Downton Abbey: Season 4

Overall, I enjoyed the episode. I liked the way Mary's frozen limbo of grief was handled. It seemed authentic. And I liked Branson's character better in this episode than in any of last season's. I hope he and Mary can be the voice of the future for Downton. The Earl's attitude was annoying, but I suppose most men of that era though women incapable of running an estate.

In Season 1, wasn't Charlie Grigg a petty thief who blackmailed Carson into helping him? And then he told the Earl about Carson's "embarrassing" past on the stage? I could understand why Carson didn't want to re-connect with him, so last night's maudlin scene at the train station left me cold.

I'm really tired of Cora being so gullible and such a bad judge of character. Actually my first thought, when O'Brien's absence was discovered, was, "does she really even need a maid? Can't she dress herself by this point?" It was tiresome that she would believe Edna and Tom, and think ill of Anna, who has done such exemplary work at Downton for so many years. And a little strange that the Earl would pass a reprimand through Bates - you would think the husbands would stay out of it.

Someone needs to be paying more attention to Rose . . .

Lady Arabella wrote:And I liked Branson's character better in this episode than in any of last season's.

I agree, but I think he slipped a little bit in the second episode. And now Edna is back and that's bad news for Tom.

You're right about Charlie Grigg; but I think the train station scene had to be done so that Carson could put Alice out of his mind and clear the way for him to have a relationship in the future (perhaps with Mrs. Hughes, who already put her past love behind her in another episode).

While I'm glad Nanny West is gone, I'm also tired of Cora being manipulated by the likes of O'Brien/Thomas/Edna. How many times does Thomas have to deceive various members of the Crawley family before they figure it out? And now that Thomas and Edna have conspired against Anna, what is Mr. Bates going to have to do to put them in their places? Worse yet, What's he going to do when he finds out about Mr. Green raping Anna? It was so sad to see Anna step away from Mr. Bates when he reached out to her, and to hear her lie to him about why.

Lady Arabella wrote:Someone needs to be paying more attention to Rose . . .

I agree.

shepherdess wrote:

Lady Arabella wrote:And I liked Branson's character better in this episode than in any of last season's.

I agree, but I think he slipped a little bit in the second episode. And now Edna is back and that's bad news for Tom.

Indeed he did slip back - Last night I kept thinking he was an idiot.  After Carson & Mrs. Hughes got together with him to tell him to watch his step, he forgot all about their advice and opened himself up to Edna's machinations worse than last year.  And it never seems to occur to him that Sibyl was just as much an alien in his world as he is in hers, but she accepted her new world with courage.  Tom is back to wallowing in self-pity.  I wonder if Edna will "trap" him into marriage?  I doubt the family would allow his daughter to be raised by Edna, and would Tom really want that?  Fie on him for a fool!

I really felt for poor Anna - but the writers seem to have made her their whipping boy, or whipping girl in this case.  How much more does that poor woman have to endure?  And if Lady Mary likes the Gillingham person (forgot his name), his valet will be back at Downton frequently.  What will Anna do then?

And for all the fuss about whether the famous singer was "suitable" to sit at table with the family or not, it seemed the writers forgot to ask real singers.  Most of them don't eat or drink before a performance so they don't get mucus, etc., in their vocal chords.  They eat afterwards.  (Of course, when hiring the singer, the family should have asked the singer's requirements.)  It would have been more realistic to have a little reception after the performance for the guests to meet the singer, rather than having her at dinner.  We really haven't seen the family have much to do with artistic culture, have we - - they've mostly been on the estate, and went up to Scotland, but we haven't seen them in London for the season, where, one assumes, they would frequent the opera, ballet, theatre, symphony . . . .  Certainly in regards to Nellie Melba, they came across as quite provincial.  (On re-reading this, I sound like a snob   )