S05.E06: Episode 6

[Merneith]

Just because you love your family doesn't mean they are good for you and doesn't mean you should allow them to mistreat you under the guise of "love." If that were the case, abuse victims would never leave, divorces would never happen, and all families would be happy and intact.

 

 

Which is true but irrelevant. Nobody is "abusing" Edith. On the contrary, people have been remarkably kind and patient with her. Ok, not Mary - but everyone else just puts up with her constant emo act. She is the original emo - I'm going to start calling her "Original E". That whole haircut scene was her being irrational.

 

Edith: *mope*

Cora: Edith darling, what's wrong?

Edith: *Sigh* ... Nothing.

Edith: *Sigh*

Robert: Edith, would you like a drink?

Edith: *Sigh* ... No. No. I'm fine. *Sigh*

Mary: Check it - I got a new haircut!

Edith: OMG HOW COULD YOU!!!

 

At least when Jan Brady acted like that you could understand because she was just a middle schooler. Edith is pushing 30. Let me repeat that: Edith is thirty years old. FFS. This ridiculous melodrama is entirely her own damn fault. Expecting the rest of the world to just psychically know what's happening is irrational. So Mary said something mean to her? Good. Somebody needs to be the Voice of Reason and it ain't coming from inside Edith's head.

 

Yes, by all means, Edith should move out. It'll be good for her. Hopefully she'll find her "Snap out of it" moment.

[Calamity Jane]

Seriously, a glass of wine is not getting snockered. And giving a child ice cream in the afternoon is not a sign of utter incompetence. There's judging Edith for her flaws and mistakes (of which there are multitudes) and there's much ado about the very trivial. Ice cream and 3oz of white wine is indicative of virtually nothing.

What kills me is how poorly all of this was written. I don't understand Fellowes.

For example: With Tom we never get all that much development we just get what's her name invited to dinner repeatedly by people other than Tom with her making Dad Crawley pissed off by making crass statements and Daisy campaigning for a love connection that Tom himself has never actually indicated. And yet, this is 'Tom's plot'. It may revolve around him, but he doesn't get to participate in it very much. It's written around not through and we have to make up our own story about what's going on in his head.

Similarly, it's difficult to miss how much is written around but not through with the Edith/Drewe situation. Neither side was actually shown very much. Yes, Edith showing up on the doorstep wanting to see Marigold is repetitive but it's been 20 seconds per episode. It's not explored.

People still harp on the Pamuk situation Re Mary even though it worked out just fine for her because the show made some effort to show the context of the time and what a scandal could cost her but such time isn't taken with Edith's plot. Her having an out of wedlock child would be a scandal that would weigh heavy. There's a reason why her aunt and her grandmother repeatedly tell her she must give up the child. To claim marigold in the face of society and in opposition to decisive authority figures like Violet and Rosamund isn't easy when all of society agrees with Violets and Rosamund's dictates. And yes the lifetime of family dynamics plays into as well. Sure Dad will overlook what Mary does but the rules for Mary and the rules for Edith are different and they always have been (and to ignore that is to ignore evidence from episode 1 straight through that these are not new family dynamics). There aspects of all these things that could be explored through the story but instead they write around instead of through.

Instead we get scenes of Mary talking about Edith to her ladies maid, we get Mary talking about Edith at a fashion show, we get the servants talking about someone coming to tell Edith that her boyfriend died (and everyone knows he courted her. She's had his power of attorney for a year. If someone in the family doesn't know they were closely involved that's either because they don't bother to know or are complete idiots.). We get Robert saying how she took it off screen. We don't get to see HER react. We don't get to see her pain. We get her 'interrupting' Mary's 'fun'. Like Tom, the story is written AROUND Edith more than about Edith.

