In Defense of Matthew
So much backlash against Matthew. He's my favorite character, dear, sweet Matthew. Many think he's changed a great deal in S2. Thanks to the war, that's inevitable. Unfortunately, as eolivet has pointed out, JF decided to not attempt to flesh out Matthew's character in any great detail, just rendering a few war scenes here and there, and showing him
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Oh, ABSOLUTELY -- I think that those lines in 2x02 were VERY deliberate. JF might as well have been saying: "Heads up! That's going to happen to you, Matthew!" Because I actually think (and posted about, way back in the day) there was a very strong indication throughout 2x01 that Matthew really just...thought he was going to die on the front. That it's why he got engaged -- so that would be settled, in case he lived -- and brought Lavinia to Downton so she'd have support if he didn't come back. It's why he was desperate to be friends again with Mary, and kept repeating it ad nauseum, IMO. It's why he went to church before he went to the train station. I really don't think he expects to live -- hence the "bullet that kills them cleanly" remark in 2x02, and the utter TERROR he feels about the hospital then as well.
No WONDER he doesn't want to talk about it. No WONDER he doesn't realize exactly what Mary has done for him. And even if he did take some kind of notice I think he would have completely blocked it out... 1) Because he doesn't feel like anyone should care for him anymore 2) Because he can't look back.
SO true. :( It took me a while to recognize it, I'll admit, but once I did...I mean, it's a trauma. It's a serious trauma. Like you said, if he just can't talk about what happened on the front, what on EARTH makes people think he could talk about/process/remember what happened in the very early days of his hospital stay? Like I said, I think he recognized Mary's presence -- she was his stick from the beginning -- which spoke volumes.
Someone once commented on my journal, and I loved this distinction -- he tells Lavinia "we can never be properly married" (sugarcoating it for her), he tells Mary he's "an impotent cripple." Uses the word "impotent." Just doesn't hold anything back. That implies a huge level of trust, IMO. He sends Lavinia AWAY. Who do you expect but the ones who love you the most to be there when you most need them? :(
A part of me selfishly hopes he DOES remember what Mary did for him, and makes an allusion to it in the future (or Isobel does or something). But at the dinner table, as I've commented elsewhere, was not the time for Matthew to praise Lavinia for her easy caregiver role, and then say "And special thanks to Mary, who held the bowl when I got sick in the hospital!" :/
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