I had never thought about Rosamunde being Edith’s biomom…I like that twist.
Count me among those who think that Rosamund is Edith’s mother. That could be the reason why Robert is so accommodating of Marigold and the secret.
Hope to see the last of the Drewes soon; and Mrs. Denker, too. Love the retorts from Violet’s butler. He’s a nicer guy (in his own way) since the Dowager dressed him down last season. Love the rivalry over Isobel between Merton and the doctor. I half-way expected the doctor to slap the hapless Merton in the face with a glove and challenge him to a duel. Merton needs to up his game if he intends to finally “capture” Isobel.
When are Shirley McLaine and Paul Giamatti coming again to visit? Hope it’s before Violet’s (possible) funeral. I do not want Violet to expire!!!
If they’re going to kill Violet, it has to be on-camera, with a fabulous death-bed scene.
Love reading all the speculation about what may or may not happen this season!
I was slightly bored by Sunday’s episode – seemed as if nothing really happened, although I suppose future events are being “set up.” I will definitely miss Violet’s great zingers when it’s all over. Last week my Book Club had as much fun discussing/rehashing some of her best ones as it did discussing the book we read!
Excellent, @Sax!
Someone is going to die because the local cottage hospital does not have the modern equipment to save the life. Robert is a good guess. Violet will have to embrace the change, and at show’s end she and Isobel are kindred spirits once again as they mourn their loss together. Also guessing that Thomas will have to put his driving skills to the test when he rushes Robert to the hospital. A bigger plot twist is that Carson is the one who dies, and Thomas is called upon to take his place (hence why they are trying to make him look more human, playing with the kiddos and such.) They are spending far too much time reinventing Thomas for him not to have some key role in the future of DA.
I think Violet dying is a bit too predictable. I think they will go for more of a gasp reaction like we all had with Sybil.
The Rosamunde/Edith theory is a good one. Maybe that comes out upon Robert’s death.
If Edith takes Marigold to London then the Drewes don’t need to move at all.
Predictions–well, I agree with sax on just about all of them.
But I think the new butler boy goes for his walk in the woods and gets lost. He has the winding key for the clocks with him so Barrows goes after him and finds him but only takes the key and leaves him to fend for himself. Then according to sax is found later under the grandfather clock. The over staffing problem is solved.
The blackmail girl shows up at newspaper with big story on Mary. Editor wants to print it. Edith asks Mary to fire the jerk editor for her and Mary is only too happy to oblige. They call it even.
The wedding takes place in the great hall. It’s beautiful, great, everyone’s super happy and then Ms. Hughes holds it over Carson’s head for the rest of his life.
Alternatively, Cora makes the great hall look like a school house for the day, orders beer and catering from the local pub and a country band. Very festive but Carson holds it over Ms.Hughes head the rest of her life.
I do think Rosamund is Edith’s mom. Edith is closer to her than anyone else. Edith finds out when a rival newspaper prints the news.
Someone is going to land in that local hospital which will solve the dispute once and for all. I think it’s going to be Anna after a botched surgery from the London doctor. Local good guy doc saves her and marries Isobel. Violet is happy but misses having someone to poke jabs at regularly. Cora “just knew” this was going to happen.
How symbolic it would be though, in view of how the times were changing. She truly is old school aristocracy.
oh gosh, I did mean Violet, of course. Sorry for the mix up.
No, not Violet! But Robert is a possibility - they are building up Mary’s role. They announced the prize pig was the property of Lord Grantham and Lady Mary. So, Robert could die in the ill-equipped hospital. Then, I could see the season ending with the new Bates baby being born, a boy of course, named Robert. sniff Also, I like amandakayak’s version of the Hughes/Carson wedding with the aristocracy getting jiggy and drinking pints. 
- A disagreement over where to hold a wedding reception with the possibility of generating hurt feelings.
- A dispute over who should administer a local hospital.
- Several folks face financial difficulties and have to cut back or may even move if it gets bad enough.
- An attractive young widow has occasional brief flirtations but nothing serious. She's mostly focused on raising her young son and learning a new career.
- A disagreeable guy's career is stalled and he's worried about getting laid off. He finds that the economy has changed from what it used to be and getting a new job won't be easy.
- A career woman disagrees with the male manager at work and she squabbles with him.
- The head of the family is getting older and developing health issues.
That’s about the most mundane collection of plot lines I can ever remember seeing all in one show. At this point we have achieved near-total middleclass real-life dreariness. Only Edith’s not-so secret motherhood of Marigold is even faintly unusual and interesting.
Sax, funny!
The reason I feel Rosamund is Edith’s mother is because she took pregnant Edith and went to Violet and the two of them helped her as if it was old hat.
I agree, there is something up with the Thomas story. I actually don’t like it. I’ve come to see him one way to the point his cheesy smile, sunshiny ways and being the childrens’ playmate irritates me now. LOL.
Daisy ends up married to Mr. Mason. :))
Forgot to mention I thought the same thing as @“Cardinal Fang” Why would Mary take Marigold to the farm? How insensitive that was knowing they took her from the only mother she would know…unless Mary had no idea it wasn’t voluntary.
Isn’t a young boy called a “Master”.
Just waiting for someone in the wrap up episode set 5 years in the future to address Anna and John Bate’s son…
^^^^^Ha ha.
Isabel was completely sold on the idea of becoming Lady Merton until the Merton “children” were incredibly rude to her at dinner at the Abbey one night. She then decided she didn’t want to be their stepmother.
I don’t think it will be Robert who dies. I think it might be Cora. There’s still no interesting plot line around Cora, although the hospital brouhaha is including her, at least. Is anyone besides me bored with the hospital subplot? I suppose the important thing about it is whose side everyone is on but the details themselves bore me. Of course the big hospital will take over the little one. That’s progress.
I don’t think that Mary has any idea that Edith heartlessly and selfishly wrenched Marigold away from not one but TWO foster mothers because she apparently can’t see beyond the end of her own nose (does it show that I’m no fan of Edith’s 
?)
Honestly, I can’t see how Aunt Rosamund could possibly be Edith’s mother; why would she have given her up to be raised by her brother and sister-in-law?
If she had been single when she had Edith, that would have been reason to give her to Robert and Edith.
That’s not the issue (and if we’re looking for heartlessness, selfishness, and inability to consider others’ interests we should look to Robert and Edith’s eldest daughter IMHO). Mary did know that Edith had taken Marigold away from Mrs. Drewes. That should have been enough for Mary to be sensitive to Mrs. Drewes’ feelings.
Edith and Rosamund: the reddish hair. Rosamund is just a little too wistful about lost opportunities in her life. Have had this theory ever since Edith got pregnant. Rosamond has been down this road before.
Doesn’t Edith have a ladies’ maid? How does she do her hair? Because she has no ladies’ maid to confide in, as Mary does, Rosamund is the substitute.