It’s pretty amazing for ladies’ maids to be married, let alone pregnant, so I think we can safely assume Not.
That’s quite a twisted viewpoint! Even Mary isn’t that evil.
Quitting work when you got pregnant was just normal back then. Heck, it was normal for my mother. Nothing nasty about the employers, just times have changed.
I was kind of wondering if a real Mary and Anna would have bandied about the word “pregnant” so freely.
Oh yeah, and it completely sailed over my head at first that Drewe called Mary Marigold’s “auntie,” and Mary still didn’t put it together. I get that Mary is self-absorbed, but jeez.
Married female servants of any rank were extremely rare. Male upper servants (like butlers & valets) could get away marrying, at least as long as they still lived in the big house and kept the wife & kids out of sight. The Crawleys give their servants way more leeway that is historically accurate. Even if they didn’t object to Anna working while pregnant once the baby’s born taking care of it will take up her time. To keep working she’d have to send the kid off to be raised by relatives; obviously she’s not going to want to do that. I don’t think Lady Mary has consciously realized that. Speaking of, I really hope she wasn’t sitting in the room with Anna during the examination itself. :eek: Don’t get me wrong, sending Anna to a top OB/GYN is a wonderful gesture, but it’s awkward enough as is.
But ‘Aunty’ was a form of address for all sorts of older people back in the day. When I was growing up (1970s/80s England), we called any friends of my parents ‘aunty this’ or ‘uncle that’. It wasn’t necessarily a factual descriptor. Just more formal/polite than ‘Yo Firstname’ and more familiar than ‘Mrs Smith’.
Edith still manages to irk as she is written. She’s still as passive-agressive as ever. Now she’s doing Mary out of a stable tenant farmer, a man who understood her dilemma and was wiling to help her out when she was desperate. Nice payback Edith. His family had been on that farm since Waterloo.
But don’t worry, Daisy’s found another although he’s a tad on the old side.
The Dowager/Denker/Sprat bit was funny and well-written; don’t care about the hospital drama. Why is that I wonder?
When Edith said she “can’t see why” she should tell Mary about Marigold, I wish Rosamund would have said, “So you don’t find yourself in situations like this.”
Things I’d like to see by the end of the season:
Baxter and Molesley together.
Some sort of happy ending or new beginning for the Drewes - a pregnancy, maybe.
Thomas finding a nice boy, or at least stops hating himself for being gay.
Branson and Sybbie come back to visit.
Things I do not want to see:
The Dowager Countess in decline or dying.
Well you’ve gotten one of your wishes; Branson & Sybbie are back and not just for a visit. 
I’m happy Edith finally grew a pair and send her editor packing. Too bad we didn’t get to see the wedding breakfast itself even if the Dowager did duck out after the church service (perfectly in character for her).
I didn’t even notice the Dowager skipping out on the reception! How typical! I’m so utterly bored with the hospital plot - can we please move on now?
Branson and Sybbie, back for good!
I had a good chuckle at Mary’s line about “the problem is certainly not Bates!”
I believe that the hospital subplot will have a big “payoff” in the end of the series- they’ve spent too much time on it to have it fade away. My prediction is that the dowager ends up believing that innovation and moving forward into the future was either:
That someone is almost assuredly Lord Grantham with his indigestion. Branson coming back, to my mind, puts the nail in the coffin.
Gwen was a nice surprise; I didn’t think we’d ever see her again. And I especially like how this time Thomas didn’t completely luck out (though I think Isobel was catching on beforehand). In spite of everything I still hope he somehow catches a break. Meanwhile we had multiple instances of Robert having mysterious pains, Cora fussing over him, and Mary mentioning how George will “one day” inherit his title. As far the hospital subplot; I’m starting nobody least of all the Dowager is going to be happy with the result the Dowager causes. It’s like she’s drifting farther and farther away from reality.
It was nice to see Gwen again! I remember her being mentioned awhile back (last season?) as being recently married. I especially loved that the family finally got to hear the full tale of how Sybil helped Gwen to get her first job.