And I honestly don't know how conclusions are being drawn about Mrs Drewe's devotion being superior because it's not like we're shown those scenes either. We only get the occasional griping about Edith. We don't see the relationship of Mr and Mrs Drewe. Nor do we see the relationship of Marigold and Mrs Drewe other than the bits of her stridently fending Edith off. Is she actually jealous of Mr Drewe and Edith? Why does she assume that Edith only sees Marigold as a plaything? There could have been a scene that actually gave her reason to think this. Or some line about Mrs Drewe's background giving us knowledge of her to know why she would jump to this default conclusion as opposed to thinking it an opportunity for a financially strapped family that one of the ladies of the manor would wish to help an orphan they had just taken in. But we get no scenes about this. We don't know how or why she assumes what she does or her relationship with any of her several children as well as this foundling. We don't see any of Mrs Drewe's life except for complaining about Edith in tiny repetitive snippets.

Again, were left filling in the blanks with our own imaginations. Because the only exploration was around the superficial edges in tiny repetitive scenes. We bring our own ideas, feelings, biases and preferences to it because we are told more about it through other characters than we ever actually see. So we know Mary's eye rolls about Edith or Robert's thoughts about it. But we really don't get to see much of the actual characters directly involved in the situation actually interacting in a variety of ways. We get the same pat scene over and over.

Poor writing and time management. But at least Mary had a fabulous dress on when she twirled her new haircut.

Honestly the scenery and the outfits are more reason to watch than the writing. I'd still like characters to discuss Robert thinking it's absurd that anyone would care about what his wife actually thinks, or Tom with his daughter, or actually seeing Rose and Atticus together, or Edith wondering what to do about Gregson's newspaper, or Rosamund discussing what a social disaster it would be for Edith to defy her and Violet's advice and maybe having a tiny bit of feeling she's being more of a parent to Edith than her brother is. Or Tom actually researching any ting about America before going there, maybe talking to Cora about it.

There are so many things they could be showing rather than tiny snippets of outlines scenes for all the characters who are not Mary and every difficult-to-tell-apart guy who is inexplicably drawn to Mary being bitchy to them. (Seriously why would someone drop Manel Lane for Mary? I'm not seeing it. And why on earth would Mabel then take him back after Mary dumped HIM?)

This really resonates with me.  When I think about Upstairs, Downstairs, the contrast is stark.  Yes, the scenery and the costumes in Downton Abbey are simply breathtaking, and perhaps reason enough to watch, but thinking back on how the stories were written for Upstairs - yes, the issues were discussed, we saw the characters facing the problems and shown their reactions, not just told by someone else how they behaved.  Very, very good points!

[Avaleigh]

Which is true but irrelevant. Nobody is "abusing" Edith. On the contrary, people have been remarkably kind and patient with her. Ok, not Mary - but everyone else just puts up with her constant emo act. She is the original emo - I'm going to start calling her "Original E". That whole haircut scene was her being irrational.

 

Edith: *mope*

Cora: Edith darling, what's wrong?

Edith: *Sigh* ... Nothing.

Edith: *Sigh*

Robert: Edith, would you like a drink?

Edith: *Sigh* ... No. No. I'm fine. *Sigh*

Mary: Check it - I got a new haircut!

Edith: OMG HOW COULD YOU!!!

 

At least when Jan Brady acted like that you could understand because she was just a middle schooler. Edith is pushing 30. Let me repeat that: Edith is thirty years old. FFS. This ridiculous melodrama is entirely her own damn fault. Expecting the rest of the world to just psychically know what's happening is irrational. So Mary said something mean to her? Good. Somebody needs to be the Voice of Reason and it ain't coming from inside Edith's head.

 

Yes, by all means, Edith should move out. It'll be good for her. Hopefully she'll find her "Snap out of it" moment.

This might be my favorite post ever about Edith. 

 

JordanPond, I responded to your post in Edith's thread.

[RedHawk]

So, for the moment, it looks like Edith snatched the farmer's child? Marigold's been kidnapped, more or less?

 

 

By "looks like" do you mean that others who don't know the baby is Edith's will think she kidnapped her? Yes, that could happen. But as the Drewes aren't raising the alarm and appear to be going about their lives, however downcast and somber, then no one's likely to think that for very long. Otherwise, no, Edith took her own child from a foster home situation. Edith showed the farmer's wife, Mrs. Drewe, a birth certificate with her own name as the mother. There was no adoption on the part of the Drewes, only a secret arrangement between Edith and Mr. Drewe that his family would take the child and raise her. Mrs. Drewe had no legal right to keep Marigold.

