Downton Abbey: 4x04
It kicks off as the house-party winds down, and though there was a sweet moment between Branson and the Duchess, I was fairly horrified to see that Anna had to sit next to Green before he left.
Viscount Gillingham doesn’t like his own valet - I guess that’s a good sign as to his own decency, though it’s rather reminiscent of Bates’s instinctive dislike of him as well. Heads up Fellowes, generally speaking it’s women who are better at playing “spot the potential rapist.”
Everything between Tom and Edna was fairly horrible, and I’m not entirely sure what the juxtaposition of the two rapes (Tom upstairs and Anna downstairs) was meant to achieve. It doesn’t help that it’s not exactly clear what happened between Tom/Edna, though Tom’s devastated face was evidence enough that he’s left guilt-ridden. I like Tom, and I want things to get better for him, but he’s becoming increasingly more miserable instead of getting a “coming back to life” plot as Mary has.
Also, I’m getting tired of the whole Ambition is Evil trope inherent in any of the downstairs workers that want to make something more of themselves. Remember when Gwen’s ambition to become a secretary was considered a good thing instead of a heinous crime?
Violet and Isobel continue to be lovely together, and that there’s real kindness emanating from Violet is rather tear-jerking. Who would have thought at the beginning of this show that we would ever see Violet comforting and then praising Isobel on her goodness.
Isobel admits that she loves Mary. More tears.
Again I’m torn on this whole rape plot-device, though so far Fellowes is being sadly accurate in his portrayal of a rape victim who feels ashamed and dirty over what’s happened to her, and her awareness that this is something she can’t “take a break from”. This is something she’ll have to carry for the rest of her life. Yet as I feared, the storyline is veering more towards “oh no, look at how upset and heartbroken Bates is” instead of focusing on Anna’s grief and pain at what happened to her. The narrative is being structured around the maintaining of the secret and Anna’s attempts to shield Bates from the truth instead of Mrs Hughes and Anna trying to figure out what they should do to bring a rapist to justice and prevent him from harming anyone else. And no, I don’t blame Anna for not wanting to talk about it, but again - the narrative is forcing her to keep quiet for the wrong reasons: not because of her own shame and fear, but because she’s nobly protecting Mr Bates from a hanging if he were to learn of Green’s crime and retaliate. And that isn’t an exploration of what it means to be a rape victim, it’s making the focus of the drama a male character.
Mary has always been perceptive and I like that she can clearly tell that something’s wrong with Anna. Heck, even Lord Grantham has realized that something’s amiss.
Bitchy Daisy is back. Hooray.
I’m warming more and more to Rose, mainly because she’s a fresh-faced innocent in a house full of people with crippling emotional issues. I actually just want her to escape at this point.
Nice to see Rosamund again, though Fellowes does insist on wasting her. That she was described at the dinner table as a hotel was fairly apt, as she only tends to turn up when the Crawleys need to visit London.
I’m glad that Mrs Patmore is actively giving Daisy good advice for a change instead of - say - forcing her into a marriage she doesn’t want.
Every writer has their strength and weaknesses, and I’ll give Fellowes this: he’s very good at writing meetcutes. His romance arcs are more touch and go, but I was pretty charmed by Gillingham’s declaration of love and Mary’s response to it, and Rose’s first meeting with Jack Ross.
Perhaps those complaining that Ichabod isn’t racist enough toward Abbie in Sleepy Hollow will be more impressed with the immediate freak-out that took place among the Crawleys the moment that Rose started to dance with Jack. You could almost hear the alarm bells going off in Rosamund’s head, and even Tom looked uncomfortable by the whole thing. I think it’s good though that Fellowes is being subtle but clear with all this - the Crawleys are hardly endorsing slavery, but neither are they comfortable in the presence of a black man. I’d be pleasantly surprised if Fellowes is quite scathing in portraying the inherent prejudices within each one of them (see all my thoughts on how Poliakoff dealt with the conclusion of Dancing on the Edge).
Hey, Rose and Jack? Do you think that’s a coincidence? Though it’s sweet that Rose introduces Tom as her cousin and that she’s so easily swept off her feet.
Tom and Mary continue to bounce off well with each other, especially Mary dealing with the fact that Tom has a secret and advising him to speak to someone who can help. So of course he would go to Mrs Hughes who is utterly magnificent in her take-down of Edna. That was the badass thing I’ve ever seen on this show.
Oh, and the Marie Stopes manual that she brings out is actually a real book (or was, back in the day).
Still, I feel that this is another story-arc that’s come to an abrupt end. Is that it for Edna? It seems a rather pointless subplot all things considered, especially after all the fuss that was made in bringing her back into the house. But then of course, we did have two seasons worth of Bates being put on trial for murder and condemned to death only for him to be cleared of all charges - offscreen.
I’m also not sure how Thomas and Edna went from being in cahoots over getting Anna into trouble to spitting fire and insults at each other on the stairwell.
“She is a good woman. And while the phrase is enough to set one’s teeth on edge, there are moments when her virtue demands admiration.” D’aww.
Oh Edith, what are you doing? This is seriously going to come back to bite you - though I wonder if it’s meant to be long overdue karma for what went down between you and Mary over the Pamuk scandal. If anything, hopefully it means some sort of reconciliation between the sisters? At least now they have something in common, right?
I loved the final scene of Mary and Tom heading off together for York. In-laws unite!