If I remember right, Edith witnessed the dragging. I am just catching up because I didn’t get to watch until last night. Oh my! The drama! But how about Tom giving Mary dating advice? Wasn’t he sweet? I still say Tom and Mary end up together. They will both decide that they’ve had the love of their lives, and no other can come close, but that they could still make a pretty good team, so why not. I also think Mary will surprise us with the Marigold revelation - she will have admiration for Edith’s secret romance and independent spirit. Remember “Edith has a date.” “No I don’t!” and Mary: “Of course not!” She doesn’t think Edith capable.
I’ve mentioned this before but think of if you personally had to live with your parents and siblings well into adulthood. While many of us cherish our siblings, I bet that at least an equal number of us don’t. I get along beautifully with my own sister as long as I hardly ever have to speak to her or see her.
Edith did not help drag out the dead Turk. Mary, Cora, and Anna did the dragging. And Edith didn’t witness it either. One of the servants did who later blabbed it to Edith, who then wrote to the Embassy.
Also, I think that Mary’s and Edith’s mean girl backstabbing of each other goes way back - to a time before the series begins in season 1. In season 1 Cora complains that her daughters are constantly at each others’ throats, suggesting that the battles have been going on for a long time. I’m guessing at least since their adolescent years and perhaps even from childhood.
@missypie : good thoughts! i love my siblings and parents - but i couldnt imagine my family living with them and eating with them every day. question: who’s older - mary or edith? i am afraid to look it up due to spoilers
There’s some evidence of the extreme sibling rivalry in the NY Times interview I posted with the actress who plays Edith. No premature revelations there.
@bgbg4us, Mary’s the oldest, Edith’s the middle, and Sybil was the youngest.
It’s strange that there’s no real villain in the series right now. Blackmail lady is gone (or so it seems), Thomas is on good behavior (or so it seems), Mr. Rapey is dead, the evil ex-wife of Bates is dead, etc. Maybe it makes Mary’s nasty comments more noticeable. She is a different person around Tom, very open and much warmer.
Lady Violet’s maid is evil. But she’s only blackmailing the butler, who is not exactly a character we’ve known and loved over the years. And I guess there’s the maid from the hotel…maybe she’s not gone for good.
Here is what I’ve been wondering about. Who is cleaning Downton? I think they mentioned being down to two women who clean (which would be impossible anyway) but where are they? Are there two other female characters? We have the butler, the underbutler, the guy who wants to be a pig farmer, Mrs. Hughes, the valet (who only seems to be assigned shoe duty lately), two ladies’ maids, the cook and assistant cook. Who is doing the cleaning? Where are the parlor maids? And I guess there has never been a laundress.
Maybe those gloves the ladies wear are really swiffers in disguise…or nobody looks too close at anything.
They simply don’t show the other characters who don’t have lines. They’ve probably passed in the hallway a few times but no one noticed. (Were there really 600 crew on the Enterprise? Was Isaac the only bartender on the Pacific Princess?)
But to the point - they likely closed down a significant portion of the house.
Having just rewatched season 1, it’s clear Edith has always been in the shadows. Cora and Robert noted that they rarely talked about Edith. They were trying to marry off Mary and Sybil was coming out. Cora noted that Edith would be their nurse when they got old. Don’t have to wonder too much why Edith feels so inferior.
And there did seem to be more staff activity moving around the house that first season.
@collage1
No Mary was not the reason Edith was left at the altar. If you go back and watch those episodes you will see she had nothing to do with it. It’s hilarious that some viewers dislike Mary so much for her dismissive remarks to her sister that they mentally rewrite the story. Poor, poor Edith indeed!
It’s funny because there have been situations where, for all her airs, Mary has actually sacrificed her own happiness so as not to hurt others. Edith, OTOH, has been so self-centered that she has damaged (if not destroyed) at least two marriages, and consciously tried to destroy her own sister’s life. Even Laura Carmichael (who I think is lovely) said she was a b***h:
Here’s the link (lest anyone think I’m making this up
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/arts/television/laura-carmichael-discusses-ediths-evolution-on-downton-abbey.html?_r=0
There were scenes in the earlier years of them setting up for parties and ‘bring in the outside men’ to do things like roll up the carpets, arrange all the flowers, set up the tables. We only see the staff that tends directly to the family. Daisy used to do the fires and cook and study and visit Mr. Mason. Really? No one could do all that.
Re post 4408: I thought Mary WAS the reason that the older gentleman that Edith was going to marry ended up leaving her. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I thought so too! Can’t remember the details though.
Oh goody, I am just going to have to watch the whole series over again some day. 
Found this quote but I cannot find any particulars and I hesitate to look further because I have seen spoilers again, luckily one I had already seen. But anyway, found a synopsis type thing on a British site:
“In revenge, Mary deliberately ruins Edith’s chance of marriage to old (and rich) socialite Sir Anthony Strallan.”
But then I found this, with no mention of Mary:
“One month after the engagement[3], on their wedding day Anthony, out of care for Edith’s well being, abandons her at the altar, telling her that she must not waste her life on him - which Violet says is the “smartest thing he’s said in months” - but leaves Edith shattered. Anthony was visibly torn and upset as he left the church.”
And there is a villain lurking in the wings: It’s Mr. Coyle, who is responsible for Baxter’s “downfall.” I’m sure he’s going to pop up uninvited one of these days.
Maybe Spratt’s nephew – the bad one who is on the run – is the villainous Mr. Coyle. That would be amusing!!
Wait a minute - wasn’t it Lord Grantham who objected to Edith’s marriage to Anthony Strallan? Didn’t he tell Strallan at one point that the two could not wed?
*Running up to Downton unannounced one day, Sir Anthony invited Edith to a concert, much to Mary’s disbelief. He began to regularly drop by to see Edith and take her for spins in his new Rolls-Royce. After Edith’s announcement that she believed Anthony was going to propose to her at the garden party, Mary made sure to talk to him beforehand, saying that Edith thought an old bore was going to propose to her. Feeling distraught out of the belief that Edith did not love him and thought him a bore, he excused himself from the party leaving Edith confused and terribly upset. War is declared later at the same garden party. *