Downton Abbey Season 4 Episode 3

SPOILER ALERT! This post is intended for those who have already seen Season 4 Episode 3

While we are all still shaking a bit from last week's episode, it was nice to get back into regular Downton territory this week. Thomas is evil again, Mary is "back in the saddle" again, Rose is being...well...Rose, aaaaaannnnd there is bed hopping again! Edith was caught doing the walk of shame by her Aunt Rosa-Moneypenny's maid.

And Edna Braithwaite was given the full Mrs. Hughes treatment. Snap! Apparently Edna had been studying up on how to trap a former chauffeur into marriage, including how much whiskey it would take to stupefy him and I guess she was using the illicit copy of Marie Stopes's Married Love for birth control advice? (I think that was what Lord Fellowes was getting at here). She should have shared with Lady Edith, from the looks of the foreshadowing by Aunt Rosamund.

Mary is duly juggling suitors and horrid dialogue ("Yesterday you said I filled your brain. Well Matthew fills mine"). Ugh! Please bring back the Mary/Edith fights! They were awesome. Or at least let Carson and Evil Thomas have it out (either verbally or please, please, physically) below stairs. We can dream can't we?

And surely Bates has figured out what happened to Anna by now. Did he learn nothing but forgery while in prison? Even Carson seems to have put two and two together. And I hope someone does something soon, because Joanne Froggatt's superior acting skill is ripping my heart out.

On a lighter note, can they finally quit using the melodramatic music for whenever we see Anna? Should we call it Anna's Theme? Sorry if it is stuck in your head now. Naaa, na naaa, na naaaaaaaaaaa...

Well, back to sort of normal at Downton. Will Anna ever be the same? Are Edith and Edna both pregnant? Why did the negro singer run down to "rescue" Rose? And why did Lord Fellowes chicken out and use the term black, which, although politically correct now, would have sounded very odd in the 1920s? And will Rose be the latest Downton resident to require a book on contraception?

Stay tuned for the answers to these pressing questions. As The Abbey Turns!

Best lines:

Dowager Countess Violet: "Why are you in your rompers?...So another brick is pulled from the wall." (in reference to Lord G not being dressed properly for dinner)

Mary: "Edith? She's as mysterious as a bucket!"

Carson: "I always think there's something rather foreign about high spirits at breakfast."

Carson: "The business of life is the acquisition of memories."

Edna: "Do you ever wonder why people dislike you so much? It's because you are sly and oily and smug and I'm really pleased I got the chance to tell you before I go."
Thomas: "Well, if we're playing the truth game, then you're a manipulative little witch and if your schemes have come to nothing, I'm delighted."

TTFN! See you next week!