<p>How did Edith find out about Mary and Mr. Pamuk in Season 1? I can’t remember how the story spread. Daisy saw them moving the body, and then what? Who did she tell</p>
<p>^^Daisy let it out about seeing them move the dead Pamuk, and it got back to Edith.</p>
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<p>To frame Bates and thus get rid of his hated rival.</p>
<p>…and to answer as to what O’Brien’s motivation could be to kill Vera: To do a solid for the Lord and Lady Grantham out of guilt for the “soap” incident. I think we have seen that that conscious decision has haunted her.</p>
<p>I would be interested in more backstory on O’Brien. What makes her so cold? Is it just her position in life? Maybe her past would reveal that she is more than capable of committing murder. She kind of did murder Fetus Grantham, and was well aware of what she was doing though she did immediately regret her actions (even before m’Lady slipped).</p>
<p>Good prediction about Thomas, coureur. I’m not that good at mystery solving, so I didn’t think about him trying to frame Bates. So, here’s a prediction: Thomas continues being helpful, so he gets the job of valet to Lord Grantham. His true character (evil) will come out, and he’ll do some naughty things. Somehow that will lead to discovery that he killed Vera. Maybe he will confess to O’Brien and she will do the right thing and turn him in. He’ll get caught, and Bates will be freed and get his old job back.</p>
<p>Lord Grantham decided to give Thomas a chance as his valet. I’m still sticking with O’Brien.</p>
<p>I don’t see Thomas as a suspect. </p>
<pre><code>At the time Vera died, Thomas was not scheming to get Bates’s job — he wanted out of service altogether. And there’s no real frame up unless he knew beforehand about the letter Vera wrote to her sister… and he wasn’t a shoo-in for the job even with Bates out of the way. Committing murder on the off chance that it might create a job opening for oneself is quite a stretch to me.
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<p>One could entertain the notion that the letter is faked and that, in fact, Vera was just as nasty in life to her sister (among countless other possible Vera haters) and it was her sister who framed Bates…knowing that there are no other heirs and if Bates is in prison or hanged for murder, than she can claim the money Vera got in the settlement. </p>
<p>It is tempting to imagine that good-hearted Anna succumbed to evil and, having gone to visit and plead with Vera, ended up sneaking some rat poison into her sugar for tea…it’s plausible. Thus the shock and horror when the letter surfaces that points the finger at Bates and also her passionate conviction that he could not have done it. This would lend a deliciously Dickensian tragic flair to the story line. </p>
<p>But all in all, it’s up to the writers. They can leave Bates where he is, free him through Anna’s confession and destruction, or create an alternative solution. I still go with Sir Richard arranging it. The parting between Richard and Vera was quite vitriolic and he was too intent on a life in the uppermost reaches of power and influence in English society through his marriage to Mary to want to risk the threat of blackmail and exposure by the odious Vera. He took care of it and that an innocent man suffers is simply inconsequential.</p>
<p>^^I agree that Anna is also a suspect. Plus, it would fit within soap opera murder mystery nature of the show for an unlikely suspect (a woman) to turn out to be the wrongdoer.</p>
<p>Interesting theories but I just don’t think there’s any chance Anna poisoned Vera. Can anyone imagine her letting Bates get within days of hanging and not confessing her guilt? If she didn’t confess then why would she confess now?</p>
<p>I also don’t think O’Brien or Thomas did it either. O’Brien, while still unpleasant is still feeling crushing guilt for the Cora/soap bar incident and I don’t think she’s actually done anything really nasty since then. Thomas is petty, nasty and vindictive but far too much of a wuss (not to mention incompetent) to commit murder. Look how unglued he became because he lost track of the dog, LOL.</p>
<p>As for Sir Richard, maybe he could have been behind it for reasons of his own but somehow I can’t see it. Maybe Vera isn’t really dead and the person who died is actually her (identical twin!) sister. Vera is the only character who has been portrayed as being totally evil and ruthless and if she framed Bates she’d probably want to be around to enjoy his execution. Luckily there’s lots of time for speculation before the next season!</p>
<p>^^So then whom do you suspect? Isobel? Sybil? Pamuk? You seem to have eliminated every suspect. Somebody killed Vera.</p>
<p>^^^I know! I’m afraid I may be expecting too much from the writer(s) but I’m hoping for a real bombshell of a reveal. If I must bet then I guess I’ll put my money on Vera pulling a fast one and setting Bates up out of sheer malice. i wouldn’t put it past her to somehow fake her own death and frame poor old Bates just so she can cackle evilly end enjoy his and Anna’s suffering. I’d love something like that.</p>
<p>My theory is that Vera wrote that letter and killed herself with the poison precisely so that Bates would be implicated. She couldn’t bear that he was going to be happy with Anna, and was willing to die if it meant she could thwart them.</p>
<p>^^that…I agree…</p>
<p>Booklady, I was beginning to think I was the only one who actually believes the poison-suicide storyline… I just don’t think we’ve been given any clues to suggest someone else killed Vera (as interesting as all the other theories are). Maybe I’m wrong, but for now I’m buying the poison-suicide plot because it makes sense that Vera knew she would be screwing Bates over from the grave…</p>
<p>Actually, I also agree with Booklady that the most likely scenario is that Vera did kill herself just to ruin Bates and Anna’s lives. Still, I’d really love a big plot twist just because everything’s been so predictable this season :(</p>
<p>Oh well, it’s fun to speculate in the meantime.</p>
<p>I initially thought that O’Brien and Thomas together killed Vera… to get Bates out of the way and also for the money and that the money was what Thomas used when he was in the black market business before he has to come back and ask for a job at Downton after WWI. Interesting thoughts here about Sir Richard. I do think though that
Bates was definitely framed… not sure about Vera killing herself to spite him and Anna.</p>
<p>Mrs. Patmore, still unhinged by her nephew’s being shot for desertion in WWI, and feeling sorry for Anna, sent Mrs. Bates a cake laced with rat poison. </p>
<p>This sets the stage for Daisy to take over as head cook at Downton. She is obviously feeling like she deserves a promotion.</p>
<p>Maybe that wasn’t Vera lying dead there? Maybe Vera set this all up, lured some poor lady who looked like her into her house, killed her, and had already sent the incriminating letter? Perhaps someone who didn’t know her too well then found the body and identified her. So the police think Vera is dead, Bates thinks she is dead, poor Anna thinks she is dead, but really Vera is off somewhere ready to rear her unpleasant head in season 3. And then Matthew will solve the mystery, Bates will be free, and Vera will be charged with murder. If she gets the death penalty, then Bates and Anna will have to have another wedding, I guess.</p>
<p>Milton Bradley needs to get on board here: “Clue: Downton Abbey”</p>
<p>I think it was Sir Richard. Vera was planning to reveal the Pamuk story. Furious that she was breaking the contract she signed with him, and desperate to protect the fiancee he loved, he hired someone to do it.</p>
<p>If Julian Fellows is recycling story ideas from Upstairs Downstairs, then it was definitely Mrs. Patmore. Remember when the cook in Upstairs, Downstairs stole the baby? Cora, expecting a visit from royalty, will try and cover it up to keep her cook. Carson will offer to marry Mrs. Patmore to keep her out of trouble, but to no avail. Mrs. Patmore unlike the cook in Upstairs, Downstairs will go to a home for the criminally insane.</p>