to the cousins' hug. So for two transitory moments of cheap feels, Tom has been turned into a jackass.

Best moment was the Dowager noticing the dust on the table top. Daisy needs to shut up about the Drewes' farm and instead learn to say, "That's not my job."

I'd far rather see naked Mrs. Hughes than naked Carson. Just saying.

High tea is a working class meal; it's essentially supper. Substantial and with meat, if the family budget can afford it. The upper class meal of dainties is either just tea or afternoon tea.

Maybe that was Anna's cunning plan. She couldn't be hanged while pregnant ("pleading her belly"), so she was crying because she'd swing sooner than she'd hoped.

Yes. That includes widows.

Cora runs off with Bricker and Robert divorces her. In the meantime, Mabel Lane Fox dumps Tony at the altar because revenge is a dish best eaten cold. She and Robert get married because he can always use more money and she still wants a title. She gives birth to an heir. Gregson returns from Germany (it wasn't his body) and it turns out he was never married, which is why no one knew about it. The magazine was saddled with debt and he just wanted to offload it while he explored the sexual delights of Weimar Berlin. Laughs his head off at the notion he could have been seriously interested in Edith.

He's going for one year, not fifteen.

Chiming in - yes, Mary dealt with the repercussions of the potential Pamuk scandal for years, and that was down to Edith. While there was antagonism between them before Edith wrote the letter, Edith escalated that situation from sniping and "meanness" to potentially life-ruining. Nothing Mary has done to Edith, before or since, is on a comparable scale. And now, Edith's choices are conditioned because she's afraid of Mary's response? Well, that's of her own making. Edith is so busy being sorry for Edith that she's willing to sacrifice anyone to making up for her own poor choices. Somehow, that fits her perverted idea of "justice." Sure, put your name on the birth certificate, just in case you want to change your mind or your situation changes. Other people's rights or emotions? Feh. The daughter she purportedly dotes on? Not as important to Edith as Edith.

Since it seems increasingly obvious that Tom will end up with another Crawley sister, I'm forced to ship Tom and Mary. He's far too nice to end up with the whiny, self-pitying and entitled "kick 'em to the curb once they've served my purpose" Edith. If you started to list ridiculous plot contrivances and urealistic anachronisms on this show, you'd be typing until tomorrow, but I can't see Robert's being so accepting of Edith's bastard being raised with his heir and his adored Sybbie. It will hurt them, and especially Sybbie, who's already got to overcome the chauffeur father and papist taint. What I cannot believe, really cannot believe, is that anyone could think yet another murder plot involving the Bateses could have any interest whatsoever. And what are the odds that both people in a married couple would be arrested for a murder they couldn't commit? If I were a Bates, I'd start buying lottery tickets, get those fantastic odds working in my favor for once. And by the way, I'll call foul if it turns out Anna did it; because if she did, she couldn't have worried that Bates did. .

The key moment in which Edith's personality was revealed in all its revoltingness was when she said she had put her real name on Marigold's birth certificate in case she needed it. What she was saying in that phrase was that despite months to commit to the plan, or any plan, she was going to keep her options open and use others as placeholder parents until she could make up her mind, no matter the cost to them. No matter the devastation she would cause to others, she would sacrifice them to her goal of having everything, and she decided that in advance. I have no sympathy for Edith. She's got that covered and she has no sympathy for anyone who might be affected by her actions. Mary was right about her all along.

We know there were investigations into his disappearance; Robert referenced them. Moreover, he still owned a publishing concern in London and his business would have wanted to find him. Gregson most definitely intended to return to London to live and work once he got his divorce, German or not. It was his livelihood. And the cover story for his trip was that he was a tourist. The only person who knew his intentions was Edith. It is impossible that all this could have gone on, plus an obit and probating his will, without referencing that he had a wife.

One of my problems with that speech is that being engaged to a married man was flatly impossible in the context of the 20s. It just wouldn't compute with people. An understanding, perhaps, but of necessity informal. In an age of breech of promise suits, an engagement was a serious matter. At some point, everyone will have to know Gregson was married when Edith took up with him and why they don't know now (investigations of his disappearance! news coverage of a major figure!) is beyond me. When they do find out, Edith will come across as even more stupid and immoral than she does now, in 20s eyes.

The best moment was surprisingly indirect, given this show. Tom's calling Larry Merton the worst word he could come up and it's "Bastard!" as everyone at the table does a virtual faint. Yes, Edith, this is what's in store for your idolized Marigold and you'll have done it to her. Hate Edith. Her dismissal of Mrs. Drewe was appalling. Now I only want to see a story line where she decides to run the magazine herself and in three months it's bankrupt and Edith's destitute. Heh. And speaking of Mrs. Drewe, whyever should she be quiet? Unless the Crawleys threaten her and her family with eviction if she talks, and I wouldn't put it past them. Pferhaps her distinterested love of Marigold will cause her to take the high road. I hope she engages in a litle subtle blackmail, though. Finally, it's lovely that Robert is so accepting of having a Jew in the family, given his reaction to having Sybbie be baptized a Catholic. Well I remember his smelling-a-dead-fish expression when he had his picture taken with a priest!

Gregson's been gone for over two years and it's obvious Edith hasn't turned into a media mogul as she's moped at Downton, nor during her pregnant sojourn in Switzerland. And the insight that lets her knock off her co!umns is not nearly the same thing as business acumen.