We’ve been watching the stupid football game instead of Downton Abbey. Of course, now it’s a blow out and husband is sleeping on the sofa! Guess I’ll catch it tomorrow night on-line.
Diaphragms need to be “fitted”, or at least my GYN told me back in the day.
I too missed abbey, babysitting.
Edith has never been my favorite. Mary reminds me of a young violet. I expect Mary to be pregnant, which is not a Violet behavior at all.
I don’t think mrs. Hughes was the pusher, but she was the witness.
Is Mr. Coyle, the larcenous valet, going to turn out to be Mr. Green, the rapist valet?
And what is actually happening with Barrow? I don’t believe the dying father excuse for a second.
^I don’t believe Barrow either. He’s up to something.
I hope Mrs Hughes didn’t kill whats his name and if she did I hope she doesn’t get caught. I like her and despite her brusque manner at times, she really seems to care for Anna and the rest of her staff.
I’m caught up now. Watched it at 7:30 this morning online. I so love the internet.
Mrs. Hughes is wonderful! I strongly doubt she was the pusher. And I don’t think Bates did it either. I think it was an accident.
So, Mary seems to be cooling on Lord Gillingham. That’s certainly a problem! What is she going to do now – jump into Charles Blake’s bed (that’s the other suitor) to see how that goes??
I think Miss Bunting will never be allowed upstairs in Downton again. She really went too far this time with the Russians.
But Daisy is going to become very well educated, take over the farm, and become a brilliant, successful businesswoman.
Hooray for Cora letting Baxter stay. Of course that had to be the outcome.
Barrow is obviously interviewing for some job – maybe to be closer to Jimmy, who was one of the few people to be kind to him. I think he knows he’s not going to get anywhere by staying at Downton, especially because he no longer has any sway over Baxter.
Barrow made a phone call to “how to get your life on the right track” or something like that? Did they have some sort of “un-gay”-ifying psychology experimentation going on in 1924? After Baxter had all this melodrama about not wanting to tell the entire story and leaving everyone hanging, I certainly didn’t expect it to be just some guy made her steal, wanted more storyline than just that - I get that she’d want to put the past behind her and not go to the police BUT really, isn’t that an easier explanation than saying “I cannot tell you” over and over and over? Lord Gillingham is pathetic, dropping by Downton like what 5 hours later? He really must be broke. Hope the old russian prince keeps things interesting though I doubt they’d keep that up, that would be fun having Violet being wooed.
I’m really worried that Thomas is going to attempt to set Baxter up for a jewel theft and because Cora is such a sucker for whatever he says, she will believe him (even though they know what a dishonest sleeze he is). I love that Mary has cooled on Lord Gillingham and can’t wait to see how he responds when he finds out that she has no intention of marrying him.
Edith baffles me; she seems totally out of control and simply cannot see that she’s being utterly selfish in a situation where with a little tact and judgement, she could have regular access to her child without giving away the game. I have no doubt that if Gregson shows up, she will snatch little Marigold from the only parents she’s ever known without a backward glance.
Emma Bunton has returned to type this week, bringing elderly exiles to tears within minutes of being introduced. I know that Julian Fellowes is trying to set her up to be the perfect partner to Tom but I can’t see what he could possibly have her do that could turn the tide (for me, anyway). She’s like someone who would have gone to a 9/11 memorial service to inform the grieving family members that while it was sad they lost their family members, it was really their own fault for being citizens of a capitalistic country who had taken military action in the middle east. She’s hopeless and Tom seems to be reverting to his earlier moronic self. Poor Sybbie.
^ I think the characters’ name is Sarah Bunting. Emma Bunton was one of the Spice Girls :).
I don’t care for her at all though, I find her rude. Agree that Edith is not handling the Marigold situation very well.
I wish Julian Fellowes would give Edith some spine. Doesn’t she have a newspaper to run? And doesn’t she realize that Marigold is the Drewe’s daughter now and her adoptive mother loves her?
Over on Tom & Lorenzo, they’re saying that Barrows is off on a de-gaying expedition, as amanda says. I hope it doesn’t involve surgery.
Mary is being her usual cold, hard self. She jerked Matthew around, she jerked Carlisle around, and now she’s jerking Gillingham around. Soon it will be Charles’ turn.
Yes, I agree that Mary hasn’t been nice to her boys. However, Charles will be the tough one. She won’t be able to mess with him! 
Yes, yes!!!
The Russian aristocrats had a lot more complicity in the situation that caused the Russian Revolution than some random hedge fund manager’s wife had in 9/11.
Not only that, this view was also widely shared by many in the British aristocracy of the time.
In fact, King George V was the one who refused to allow his Romanov cousins to enter Britain to claim asylum when there was still a chance. He was concerned about how the perceptions of the Imperial Russian family and the aristocracy widespread among most Britons during the latter part of WWI and afterwards was negatively that of cruel autocratic tyrants. George V was worried allowing his Romanov cousins into Britain would spark a possible revolution like the bloody Bolshevik one in Russia.
LOL, you are absolutely right. How could I possibly confuse sweet Baby Spice with that obnoxious harpy!
Which totally justifies Miss Bunting bringing elderly exiles (who have lost all property and whose loved ones have been brutally murdered) to tears in someone else’s home? Nope, sorry. Their past political lives are utterly irrelevant in a social situation in which they are guests of honor and which has been designed to brighten their otherwise desolate exile. Anyone who could throw politics in their faces at this point is utterly beyond redemption and should never be invited anywhere.
People like her really do exist; no one can stand to be around them except their like-minded peers.
No, but it totally justifies rejecting the equation of Russian aristocrats to family members of 9/11 victims.
I disagree. Families in grief are all in grief and deserve kindness, regardless of how you feel about their circumstances. To cause them further pain within seconds of meeting them is just cruel.
I’m not defending Sarah here, but Tsar Nicholas was killed in 1918, and the Russian aristocrats would have been fleeing Russia in 1917 and 1918. The events we’re discussing are set in 1924. It’s not like they’re grieving about something that happened last week.
Depends on the circumstances.
For instance, I would have no problems telling off a Japanese friend’s grandmother the instant she starts ranting about the “damned Chinese” for forcing her off “her” Manchurian property which was seized from native Chinese/Manchurians by Japanese colonizers in previous decades so Japanese settlers like her could do their part in colonizing Manchuria for the “Great Japanese Empire”.
Only issue I have with Miss Bunting’s actions was that she seemingly started making the controversial political comment without apparent prior provocation. THAT I agree was inartful and tactless.
However, if the aristocratic Russian exiles started ranting about how Russian autocracy under Czar Nicholas II and previous czars was great and how it was right to use that autocracy to keep the “lower orders” in their place, Miss Bunting would be well within her rights to respond bluntly with her political views. And considering the history, it was very likely many older Russian aristocrats in that period would have made such comments without any reservations.
One must also keep in mind that there were actually two Russian Revolutions in 1917…the one in February which Kerensky was a part of which while socialistic was trying to pursue a road towards a parliamentary democracy of some kind and the Bolshevik one in “October”(November in our current calender) which tends to be much more well known.
Would be interesting if Fellows expands the inclusion of Russian exiles to include the ones who favored the Kerensky government as that would add another dimension…along with more sources of conflict to add to the drama and thus, ratings for the show…