Downton Abbey Season 4 Episode 4

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

Well, it looks like Bates's eavesdropping and manipulation of poor Mrs. Hughes finally removed all doubt about what happened to Anna. And although he was sweet and supportive to her, he is getting kind of scary, so perhaps Anna is right after all in worrying that he may do something violent to the perpetrator.

Wouldn't it be awesome if she went all Gosford Park and killed the rapist/valet before Bates does? It's not illegal to stab a corpse you know. I'm just saying...

Oh dear. Edith is visiting the doctor. I hope it is for a sore throat although I think it may be for birth control reasons. I just hope it isn't too late for birth control. And no sign of her Michael Palin/Gregson chappie for a while. Dooooom!!!! I am sensing a Nazi plot, are you?

But on a lighter note, Lady Edith is at least looking lovely in her 1920s fashions. I love the collar on that coat she is wearing in the photo above.

And so Alfred was turned down after going to London to try for the job cooking at The Ritz! Maybe it's for the best. I think they would have had to build him a taller counter to work at or he would have back issues before he turns 30!

But seriously, nice to see that he has ambition. And congrats on those bouchees de fromage. Ohh, la la!

I am happy to see the new ladies' maid Baxter with her outrageous orange juice and her electric sewing machine. Radical I say! I hope Thomas or Barrow or whatever we are supposed to call him doesn't torture her too much. She seems really nice. I wonder will Mrs. Patmore survive with an electric refrigerator in the kitchen? Horrors!

And is the Dowager Countess experiencing a bit of dementia, losing her letter opener from the King of Sweden? Or was a thief just what Julian Fellowes thought the plot was needin? Hidee-hidee-hidee-ho! Apologies to Cab Calloway and Minnie the Moocher, but I couldn't resist.

Best lines of the week:

Violet: "I wonder your halo doesn't grow heavy. It must be like wearing a tiara round the clock."

Lady Mary: "Do you think she is having a good childhood?" (with regards to baby Sybbie)

Alfred: "Is there anything I ought to know about London?"

Thomas: "Mrs. Bates is incorruptible. So we have nothing in common."

Violet: "Yes, but your gratitude never seems to last. I've no sooner said yes then you come back with another request!"

Violet: "The one thing we don't want is a poet in the family....The only poet/peer I am familiar with is Lord Byron and I presume we all know how that ended!"

See you again next week!

Downton Abbey Season 2: Episode Six

Anna and Bates marry- Finally!

Well wasn't that a cracker of a season finale! I cannot believe that season 2 is over (as well as the Spanish flu pandemic). Well, we do get the encore Christmas episode next week and it's another 2 hour treat!

So Anna and Bates have finally gotten married and had their 20 minutes of happiness (in bed...pasty English body alert!) before tragedy strikes this story line again. Boy, I didn't see that one coming...again!

Matthew- We can have children now!

And just as I was getting really attached to Lavinia...the little ginger kid from the wrong side of the tiara who just couldn't believe deep down that she was good enough for Matthew. And yet you know that she would have made him happy, giving him a bunch of ginger babies with sweet faces. Ah well, this is Downton Abbey after all. Sir Julian Fellowes has the soap opera bubbles blowing again. But what will happen to the "cursed" Mary/Matthew story line now? Will it drag on for yet another season? (rhetorical question-sorry)

Look out Carson, Mary's going to blast some flapper music!

We are winging toward the 1920s with gramophones and social upheaval. I did find the Sir Richard/Anna/Carson/Mary spy storyline a bit interesting. Mary seems truly pissed off at Anna and Carson, and poor Carson finally gets a dose of nasty Mary for a change. Now he knows what Mrs. Hughs has been talking about. Mary really is "an uppity minx and the author of her own misfortune"!

