<p>Okay, here’s my vote: I loved Sybil. I loved how she was so kind and non-status-y. I can’t stand Miss Bunting, except for one reason. I dislike her because I too think she’s pushy and very common. She’s just barely polite. The only reason why I like the character of Miss Bunting for Tom is to help him see he has a life. I really like him and I feel rather protective of him. (I especially feel he’s so vulnerable whenver Thomas is in the scene.) He’s had a rough few years and I’m always happy when he confides with Mrs. Hughes. He’s been struggling to find where he belongs and a teacher is an acceptable possibility. It’s just too bad Miss Bunting is such a pushy one. I really dislike how she makes Tom feels that he has to prove something to her. Sybil was never like that.</p>
<p>I’m on the fence as to whether I agree with the theory that Edith is Roamund’s daughter, but I did think it fit in quite nicely when Edith very unkindly said, “you don’t know what it’s like to have a child….” But, if that’s true, why is Rosamund so adament that Edith stay away from her daughter? Maybe because …… she’s really Edith’s mother.</p>
<p>What’s Baxter hiding? Could be that she’s Jewish, but this issue is well before Hitler’s time period of destruction. And I doubt it’s because she’s gay. This show has already been there, done that. I’m guessing it has to do with her sewing expertise. </p>
<p>I’m glad the season ended with Daisy happy, and with Mrs Hughes and Carson holding hands. I liked that over-enthused American valet. I hope he comes back somehow to pursue Daisy. And at first I didn’t like Harold, but that’s because I don’t care for the actor so much. He always seems so typecast. But I liked how he started to like Rose’s friend. </p>
<p>I think you are underestimating Irish girls who happened to be raised on farms…</p>
<p>I liked Miss Bunting at first. But I found her insistence on touring the house distasteful, and her joke about Cora’s coat of arms being a dollar sign was mean-spirited. </p>
<p>I like Sarah Bunting for most of the same reasons that JHS explains so well. Perhaps the character is written to appeal more to male viewers, because the women here nearly all appear to dislike her.</p>
<p>I did not mean to insult Irish farm girls. I was quoting Tom’s question a few episodes back about whether the Crawleys were going to be happy when he married an Irish farm girl. There is no way Tom could do that and remain a member of the family. That’s not – obviously – because the Crawleys are sound in their judgments.</p>
<p>All this talk about Sarah Bunting and whether her personality is pushy or being challenging in a flirty loving way reminded me of this earlier post back on February 16:</p>
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<p>As an alum, I feel Sarah Bunting’s personality is much more in line with most Oberlin students I knew from my time there than Lady Sybil. She may also fit in well with the arguably more radical Antioch College folks as well. </p>
<p>I can also see her at Barnard, but the pre-professional campus culture might be a bit too conventional, establishment, and boring for her. </p>
<p>As an aside, she’d have no problems fitting in as a New Yawker. :)</p>
I think it was pretty witty. I imagine the whole town knows that Cora’s money was the basis for the marriage, and it’s still gossiped about even all these years later, so Sarah was just making a typical "townie"comment. Knowing Tom’s background, she felt comfortable enough around him to speak in a way she’d never speak to any of the Crawleys. I actually wish Fellowes had shown Tom stifling a smile when Sarah made that comment about the coat of arms. It’s the sort of thing he would have said himself back in his chauffeur days</p>
<p>Do we know whether Rosamond is a widow or never married? It’s hard to imagine her being single all her life, since she’s an aristocrat, attractive, and must be entitled to a pretty decent allowance from the family funds given her lifestyle.</p>
<p>It is so interesting to read about the male/female split re: Sarah Bunting. I thought her action of going upstairs and her remarks were insensitive, both about the coat of arms and the day room. She ignored Tom’s comment, about how wonderful the room can be, especially with the fire blazing. I am at a loss to see how the men see this insensitivity as “challenging”.</p>
<p>Maybe Miss Bunting is just there to help Tom find his place, once and for all. There is much about her that is like Tom in his chauffer days, and yet, coming from her, it jars him a little. Maybe through her, his affection for and loyalty to the Crawleys will help him realize that he really does belong with them. At least that’s what I hope…</p>
<p>I hope the exact same thing, and I expect that’s what her character will be used for. I think he’ll enjoy her for a while, but then she’ll do something that isn’t appropriate and he’ll drop her.</p>
<p>Sarah Bunting is disliked because she’s insensitive and made Tom uncomfortable? Lest we forget: it wasn’t all that long ago that Tom Branson himself attempted to ruin the Crawley’s dinner party and make a radical social/political statement by dumping a gallon of foul slop over the head of a general. And while not lighting the fire himself, Tom also was part of a gang of rioters back in Ireland that burned down the house of an Anglo-Irish nobleman. And we think Sarah is too pushy and insensitive?</p>