 

Poor writing and time management. But at least Mary had a fabulous dress on when she twirled her new haircut.

 

Indeed she did. And I agree about the poor writing, 100%. I stick with this show for the lovely clothes and scenery, the moments and story lines that occasionally work well, and the laughs, even if they are snarky. I even get a kick out of some of the soap opera moments -- it's just a TV show after all!

Edited February 10, 2015 by RedHawk

[Diane M]

I just love Brendan Coyle's smile.

 

Me too.  Lovely smile with a twinkle in his eyes (sigh).  Unfortunately, we haven't seen much of that smile this series.  Hoping Series 6 will find a happier Mr. and Mrs. Bates.

[SailorGirl]

okay, so clearly I MAY have projected a bit of my own feelings and experiences into my comments about Edith's actions. :-)   I definitely made some mistakes and had others make comments like, "you should have known differently." How, exactly? When you stop doing "what you are supposed to" or what your family thinks you should and do things on your own terms and find yourself in a situation for which you have absolutely no preparation, you do what you think is the best you can for your own survival. Right, wrong or otherwise. That's how I see what Edith is doing.

 

She never wanted to give up her daughter in the first place but gave in to Rosamunde's advice as to the "proper" thing to do, whether it was best for Edith (and Marigold). It was all she knew.

When she couldn't live with that, she thought okay, I'll do the next best thing and at least have her close by with the Drewes. Again, she attempted to maintain what was "proper," even though it wasn't best for her. The scene with her watching Sybbie and George coming in to play and say hello to the family was so telling -- she was clearly thinking, "Marigold should be here too."

 

The family's indifference to the official news of Gregson's death was the last straw for her. I don't think she was expecting them to be as sad as her but as another poster upthread said, at least have some recognition that her feelings went deeper than the family realized, and that they could at least have some empathy for that, but instead, nothing.

I think she finally saw that what was important to her would never be important to anyone else in the family (save, perhaps, Cora), and it was the last straw for her -- she really saw that if she was ever to have anything in her life be treated as important, she would be the only one to treat it so. But because she had never been prepared for or equipped to handle any sort of independent action, she reacted in the only way she knew. Not the smartest decision, but the best one she could make for her own sanity at the time.

 

Now we wait and see if JF continues to write her character with any sort of reality after making such a drastic life change. If she continues to build and find her independence, she should be written as going back on her terms, with it being known that Marigold is her daughter and Edith choosing to own that and have Marigold accepted as a Crawley family member rather than a bastard child. Didn't we see a preview scene where someone is talking to Edith and she says, "I'm not going back!"? 

 

If, however, JF chooses to continue the "poor Edith" character treatment, she will return to the family and revert to what is proper, admit to kidnapping the Drewes' child and go home with the agreement that she will "get treatment" and give the child back to the Drewes and not be allowed to see her ever again. She will become the sad lonely spinster Crawley sister, living out the role her family cast her into despite her occasional attempts to stand up for herself.

Now THAT is depressing.

Edited February 10, 2015 by SailorGirl

[Andorra]

I can't get behind the idea that one, two, or even three more children can replace another one. Shit, our dog died almost 14 years ago and my dad still can't bring himself to by a new one.

 

 

 

I don't think that the other children of Mrs Drewe "replace" Marigold, but the fact remains, that SHE has a lot to live for and a lot to love while Edith ONLY has Marigold.

I'm sure Mrs Drewe is very sad and suffers innocently, but I still think that in the long run Edith did the right thing. She didn't want to give up the child at any time. She just wasn't given any other option and the possibility of keeping the child just was completely out of her (and Violet's and Rosamund's) way of thinking. But she never wanted to give her up ad suffered badly when she was forced to do so.

 

Now she has finally broken free and made a final decision. I think that's a good thing for all people concerned, except Mrs Drewe. But I also think that her husband is not blameless and that the situation could have been more clear and less hurtful for her if she had known the truth from the very beginning.

