Edith’s editor certainly did look like a younger Lord Strallan. And poor Edith - now unlucky in love five times!: The crush she had on Mary’s betrothed, who died in the Titanic sinking; the disfigured officer during WWI who may or may not have been the same guy; the married farmer; Strallan, who dumped her at the altar; and now the married-to-a-lunatic editor.
And who did she call for more info on the editor?
The actor who played Thomas really did well in this episode. He looked almost otherworldly in his anguish and unhappiness after Jimmy rejected his nighttime kiss. But I agree that the Earl and Carson were both anachronistically accepting of Thomas’s homosexuality - both said something along the lines of “He was born that way,” which, as noted upthread, even today isn’t a universally-accepted concept. IRL, Thomas would be out on his ear long ago - first for stealing wine, then for purposefully tripping Bates when the servants were greeting the visiting duke, and then for his unwanted advance on Jimmy. Give him a reference, fine, but send him packing. But in TV land, he’s just too good a character to drop, I suppose.
I LOL’d at Lord Grantham’s enthusiastic suggestion for buying into that nice American gentleman Mr. Ponzi’s investment plan. Quite the wise financier, the Earl.
I hope, off camera, Bates will send money or some valuable gift like cigarettes or chocolate to the other prisoner who was so helpful to him.
The aristocracy was a lot less repressed than the middle and working classes. Infidelity was routine – after all, and the upper class didn’t marry for love – and homosexual behavior at elite public schools was common enough to become a cultural cliche.
This confuses me. Do people think that O’Brien actually meant for Cora to lose the baby? Did O’Brien say to Thomas that she meant for the baby to die when left the soap on the floor? I never got the impression she wanted the baby to die, just that maybe the Lady of the house falling on her naked butt was a way to take her down a peg. And of course, even if she did want Cora hurt and the baby to die, they could never prove she left the soap there on purpose or that she even knew it was there. I mean, even if she told Thomas she knew the soap was there, she could always claim she meant to get it before Cora got out of the bath or she thought it was so far under the tub it wouldn’t be a problem and she’d get it later.
As an aside, I fell way worse than that when I was pregnant and all I had was a sprained ankle and sore hip. Nothing wrong with the baby.
I think she said she was calling the Daily Telegraph Information Bureau, but per their website, they don’t actually seem to have been founded until 1948.
Re Mary and the doctor: It seems to me that a doctor who specializes in the fertility problems of the rich would keep his patients’ conditions confidential, lack of privacy laws notwithstanding. Discretion is one of the services he’s selling, and since his clientele probably skews female and much of his business likely comes from women recommending him to one another, he’s not going to talk to husbands without permission if he knows which side his bread is buttered on.
The dustman Alfred P. Doolittle in Pygmalion/My Fair Lady observes that people in his class and in Henry Higgins’ class don’t bother with “middle class morality.”
Yup, that’s three pregnancies and three deaths so far. (First Cora’s miscarriage, then Sybil, now Matthew.)
(Hoping Anna doesn’t get pregnant soon! Her & Bates are the only happy couple left! You know Fellowes won’t let that last!)
So the actor playing Matthew wanted to leave the show – did he not give the writers enough notice so they could write him out logically? Because there was no reason for him to leave Mary and rush off to Downton.
Whatever.
I thought this was a good episode all around. Some of the cuts between Downton and Dunegal were a bit quick though. It’d take me a few seconds to remember if I was in England or Scotland.
I don’t like Edith’s situation, but then I’m old-fashioned. It’s not just that he’s married but that he’s her employer, even if she’s not being paid. She’s put her personal and professional life in his hands.
Is Robert able to propose changes in the divorce laws, being in the House of Lords?
