<p>It seems pretty obvious to me that Bates’ wife Vera was trying to poison Bates. Didn’t the Woman that Anna went to talk to about Vera say that Vera had been trying-to scrub the pastry dough out from beneath her fingernails so hard that her fingers were practically bleeding? I took that to mean that she knew the pastry was poisoned and didn’t want to poison herself by leaving the dough where it could soak into her skin.
Anyone else think this?</p>
<p>Sorry about that Woody! You needed a winky face ; )</p>
<p>And I didn’t catch that anxiousmom! Good one! I might have to rewatch that. One more day guys! :D</p>
<p>Anxiousmom, you definitely could be on to something re fingernails. This would be a tangible way to prove she was poisoner – exhume body and check fingernails. I was wondering if poor Bates was going to come to a bad end in jail, but this seems too shockingly out of character for the series.</p>
<p>Edith is turning into the only interesting character. </p>
<p>I also don’t get how the family can be so seemingly oblivious to Thomas’s conniving ways.</p>
<p>The wife definitely poisoned herself. It’s the only logical explanation.</p>
<p>Maybe Vera will turn out to have been recently diagnosed with fatal cancer. Anna will figure that out somehow, visit Vera’s dr., and have his testimony that Vera said she wouldn’t want to live through attempted cancer treatment or suffer cancer death. (Hmm, dr. has been out of the country so he didn’t hear of Vera’s death and Bates’s conviction.) So, since Vera hates Mr. Bates, she sets it up to die and make it look like he killed her.</p>
<p>I also missed the fingernails line. I think that’s the answer. Anna works it forward, lord G pays for the exhumation and tests, Bates is home free. Such a tidy end.</p>
<p>Kind of like Matthew getting two inheritances , kind of like the unsuitable fianc</p>
<p>Great segment on Highclere this morning on CBS Sunday Morning.</p>
<p>So, the grand European tradition of a rakish and essentially broke Duke marrying a rich man’s odd duck daughter is based on fact!!! Who’d have thunk it?</p>
<p>Do you think that Cora is an “odd duck”? She never really struck me that way (unless her relentless “Americanism” is the odd duck trait).</p>
<p>Good catch on the old friend of Vera’s talking about her scrubbing the pastry dough out from under her fingernails. That sounds like the type of anvil-sized hint that J. Fellowes would drop and I’m kicking myself for missing it the first time.</p>
<p>Here is a 21st century “Downton Abbey” problem.</p>
<p>[A</a> real-life Downton dilemma: Baron with eight daughters but no sons faces his title passing to a distant cousin | Mail Online](<a href=“Real-life Downton Abbey dilemma: Baron Braybrooke with no sons faces his title passing to a distant cousin | Daily Mail Online”>Real-life Downton Abbey dilemma: Baron Braybrooke with no sons faces his title passing to a distant cousin | Daily Mail Online)</p>
<p>Sooooooo . . . . I missed the first ten minutes and decided not to tune in late. So I think I’m off this thread – unless someone can tell me when it’s repeated??</p>
<p>You should be able to watch it on the PBS web site.</p>
<p>Soooo, as the Dowager Duchess said “I’m afraid a great many noses will be out of joint.”
I sincerely hope so.</p>
<p>Well, now we have confirmation that Lord Grantham is completely useless–he can’t properly manage the estate or even take advice from anyone on the subject. I wonder if the Dowager Countess realizes her son is such a loser.</p>
<p>The prison/mail story line was excruciating tonight. Every time the story turns to Bates the show’s momentum comes to a complete halt. </p>
<p>I do love the spark that the new hires have added to the staff.</p>
<p>That was weird. I had DVR’d the show and just sat down to watch it and our local PBS channel showed the same episode as last week :(</p>
<p>Kept thinking I had pressed the wrong button, but the blurb describes what should have been this week’s show then when I watch it, it is the same as last week.</p>
<p>Well I’ve set it to record at 2 am on tuesday morning, hope it is the correct episode!!</p>
<p>swimcatsmom–</p>
<p>In our market, last week’s episode plays at 8PM and the new ep. at 9, repeated at 10. Perhaps you made a timing error?</p>
<p>No DVR here and we watched the Ravens/Patriots game instead. Can’t wait to have some time to sit down at the computer and watch last nights episode!</p>
<p>MAdad - I don’t think so as the DVR is set to only record new episodes plus the description of the recorded show said it was the episode where Tom and Sybil come from Ireland after some incident, but the actual episode was the one with the wedding. Unless maybe they labeled the episodes the wrong way round and the DVR picked up the wrong one.</p>
<p>The toaster: [“Downton</a> Abbey” and Modernity : The New Yorker](<a href=“http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/01/its-toasted-modernity-and-downton-abbey.html]"Downton”>It’s Toasted: Modernity and “Downton Abbey” | The New Yorker)</p>
<p>MommaJ said, “The prison/mail story line was excruciating tonight.”</p>
<p>Excruciating and…what happened? I do love Anna and Bates, but I felt no anxiety for them, and completely don’t understand why the letters were withheld. What did Bates do to fall out, then into “favor?” And with whom? I thought the development was very sketchy. </p>
<p>Was it me? Or did the whole episode seem to fall short somehow? And I only remember chuckling at two good lines by the Dowager. My husband and I were disappointed. : (</p>