Yes, a son by Lord Grantham & his new wife (or Cora, legally she’s presumed to be fertile regardless of age) would instantly displace George, but he’d only get the title & half the estate. The entail was broken when Lord Grantham gave Matthew a 50% share after he invested his inheritance from Lavinia’s into the estate. Then Matthew died and made Mary rather than George his heir.
It was less than a week since Henry just happened to have the marriage licence courtesy of his bishop uncle I agree the speed they wed was ridiculous. Also please tell me Mary didn’t reuse her wedding dress. :eek: It was bad enough she wore white again.
And Mary will be the one to bring him back. Everything is getting wrapped up in a nice little package with a bow on it, and having Mary be responsible for Edith’s eternal happiness is the final event that can bring things together.
Did Barrow try to kill himself with a butter knife? It seems like there was very little blood, and he was perfectly fine a few hours later.
Mary’s dress wasn’t white. It was cream colored, which is appropriate for a young widow. It was also very definitely a different dress than the first one. Her first wedding dress would have been very out of date style wise and Mary wouldn’t be caught dead in an out of style dress. You might have also noticed she wore a corsage rather than carry a bouquet. I believe that was also a nod to it being her second wedding.
Edith gets married to the Marquess (who is actually a secret prince)
Henry gets trampled to death by Mary’s horse.
Tom says “screw it” and goes to Ireland.
And the last line is Cora saying “I’m pregnant, and I think it’s a boy.”
Cut to Yakety Sax playing over the credits.
A good episode, I thought. My wife and I saw Mary’s unforgiveable breakfast-table revelation about Marigold coming - but of course we couldn’t look away. Glad Tom called her on it. Very funny to have Spratt revealed as the advice columnist. Nice to see the Dowager again, too - thought for awhile that she might actually die overseas. Her heart-to-heart with Mary was good, although I agree with others that Henry’s racing would, IRL, be a continued tribulation for Mary. Glad Moseley is in his groove as a teacher.
I noticed that we’ve seen Thomas with Mary’s son George more than we’ve seen Henry. They’ve never even met, as far as we know. The little boy wasn’t even at the wedding (maybe that wasn’t customary in 1925). What if stepson and stepfather don’t click? It would’ve been nice to have a scene of Henry and George bonding at some point before the (very rushed) wedding.
Combine the pre-1970s attitude that mothers and not fathers raise children with the aristocratic custom that mothers don’t really do it either* and the result is that Mary wouldn’t have dreamed of that as a possible issue.
*Isobel: “I’d imagined them surrounded by nannies and governesses, being starched and ironed to spend an hour with you after tea.”
Violet: “Yes, but it was an hour every day.”
It’s a matter of opinion, of course. But my view is that Fellowes’ failure to write in even one counterexample (of a gay person living a happy, long, productive life) is reasonable evidence that he does, indeed, intend his story to illustrate the Wages of Sin. A homosexual cannot be shown to be living a happy, long, productive life–because the sin of homosexuality cannot be so rewarded. (In Fellowes’ world, at least.)
Sure, the comedy trope is: person X who is known as a stickler for high moral standards, is put in the position of looking like a person with low moral standards.
The problem with claiming that the trope is in good working order in this case, is that it was never established that Mrs. Patmore was famous and/or infamous for being a stickler for high moral standards. So the trope falls flat.
And even if “Mrs. Patmore is such a stickler for high moral standards!” had ever been established on the show, it would further have to have been shown that the upstairs people were aware of that particular character trait. As it is, it’s difficult to believe that all of the upstairs Downtonites shown being helpless with laughter were so well-acquainted with Mrs. Patmore as an individual (not as a mere cook), that they were familiar with her personality quirks (such as a never-established-on-the-show tendency to be prudish or judgmental about morality).