I don’t really believe at this point that Thomas is going anywhere! Ever! How many times before has he been on the verge of leaving? So many! [ul]
[li]About to be fired for stealing, pre-WWI. Avoided it by going to work for Dr. Clarkson. [/li][li]About to leave Downton after his profiteering business went bad. Saved when the Spanish Flu hits and he just puts on his uniform and starts serving again.[/li][li]Nearly loses his position at the house when he becomes valet to Lord Grantham, then Bates is released from prison and takes back his old job. They created the under-butler position for him to keep him on! (What were they thinking!) [/li][li]Almost gets fired (again!) for making advances on Jimmy. Gets to stay on after all for a reason I can’t quite remember, was it because he outed Nanny West as being mean to baby Sybbie? [/li][li]There was also that time he deliberately lost Lord Grantham’s dog so that he could find it again and try to save his job, which was in jeopardy at the time. That was pre-WW1 also, IIRC. [/li][/ul]
He’s like the Teflon Servant. None of the terrible things he does ever seems to result in him leaving.
I thought, after Robert laid into him downstairs for outing Gwen, that he was standing at a writing desk holding a pen in preparation for writing a note… giving his notice now that Carson is back?
Also in this past episode, Anna makes some remark to Lady Mary about the hiring of two new maids who don’t live in. Thomas thinks they are cutting back on staff since the first episode (why? I forget), which is why he’s looking around for a new job and Carson seems happy enough to play along with his fear but if they are cutting back, why hire maids? Is it some clunky attempt at foreshadowing how service will change for the big houses?
re Robert’s pains. I just assumed he was the one who was going to die at series end (the Dowager? They wouldn’t dare!) with the whole changing of the guard at the estate, Mary taking full charge (and getting married to Henry Talbot in the Christmas episode) etc. If the pains are just a set up to conclude the hospital innovation storyline, I will be very upset.
I’m hearing a credible rumor that…
Ethel Parks will be coming back, as well. .
I do think that they mentioned the “new” maids as live-out positions because it’s true that in the 1920s fewer and fewer staff at the great houses were live-in. Those great houses that still managed to have any sort of “normal” amount of staff post-WW1 simply didn’t have as many applicants to choose from, wages had gone way up, and hiring part-timers from the village was the solution a lot of them settled on.
They know they’re in the final season as well, so why try to introduce new faces that they’ll never have a chance to give any real characterization to?
They still need maids to clean; they don’t need an under butler, they’ve never needed one. As Sarabellum1976 pointed out they created the position expressly for the purpose of keeping Thomas on staff (& thus able to play for the house cricket team). He’s the most superfluous member of staff; especially since Isis died. He should’ve moved on another household years ago, ditto for Daisy.
Storylines that are becoming very tiresome:
[ul]
[li]The hospital. [/li][li]Andrew won’t give poor Thomas the time of day. Every. Stinking. Episode. [/li][/ul]
They’re down to the final handful of episodes now; frankly I’d be annoyed to see Mary run off and marry a “new” character we don’t know, and none of the existing suitors seem suitable now. I’d be double annoyed if they pulled some nonsense and had her wind up marrying Branson. If they really must have a wedding at the end of the series, have it be Dr. Clarkson and Isobel.
Or Violet and Prince Kuragin. Hee hee.
If they really must have a funeral, whose should it be?
Well that was surprisingly gory. :eek: We didn’t see that much blood in all of WWI!
Oh my! My heart breaks for the poor laundry maid that has to clean those table linens.
It’s funny, I started out being kind of annoyed with this episode - immediately it went right into “hospital reform!” and “Andrew won’t play nice with Thomas!” but then finally we see some storyline movement.
I’d tried to avoid spoilers before I got to watch the show this morning, but unfortunately saw a Facebook message that said “Wow that was bloody” or something along those lines this morning. So throughout the episode (the car racing, poor old Mason dealing with those pigs, Denker and Spratt having their usual repartee) I was expecting bloodshed to begin at any minute. A horrific car crash, perhaps? Mr. Mason or Andrew gets eaten alive by the pigs? Denker murders Spratt or vice versa?
Can’t say I was expecting anyone to start vomiting blood at the dinner table.
And Mary really didn’t know about Marigold! Here I was, giving her credit for having figured it out already.
I can see some potential pitfalls with the “Andy Can’t Read” storyline… What if they bring back Miss Bunting to help him? Cringe! Please, no!
More likely: Thomas will get “found out” as being Andy’s tutor JUST as he’s about to be sacked for something bad, thus saving his butt once again. Or, he succeeds in teaching Andy to read, Andy goes to Yew Pine Farm to work with Mr. Mason, and Thomas becomes footman again when the under-butler position is (rightfully) eliminated.
I wonder if Mr. Mason might try to play matchmaker with Daisy and young Andy the newly-confirmed heterosexual? Daisy is sure to be impressed with someone trying to better himself with book-learning, no?