This recap contains spoilers from this weekend’s episode. Read at your own risk if you haven’t watched the episode yet.
Upstairs
The list of Mary’s suitors is down to two. The tepid Mr. Napier is gone, but Anthony Gilllingham is back; his off screen fiance has become his off screen ex-fiance. He stares at her with adoring eyes, a la, a puppy dog. She convinces him to fire Mr. Green, but does not reveal the reason.
If I were a betting woman, I would put my money on Charles Blake. But only time and Julian Fellows will tell.
The doomed relationship between Rose and Jack is over, as both Mary and Jack know that when she pays him a visit. It was not Rose, but Jack who ended it. In his words “A marquis’s daughter and a musician…” That said it all. Call it a youthful infatuation, a rebellion, whatever label you want to use. Rose is young and head strong, if it was 2014, this relationship would hopefully not be an issue. But the show is set in the early 1920’s and this relationship is doomed from the get go. At least Jack knew that the best thing to do was to end the relationship.
With her usual acuteness, it didn’t take Violet long to figure out why Rosamund had not only visited Downton unannounced, but had offered to take Edith to Switzerland for four months, all expenses paid. I feel for her, it’s not an easy decision to make. We would hope that her mother would be included in this decision making process, especially when a third grandchild is on the way. But either Cora was wearing rose colored glasses or she was so engrossed in the bazaar that she wasn’t paying attention to her daughter.
Violet re-introduces Isobel to Lord Merton, who is Mary’s godfather and the father of the childhood friend of Sybil who tried to get Tom drunk the night before Matthew and Mary’s wedding. The conversation about their lives and their children is going well until oops, Lord Merton does not remember that Matthew is dead.
We know more about the young woman who Tom sat next to at the political meeting. Her name is Sarah Bunting (Sarah Lewis) and she teaches at one of the local school. She is also as political and anti-aristocrat as Tom claims he used to be. She could either be the woman who heals his heart or be the second coming of Evil Edna.
Robert is in America for the end of the episode, having rescued Cora’s brother Harold from scandal.
Downstairs
Alfred is coming back to Yorkshire due to his father’s funeral. He writes to Ivy proposing marriage. Sounds like Robert Martin’s proposal to Harriet Smith in Emma. Daisy starts off the episode with another childlike hissy fit. But after spending a day with her father in law, she finally comes to the very mature conclusion that Alfred does not return her love and it is time to move on. This story line has been bordering on the inane since the first episode, at least it’s over.
With the return of Lord Gillingham comes Mr. Green and the death stares of Mr. Bates. With Thomas in America and the staff working at the bazaar, John requests a day off. Onerous music follows him as he leaves Downton. When Mary and Tony meet for lunch in London, he tells her that Mr. Green is dead, hit by a bus. It was an accident, witnesses by many. An accident, I wonder or a man taking revenge for his wife’s rape?
Molesley, despite being the Edith of downstairs, seemed to have found kindred spirit in Baxter. He also beats full of it Jimmy at the bazaar and offers a gentleman like arm to Baxter after Thomas returns home. Maybe the Edith of downstairs will be Edith no more.
Analysis
I love how Mary has grown as a character from the first episode. She started as a spoiled, selfish young woman to a mature woman who is taking charge of her future and her family’s future.
Martha Levinson (Shirley Maclaine) is back this weekend, bringing her unknown son Harold (Paul Giamatti). This is the 2013 Christmas episode and the last episode of the series. Unlike last year, I have been very good about not being spoiled. I am curious to see how this series will end and what morsels we will be left with to hold us through to next year. I have enjoyed series 4, overall and I look forward to series 5.
Dowager Moment/Quote Of The Week
“All life is a series of problems which we must try and solve. The first one, then the next, and then the next, until at last we die.”
Writergurlny 