Jeez, it’s nothing so complicated. You don’t need to be a person of exactingly high moral standards to be an unlikely bawdy house madam. The stereotypical madam would probably be kind of brassy, sexy, alluring, a Mae West type. Mrs. Patmore is far enough from that that the idea of her running a den of sin is pretty absurd on its face. I found it completely believable the other characters would find it funny.
There’s still a lot of unfinished business. Will the Christmas episode be longer than an hour (I hope)?
To-do list for the last episode: (Others feel free to add on)
Resolve the Edith-Bertie thing
Resolve the Mr. Mason-Mrs. Patmore thing
Get something going between Daisy and Andy if anything is going to happen
Hint at Daisy’s career/school/etc. potential.
Resolve the Baxter-Molesley thing (if indeed there is a thing)
Put Carson out to pasture somewhere
Give Barrow the butler’s job with Molesley gone to teach full time, so he doesn’t have to be demoted
Find a woman for Tom (Edith’s editor?)
Resolve the Henry-Death Wish Driving thing
Figure out how to bring in big piles of money to keep Downton afloat. I’d like to see this happen by Edith marrying Bertie, and then Mary crawling on her hands and knees to Edith (preferably through mud scattered through with broken glass) to beg her rich sister and her rich husband to save the old homestead. That’s just my personal dream.
Resolve the Isobel-Lord Merton thing.
Find love for Barrow.
Meet the Bates’ new baby.
Holy cow… how can we get all this done in one episode??
Give Violet a new butler (who will work cheap) to replace that latest literary star, Spratt. (Could this be Barrows’ destination? If so, it would fit in pretty well with the ‘punish gay dude’ theory.)
If Bertie isn’t going to bail out the Downton finances, perhaps the family will decide to admit the ticket-buying public on a regular basis (that shoe has never really dropped).
If Baxter snuffs it (my theory–she will, like moth to flame, approach her violent former paramour and he’ll do her in), then give Molesley some glimmer of a future relationship (the school’s headmaster has a spinster sister?)
With great or even half-good tv writing, you can’t. Luckily, Downton Abbey isn’t encumbered by that particular problem.
My guess - It’s late august 1929, 4 years in the future. As it’s been some time since the last criminal activity at Downton, Policeman whats-his-face wanders by to arrest Daisy for murder. As he leads her out:
Policeman: Things have gone downhill since Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes opened up their B&B. Daisy: B&Bs, don’t talk to me about B&Bs. Anna and Bates just leave their baby here for free child care while they’re running their B&B like I have time to do that & cook. And now that Mrs. Patmore married Mr. Mason, he spends all of his time at her B&B. He doesn’t have any time for me any more. Policeman: Is that why you did it? Daisy: Those village children are so snobby now that Mr Moseley’s turned them into the best village school in England. They teased my Andy 'cause he can’t read. We were going to show him, by feeding Baxter to the pigs. No one would have ever known (cue: Deadwood theme song) Barrows: Don’t take her away, we’ve run out of staff. Everyone has gone to open B&B’s and restaurants. I’m the butler, underbutler, valet, footman, and scullery maid. Policeman: You’re working too hard. Leave it all and run away with me. Barrows: but…you mean…!?! Policeman: yes. I love you. Why do you think I keep coming here all the time for the most convoluted and trumped up criminal cases. We’ll drop Daisy off at the station house and run away to Tangiers. I hear we can watch fishermen at sunset there. Exeunt
And we’ve taken care of 2,3,4,5,6,7,12, and 13 can be playing under the servants table the whole time.
You’re projecting here. And what about the Duke that Thomas had the fling with? You really think it would be realistic to have a gay character living openly with a partner and everyone being OK with it? In 1920s Yorkshire?
And geez, half the *straight *couples on this show have had so much unhappiness thrown at them, why should Barrow be any different?
Ahh, okay. It’s still a TV shortcut … but in terms of the plot, it makes me feel slightly better that Bertie was still in Tangiers so it’s not like Mary let months and months go by without trying to support Edith in some way.
