Downton Abbey, Series 2 (PBS) [Please, no unaired spoilers]

Cafe Society
501

[QUOTE=MsJinx]
…what is the deal with William’s father wanting her to spend time with him, at least as far as it being woven into the story line. Does he maybe think he could take her as a wife?
[/QUOTE]

When we lose someone close to us, we want to be with people who were close to them. It’s a way of being able to be in touch with at least some part of the person we lost.*

Mr. Mason believes, mistakenly, that Daisy and William shared more than they actually did. Mr. Mason probably thinks he can relive his relationship with his son vicariously through Daisy. Also, William was Mr. Mason’s only heir. It is possible that Daisy, as William’s heir, is now Mr. Mason’s heir, so Mr. Mason wants her to know something about managing the farm before he dies. But I don’t know enough about the inheritance laws of the time to be able to say definitively.

*Which is why I never will be convinced that Victoria R. had an affair with John Brown, the Scotsman who was so close to her late husband, Albert. I think she missed Albert very much and just wanted to be with someone who had shared so much with him.

502

As William’s widow, Daisy would be entitled to at least some of whatever assets he owned (if any, and depending on whether or not he left a will), and also the pension as the widow of a soldier. But AFAIK, no, she wouldn’t be legally entitled to inherit anything that he might have expected to inherit but didn’t already own.

Of course, Mr. Mason could certainly choose to leave the farm to Daisy by will, but I don’t think the wife of a deceased son counts as next-of-kin for automatic inheritance purposes.

503

I wonder if Mr. Mason is struggling to find a delicate way to ask Daisy if William might soon have a posthumous successor.

504

I don’t think there’s anything odd or weird or sinister about it. I think he just wants to spend time with someone who – he thinks – loved his son as much as he did and misses him. And she is also a person his son loved. It’s a way of bringing the memory of his son kind of manifest outside his own mind. She symbolizes a future that William might have had. So far as I can tell he has no other family left with whom to mourn.

505

I wondered that briefly, but he MUST be aware that William was simply in no condition for any sort of honka bonka bonk bonks between the marriage ceremony and his death (or ever since his return to Downton, for that matter).

506

I can understand why Mr. Mason would want to maintain some memory of his son, but don’t know why it would be a repeated theme in the series. It doesn’t seem like it would continue to be mentioned unless it was going somewhere.

507

For all its ups and downs, my wife and I are really enjoying S2, and looking forward to the Christmas episode this Sunday.

I know! The Heiress and I both remarked on that. We thought the show was maybe slipping into English Gothic there. (Jonathan Harker was a solicitor too, after all, wasn’t he…?)

I wondered about that, too. She loves him so much she’s willing to endure anything - even the nagging suspicion, deep down, that he might actually have done it (richly as the first Mrs. Bates, as they say in Texas, “needed killin’”). Her eventual death was so obviously telegraphed it was like something Agatha Christie might’ve written, with Vera as the eminently-deserving future murder victim, and the long-suffering Mr. Bates set up to be the very, very obvious suspect.

That’s my impression. They prayed in a church together earlier, though. More on register offices in the UK: Register office (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia

Although there’s almost zero chemistry between those playing Lady Sybil and Branson, I never had the sense that she was exploiting him. Rather, I think she was just wrestling with her feelings, and her awareness of all she might lose - social standing, family ties, money, access to her childhood home - if she went with him. I think it’s clear that she loves him; she’s just not one to gush. In her own way, she’s as strong, stubborn and opinionated as he is.

508

Some civil law countries, like France or Germany, do have rules requiring widows and divorcees to either wait 9 months before remarrying or get permission from a court in case they might be pregnant from their ex/late husbands. AFAIK that’s never been required in common law countries and in any even Bates is a man so there’s no possibility he’s carrying Vera’s child.

William was the only surviving child, his father’s a widower, and Daisy is now the closest thing he had to a daughter.

509

Anyone else taken that quiz? I’m not completely unsurpised that I’m Thomas. :o:smack:

510

I’m Violet. :confused:

511

I’m also Violet. :cool:

512

I’m Lady Mary!

513

LOL! I’m Lady Mary. Too funny.

I’ve greatly enjoyed watching this show and am sorry this weekend is the finale for Season 2. I wish I get a hold of Season 3.

514

I’m Mr. Bates! Ha! I liked, “What sort of people annoy you most? A. People.”

515

I agree with your take on this. However, I’m having difficulty figuring out just how much time passed between William’s announcement of his and Daisy’s engagement and the last time William had leave and visited Downton.

Mr. Mason may believe that William and Daisy “consummated their love” before the wedding. Depending on how much time passed between that (supposed) event and William’s last visit to Downton, Daisy may or may not be far along enough for her pregnancy to show (when William died). Once again, I know William and Daisy never had sex, I’m just trying to figure out what Mr. Mason may be wondering, and perhaps, hoping for.

I took the quiz and I’m “Mr. Bates”, which I’m not happy about as I don’t care for the character. :frowning: Guess I need to make some serious changes in my personality. I think I would like to become Anna (except for the being-so-dippy-about-Mr.-Bates part). :smiley:

516

Missed the edit window! Allow me to amend this statement:

[QUOTE=Toucanna]
[del]Depending on how much time passed between that (supposed) event and William’s last visit to Downton,[/del] If they did have premarital sex, Daisy may or may not be far along enough for her pregnancy to show (when William died).
[/QUOTE]

517

Do we want a separate thread for the 2011 Christmas special or do we want to include the discussion here?

518

I’d be in favor of a separate thread.

519

Much to no one’s surprise, I am the Dowager Countess of Grantham, Violet Crawley. Though I do not entirely approve of her mixing in the affairs of the servants, or doing her imitation of Dame May Whitty in Mrs. Miniver.

520

N.B.: the practice of nobles tipping servants was called “vails”.

Excerpt from: www.schulers.com
"TIPPING SERVANTS. Unless a hostess positively requests her guests not to tip, a guest, when leaving at the end of a visit at a private house, should remember the servants. The average American, from lack of a definite standard, too often errs on the side of giving too much.

Those giving personal service should be remembered, as well as those who render service-- as, the coachman and outside servants."

Letters to the editor, published in The New York Times, Sept, 1904: The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos.

Excerpted from The Complete Bachelor, by Walter Germain, 1896. (Written for the USA reader):
"Tipping is demoralizing, but it is an accepted custom. On your departure after a short stay, at Newport or a very fashionable resort, the servant who attends you should have five dollars, the butler five dollars, the coachman five dollars, and the chambermaid two dollars. At smaller places five dollars altogether, judiciously distributed, is ample, or a dollar each to three of the servants.

The first-mentioned amounts can be placed in envelopes and given to the servant attending you for the others. All this is a question of resources, and there are many men who avoid invitations to the large country houses in the East and North because they can not afford the tips. In England, when one is invited to the shooting, one tips the gamekeeper one to five pounds, according to the extent of the bag and duration of visit."