Categories
New Show Recap

New Show Recap: Downton Abbey, Episode 5×04

Happy Wednesday, all! Time for our weekly Downton Abbey recap. Believe it or not, we’re on episode 4, and we’re halfway through the season!

Thomas returns to Downton. He hasn’t let on the real reason for his journey. Moseley sees him sneak off, while Baxter tells Moseley to leave Thomas alone. We have yet to discover the real reason for Thomas’s time away. And we do: Baxter finds a magazaine on the floor opened to an advertisement featuring a man and a woman checking each other out, and she goes to take it to Thomas. She hears him screaming behind a closed door, and we see him moments after shooting something into his arm. It’s clear he’s in a lot of agony, and he begs to be left alone, even though Baxter shows concern for him. Moseley, meanwhile, is unhappy about his extra workload, so when he complains, what does Carson give him? More work!

Robert is still against the development idea, but Mary and Branson want him to at least hear the developer out. Rose’s father, Shrimpie, and her mother have returned from Bombay, and Shrimpie is coming to visit Downton Abbey. When Rose is asked about her Russians, Robert snottily says that Branson would say that the emigres’ poverty serves them right, but Branson is far more compassionate than that; while changes were needed in Russia, the plight of the emigres is a sad one.

Isobel and Violet go to York to see Rose at work with the Russian emigres, and Rose is surprisesd to see them. Isobel and Violet are shocked at how sad the emigres’ situation is, and Violet seeks out Prince Keragin. The conversation between Violet, Isobel, Price Keragin, and Count Rostov is very sad. The Russians have all of their old noble manners, but they are poor. Keragin admits he doesn’t know where his wife is, but they were arrested together, and when he was released from prison, he found out that his wife had been exiled to an unknown location.

Robert and Mary are on a walk in the village,and the subject turns to Shrimpie’s visit. Mary suspects that Shrimpie is coming to Downton Abbey to tell Rose that he and her mother are getting a divorce, and Robert declares that he won’t take sides and still likes Shrimpie, no matter what cousin Susan might say. They see Mrs. Patmore in the village as well, and she’s still upset her nephew wasn’t included in the war memorial, even though he was the first to sign up. Unfortunately, there’s nothing Robert can do about excluding her nephew from the war memorial, and he makes it clear, even though he sympathizes with her.

Anna is getting things ready for Mary’s departure to London and Bates jumps in to help. They discuss the upcoming trip so that Mary and her aunt can look at wedding dresses. Anna tries to get Bates to talk more about the sergeant’s visit, but he won’t say much about it. She just wants to forget Mr. Green and all that has happened, but we know that that isn’t in the stars for them, especially since the police are eyeing her now and wanting to know her movements on the day of Green’s death.

Later, Violet and Isobel are at the dower house, and Violet reveals her real reason for wanting Isobel to accompany her to see Prince Keragin. Isobel guesses that the were attracted to each other, but Violet admits there was more to it, as Prince Keragin wanted her to run away with him. Violet admist she would have done so, too, had not Lord Grantham given her a Fabergé frame with pictures of their children in it. This made her see sense, but she doesn’t divulge anything further.

Lord Merton is back in town, and he invites Isobel over. He very gallantly proposes marriage to her, all but getting down on one knee. Isobel is caught off guard, but she’s very flattered by the proposal and promises Merton she’ll think about it.

And poor Edith! First the Drew family doesn’t want her around. She goes one day to visit Marigold when Mr. Drew is out of town, but Mrs. Drew won’t give her the time of day. Robert begins to see that Edith is glum, and he assumes it’s over not being able to see the child, but Edith tells him there’s more to the story. Michael Gregson had gotten into a fight with some of the brown shirts in Germany who are now on trial, and Edith suspects they could be responsible for Michael’s disappearance. Robert opines that the reparations Germany has had to pay after the war have ruined the country and have given rise to parties like the brown shirts. After this, she takes to basically stalking the Drews so she can get a glimpse of the little girl. Real subtle, Edith.

Lady Mary goes to London to see a bridal fashion show with Rosamond, and Rosamond asks about Edith. Mary mentions that Edith is sad because she had taken interest in a farmer’s child and isn’t allowed to see the baby anymore. Rosamund asks how the little girl is, and Mary, as sharp as ever, tells Rosamond she never mentioned the child was a girl. Rosamond is in trouble!

Mary sees Charles at the fashion show with no one other than Tony’s old fiancée, Miss Mabel Lane Fox. She’s as much of a queen bee as Mary is. Later, Charles and Mary meet for dinner, and she tells him that she has come to London to break up with Tony. They are to meet in a public place, and Charles seems all for it—the public place, that is. That way, Tony won’t be able to make a scene.

Anna, who was supposed to post a letter to Tony telling him to meet Mary in Kensington Park, instead goes ahead and drops it off at his house and then goes for a stroll in Piccadilly Village to check out the possible murder scene. Her curiosity doesn’t go unnoticed, though, as what appears to be a plainclothes detective sees her and makes note of her suspicious behavior.

https://twitter.com/tvtagDownton/status/559543916660158464

Mary meets up with Gillingham in the park by the Peter Pan statue to tell him it’s over. Tony doesn’t take it too well, demanding what kind of woman goes to bed with a man and then jilts him. Mary tries to tell him that her feelings have changed, but Gillingham ignores her and says it’s something they’ll have to get through, whether or not they like it, and that the engagement is still on. In his mind, but not in hers. Did you notice, too, that he threw a fit like a little boy and gave no consideration to how Mary might feel?

So, dinner at the Crawley house during the weekend. Both Shrimpie and Bricker are there. Robert is mad Bricker is there, but Cora tells him to suck it up. Bricker is enchanted by the collection at Downton, and he wants to tell Cora she is beautiful all the time or else he’ll burst. Robert walks in on this, and it’s very awkward as they go back to looking at the paintings.

Shrimpie tells Rose that he and her mother are getting a divorce. Rose, who loves both of her parents, understands, and when she asks about her parents’ living arrangement, she tells her father she would like to live with him, though she will most likely stay at Downton. She enlists her father’s support in wanting to marry for love, and he promises this.

Dinner is a nightmare. Cora asks about Pip’s Corner and is basically blown off by Robert, Mary, and Branson. Rose invites Miss Bunting, which proves to be a mistake. They get into a conversation about what she is teaching Daisy, and Miss Bunting more or less mocks Robert as master of the house and questions how he treats his servants. She insists that Daisy is beginning to grow disillusioned with her job at Downton, and Robert demands that Mrs. Patmore and Daisy come upstairs immediately so that Daisy can speak for herself. Daisy does speak for herself, and she is pleased that she chose to take lessons from Miss Bunting, who is a good teacher and who has opened up a world of possibilities and choices for her. Miss Bunting gets smug and snotty, until Robert orders her out of his house and tells her never to come to Downton again. Funny, Branson had asked Miss Bunting to try to be tolerant of the Crawleys, for they’re good people. You might want to look elsewhere for a girlfriend, Branson.

Later, Robert takes Mary and Branson to the field on which Pip’s Corner might be built, and he insists that they ought to try to find another developer who wouldn’t try to change the village and the land too much, because the villagers are dependent upon the estate of Downton to maintain some status quo when it comes to the layout of the land. Or something like that.

And that’s it for this week! Have a comment? Drop a line! I’m interested in bashing Lord Gillingham some more!

One reply on “New Show Recap: Downton Abbey, Episode 5×04”

Leave a Reply