[photo fox]

Okay, everyone, this thread needs to cool down a bit.  I appreciate the passion about Edith, and Mary, and Mary vs. Edith, but if you feel your blood pressure rising, it's time to step away.

 

I'm going back and editing some posts.  Going forward, let's try to keep things a bit more fun and a bit less personal.

 

Basically, let's be more 

 

http://i.imgur.com/isKlHsUt.png

 

and less

 

http://i.imgur.com/OXmxdYFt.png

[Avaleigh]

She didn't want to give up the child at any time. She just wasn't given any other option and the possibility of keeping the child just was completely out of her (and Violet's and Rosamund's) way of thinking.

I don't remember it being this way exactly. I remember Edith considering keeping Marigold but felt that she cared about what society would think. She comments that it's something that Sybil could have pulled off but not her because at the end of the day Edith cares what people think and has made comments confirming that. Edith had other options she just didn't want to face the consequences of being an outcast in society. There isn't anything wrong with having this attitude I just wish that she'd own it more and have a better understanding of the fact that there are consequences to the choices that she has made.

[izabella]

Edith had other options she just didn't want to face the consequences of being an outcast in society.

 

No, she really didn't want to be an outcast.  I would hope she also was thinking of Marigold and that she didn't want Marigold to have to bear the bastard burden for her mother's escapades with a married man, but I'm not sure if that went into her thinking at the time.  It's certainly not apparent that she is thinking of Marigold being an outcast in society now that she's taken her.

[majormama]

I thought Pamuk had more or less initiated the encounter with Thomas (or at least didn't discourage it until it got pretty far) so he could blackmail Thomas into leading him to Mary's room.

 

 

That's a totally plausible scenario, but I never saw it that way. Thomas was putting his feelers out, asking very careful questions that another gay man might recognize as propositioning but a straight man would not. When Pamuk gave certain answers that made Thomas feel as though he was gay, that was when he stroked Pamuk's face and Pamuk freaked.

 

 

It's been a while since I saw Season 1. I could well be confusing Thomas's scene with Pamuk and Thomas's scene with the Duke. I seem to remember a man appearing open to Thomas's advances and then being like, ha ha, nope! I'm also sure that Pamuk used Thomas's advances as blackmail to get to Mary's room, as in, I'll keep quiet about it if you take me there, whether he had expected the advances or not.

[kpw801]

It's been a while since I saw Season 1. I could well be confusing Thomas's scene with Pamuk and Thomas's scene with the Duke. I seem to remember a man appearing open to Thomas's advances and then being like, ha ha, nope! I'm also sure that Pamuk used Thomas's advances as blackmail to get to Mary's room, as in, I'll keep quiet about it if you take me there, whether he had expected the advances or not.

IIRC Thomas was assigned to act as valet to Pamuk because Pamuk's man didn't speak English and was not there.  Thomas was dropping little hints that would have been easy to ignore.  But he stepped out of line when he caressed Pamuk's face and then tried to play it off and act like Pamuk had misunderstood, at which point, Pamuk blackmailed Thomas by saying he would not tattle if Thomas helped him out with "the geography of the house" and that is how he got into Mary's room.

[lucindabelle]

And that is the sole time we saw anything relating to the fact that homosexuality was a crime at that time. I guess it was hitned at in the cricket game.

Considering that they didn't even sack him for stealing, though, don't know why I'm surprised.

Employers like this never existed.

hell, they still don't.

[Ohwell]

She's a child actor who is too young to act sad or shocked.  She was just a kid being held by an adult she knows slightly and was looking around for her mother who was somewhere off camera but in her sight line which is how they film scenes with kids.

All this may be true, although I disagree that she's too young to act sad (maybe even shocked).  My point is that, acting or not, looking at her mother off-camera or not--she looked sad and shocked to me.  So, in the context of the scene, it worked, at least for me.

