# Downton Abbey S3 - spoiler-free until broadcast in the U.S. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791 "2013-01-02T01:45:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/221 "2013-01-17T18:53:37Z")
I wasn’t thinking so much of Downton Abbey burning to the ground, just some damage and one or two people trapped by flames, suffocated by the smoke in their sleep. Then Edith ca fall in love with the contractor who does the repair work, and get jilted by him as well. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/222 "2013-01-17T19:37:22Z")
They’ve already had one daughter marry a working class lad; Edith’s romance should be completely unacceptable to the family an entirely for different reason. Like have her fall in love with a rich Jewish man or have an affair and get pregnant out of wedlock. Or discover lesbianism. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/223 "2013-01-17T20:27:53Z")
A word to the wise - do _ **not** _ do a Google search to try to see which one Dan Stevens is. I did, and I found out something about a plot development that I did not want to know. Too bad there is no way to enforce spoilers on the Internet generally. Shoot. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/224 "2013-01-17T20:44:40Z")
I’ve been thinking more about Edith and Strallan. If she is’t already considered one, Edith is very close to being and “old maid”. It seems like with so many marriages of convenience going on at the time, her parents would have been in favor of that match, even pushed for it. He’s rich and titled. If he had married Edith, he might have helped out with Downton. Sure he’s old and has a lame arm, but he’s rich enough to have plenty of servants to look after him if he became infirm. Surely it would not have been the worst of marriages as he seems to be truly fond of Edith. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/225 "2013-01-17T20:44:42Z")
I think all Edith needs to fall in love is breath and a penis. Maybe because of her position as middle child, she hasn’t had the attention, expectations or doting the other two had. When someone pays her some positive attention, she’s theirs. I’m surprised her heart wasn’t continually broken while they had the officers staying there. I guess it was because the prettier Mary drew attention from her, so she was left in the background again. If she was a middle-class daughter, the family would expect her to stay home and care for her aging parents. As for Matthew, I do see him thinking the money from Lavinia’s father is tainted. In his heart, he may feel that Lavinia would’ve recovered from the flu if her heart hadn’t been broken. Her dying 'Now he can be happy" declaration (that I think she made, but I’m not sure) can be seen to also include her father’s money. StG ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/226 "2013-01-17T20:49:42Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > A word to the wise - do _ **not** _ do a Google search to try to see which one Dan Stevens is. I did, and I found out something about a plot development that I did not want to know. > > Too bad there is no way to enforce spoilers on the Internet generally. > > Shoot. > > Regards, > Shodan I feel for you. Last year I did a search on Robert Bathburst (Sir Anthony), and learned things that I didn’t want to know about this season. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/227 "2013-01-17T20:56:02Z")
He and Edith really and truly cared for one another and had for years and it’s not like she has tons of prospects out there. It’s outrageous that the family conspired to muck that all up. That episode was in 1920 and Edith says that she was alive but not quite walking in 1896 so she around 25 years old. Is that really too late? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/228 "2013-01-17T21:02:15Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > I feel for you. Last year I did a search on Robert Bathburst (Sir Anthony), and learned things that I didn’t want to know about this season. Don’t go to the Wikipedia page on Downton Abbey. I’ve been burned there twice from _just the cast listing_. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/229 "2013-01-17T21:11:20Z")
Well Mary is 30 and Edith is only supposed to be a year or two younger than her 28 or 29. The exact timeline is a bit vauge and contradictory, but yes it’s not unrealistic for Edith to think of herself (& be veiwed as) a spinster. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/230 "2013-01-17T21:18:24Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > A word to the wise - do _ **not** _ do a Google search to try to see which one Dan Stevens is. I did, and I found out something about a plot development that I did not want to know. > > Too bad there is no way to enforce spoilers on the Internet generally. > > Shoot. > > Regards, > Shodan Wow. Luckily I deliberately went online to get the spoilers for the rest of the season last night or I’d have been p.o.d. that they did that. (Without giving the spoiler, it’s [if I saw the same one] a newspaper headline that blurts out a major Season 3 spoiler; I’m guessing many waiting to watch it in the U.S. or on DVRs or otherwise involving initials and a delay have fumed off.) ---
**Author:** ![brownMouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@brownMouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownMouse)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/231 "2013-01-17T21:43:15Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I’ve been thinking more about Edith and Strallan. If she is’t already considered one, Edith is very close to being and “old maid”. It seems like with so many marriages of convenience going on at the time, her parents would have been in favor of that match, even pushed for it. He’s rich and titled. If he had married Edith, he might have helped out with Downton. Sure he’s old and has a lame arm, but he’s rich enough to have plenty of servants to look after him if he became infirm. Surely it would not have been the worst of marriages as he seems to be truly fond of Edith. That’s a great point. The parents were sure pushing him on Mary when they were thinking she was “tainted”; I think that’s when Edith started getting interested in him. Then again, she’s fallen in love with just about every eligible man she’s met - Patrick, then she had the hots for Matthew, then that farmer guy, and Strallan. Also, I too had thought maybe her marriage to Strallan would’ve been the Winning Ticket to save Downton. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/232 "2013-01-17T21:47:48Z")
Yup. I eagerly sought out spoilers, although I don’t love\* Downton\* enough to try to watch it early. After the Christmas episode, American fans left livid messages on UK newspaper sites–bitterly complaining about the spoilers they had seen. When visiting a site in the country where the show had already been broadcast. Brits who had recorded the episode were also insulted that the paper dare discuss a show most people had already seen… “International” sites are also fraught with peril. Tumblr? Stay away. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/233 "2013-01-17T21:49:26Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Things I didn’t like: > -Lord Grantham just suddenly losing all his money with no warning. Obviously people who invest money lose money, but it seems to me it requires either carelessness or stupidity (neither characteristics that Lord Grantham has shown) or nearly criminal negligence on someone else’s part (which we haven’t been shown) to lose all of your money with no warning. I think it would have been better for there to have been some proto-Bernie-Madhoff situation where the seemingly respectable investment firm turned out to be a fraud or something, rather than Grantham having (a) invested his entire fortune in one stock, and (b) that stock’s value went so quickly to zero that they didn’t have a chance to at worst case sell at a loss Yes, that was a bit much, clearly the writers confuse drama with tragedy. This “No one can be happy for more than a episode” thing is starting to drag. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/234 "2013-01-17T22:44:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yes, that was a bit much, clearly the writers confuse drama with tragedy. This “No one can be happy for more than a episode” thing is starting to drag. It really is. There are plenty of ways to make drama interesting than to make everything awful all the time. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/235 "2013-01-17T23:13:17Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Things I didn’t like: > -Lord Grantham just suddenly losing all his money with no warning. Obviously people who invest money lose money, but it seems to me it requires either carelessness or stupidity (neither characteristics that Lord Grantham has shown) or nearly criminal negligence on someone else’s part (which we haven’t been shown) to lose all of your money with no warning. I think it would have been better for there to have been some proto-Bernie-Madhoff situation where the seemingly respectable investment firm turned out to be a fraud or something, rather than Grantham having (a) invested his entire fortune in one stock, and (b) that stock’s value went so quickly to zero that they didn’t have a chance to at worst case sell at a loss. Yep, the timing on this thing doesn’t work for me. According to the [Wikipedia entry on the Grand Trunk Railway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Trunk_Railway), there should have been plenty of warning to sell. The key passage is: [QUOTE=Wikipedia] The first indication the arrangement with the government was faltering came when GTR refused to operate the NTR, citing economic reasons. With the enormous cost of building the GTPR and the limited financial returns being realized, GTR defaulted on loan payments to the federal government in 1919. GTPR was nationalized on March 7 of that year, being operated under a federal government Board of Management until finally being placed under the control of the Crown corporation Canadian National Railways (CNR) on July 20, 1920. GTR underwent serious financial difficulties as a result of the GTPR, and its shareholders, primarily in the United Kingdom, were determined to prevent the company from being nationalized as well. Eventually on July 12, 1920, GTR was placed under control of another federal government Board of Management while legal battles continued for several more years. Finally, on January 20, 1923, GTR was fully absorbed into the CNR on a date when all constituent companies were merged into the Crown corporation. [/QUOTE] So a subsidiary of the GTR went under in early 1919 but the overall company didn’t come under government management until July 1920?! Sounds like plenty of warning to me. Not to mention that the financial advisor told Lord Grantham point-blank that the GTR had been in trouble since Hays died. As the linked article states: > [@](#): > > Grand Trunk Railway president Charles Melville Hays [died] on the _Titanic_ in 1912 (1) That’s even more warning! (2) Boy, the Grantham/Crawley family did not do well by the _Titanic_, did they? :eek:😉 ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/236 "2013-01-17T23:14:54Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Characters may come & go. But surely we’re not getting rid of Downton Abbey. The family would have to move into that hovel…with a mere 8 servants. The humanity! I like this show very much but the Crawleys are basically unsympathetic jerks with the ultimate in First World Problems. When I want a more realistic view of the world I go watch _Call The Midwife_ – a far better show with a far more realistic and nuanced view of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/237 "2013-01-18T16:22:10Z")
I actually would love to see the show skip ahead and deal with the Depression in a great house. It would require a total cast change-out, but seeing a middle aged Mary during WW2, or an elderly Mary with Beatles fanatic grandchildren in the 1960s by which time the house is open to the public. Or, skip ahead 90 years and focus on Matthew and Mary’s trashy great-granddaughters who attempt to save the palace via a reality show called ‘REAL DEBUTANTES OF DOWNTON ABBEY’. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/238 "2013-01-18T16:31:06Z")
I’m not about to check on Wikipedia and get spoiled so I will ask here. Are there plans for a fourth season or is this it? ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/239 "2013-01-18T16:38:45Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I’m not about to check on Wikipedia and get spoiled so I will ask here. Are there plans for a fourth season or is this it? Yes. But no Maggie Smith because in the last episode, the Dowager Countess us appointed the captain of HMS Dreadnaught.?;)😃 Both Matthew and Sybill die so it’s going to be a strange season ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791/240 "2013-01-18T16:40:30Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Yes. But no Maggie Smith because in the last episode, the Dowager Countess us appointed the captain of HMS Dreadnaught.?;)😃 > > Both Matthew and Sybill die so it’s going to be a strange season Spoilers show up in email notifications…just so ya know. I knew about one of these (thanks to the Facebook commentary on Season 3, that received comments from people who’d seen the entire season already). Didn’t know about the other. Thanks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downton-abbey-s3-spoiler-free-until-broadcast-in-the-u-s/645791.md?page=13)