Dowager Countess Violet pondering the aftermath of the Spanish Flu

Best Dowager Countess lines of the season finale:

•  "All this unbridled joy has given me quite an appetite."
•  "I was watching her the other night when you spoke of your wedding. She looked like...Juliet on awakening in the tomb."
•  "Marriage is a long business. There’s no getting out of it for our kind of people. I mean, you may live forty...fifty years with one of these two women. Just make sure you have selected the right one."
•  "Marry in May, rue the day."
• "Will someone please tell me what's going on, or have we all stepped through the looking glass?"
•   Branson thinks Violet "deserves to know" what's going on. "Why don't I find that reassuring?" says Violet.
•  Lavinia has been given a gramophone. "I'll stand well clear when you light the blue touch paper."
•  Lady Edith: "I've left space at the front for jewels. I know Lavinia's getting something from Papa."
  Violet: "And from me. Though she's so slight, a real necklace would flatten her."
• "I used to think Mary's beau was a mésalliance but compared to this he's practically a Hapsburg."
• "Don't be defeatist, dear. It's very middle class."
• "The plot thickens!" (Mainly for her little grin. Amazing.)
• "Wasn't there a masked ball in Paris when cholera broke out? Half the guests were dead before they left the ballroom." (Made even better by the following pause and the Earl's: "Thank you, mama. That's cheered us up no end.")
• "And while I am sure Branson has many virtues…He's a good driver."
• "I do hope I'm interrupting something."

Ethel discovers Charlie's grandad is a real bastard!

I think I have invented a new game. Eat an Oreo cookie (or similar chocolate treat) for every time the word bastard was used in this episode with respect to Ethel's love child. I believe have a tummy ache now however. I hope Ethel doesn't live to regret her decision about little Charlie, however horrible his moustachioed grandfather.

And did anyone else shriek at the return of the beanie baby/good luck charm? What is that thing anyway? Rabbit? Dog? Well, whatever it is Matthew will never give it up.

And any of you think that O'Brien almost used the word "soap" when feeling all guilty about her nasty past?

The maid Jane and Lord Grantham storyline was a bit weird. Poor Lord Grantham is just knocking around Downton trying to find something to do. Or someone to do. Oooh sorry for that one!

Lady Sybil clearly not enjoying the dinner table chitchat

Although I haven't been a fan of the whole Irish chauffeur storyline (because there was no spark of affection between the two AT ALL) I have to admit I was highly amused when Sybil took off with him to Gretna Green  (just like Lydia and Wickham!) and then was dragged back to Downton to hash it out with Papa. The final scene between Robert and the Dowager Countess was perfect.

Robert: And perhaps we should let Lavinia's last gift to us be a reminder of what really matters. Of course, you'll think that's soft.

Violet: Well, not at all. The aristocracy has not survived by its intransigence. Oh, no, no, we must work with what we've got to minimize the scandal.

Robert: But what have we got to work with?

Violet: Well, you'd be surprised. He's political, isn't he? And a writer. Well, I could make something out of that. And there's a family called Branson with a place not far from Cork. I believe they have a connection with the Howards. Well, surely, we can hitch him onto them.


So meet me here again next week for the recap of the two hour Christmas special. I hope Isis the new bouncier Labrador Retriever gets a little doggy stocking with a bone or two from Mrs. Patmore!  I can't wait to see more of Thomas the former footman. He is sooooo smarmy!

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 Help for non Brits with references from this episode:


Carson: Definition of "a guinea a minute" which Carson uses to describe Mary as a child-means a "barrel of laughs" or "a hoot".

Sybil: The phrase Uncle Tom Cobley and all is used in British English as a humorous or whimsical way of saying et al., often to express exasperation at the large number of people in a list. The phrase comes from a Devon folk song "Widecombe Fair". Its chorus ends with a long list of people: "Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all."

Violet: Light the blue touch paper was originally used as instruction for British fireworks- "Light blue touch-paper-stand well back". Became a way of suggesting someone had done something dangerous or foolhardy and needed to beware of the consequences, especially, for example, when having said something that was likely to cause someone else to respond explosively