Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 8

SPOILER ALERT! This post is intended for those who have already seen Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 8

Isis is gone and Anna is in the clink. What the heck is wrong with Julian Fellowes??? He has got to be kidding. Just when you think that we are in the clear with Bates, the police inspectors come to the house for the umpteenth time looking for someone short! (sound of hair being torn out by me).

On a lighter note, a wedding is a great way to finish the series (well we still have the Christmas Episode next week). Even if we did have to put up with Mrs. Shrimpy aka "Insane Mother" and Lord Sinderby aka "His Crustiness". Poor Rose and Atticus! They are sooooo adorable and deserve much better. Thank goodness the silly setup photos of Atticus didn't throw Rose off more than momentarily. Mrs. Shrimpy has done her worst now but it looks like Lord Sinderby is going to be trouble in the future.

Thank goodness Daisy didn't bolt in the big metropolis after all. You have a farm to run in Yorkshire my dear! And what was the nonsense with Denker and the new footman about? Is she the new O'Brien come to stir things up? Can't wait to see her lock horns with both Formerly Evil Thomas and Delightfully Snotty Spratt in the future.

Lovely acting from Mrs. Patmore this week. However I am glad the memorial story line is finally finished.

Prince Kuragin certainly gave Dame Maggie some pause for thought. Did he have to refer to wanting to hop into the sack with the Dowager however? Shudder! I hope she will send him on his way. Now Isobel however should really get together with Lord Merton. Fingers crossed for that relationship.

Tom is going to Boston, Mary is being sad instead of being horrible and Lord Grantham is finally in on the Edith and Marigold story. I wondered when the penny would drop now that Marigold is living at Downton.

Well, I will leave you with this lovely full length photo of Lady Rose in her drop dead gorgeous wedding dress. I believe it was a vintage find by the costume department. Bravo!!! Click on the photo to enlarge it for a better look.

Best Lines of the Week 

Lady Mary: Why does she (Edith) have to carry on as if she'd invented motherhood?

Countess Violet: Though love may not conquer all, it can conquer quite a lot.

Prince Kuragin: I wish to spend my final years with you. As a friend. As a lover. I don't seek scandal. Only love.

Daisy: London is full of possibilities. Sometimes I think my life has no possibilities at all. I feel as if I've been down a coal hole and someone's opened a lid and brought me into the sunlight.

Susan Flintshire: Do you find it difficult to get staff?
Lady Sinderby: Not really. But then, we're Jewish. So we pay well. (snap!)

Lord Sinderby: Divorce signifies weakness, degradation, scandal, failure.

Countess Violet: My dear, love is a far more dangerous motive than dislike.

PS Thank-you to my fave character Molesley (and I suppose Julian Fellowes) for making me look up the Wallace Collection. I must see that if I am in London.

Downton Abbey Season 3 Episode 6

SPOILER ALERT! This post is intended for those who have already seen Season 3 Episode 6!

Bates is back, the ladies are in light mourning now (already out of black and into lavender?) and the baby is christened. In the Catholic church!! By a man in a frock!!!

Lady Cora: What's the matter Robert? Are you afraid you'll be converted when you're not looking?

I am hopeful that Lady Edith (Jane Eyre) and her new employer (Mr. Rochester the editor) go ahead despite the crazy wife in the attic. At least Edith knows about her and so can plan her actions accordingly. Go for it Edith. He's way better than the married farmer or the disfigured Patrick from Season 2 although I bet he doesn't have a lovely estate like Sir Anthony! By the way, best nickname for Edith on the web- POOR MEdith! Bwahahaha!

Lots and lots of cricket talk. Confusing for we non-Brits but interesting. Everyone dressed like we are in Brideshead Revisited. And Tom Branson is truly a toff now! But Molesley was the star of the cricket match. Teehee!

So happy that Ethel's problem has been solved, in spite all of  Isobel Crawley's "life rebuilding". I hope we get to see more of her and little Charlie in Season 4. Now Violet has had her charity case too. Poor Shrimpy's daughter Rose arrives to occupy the Dowager and give us a glimpse inside a 1920's jazz club. I did like that scene, I must say.

We must be about to see more of the frizzy haired Rose in the future methinks. And what is it with the botanical  names Lord Fellowes? Violet, Daisy, Ivy, Rose? All we need is a Lily and we have a flower shop!

Thomas the valet goes and attacks Jimmy the footman in his sleep...what??? O'Brien has some amazing mind control powers! So he's let go with a nice letter of reference, no now he is fired without a reference, no now he's back and with a promotion. And Jimmy also promoted. What's going on down there? And the tall footman Alfred makes yet another face like he smells something foul. Like Thomas?

Glad to know Mary's 20 minute operation in London which no one noticed or questioned has fixed the unnamed "Lady Problem". Did that problem have anything to do with Mr. Pamuk by any chance?


So now we await another 2 hour episode next week (which aired on Christmas Day in the UK). The family goes to Shrimpy's estate in Scotland for a shooting party, the staff stay back at Downton and enjoy a fall fair and we wind it up for another year. Julian Fellowes is writing Season 4 as we speak but it's a long time until next January my friends!

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Violet: What is the Scarlet Letter? It sounds most unsuitable.

Violet: You cannot want your granddaughter to grow up in a garage with that drunken gorilla?

Ethel: These days a working woman must have a skill.
Violet: But you seem to have so many!

Carson to Thomas: I do not wish to take a tour of your revolting world!

Lord Grantham: If I shouted blue murder every time someone tried to kiss me at Eton, I'd be hoarse within a month.

Matthew: Married men who wish to seduce young women always have horrid wives.


Kieran Branson: And what would I change into? A pumpkin?

Lord Grantham: Tom doesn't want me (at the christening). All that crossing and bobbing up and down. I went to a mass once in Rome. It was more like a gymnastics display. (Kieran Branson laughs)