<p>I don’t much buy into anything about her being like him in his chauffer days and that being an appeal. In his chauffer days the crawleys were not his in-laws, the parents of his deceased wife, the grandparents of his child. He may still hold true to his political beliefs and we may well want him to find some of that old passion again so that he can find his proper place in the world, but I don’t think his proper place in the world will ever again involve mocking or disrespecting the crawleys, nor should they.</p>
<p>I would like to see Tom find a middle ground between his old self and his new self. I don’t think we can idolize the way Tom used to be-- didn’t he set someones home on fire and more or less get banished from Ireland? I think we can miss the passion he used to have without really wanting him to go back there. He needs to re-find that passion, in a way that jives with his newfound respect and connection to the crawleys and with his life with his little girl. He doesn’t have to become a proper english gentleman or have any aspirations of being just like the Crawleys, but I do think he misjudged them some in the beginning just as they misjudged him, and now he has to find a middle ground. I like operadivasmom’s theory. I think perhaps with Tom wistful for his old ways, he is making the same mistake some of us are and idealizing his past… he needs something to show him that yes there were good things about the past that he could go back to, but it wasn’t all good and not everything about his new life is bad, and he has to find a way to make all the pieces fit together again now that they have changed. A woman who seems so much like him in his old days, yet without the perspective he has gained from becoming a part of the abbey, may do just that.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, I think if you rewatch the earlier seasons, Tom is at times just as narrow in his world view as the Crawleys are. Seeing that the Crawleys are good people who are a lot more complex than he thought shakes him up and he has to learn how to adjust his world view, just as the Crawleys have had to do as Tom has come into his own withn their family. Quite frankly, I think they are doing a better job of it than he has! They are not still walking around stunned and moping feeling like they don’t know who they are because they have a servant in their midst, they have moved on and progressed and Tom has not.</p>
<p>Sarah Bunting is like a window for Tom in the plotting department. We can see back into his past, to his prejudice against the wealthy and entitled, and we can see how far he has developed as a character through all that has happened to him. She is willing to be rude and make others uncomfortable to make political points; he no longer is. I think she will do something rude that will make Tom reject her and move on. </p>
<p>Tom is in a middle position now, but still not comfortable with his new status. He needs a new romantic partner with similar status, someone who can exist in the Crawley world, but not necessarily of that world. I think a former governess would be good. I also think he would be a good fit to run for office after he gets his politics sorted out.</p>
<p>I’m another on the female side who is annoyed by Sarah Bunting. It’s not just her rude remarks or pushiness in and of themselves, but at least so far there is nothing appealing in her personality to offset her stridency. Challenging the status quo can be good, but this one just always seems to be in a critical or bad mood. I agree with the posters who think the character is being intentionally written this way to help Tom on his journey of self discovery. </p>
<p>I keep wondering if Tom will eventually end up with Mary or Edith. </p>
<p>Loved the hand holding ending with Carson and Mrs. Hughes and the way she manipulated the trip to the shore, making him think it was his own idea! </p>
<p>I sure hope the character of Miss Bunting is being used as you wrote VeryHappy, that Tom will enjoy her company for a while until she does something inappropriate and he’ll drop her. To me, her behavior and comments when let her go upstairs was that ‘something’. But, to me, he’s still not so sure of himself and his place. I did really appreciate how he responded to Thomas who wanted Tom to sit in the front with him. So maybe Tom is getting stronger, but he still needs to toughen up to the women folk.</p>
<p>Cobrat, I didn’t go back to my post that you quoted, but I believe I was writing about Sybbie, not Lady Sybil. You’re right; Barnard might be a better fit for LS. </p>
<p>I have to develop those subtle tactics that Mrs Hughes uses to get her way. </p>
<p>It is really ridiculous that there is a Tom and a Thomas on DA. One of the first rules of fiction writing is that you never have two characters with similar names, much less the same name. Wonder why it wasn’t Brian Branson or Tim or something more Irish than Tom.</p>
<p>I think right around the same time Branson became Tom, Thomas because Mr. Barrow. Not a coincidence???</p>
<p>It’s never bothered me but now that you mention it it is a little weird. I wonder if they planned in the beginning for Branson to stick around long enough to become Tom.</p>
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