Well I for one was glad to see Bricker finally get the punching he so richly deserved. A welcome respite from the standing around and talking about things that normally goes on.
Is kidnapping Marigold and going into a de facto witness protection program really the best Violet and Rosamund can come up with? Or are they trying to show Edith the absurdity of what she has been doing?
Marigold. Every time I hear that name, I think: What is she, a Hobbit?
Farewell, Ms. Bunting. Take your smarmy little self elsewhere. Too bad they didn’t ship her off to Australia or something…
John Mace - Do you really think she’s gone? One can only hope.
So very tired of the Green storyline.
StG
I’m not John Mace, but I think she is gone once and for all. Tom Branson basically asked her if she also detested his late wife and his daughter and she essentially said yes. He’s on her side of the political divide, but is not as strident in his opinions (or rude in a social setting).
I was so happy to see Miss Bunting go. Fellows really missed the mark with that character. Last season she was interesting. this season she was just a caricature. I think it would have been a lot more interesting if we could have taken the love story more seriously. Would Tom have moved out? Would Lord Grantham have fought him for custody of his daughter? But no. We got an annoying little cardboard that we knew had no chance of stealing Tom away. 
My husband disagreed with me that Marigold would be better off with the farmer family never seeing Edith again, rather than cooped up in a some cold, institutional French school where she could see her mother twice a year as long as mommy dearest never reveals who she is. I was surprised he disagreed with me on that one.
I think Miss Bunting was supposed to be an example of the growing hostility to the nobility.
And I agree that it would be best to drop the murder investigation. We already went through that with Bates’ wife. At least the storyline with the Russian refugees was a new one.
That was fun. It also led to the best line of the night, when Edith was checking to see if everything was ok, and Cora goes “we were just playing a silly game and knocked the lamp over”. Silly game, eh? 
The Edith character is just a miserable sad sack of a person. I’m tired of looking at her hangdog self. Thomas is the only interesting story line at this point.
Did the preview of Mary on horseback presage serious injury/death/departure from the series? I don’t know why they would show that if she wasn’t going to take a fall.
There certainly was a reason why Edith didn’t bother investigate further, with daddy in his uniform and mommy playing the “naughty Boer”.
Or possibly the “naughty bore.”
Eh, not Thomas. Actually the only interesting story line is whether Isobel marries the toff or not.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Thomas drop dead from the shit he’s been injecting himself with. Picking on a rape victim, just because you feel like it, takes a special kind of asshole.
Actually, I think Rose and the Jewish guy is very interesting. He’s mannerly and outwardly appropriate, so Rose might be inclined to bring him around the house. He didn’t broadcast that he was Jewish, but didn’t hide it when it came up. Will Rose tell the Crawleys before he arrives so Robert can bluster about it, or will it come up in some incredibly awkward dinner conversation? I hope it’s the latter.
Maybe I think it’s interesting because I’m Jewish and have similar ancestry except that my people went to the U.S., so the plot line actually has something to do with me and my family.
Otherwise, yeah, boring except for Isobel’s story. The bit with Mrs. Patmore and Carson’s “advice” was amusing, as was the thing with Cora and the art historian, but both would be boring as a longer story arc. The Edith story has dragged on far too long and if they’re so desperate to find some way to make Anna and Bates relevant, they really should think of something new. Sheesh.
I don’t get why all the women servants show so much empathy to Thomas–especially the ones he’s been particularly mean towards, like Anna and Baxter. He tells them to their faces how much he despises them, and he’s always trying to work an angle to hold something over them, and yet they always tend to try to talk to him or comfort him when he’s in distress. It boggles the mind.
I’ve always been sympathetic to Edith just because she is such a sadsack that it’s comical at this point. The character’s high-point was when she was the most modern and independent female character they had. I was remarking to my wife last night that Edith and Matthew always had good chemistry together and made a fun couple when put together (like in the terrible storyline that introduced Rose) and Mary and Tom have the same thing in their scenes.
The problem with Anna and Bates is their story lines are always predictable. Will they get married? yup. Will Bates get out of jail? yup. is the Green thing going to bite them in the butt? yup. The next telegraphed plot line is the monster fit Bates is going to throw when he finds Lady Mary’s diaphragm hidden somewhere in his wife’s things. Made so very, very obvious by the whole string of Anna had to buy it, Anna has to hide it, and now they’ve had the conversation about wanting kids but starting to feel like it’s taking awhile for Anna to get pregnant. I feel like I could write all Anna and Bates scenes for the next three seasons (Do you think Bates will be accused of killing Thomas next? Because Thomas is totally asking for it.)
Oh so very predictable and telegraphed. My prediction is that Anna will be arrested (on what evidence) and Bates will confess to save her. After a huge break up about the stupid diaphragm, which could be solved by “Yes, Mary asked me to hide this for her”.
I vaguely remember seeing an interview with Julian Fellowes in which he said that he’s sympathetic to Thomas, because some (much?) of his nasty personality is the result of having to remain closeted.
And also, did anyone notice a very short scene showing three hallboys rolling up the carpet in the foyer? I think that indicates we’re not seeing all of the servants. And given that they’re there, couldn’t some of the scut work that Carson and Mrs Hughes dumped on Moseley be given to them? (Except one of those chores was polishing the silver and the hallboys might not be trusted with it.)
When they were discussing things, I think Rosamund said something like about how Edith couldn’t go to London because she’ll be known there - I wonder if they are setting something up where Edith and Marigold would abscond to America and live with Cora’s family.