I think we all know why we are watching this show ;).
We like evening soaps starring folks with different accents which gently (but not too much, thank you) touches on issues of class. Where’s the confusion? 
Reiterating my deep and abiding love for Maggie Smith. Now she’s scheming to marry off her rival for dowager head of the village. Beautiful.
The Mary-Tony pairing just seems wrong. Now they are going to run off and boink for a week so she can be sure he is The One to replace Matthew. Meh - she is too strong a character.
They should marry off James with Lady Whosit for some real scandal.
Daisy wants to learn arithmetic. And a teacher shows up just in time for Tom to chase her (and be re-radicalized) . How convenient. I thought Daisy didn’t want to be a farmer - now she is slaving away at her school books to better herself. Hmm. And I didn’t much care about the plot device where Carson was the chair of the memorial committee and refused because it hurt Lord Grantham’s feelings. Not enough development of Lord G.'s feeling guilty for not fighting, or otherwise feeling left out from changing times and traditions. His upper lip was too stiff to generate much sympathy.
Lady Rose seems to have calmed down a lot. How unfortunate.
Now Lady Edith is going to adopt her own daughter. Too pat - the crofter should change his mind and blackmail her instead. And Gregson should return from Germany with amnesia or something to complete the soap opera story arc.
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Nothing to add, I’m just subscribing so I get notice when the “Downton Abbey on Facebook” is updated.
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My week is never complete without it. 
Regards,
Shodan
I think it’s more to keep it from being Isobel. She is pushing the good doctor to get cozy with her.
Lord G did fight in the Boer War and was decorated. He has no reason to be ashamed.
The Baxter story is what is strange to me. Why did she steal the jewels?
Yes, marry the doctor instead of the peer.
He mentioned in passing that he could not fight in WWI, and felt like he had not done his bit. And this was a WWI memorial. Although Carson fought no more in WWI than Lord G did. That also did not quite work as a plot device - choosing the butler of the great house, instead of the squire, but still expecting the squire to donate the land and no doubt much of the funding is not much of a break with tradition.
I’m guessing a boyfriend or husband, who needed the bail money and skipped. Maybe it will be a reprise of the Bates/Mrs.Bates plot arc of earlier. He will return and blackmail her, or she will suffer emotionally over her loyalty to him. etc.
(Of course there’s no “maybe” - she will suffer emotionally over something).
Regards,
Shodan
What was the deal with Spratt not wanting to serve Dr. Clarkson? Clarkson has been coming to the Dowager’s house for like 10 years now. I imagine we’ll find out soon enough, but it seems rather out of the blue.
Edith put the baby picture of Marigold under her pillow but we never saw the bed itself catch fire. Wonder if that comes into play?
Why does it not seem like a break with tradition? It works as a plot device because the entire show has been about change. The Dowager says to Robert “Your father always told the village what they wanted,” and Robert laments to Mary, “Would the village in my grandfather’s day have asked his butler to head an appeal?” He even says to Carson, “Maybe this will be a new tradition.” That seems to imply a break with tradition.
Mary says, “The older I get, the more I feel we do these things very oddly. What could be more important than making sure that side of things is right before we tie ourselves together forever?” She’s beginning to recognize some of the absurdities of the lifestyle she’s spent so much time defending. That’s character growth and it brings Mary more in line with the theme of changing times. I don’t know what you think makes her a strong character, but I think breaking with a useless tradition for the right reason (for her, to make sure Tony is Teh One), makes her a strong character.
I don’t think Daisy ever said she didn’t want to be a farmer. But she questions whether she’s up for it (i.e., change). She says to Mrs. Patmore, “I want to be grown up, I want responsibility. I can’t follow orders here for the rest of my life.” So it looks like she wants to prepare for the day she does take over the farm (or at least moves on), doesn’t it? Does that not ring true to you?
And she wasn’t even wearing gloves to dinner. Stone cold.
