How M/M via DS Non-Ironically Ruined My Life Meme: Maybe It's for the Best
"Look for the silver lining."
Day 6 - Most memorable Matthew scene in S2.
"Somewhere the sun is shining." ... In my pick for Matthew's most memorable scene in S2, the dance/kiss from 2x08 (which, no doubt, tops many people's lists), Matthew and Mary did what they do best in S2: they tried to make the best of things. The scene itself is approximately three minutes of perfection, from the opening shot of Matthew's hand on the needle to Matthew's visible wince as he looked upon Lavinia in guilt. The scene had a dreamlike quality to it -- not in the sense that it was surreal -- but rather, as if some spell was cast on it. And indeed it was magical.
But the power of the scene comes from its ambiguity. Julian Fellowes loves subtext and there are layers and layers here. But the really interesting thing about the subtext in this scene is that it does not settle, but keeps shifting from one viewing to the next. The dialogue is written sparingly in aid of this, and the performances of both Dan Stevens and Michelle Dockery are as nuanced as I have seen. Yet by the end of the scene we are not sure what it all meant. Or as eolivet describes it:
Play the scene without volume and it couldn't be clearer. Play it with sound and you could (and I have) spill pages of ink about what it meant or was supposed to accomplish.
...
Look me up in five years, and I'll still have thoughts on this scene. Perhaps entirely different ones!
And, like most of S2, the ambiguity here is Matthew's. In posting answers to this meme, I wrote about Matthew's transparency as well as his self-awareness in S1. But the war -- and perhaps his heartbreak in 1914 -- changed him in certain ways. He was much less of an open book in S2. He was more circumspect, more detached from his emotions, perhaps more guarded ... and much more difficult to read.
For example, he said to Mary: "I'm so, so sorry ... Do you know how sorry I am?" What was he apologizing for exactly? Was he sorry he left Downton when he could have married her? Was he sorry he failed to recognize her true feelings? Was he sorry he became involved with Lavinia on such short acquaintance? Was he just expressing general regret because they missed their chance? Was it an amalgam of some or all of these? Each time I watch the scene I come to a slightly different conclusion from the one I arrived at on my last viewing.
But whatever else the scene is about, it is, as I said at the outset, about making the best of things ... about looking for the silver lining. (And speaking of subtext, Fellowes and Lunn could not have selected a more fitting song to play in the background.) When you think about it, making the best of things was what Mary and Matthew tried to do all along during those war years after he reentered their lives. Matthew made the best of things with the family. He made the best of things at the front. He moved on with Lavinia and then tried to make the best of it out of a sense of guilt or duty (albeit misplaced) once she returned to Downton, unbidden and unwanted, in 2x06. ... Mary made the best of her reconciliation with Matthew and graciously accepted Lavinia. Mary tried to make the best of her "life" ("second best," she ruefully noted) by accepting Carlisle's proposal. She tried to help Matthew make the best of his when he thought he would never have a "normal" one again. This making the best of it is what ties all of Matthew and Mary's memorable moments of S2 together (not including those from the CS 2011, which was a bridge to a new era), beginning with the second most memorable scene of S2: the farewell at the train in 2x01. Like the 2x08 dance/kiss, the train scene was a (possible) last, a goodbye, a confession of deeply held emotions (the fear of dying in battle), a desire to extend that lifeline -- that connection -- in whatever way they could ... and then, finally, to make peace with it all.
Day 6 - Most memorable Matthew scene in S2.
"Somewhere the sun is shining." ... In my pick for Matthew's most memorable scene in S2, the dance/kiss from 2x08 (which, no doubt, tops many people's lists), Matthew and Mary did what they do best in S2: they tried to make the best of things. The scene itself is approximately three minutes of perfection, from the opening shot of Matthew's hand on the needle to Matthew's visible wince as he looked upon Lavinia in guilt. The scene had a dreamlike quality to it -- not in the sense that it was surreal -- but rather, as if some spell was cast on it. And indeed it was magical.
But the power of the scene comes from its ambiguity. Julian Fellowes loves subtext and there are layers and layers here. But the really interesting thing about the subtext in this scene is that it does not settle, but keeps shifting from one viewing to the next. The dialogue is written sparingly in aid of this, and the performances of both Dan Stevens and Michelle Dockery are as nuanced as I have seen. Yet by the end of the scene we are not sure what it all meant. Or as eolivet describes it:
Play the scene without volume and it couldn't be clearer. Play it with sound and you could (and I have) spill pages of ink about what it meant or was supposed to accomplish.
...
Look me up in five years, and I'll still have thoughts on this scene. Perhaps entirely different ones!
And, like most of S2, the ambiguity here is Matthew's. In posting answers to this meme, I wrote about Matthew's transparency as well as his self-awareness in S1. But the war -- and perhaps his heartbreak in 1914 -- changed him in certain ways. He was much less of an open book in S2. He was more circumspect, more detached from his emotions, perhaps more guarded ... and much more difficult to read.
For example, he said to Mary: "I'm so, so sorry ... Do you know how sorry I am?" What was he apologizing for exactly? Was he sorry he left Downton when he could have married her? Was he sorry he failed to recognize her true feelings? Was he sorry he became involved with Lavinia on such short acquaintance? Was he just expressing general regret because they missed their chance? Was it an amalgam of some or all of these? Each time I watch the scene I come to a slightly different conclusion from the one I arrived at on my last viewing.
But whatever else the scene is about, it is, as I said at the outset, about making the best of things ... about looking for the silver lining. (And speaking of subtext, Fellowes and Lunn could not have selected a more fitting song to play in the background.) When you think about it, making the best of things was what Mary and Matthew tried to do all along during those war years after he reentered their lives. Matthew made the best of things with the family. He made the best of things at the front. He moved on with Lavinia and then tried to make the best of it out of a sense of guilt or duty (albeit misplaced) once she returned to Downton, unbidden and unwanted, in 2x06. ... Mary made the best of her reconciliation with Matthew and graciously accepted Lavinia. Mary tried to make the best of her "life" ("second best," she ruefully noted) by accepting Carlisle's proposal. She tried to help Matthew make the best of his when he thought he would never have a "normal" one again. This making the best of it is what ties all of Matthew and Mary's memorable moments of S2 together (not including those from the CS 2011, which was a bridge to a new era), beginning with the second most memorable scene of S2: the farewell at the train in 2x01. Like the 2x08 dance/kiss, the train scene was a (possible) last, a goodbye, a confession of deeply held emotions (the fear of dying in battle), a desire to extend that lifeline -- that connection -- in whatever way they could ... and then, finally, to make peace with it all.