[Almost 3000]

By "looks like" do you mean that others who don't know the baby is Edith's will think she kidnapped her? Yes, that could happen. But as the Drewes aren't raising the alarm and appear to be going about their lives, however downcast and somber, then no one's likely to think that for very long. Otherwise, no, Edith took her own child from a foster home situation. Edith showed the farmer's wife, Mrs. Drewe, a birth certificate with her own name as the mother. There was no adoption on the part of the Drewes, only a secret arrangement between Edith and Mr. Drewe that his family would take the child and raise her. Mrs. Drewe had no legal right to keep Marigold.

 

Did Edith have a Xerox copier? How in the heck did she just happen to have an extra copy of the torn up birth certificate so she could thumb her nose at Mrs. Drewe for ripping it up...

[AZChristian]

Did Edith have a Xerox copier? How in the heck did she just happen to have an extra copy of the torn up birth certificate so she could thumb her nose at Mrs. Drewe for ripping it up...

 

We wondered that, too. 

[moonb]

Ah, perhaps THAT'S the reason for the mysterious telephone call to London at the end of last episode.

 

Or not - she simply had multiple copies made in Switzerland after giving birth. But if she had the foresight to do that, knowing she might want to reclaim Marigold at some point.....why did the rest of her plans concerning Marigold seem so unplanned? I'm flummoxed. 

 

Or she was bluffing and Mrs. Drewe's destroying the one copy makes it easier to construct a fake background for Marigold. Except that if she took over Gregson's publishing company, Marigold might eventually find out anyway.

 

Overthinking it, table for 1!

[Almost 3000]

She could easily gotten multiple copies of the birth certificate while in Switzerland.

Most documents at that time were one copy and maybe a copy somewhere on record or logged into a book if it survived war, flood etc. I'd think multiple copies of anything unusual for that time so Edith's magical Xerox copies stuck me as funny.

[madam magpie]

Maybe she just wanted a backup in case she lost it or something. I have two copies of my birth certificate.

[mojito]

Question for the people who Mary and her haircut debut was insensitive: Do you think she timed her haircut because she knew it would draw attention to her and away from Edith?

 

As for Edith and the champagne....she's in a hotel room with a toddler. I think she deserves the whole bottle.

[AZChristian]

Question for the people who Mary and her haircut debut was insensitive: Do you think she timed her haircut because she knew it would draw attention to her and away from Edith?

 

As for Edith and the champagne....she's in a hotel room with a toddler. I think she deserves the whole bottle.

 

 

To be honest, I think Mary is so wrapped up in herself that she (a) didn't think about Edith at all (as usual), and (b) would have done the same thing if Edith's husband of 50 years had died that very morning.

[blackwing]

How on earth is Edith going to raise a toddler?  She doesn't even know how to take care of herself.  How does she know how to feed Marigold?   The only advice she got from Mrs. Drewe was that Marigold won't sleep without her stuffed animal.  Is Rosamund going to help?  She never had any children of her own so she herself can't possibly know the first thing about raising a roddler.

[Clanstarling]

Marigold looked like she was sad and in a state of shock when she was in Edith's arms in the hotel room.  Edith might have been celebrating, but Marigold most definitely was not.  I would not at all be surprised if Edith begins to feel that caring for Marigold is too much--nannies notwithstanding--and turns the child over to yet another couple sometime soon. 

I don't think the child looked any different than in any other scene she's been in. She's been pretty passive all along.

 

Although I've hated the mopey Edith, I miss the season when she was working with and falling in love with Gregson. She sparkled, and it seemed like she was going to become a pretty impressive woman.

 

As for Mary's bitchiness, it seems to me there's a fine line between bitchy and cruel. She was downright cruel in this episode. But that isn't really unlike her, it was just so blatantly ill mannered that I was taken aback.

 

Cora is rather weak as a mother. She almost says the right things, but never with any vehemence. She showed more concern over Isis than Edith, in my opinion.

Edited February 11, 2015 by clanstarling

[nilyank]

 

How on earth is Edith going to raise a toddler?  She doesn't even know how to take care of herself.  How does she know how to feed Marigold?   The only advice she got from Mrs. Drewe was that Marigold won't sleep without her stuffed animal.  Is Rosamund going to help?  She never had any children of her own so she herself can't possibly know the first thing about raising a toddler

 

How does any new parent learn to raise a child? On the job training. However, Edith has her own money and inherited the newspaper. She has the means to hire a staff of nanny and maid to help assist her raising her daughter. Edith loves Marigold and will make sure that she is taken care of. Edith is not going to break Marigold if she doesn't do everything perfectly. She will learn and each day will be easier than the day before.

