Downton Abbey, Season 3, Episode 5
Otherwise known as Episode Holy Bouillon Spoons, Batman! Julian Fellowes! WTF?
Reeling. I'm reeling, I say. Yes, I know the producers said someone was going to die this season. Yes -- I'm a terrible person and I admit it -- I would rather it be 24-year-old new mother Sybil than 150-year-old Lady Violet.
But...but...but...Sybil's dead? Awwww. I knew as soon as Posh-Doc-With-the-Potty-Mouth arrived (I mean, really -- words like "womb" and "urine" and "albumen" uttered in public?) Anyway, I knew as soon as Dr. Smug arrived that there was going to be trouble. (Because when the upper-class gents start puffing out their chests and being Men in Charge, everything inevitably goes to hell.) But...dead? Sybil? Why couldn't it have been Mary?
Well, at least now we understand all that bizarre and unmotivated "Johnny Foreigner" and anti-Catholic stuff from his Lordship last week. Because next week it's going to be the Holy Wars all over again as Tom fights to have his child baptized as a Catholic.
Still, the death scene was met with fine acting all around, and they didn't let it become too melodramatic. Cora's stock continues to rise with me.
Highlight of the Week -- Three, actually.
1. Carson and Mrs Hughes hold hands! True, it's in grief over Sybil, but I'll take my Hughes/Carson where I can get it.
2. Isobel to Mrs Bird, who flies the coop whens she realizes she's been asked to breathe the same air as Ethel the PROSTITUTE!! (a word that Isobel seems to enjoy saying far more than she should.)
Mrs B: If I work with her, people will start to wonder if I'm in the same. . .profession.
Isobel: (waiting a perfect comic-timing beat and giving Mrs B the most subtle of once-overs) Oh, I don't think anyone would believe that of you. Where will you go?
Mrs B: To my sister's in Manchester. She says there's a lot of work to be had there for a plain cook.
Isobel: (with another moment of comic timing worth of Maggie Smith): They'll definitely get that in you.
A mistress-ful exchange.
3. *sob, sniff* -- The incomparable Maggie Smith walking across a room. It was the most fraught, meaning-packed, heartbreaking walk ever. There she is, in head-to-toe black with a mourning veil, having a moment with Carson: "We've seen many troubles, you and I, Carson. But this is the worst."
And then...and then... She squeezes his hand, and we watch from the back as she walks toward the drawing room. She moves slowly, majestically (despite her cane), and then...there's the tiniest of breaks in her step, just a second's wobble, before she rights herself, folds back her veil, and marches into battle yet again. She's clearly aged at least a decade overnight, and she puts all her grief into that little moment of weakness. Then she's steady on her pins again, clearly ready to be as indomitable as her family needs her to be for as long as they need her to be. All done in the space of a few seconds without a word spoken, without even her face visible. A bravura performance.
Also -- I confess, I don't really know what's going on with the whole Bates-and-the-poisoned-pastry thing. But I suppose All Will Be Revealed eventually.
This entry was originally posted at http://kelly-chambliss.dreamwidth.org/208695.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Reeling. I'm reeling, I say. Yes, I know the producers said someone was going to die this season. Yes -- I'm a terrible person and I admit it -- I would rather it be 24-year-old new mother Sybil than 150-year-old Lady Violet.
But...but...but...Sybil's dead? Awwww. I knew as soon as Posh-Doc-With-the-Potty-Mouth arrived (I mean, really -- words like "womb" and "urine" and "albumen" uttered in public?) Anyway, I knew as soon as Dr. Smug arrived that there was going to be trouble. (Because when the upper-class gents start puffing out their chests and being Men in Charge, everything inevitably goes to hell.) But...dead? Sybil? Why couldn't it have been Mary?
Well, at least now we understand all that bizarre and unmotivated "Johnny Foreigner" and anti-Catholic stuff from his Lordship last week. Because next week it's going to be the Holy Wars all over again as Tom fights to have his child baptized as a Catholic.
Still, the death scene was met with fine acting all around, and they didn't let it become too melodramatic. Cora's stock continues to rise with me.
Highlight of the Week -- Three, actually.
1. Carson and Mrs Hughes hold hands! True, it's in grief over Sybil, but I'll take my Hughes/Carson where I can get it.
2. Isobel to Mrs Bird, who flies the coop whens she realizes she's been asked to breathe the same air as Ethel the PROSTITUTE!! (a word that Isobel seems to enjoy saying far more than she should.)
Mrs B: If I work with her, people will start to wonder if I'm in the same. . .profession.
Isobel: (waiting a perfect comic-timing beat and giving Mrs B the most subtle of once-overs) Oh, I don't think anyone would believe that of you. Where will you go?
Mrs B: To my sister's in Manchester. She says there's a lot of work to be had there for a plain cook.
Isobel: (with another moment of comic timing worth of Maggie Smith): They'll definitely get that in you.
A mistress-ful exchange.
3. *sob, sniff* -- The incomparable Maggie Smith walking across a room. It was the most fraught, meaning-packed, heartbreaking walk ever. There she is, in head-to-toe black with a mourning veil, having a moment with Carson: "We've seen many troubles, you and I, Carson. But this is the worst."
And then...and then... She squeezes his hand, and we watch from the back as she walks toward the drawing room. She moves slowly, majestically (despite her cane), and then...there's the tiniest of breaks in her step, just a second's wobble, before she rights herself, folds back her veil, and marches into battle yet again. She's clearly aged at least a decade overnight, and she puts all her grief into that little moment of weakness. Then she's steady on her pins again, clearly ready to be as indomitable as her family needs her to be for as long as they need her to be. All done in the space of a few seconds without a word spoken, without even her face visible. A bravura performance.
Also -- I confess, I don't really know what's going on with the whole Bates-and-the-poisoned-pastry thing. But I suppose All Will Be Revealed eventually.
This entry was originally posted at http://kelly-chambliss.dreamwidth.org/208695.html. Please comment there using OpenID.