I didn’t hear him admit it. I heard him tell his nasty cellmate that he had been convicted, which is of course not the same thing.
My guess is that the wife had been using the poison for its intended purpose but had some on her hands or clothing and got it into her food by accident.
when his cellmate said he forgot he was living with a murderer Bates said something to the effect: “and don’t you forget it”. This is in sharp contrast to his earlier demeanor where he projects himself as innocent.
I thought that the Vera thing was obvious. She poisoned herself to get back at Bates for falling in love with someone else. Before killing herself, she did everything that she could to make it look like Bates did it to set him up.
I took this just as a threat to the cell mate rather than an admission. “Street cred” if you will. The cell mate already believes it, so why not use it to establish that bates is not going to be his bitch. It is also possible that Bates IS a murderer, but not of Vera.
Well that’s the obvious meaning. But it may also prove to be a hint to viewers.
She wrote to her friend, who lived around the corner, that she was afraid of Bates. That is why Anna is searching for said friend: Why would Vera have written a letter to someone who literally lives around the corner?
We know that Bates was, indeed, extremely angry when he went to see Vera. The Earl advised him to hold his temper. But we also know that he served a prison term in order to spare Vera.
We know that O’Brien was feeling very protective of her ladyship, that she knew about the scandal, and that there was no love lost with Mr. Bates.
We know that Thomas has no scruples at all, and he disliked Bates for being promoted to valet ahead of him.
We also know that Vera was extremely angry at Sir Richard for taking her money and then NOT publishing the story about Mary’s liaison with Mr. Pahmook. When she threatened to leak the story, he threatened to “destroy her” if she did so.
We know that Mr. Molesley had a “thing” for Anna and that Mr. Bates’ return interfered with his promotion to valet to the Earl. We also know that Molesley lied about having an injury so that he wouldn’t have to serve in the war.
We know that Mrs. Patmore can skin a chicken in 20 seconds flat…
Maybe they all did it like
Murder on the Orient Express
Speaking of anachronisms…Cora’s line “I’m an American…have gun will travel.” While the phrase “have ____ will travel” was common, the “gun” part seems to have originated with the 1958 TV show.
Maybe the show got it from her.
I can’t remember what it was but the Countess Dowager said something that indicated a greater understanding of how normal people live. That was a bit of a contrast to the first series, in which she famously asked, “What’s a week-end?”
And it was funny to see the family get upset over someone wearing a dinner jacket to a dinner party instead of tails. It’s so weird to see how much more formally they dressed in those days, and to imagine what one of the would think if you transported them to our time.
That would be the obvious explanation. Suicide set up to look like murder. I’m surprised his defense counsel didn’t do a better job of bringing it up as a defense.
It isn’t obvious to me. Vera is too selfish and grasping to off herself.
Wouldn’t surprise me if a killer came out of the woodwork, like Mrs. Bartlett, angry at Vera about something. Any friend of Vera’s isn’t going to be someone we’d want to know.
I think the newspaper guy hired someone to kill Vera.
How much are ‘tails’? Seriously. The future Earl of Granthom, inheritor of a massive estate, only owns one socially acceptable outfit to wear to a dinner party?
I hope Bates killed Vera, that character needs to get darker, his amused smirk and the dull story line that brings it about needs to go.
I wonder if Edith’s soon to be husband can be the one to save Downton.
Not even a dinner party; I believe they always dress in tails for dinner. So I agree that it makes sense that Matthew Crawley would own more than one such jacket.
And it was amusing when one of the daughters suggested to Tom Branson that he just buy a second wardrobe and keep it at Downton Abbey for future visits. They really have no clue how much money normal people have.
That and he didn’t want to wear ‘Downton clothes’ in the first place because then he feels doing it is pretending to be something he isn’t.
I think Violet is my favorite character on that show (She reminds me of my 5th grade English teacher) and she’s in her element when she’s snide. She was becoming too nice after Matthew got injured. It’s great to she her back in her element.
Matthew has been a man of strong convictions throughout. He has strongly insisted on maintaining his normal lifestyle. He swore over Lavinia’s grave that he and Mary could never be together. Hell, he was destined to never walk again at one point!
Of course he’s going to change his mind about the inheritance.
The Bates prison “confession” was an obvious head feint. I can’t believe anyone would see it for anything else. It would be interesting to follow a narrative line about his actually having killed his wife, but that would take the Anna character in a dark direction and call the perceptions of everyone else in the house into question. I just don’t see them going that way at all.
Mary, as a character, is really rather loathsome. It’s an achievement that they make her someone we generally root for.
The Thomas character is coming close to going over the top. Why indeed would anyone really keep such an obvious creep around? Oh, you’re a thief and conniver, but you did go out looking for my dog, so stick around? What is interesting is that they never had him do anything as reprehensible as O’Brien’s character did, but they’re working towards making her a likeable character nevertheless.
Men’s suits were very expensive, were individually tailored in London, and you had to have several different sets – tails, morning coat, dinner jacket, hunting clothes, and several ordinary walking around clothes. It wouldn’t surprise me that Matthew had only one tail coat.
Notice that Lord Grantham himself only had a few dress shirts, not a whole cabinet full of them.
Also remember that in real life, these folks would be spending most of their time in London, where all their tailors are. The men wouldn’t bring all their clothes for a visit to the country estate.