<p>I was actually kidding, but now that we are talking about it I could see it-- I didn’t realize Anna was in London at the time! She doesn’t have a record like Bates does, I could see her trying to do it to protect him. She is so disempowered right now and is probably feeling very devalued, I could see her sacrificing herself to protect him.</p>
<p>However, there would have to be a lot more to the story, I think. I want to say more but I can’t remember if certain things have happened yet and don’t want to spoil it. Anna would have to think there was some real risk of Bates finding out who did it for her to take that kind of a drastic protective action-- she risks exposing the secret if she were caught. However, I think we could be overthinking it and it was an act of passion on an impulse.</p>
<p>I still can’t remember the specifics of this episode anymore after so long, did they show Anna’s reaction when she found out? Who told her? Did she seem to suspect Bates herself? I can’t remember! I might have to rewatch.</p>
<p>This is a fascinating theory that Anna did it! Why else would the just writer happen to place her in London on that very same day? She is Chekhov’s gun here!</p>
<p>OMG - I’m thinking you guys might be right about Anna! She was so worried that Bates would do something and go to prison for life, or worse. She would definitely try to protect him! What was her reaction? Anyone recall? And is there really only one more episode?? Why are the seasons so short? </p>
<p>Put me in the “Mr. Bates did it” camp. This puts the fate of his old wife in a new light and makes Anna (and the other staff) wonder what REALLY happened to the first Mrs. Bates. </p>
<p>He may be the obvious murderer, but he’s also the most interesting killer. Mr. Bates has a dark side…</p>
<p>I just read a most interesting series of posts by a historian on Downton, explaining a lot of the background and overarching themes for each episode of this season. It is on a magazine sort of blog which you can find by googling <em>the toast downton abbey</em>. Good explanations of the decline of the great estates, death duties, birth control, divorce, servants. Also explains where Downton is right on target and where not so much.</p>
<p>What bothered me most about the last episode was that Cora used the word ‘parenting’. I have the 2-volume OED, and the word isn’t even in there. ‘Parent’ as a verb is, but its usage is “rare”. I hate anachronisms like that, and yes, I’m a pedant. :)</p>
<p>You would think the DA staff would have someone to check word usage propriety. The one that got me was Lavinia saying “Anyone who doesn’t SUCK UP to her future mother-in-law is a fool.” I think that was just completely inappropriate and not in use at the time. She would have said “cultivate” her MIL or “cherish” or something of the era. Not suck up to, for heaven’s sake. I think that sentence would not be in good taste even now!</p>
<p>I was discussing the Anna-as-murderer theory with my H. He thinks it could have been Mary! Paying back her debt to Anna for helping with Mr. Pamuk. And so Mr. Bates won’t have to do it and possibly be caught.</p>
<p>So Mary’s conversation with Blake about whether she should say something about a person who may have done something bad with justification was a clever scheme so that, in the future, if anyone accused Mary, Blake would think that it couldn’t be Mary because she was thinking of someone else? That’s a little too devious (and silly) for Mary. I could be convinced that Mary was a possibility but for that conversation, and for her look of stricken horror when Gillingham told her that Green had died. Mary might have been acting there, but she didn’t have to raise the question of Green in the first place.</p>
<p>I am wrong. “Suck up to” has been in use since 1860. I still don’t think a properly brought up young lady or a man such as Matthew would have used this term.</p>
<p>Mary? I like the idea, but I don’t know if Mary would even pay enough attention to what a visiting servant looks like to recognize him on the street. Heck, sometimes, they don’t know the names of their own servants! “And you are…? Yes, yes, of course!”</p>
<p>During the bazaar, Mary told Anna about Mr. Green’s death, and Anna was suitably surprised. She also asked for some details, and Mary told her that lots of people were around so it didn’t appear to be foul play. Perhaps Anna was checking what the “word on the street” was. We all assumed it was Anna worrying about Bates, but maybe it was Anna worrying about herself!</p>
<p>ETA: I just re-watched the part of the show when Lord G tells Mary, and Mary tells Anna. Anna confirms with Mary that there were many people around and that many people saw it. Anna replies, “Well, that’s a relief” and Mary asks her what she means. “Oh, nothing,” Anna says. Sure sounds to me like she was worrying about Bates having done it.</p>
That bothered me too, but in another forum someone supplied several cites of ‘parenting’ from the period. Apparently it was in use then, surprisingly.</p>
<p>What if Green approached Anna and was lewd on the street and he even touched her arm and so she moves suddenly so that he steps into the traffic and she strides on not even realizing at the moment what had happened as she is so frantic to get away from him…
And maybe she mentioned that the he had approached her to Mary (but again not the death and maybe she still did not know for certain that he died).
I think Bates is planning something special and romantic for Anna to show her how precious she is to him. And also did not kill M. Green out of love as he understands how much his going to prison would destroy her.</p>
<p>Great story, oregon101. I hope you’re right. She accidentally pushes him under the Bus of Justice while trying to escape his assault. Perfect retribution. </p>
<p>But the part with Mary doesn’t work. Mary would not think she had any ethical dilemma, because she would never think that Anna defending herself from Rapey McRaperson was in any way suspect. </p>
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