[txhorns79]

How does she know how to feed Marigold?

 

I'm going to go on a hunch that Marigold eats food through her mouth, possibly with someone using some kind of utensil to feed her. In her years of eating food, I think Edith understands that concept.  But more to the point, she has two toddlers at Downton.  Even if they are usually with nanny, she's likely picked up some basic knowledge in watching how they are handled. 

Edited February 11, 2015 by txhorns79

[Clanstarling]

As for the Doctor Gregson, he's always seemed non-judgmental, and a man of empathy. He's also known Thomas for a long time, and worked with him closely when they had the soldier's recovery facility at the Abbey. There have been people like that throughout history, regardless of laws. So, although there are many things I might find ludicrous with Fellows' writing, this is not one of them.

 

Count me in as one of those who can't tell Gillingham and what's his name apart - even in the same scene. Wish they'd at least cast guys with different colored hair!

[Kohola3]

I frankly don't give a hoot one way or the other about Marigoldgate.  But I was put in mind of King Solomon's judgment about cutting a kid in half because two mothers claimed it as their own.  The true mother gave it up to the false mother because the true mother would wouldn't ever harm her own child.  When Mrs. Drewe gave Edith the stuffed bear, all I could think of was that she was the true mother.  She cared more for the child than for herself.

[SusanSunflower]

yes, Mrs. Drewe even cried and had me near tears for her .... Edith just got more grimly determined. I'm sorry they didn't have little Marigold shrieking hysterically as would be completely natural -- not matter how "civil" the adults are trying to be. It was ghastly and I'm of very very mixed feelings --

Why not at that point trust Tom to drive you around to do some errands or - since she drives -- simply drive herself to buy supplies or order things to be delivered to the hotel? All very slap dash and dangerously impulsive ... I'd half expect a suicide attempt .... maybe the gas tap. Still wondering about Gregson's gorgeous flat -- I remember beautiful windows -- why would she not have a key? even if shut-up when he left, since he did intend to return, all she would need do is remove the dust cloths and get on with it. I just wish I thought Fellowes would let her start a new life in London (as many of us have been wanting for her). 

Very sad that Edith doesn't even have a maid she can enlist to help or accompany her, even someone at Rosmund's house, some friend or confidante. Up the creek, minus paddle. 

[honeywest]

I hope Isis is just pining for Bricker.

[Tetraneutron]

 

mary has become unreal lately. I mean, blaming Edith for starting the fire? Who does that?

Edith DID start the fire. And it's not like Mary kept harping on it.

 

There isn't one aspect of Marigold's like Edith has handled competently. Come to think of it, there isn't one aspect of her own life she's handled competently. (Except anything relating to the magazing but that was tell-not-show). But the audience isn't suipposed to see it that way so who knows. I believe in the old days if you had enough money you could get paperwork that would let you "adopt" your biological child. And no one will ever suspect, because God forbid Fellowes write any actual drama.

[mightycrone]

Im fine with Robert being pissed about finding another man in his wife's bedroom. That makes perfect sense. What I wish they would not gloss over is that a couple of episodes ago Robert told Cora to her face that no one was interested in her opinions (not that he hasn't said the exact same thing to Edith as well). Donk, indeed.

As hard as these types of things are for, maybe female viewers in particular to hear, they ring true to me for that situation and time.  

[jschoolgirl]

Most documents at that time were one copy and maybe a copy somewhere on record or logged into a book if it survived war, flood etc. I'd think multiple copies of anything unusual for that time so Edith's magical Xerox copies stuck me as funny.

She simply could ask for a copy to be typed up. During the Civil War, Walt Whitman was a "copyist" who made out duplicate records. People had capacity for duplicates, just not fast ones.

