Thomas thoughts from S2
Just thinking about the scene early in S2 when Mr. Lang woke the servants with his screaming. Does it bother anyone else that the writers chose to have Thomas tell him to "put a sock in it"? I mean, of all the people who rushed to Lang's room, Thomas was the ONLY other person who knew what it was like to see war up close, and the most callous comment was put into his mouth.We saw him utterly traumatized in the trenches, to the point of getting himself wounded to get out (how desperate do you have to be for a bullet through the hand to count as "deliverance"?), and he saw someone he cared about kill himself because of what the war had done to him. I know that gratuitous nastiness has been written into his character since S1, but there was always a motive - resentment over his status in the class system, wanting Bates' job, jealousy that William was better liked (I think Mrs. Hughes called that one correctly), etc. The comment to Mr. Lang just has no context, and the lack of motive is kind of frustrating. Any speculations on how this could be made to make sense?