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<p>It was Cora</p>
<p>Maggie Smith was terrific in all her scenes.</p>
<p>Matthew will recover and Mary will RUN far from her controlling fiance.</p>
<p>Where can I get the back story to Peter/Patrick?</p>
<p>I’m with bookworm–I just started watching Downton Abbey this season, and I would love a quick update on Patrick!</p>
<p>In the past two weeks I have watched all of season one on Netflix and got caught up with season two on the pbs website in time to watch last night’s episode. I am wondering whether I will be able to wait until next Sunday for the next episode or whether I will have to hunt down and watch the last two (I think there are just two episodes left).</p>
<p>This is what I remember about the Patrick stroy: Patrick was Lord Grantham’s heir, thought to have been killed when the Titanic sunk. Now the question is whether Peter is really Patrick or an imposter. I guess I hope he’s an imposter because I do like Matthew, and if Peter is Patrick, Matthew is out as heir. But if Matthew is out as heir, it would give Mary a chance to redeem herself by choosing Matthew for himself and not for his position.</p>
<p>I have to say I am getting tired of Mr. Bates. And Thomas.</p>
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<p>I agree. I had been resisting agreeing with people and TV critics who were saying this was little more than a soap opera in Edwardian costume. But I’ve run out of reasons to disagree. Last night, with the introduction of amnesia, Downton Abbey definitely jumped the shark into pure soap-land. </p>
<p>Short term amnesia from a blow to head causing you not to remember the blow or accident that caused it is pretty common. But amnesia of the soap opera kind, where you forget your identity and former life, is exceedingly rare in real life. The vast majority of doctors will go through their entire career without seeing a single case. But in soap-land there are very few families left untouched by amnesia. It happens left, right, and center, and always producing social/romantic/legal complications.</p>
<p>But everything moves much more quickly than the typical soap!</p>
<p>I thought Patrick/Peter sounded like he had an American accent, which is why I think he is an imposter. (No spoiler, just speculation).</p>
<p>I think the bandaged Canadian is Peter, not Patrick. Note when Edith told him that detectives were now looking for Peter, and “they WILL find him,” “Patrick” suddenly gives up and leaves. He knows what the investigators will find. This is good, because it means DA did NOT jump into daytime soap amnesia territory; it’s an imposter playing the amnesia card, but he won’t be successful.</p>
<p>RE: Bates and Vera – It’s just too obvious to have Bates be the killer. He wouldn’t have made his earlier comment that he wished Vera was “the late Mrs. Bates” if he was actually planning to do the deed. No, I suspect Sir Richard. Probably didn’t kill Vera personally, but hired a hit. My guess is that Vera was about to give her story to another paper that would actually print it, and Sir Richard got wind of this. Remember when he warned her not to try to cross him?</p>
<p>*I thought Patrick/Peter sounded like he had an American accent, which is why I think he is an imposter. *
That didn’t make sense to me either. Plus I agreed with Lady Marys summation- what other sort of childhood would they have had?</p>
<p>What confuses me is “Patrick” having a Canadian accent (of course, that is not a Canadian accent at all, but an American accent, but leaving that aside). Patrick wouldn’t have a Canadian accent, having moved to Canada as an adult. Neither would Peter! He didn’t move to Canada as a child. Why does this person, either Peter or Patrick, not have a British accent?</p>
<p>My grandmother was an English-speaker from Montreal. I never met her, but her sisters, my great-aunts, sounded nothing like Patrick/Peter. Still, American TV programs and movies get British accents wrong. I can forgive Downton for giving this person an accent for the wrong place in North America if they explain why he has an accent from any place in North America.</p>
<p>I loved Bates in the first season, perhaps partly because I loved him in North & South, which you should all watch immediately. But this season he’s so tiresome, and his relationship with Anna just drags on and on.</p>
<p>I hadn’t thought about the accent possibiity. One’s accent is most often acquired and stuck during the time of puberty. That is, if you had a British accent when you were 12-14 years old, it’s likely you have a British accent as an adult. If you had a British when you were 5-7, but the accent wasn’t “encouraged” after that, your British accent is not likely to have continued. So the truth is, where was Peter/Patrick during his years pf puberty?</p>
<p>I vote for Peter completely. Notice how he’d ask Edith for the finer details, like “what was your nanny’s name?” and “Where di you travel during the summers…?” She fed him all the answers when he only gave general questions.</p>
<p>And I suspect Mary will drop Sir Richard completely after he threatened her. She doesn’t go for that kind of threat.</p>
<p>I think Daisy will give the former maid, now with child, the pension that would come to her b/c she was married to William.</p>
<p>I missed the part in the preview about Cora in bed with someone. Anyone care to elaborate?</p>
<p>I think Cora was ill in bed by herself.</p>
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Exactly!
Excellent theory. This way, if Sir Richard is implicated, Mary can break off their engagement. The only other thought I had was that this was a way to introduce Scotland Yard into the story line. That way, they could bring Sherlock Holmes or Christopher Foyle to Downton Abbey to solve Vera’s murder. Oh, wait, wrong PBS series! :)</p>
<p>^^^
As to Cora, I got the impression that she was very sick, not in bed with someone. </p>
<p>Thought the Peter/Patrick plot line was ridiculous, a possible ‘jump the shark’ moment. </p>
<p>I do love most of the actors in this show, and have a special regard for the actress who plays Lady Edith. She seems to have the ability to make her character the most multi-faceted of all of the characters on this show. I would love to see her in something else. Anyone know her or her previous work? </p>
<p>I have to say I am not very impressed with Elizabeth McGovern, who plays Lady Cora. It appears that she swallows a handful of Quaaludes before each of her scenes, as it seems like she is about to fall asleep as she is talking, and only has that one sideways look she uses all the time. </p>
<p>I do appreciate the fact that Elizabeth McGovern is beautiful for her age, and looks like she hasn’t had any work done. It must be all those years living in England. Compare her to Terry Hatcher or Sarah Jessica Parker. In fact, that is something I like about all of these English shows. People look so much more normal.</p>
<p>^ It’s either Botox it up and give up facial expression, or look your age. It’s apparent which track E. McGovern has taken. </p>
<p>I think the show has jumped the shark, with the classic “soap opera amnesia” angle.</p>
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<p>1918 = the influenza pandemic</p>
<p>Odd that Cora would get the Spanish flu, though. She’s too old. The Spanish flu, unlike later flus, killed young people, not older people. More American soldiers died of the flu than died in combat. It should be Daisy, or Edith, or Mary. Or THOMAS. Yeah, that’s the ticket; Thomas drops dead of the flu.</p>
<p>I kept thinking the same thing about Patrick’s accent. It was clearly not British. I also agree- I think Richard had Vera killed. It is getting a tad too soap-opera for me. I think they would be better off exploring the complexities of the relationships between the characters rather than resorting to this type of cheap dramatic technique.</p>
<p>But everything moves much more quickly than the typical soap!</p>
<p>Remember we Yanks are getting the Edwardians for Dummies version.</p>