[ennui]

Do we know anything about the canine actor who plays Isis? When (someone) commented that Isis was fat, I thought maybe she's pregnant. Since we can't really have her hiding in large coats and standing behind furniture, they'll have to write out the character.

[ExplainItAgain]

Mabel Lane Fox is far and away more interesting, fun, and enjoyable. Tony was a fool to toss her and will be lucky to get her back! I hope we see a few scenes where she continues to make him pay just a bit.

 

I LOVE Mabel Lane Fox. She has some spunk and I love her sparring with Mary. The introduction of Mabel and Atticus over the last few episodes has really livened things up a bit.

 

We need a spin-off of Carson and Mrs. Hughes adventures in their retirement cottage. Mrs. Patmore can pop by any time for a spot of tea and Mosley and Daisy can give history lessons every other Thursday.  Make this happen, Fellowes.

 

I would watch the hell out of this.

[Too Late Kev]

When Mrs. Drewe was saying goodbye to Marigold, Edith was holding on tight and had this expression on her face, like she was afraid Mrs. Drewe would grab Marigold...much like Mrs. Drewe's expression in recent weeks. I was impressed by Mrs. Drewe's farewell to Marigold, trying to make the transition easier and more comfortable for her.

 

It was a tough situation all around.

[ScoobieDoobs]

Poor Laura Carmichael.  Unless the Emmy peeps create a new category for mopiest actress in any TV show ever, she's never gonna get an Emmy.

Edited February 11, 2015 by ScoobieDoobs

[lucindabelle]

Edith did NOT start the fire. They explicitly shoes us a spark leaping out of the grate.

And what on earth do you mean adopt your biological child? She has a legitimate birth certificate. No adoption was necessary, she'd never given her up.

Edited February 11, 2015 by lucindabelle

[DHDancer]

Edith did NOT start the fire. They explicitly shoes us a spark leaping out of the grate.

 

Edith threw the book across the room.  I don't know if she was aiming for the fireplace but the book ended up there, precariously balanced.  It caught fire and fell on the carpet.  It was an accident caused by carelessness.

Edited February 14, 2015 by photo fox
edited for tone

[stopeslite]

Maybe Edith got multiple copies of the birth certificate because she was expecting the same kind of reaction from everyone she told. 

 

"Aunt Rosamund, I've taken Marigold, and no one can argue because I have the birth certificate to prove she's mine." *Rosamund rips it up* 

*sigh*

"Grandmama, this is the baby we spoke of, Marigold. Here's her birth certificate to prove she's mine." *Violet rips it up*

*sigh*

"Papa, this little girl is my daughter, Marigold, and... " *Robert grabs the paper from her hand, tosses it in the fire*

[ZoloftBlob]

Edith did NOT start the fire. They explicitly shoes us a spark leaping out of the grate.

And what on earth do you mean adopt your biological child? She has a legitimate birth certificate. No adoption was necessary, she'd never given her up.

 

Edith started the fire by her own unconcerned carelessness. She threw a book at an open flame and then ignored it. Of course it was patently ridiculous that Edith didn't notice the flames/smoke as if she immediately lost consciousness, but there you go.

Edited February 14, 2015 by photo fox
edited for tone

[shipperx]

Question for the people who Mary and her haircut debut was insensitive: Do you think she timed her haircut because she knew it would draw attention to her and away from Edith?

.

Honestly? No. I think she didn't give one thought to Edith in any respect whatsoever. Edith is a total non issue to Mary. But that's not the same as deliberate action. She didn't do it to hurt Edith's feelings. She just doesn't give a @&)#

 

If Edith's pregnancy had happened in 2015, she never would have given up Marigold in the first place.

Edith is many things. Some (for some, many) that are not positive. But the woman had sex once.

Edited February 14, 2015 by photo fox
edited for tone

[chessiegal]

I thought Emma Lowndes who plays Mrs. Drewe did a fantastic job in the scene where Edith comes to take Marigold. Her facial expressions at the utter angst when she realized what was happening had me thinking flying monkeys were going to come screeching in from the sky. Well done, Emma.

