Eventually we hit the tipping point of economics where a huge staff of servants just doesn’t make sense. Considering the economics of the time are playing a HUGE part of the series since last season…I refuse to believe “Moseley is a whipping boy” is the entire point of that plot.
Season 4, Episode 2
Well, I guess we got a dramatic event in the servants area.
Damn, that was intense.
I hope no one expects us to believe that Bates doesn’t know something’s up.
I also wonder what the trick was that the card sharp used? Of course, it doesn’t really matter.
In a really bad way. And forgive me since these frigging English men all look alike to me but who raped poor Anna? Was it that Gillingham creep?
It was Lord Gillingham’s valet; downstairs visiting servants were addressed by their employer’s names instead of their (which must make things very confusing if Cora & Violet are at the same house party).
I’m officially sick of Branson and his self-esteem issues.
I thought he was cute. I just wish he’d let himself go a little. But I thought that feeling was at least something you could find understandable. It would freak me out trying to make small talk with a duchess. Violet’s attempts to help were cute.
I wanted to hug Isobel tonight. She was at her sweetest. Poor woman. Her loss is almost worse than Mary’s. Her only child gone. She did a good job of conveying what must be a serious sense of incredible loss.
I read forward on the incident so I’m content with the outcome. And the cards were probably marked. Really enjoyed seeing the card sharp having his ass handed to him.
Didn’t think I’d enjoy a soap opera this much. Maybe it’s because of the scenery and old cars.
Already did amnesia.
Do they really just not like Edith?
Obviously, Lord Grantham hates the guy she’s with, so you’d think he’d try to throw someone else in her way, but no. He & Lady Grantham invite 18 men for Mary and just ignore Edith’s guy. That’s just weird. You’d think they’d at least pretend to pay attention to her.
Marked cards wouldn’t make sense, because he was clearly shocked when the other guy had a flush, which he already would have known (and folded) had the cards been marked. Instead he must have been forcing hands onto people in some rigged shuffle/deal fashion, and the other guy (Edith’s publisher) was doing it even better.
The rape storyline sure came out of nowhere, and I’m glad that there’s more of a reason for why Anna is remaining silent (Bates WOULD probably kill the guy and he DID almost get executed for murder not long ago) than just that’s-the-way-it-was-back-then. Granted, that’s-the-way-it-was-back-then might be quite an accurate explanation, but it’s one that I at least would find very frustrating and hard to relate to.
Of course if Lady Mary continues her romance with Lord Gillingham that’s just going to keep creepy-rapist-valet-Gillingham around…
Well, now at least I understand what all my British friends are so PO’d about. I really was enjoying the show until this. couldn’t they just let poor Anna and Bates have some happiness? Seriously?
Isobel’s state of mind was realistic. And it’s not really guilt that makes you resist smiling or doing something nice for yourself. In the early days of grieving, the intense pain really hurts, but it also keeps them close. The fact that you are being so much means they were just here a short time ago, they only just left. But down the road when you find that you can laugh and have fun, it’s like losing them all over again, because it hits you that one day you will laugh and smile again and do things, go places, wear clothes even that they don’t know and will never know. For me, this happened at about nine months, but it’s different for different people.
The Anna Bates attack was pretty brutal, and daresay, realistic. Apparently when it was first broadcast they got a lot of fire for it, but I think this is going to be very interesting moving forward. As much as we like to look back to 1922 with rose colored glasses, this was not a time to have any rights as a woman. I am grieving for the fun loving sweet Anna and all young women like her, since pigs like Green took that all away. The shame Anna would bring on Downton would be unbearable, so it will be interesting to see how she and Bates copes with this latest huge elephant in the room when it comes to their marriage and intimacy.
I thought it was kind of brilliant, in that Green targets Anna, he could have targeted any of the housemaids, but since we have a back story on Anna its so much more unsettling. We know the simple teasing and flirting was Anna’s innocence, obviously Bates knew he was a creep because as he said in an earlier show that prison taught him things.
I found it a very interesting juxtaposition between the Opera and the brutality, and how no one, even a beloved person, is immune to attacks.
The brutality of the scene juxtaposed with the opera concert reminded me of other times this has been used effectively: the baptism scene in Godfather III and (strangely) the alien opera singer in The Fifth Element.
Here’s PBS’s Masterpiece page on this episode, including an interview with Joanna Froggatt, who plays Anna: PBS.
The baptism scene is in Godfather II, not surprisingly, since that was a good movie. [/nitpick]
And I’ll add to the chorus of “whoa!” on the rape.
So when I say to my wife, “That guy [rapist] needs a good killing” she says, “that’s exactly why Anna can’t tell Bates!” Apparently I am out of touch with how it must suck to be a woman in that position, first raped, then can’t tell anyone. At least tell the police. Would that accomplish anything? Bates would still find out then, and probably do some killing.
Would they really invite someone to their home (the opera singer) and NOT invite them to socialize? Was she supposed to be there purely for entertainment? I’m missing why she was even there in the first place.