Angering people, outspoken and a tone-deaf asshole…maybe she turns out to be Doc Martin’s grandmother.
I just watched it. It felt disjointed to me, all short flashes to catch up with way too many plot lines: Here’s Robert, yep, still stuffy and out of pace. Here’s Edith, yep, still suffering over her daughter. Here’s Thomas, yep, still scheming. Here’s Cora, yep, still … Cora.
I think this may be the last season for me. Especially if it turns into another year where we’re supposed to be all caught up in Mary’s love life. I simply don’t find her at all appealing as a character.
I agree that the schoolteacher’s misstep over the village war memorial was so egregious as to be implausible. She doesn’t seem dumb - can’t she see how offensive such views would be to her host and hostess?
I like the grandchild calling Lord Grantham “Dunk.” Very cute.
Poor Molesley and his shiny blue hair.
My wife and I thought the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith, as wonderful as ever) might’ve been trying to spur Isobel to step up to the plate to snag Lord Whatsisface. If Isobel saw there was another woman who might win his favor, she might be more assertive.
When the Earl was visiting his mother the Dowager, he was looking at a card on her mantelpiece. Her expression was very odd. Anyone else notice that? Was she trying to hide something?
It’ll be a shame to lose Jimmy if, in fact, he gets canned for boinking his former employer the night of the fire.
Lady Mary didn’t seem to take much time considering Lord Gillingham’s indecent proposal. “Well… OK, but we’re not gonna tell anyone else, right?” I could just imagine his internal “Yesssssss!”
I noticed, and kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe next week.
Yes! Very strange and out of character for her.
I have a hard time buying that Mary is considered such a great catch to all these eligible bachelors. Sure, she’s good-looking, intelligent, wealthy, and well-bred…but she’s not getting any younger, she’s a widow and a mother, much of her fortune is wrapped up in an estate that her son will inherit, and she’s not a particularly nice person. It seems like Rose, or even poor Edith, would be attracting more suitors than Mary now.
I was confused by that too, but since they were talking about the party Violet was arranging I assumed it was an RSVP from one of the guests and she didn’t want her son to realize she was playing puppetmaster.
I did see a spoiler about one of the storylines this season, and I suppose it might have been related to that instead. Supposedly the Dowager has a suitor of her own, presumably some old (very old) flame, and the card might have been a letter from him.
She’s far better looking than Edith… but also due to the reforms that Mary and Tom have put in, Downton is in a FAR better financial place than other locales. Even Gillingham hasn’t replaced his valet partially because he doesn’t have the money for it. Even if the money goes to the kid, it’d be living in a luxurious setting that is getting more and more rare for the aristocracy in this period.
It looks like they’ve run out of good stories, mostly by failing to allow any of the characters or situations to evolve much. I sincerely hope they’ll let it all go after this season.
I’m so glad that unending subplot with Thomas and Baxter is mostly at an end. “I know you know something.” “I don’t know anything!” “You know something!” “I know noooothing!” Jesus Christ on a fucking crutch.
There was a good program following that episode called (I think) “Downton Manners”, which was interesting. They have an expert adviser on set to coach them all in Edwardian manners and mannerisms.
Saw it, and it was fascinating. I liked the ritual “turn” at dinner – on the count of 3, talk to the person on your left.
I still have it on my DVR, but haven’t watched it yet.
But it has to be more complicated than that – if everyone turns to the left, everyone will be talking to the back of the head of that person. So the table must be broken down in pairs, and you have to count off how many people you are away from the hostess. If you are an ‘even’ number, turn the same way, but ‘odds’ have to turn the opposite.
I hope because of that we get an Anna/Bates storyline that isn’t “Bates may or may not be a murderer” this year. But probably not.
Yeah, I thought of that as soon as I wrote. If I was writing Edwardian dining rules, I’d start the meal with men turning to the woman on their right, and then halfway through men pivot to address the woman on their left. Women stay put.