[ZoloftBlob]

{snip} that Edith is doing all of this in 1924 is entirely because Edith doesn't want to be judged. Look what happened to the other E girl, Ethel/Edna. She had sex, got knocked up and was shamed into having no opportunities but selling her body and handing over her kid to the grandparents who were never going to acknowledge her. That's much more historically accurate, and no one would be wringing their hands over Edith's feelings. Because really, a huge part of why Edith is doing all of this is to avoid the 1924 societally accepted labels.

Edited February 14, 2015 by photo fox
edited for language

[RedHawk]

Soooooo, how 'bout that new lady's maid over at Violet's? Looks like she and Spratt are going to do some sparing and it might be highly entertaining, at least for Isobel. 

 

I liked the little historical touch of showing jigsaw puzzles in this episode. We saw Violet and Isobel doing one, and later when Mary revealed her haircut we saw Robert and Tom were doing one as well (nice father and son-in-law moment). According to the American Jigsaw Puzzle Society, the '20s and '30s were the Golden Age of jigsaw puzzles.
 

Edited February 11, 2015 by RedHawk

[LeGrandElephant]

I am confused by the comments about attachment disorders. I could easily believe that going through a few primary caretakers before the age of conscious memory could have some effect on a kid and on their general feeling that the world will always be safe and stable, and that could affect them in the long run depending on their personality. But my understanding was that attachment disorders are a much more serious thing, caused by extreme neglect like kids in especially bad overcrowded orphanages with no primary caretaker at all throughout childhood. Marigold's situation seems like it might or might not give her some anxiety or other issues, but I would be shocked if it left her with an extreme attachment disorder. Maybe I am misunderstanding the use of the phrase.

I feel very bad for Mrs Drew and I wouldn't be surprised to hear her marriage has fallen apart, because that was a terrible thing her husband did to her.

I'm mainly annoyed that the writers set up a situation where there was no good resolution and someone had to get hurt.

I wonder how traumatic it was when Sybbie was left with a nanny who was abusing her and no one noticed for awhile?

[zoey1996]

As for the Doctor Gregson, he's always seemed non-judgmental, and a man of empathy.

By Dr. Gregson, did you mean Dr. Clarkson?  If so, agree with your assessment of his character.

[dahling]

"I can't believe you would get a haircut the day after I've found out the man I loved is dead." (for two years)

 

Probably the funniest line ever, and sums up horrible Edith quite nicely. She really tried to fuck up Mary's whole life with the Pamuk letter, and she deserves all Mary's scorn and then some. 

[alias1]

Probably the funniest line ever, and sums up horrible Edith quite nicely. She really tried to fuck up Mary's whole life with the Pamuk letter, and she deserves all Mary's scorn and then some. 

Pamuk was ages ago and it ended up just fine for Mary (as has everything).  I'm not an Edith fan, but when does the statute of limitations on that run out? I don't think the Pamuk ancient history has anything to do with it.  Mary just likes being nasty to Edith because Edith makes it so easy. 

 

Anyway, I think Mary already responded to the Pamuk incident by trying to ruin Edith's life with the Anthony Strallan episode.  Although I actually think Mary did Edith a favor by not having her end up with Strallan, her intent was to ruin Edith's chance for happiness.

Edited February 11, 2015 by SierraMist

[dahling]

If someone tries to kill me, but fails, it "ends up just fine" but that doesn't mean I have to forgive them.

 

Edith's Pamuk move was so wretched that in the modern would it would have ended their relationship. One of them would have moved two thousand miles away and never spoken to the other again. Mary doesn't have to let it go. 

[shipperx]

If someone tries to kill me, but fails, it "ends up just fine" but that doesn't mean I have to forgive them.

Edith's Pamuk move was so wretched that in the modern would it would have ended their relationship. One of them would have moved two thousand miles away and never spoken to the other again. Mary doesn't have to let it go.

In a modern era no one would have given a shit that Mary slept with the guy in the first place (though his dropping dead on her would have led to jokes being made)...and I hesitate to compare an embarrassing letter to attempted premeditated murder, but that's probably just me. Edited February 11, 2015 by shipperx