Downton Abbey - Season 6 discussion [spoilers]

Cafe Society
61

I wish we’d had a chance to hear what Rosamund and Cora would have said about the subject, had Carson not strode in with news of Barrow’s suicide attempt. In fact, given Fellowes’ penchant for interrupting dramatic moments with an untimely entrance, I think we’re lucky to have got the unbroken conversations we did between Edith/Mary and Mary/Violet.

Anyway, I guess I’m hoping they’ll revisit the subject at Christmas, and that it won’t just be swept under the rug. Mary got her happy ending, but all is not forgiven, and she shouldn’t be off the hook.

62

Does that law mean that Lord Murton would have been free to choose his own heir at that point? Would be hilarious if he left everything to Isobel.

63

Pretty much, though I’d rather see him leave it to charity or something along the lines of a girls’ school or home named after his late wife just to make Larry look like as big of a greedy ass as possible if he tries to fight it.

64

Patricia Hodge is playing Bertie’s mother in the Christmas special. BTW was anyone else a little surprised that Lord Hexham apparently had a fiancée and everyone was sure he was going to produce an heir? :dubious: I thought they were hinting hat him being gay with all those comments about him being artistic and drawing you men in Tangiers.

65

They were absolutely hinting that Lord Hexam was gay, and all the characters would have correctly interpreted Bertie’s tip-toeing around the subject. But the late Marquess of Hexam would have still had to produce an heir, whether he liked it or not, so presumably he just would have closed his eyes and thought of England.

66

There’s still so much to wrap up! We need one more season!

68

So the Christmas special is less than a week away; last chance for plot speculations. There’s supposed to be one more wedding an a funeral. The Dowager is the obvious choice for the latter, but it’d be ironic if Mary and/or Henry had a car accident. :wink: Granted that’s about as likely has Lord Fellowes having the police show up to arrest the Bates’ newborn child for murder.

69

The funeral had better damn well not be Violet. That would be pretty lazy writing. Guess I wouldn’t be TOO shocked, but I’d still rather think of her lording it over the family until she’s 100.

I’m pretty sure the wedding will be Edith, finally.

Maybe a pregnancy for Mary. Probably a new girlfriend for Tom, in the form of Edith’s editor.

Ooh, I wonder if the funeral could be Mr. Mason?

I’m sure it will be established that Andy Can Read, Molesley is a born teacher, finds the work much more compelling than service, and maybe will wind up proposing to Baxter.

Baxter needs some closure on the incarcerated guy who led her astray.

Denker and Spratt need some closure as well, maybe being forced to admit that they like one another at least a little bit. A romance would be pushing it, though.

Poor Thomas needs a happy ending, too. Maybe Robert telling him that he’s an appreciated member of the household, possibly promising him the butler job when Carson retires.

Let’s see, who does that leave? Isobel? Maybe she finds love with the local doctor guy after all, instead of Lord Murton.

A small shout-out update on a few departed characters would be nice - Jack Ross maybe, Ethel Parks, Alfred, maybe Ivy, etc. They could work in an Ivy update if Cora’s brother comes over for the wedding.

70

Apparently Patricia Hodge is due to appear in the Christmas special as the mother of Bertie Pruneface who threw Edith over. I rather imagine there’ll be a stilted conversation over tea, in which she just happens to mention that Bertie’s thinking of turning the house in Tangier (where the deceased aesthete bachelor cousin from whom he inherited used to live) into a hotel, since he’s heard there are quite a lot of wealthy bachelor aesthete upper-crust gentlemen from Europe who like to visit there, but he’s at a loss to know how to staff it with reliable people who could maintain suitable domestic standards. There would follow exchanges of significant glances until finally Carson, after some operatic throat-clearing, ventures to suggest this might be an ideal opportunity for Mr. Barrow to spread his wings and apply his unique talents…

Meanwhile, what drama, a telegram arrives for Edith, who has been moping in a corner all this while. What is this? A mystery man who has been suffering from deep amnesia in a clinic in Germany, having been brought in with severe injuries from a beating, has recovered his memory, and it’s her former lover, and he’s arriving by the next train! Cue shameless rip-off of That Scene from the Railway Children…

71

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72

If they seriously bring Gregson back for the CS, I’m flying to England and kicking Fellowes in his upper-crust dangly bits.

73

They wouldn’t dare.

I have no doubt that Edith will marry her Marquess (marquis?) who will come to his senses when he realizes that Edith tried to tell him about Marigold several times.

74

It’s marquess (marquis is the Continental term), and if Edith does marry him she’ll be a marchioness (& socially outrank everyone in the family).

75

Except for Shrimpy, I guess.

76

Well, that was probably the best ending we could have hoped for. It kind of felt like a ninety-minute highlight reel, skipping from resolution to resolution, but it made sure every character had a little time in the spotlight while still focusing the episode on Edith, the ultimate unresolved plot thread. I’m sure JF stretched out Edith’s wedding scene knowing the audience was going to expect some last-second catastrophe to rear its head (Bertie’s mother changes her mind and spills the beans! Gregson comes back! Strallan comes back! Edith changes her mind and jilts Bertie!), but for once, it didn’t, and Edith got her happy wedding, not to mention the prospect of a more civil relationship with her sister. What’s not to love?

Other highlights:

  • The Dowager once again doing battle with — and roundly trouncing — the devilish Ms. Cruickshank.
  • Denker getting something of a comeuppance.
  • Lord Grantham, after talking to Edith: “You’ll never guess what’s happened!” Cora: “She’s pregnant again!”
  • Daisy butchering her hair. She looked awfully cute once Anna finished with her though.

If I had a major beef, beside an overall lack of tension or drama (this is the Christmas special, I remind myself), it would be that Tom got short shrift in the end. Things seem promising for him and Edith’s editor, but given that they made such a deal of him going and coming back, it would have been nice for him to have his own storyline not shackled to Henry’s. (Whose marriage to Mary remains wholly unconvincing.)

The end of an era … the show often drove me mad, but I will miss it.

77

Nicely wrapped up in a bow, even for Barrow!

78

They also did a very good job of conveying how much wealthier and grander Edith’s new life will be… Yay on that.

79

The episode moved so fast, and had so many threads to tie up, that they never even addressed how (or whether) Edith would continue to run the Sketch from Brancaster.

80

Well at least we can say that in the end Edith ended up married to a marquess while Mary ended up married to a used car salesman! :wink: I just wish we could’ve have a scene were Lord & Lady Merton break the news to Larry & Amelia they’ve decided to move back they’ve decided to move back into Cavenham Park now that he’s no longer dying. On the other hand my grandmother had Parkinson’s so I know that the Carsons did not get a happy ending. :frowning: Elsie’s sure going to have her hands full.

81

I was fully expecting Dr Clarkson to say that Dickie was doing better after moving in with Isobel, because someone (Amelia!) had likely been poisoning him. But they didn’t go there.