Open on a dark abbey and mournful piano music. Downton Abbey starts without Matthew Crawley. His baby is crying, and Lady Mary is in bed alone. Nothing is right in the fictional world of Downton.
Chaos Below Stairs
In the morning, the servants are in an uproar because O’Brien left. There is the major drama of how in the world Lady Cora will manage to get dressed. Because, you know, she couldn’t possibly dress herself. (And as a viewer, I had to laugh over Siobhan Finneran’s exit. I’m not sure whether she or Dan Stevens got a worse write-out. But I was grateful they didn’t kill her off, too. There was too much death last season.)
This sets the stage for Edna’s return…and I’m wondering if it’s a matter of time before she and Branson fall into bed together or he spurns her advances and she ruins his entire life. She seems like that sort of vindictive type.
Mary in Mourning
As a writer, I was amazed by the masterful way Julian Fellows wrote and Michelle Dockery acted Mary in this episode. They managed to make Mary her usual, caustic self, as evidenced by her first scene:
Mary (speaking to baby George, who was named before the new baby prince, btw): “Poor little orphan”
Anna: “He’s not an orphan. He’s got his mother. Orphans haven’t.”
Mary: “He isn’t poor, either, come to that.”
Yet as she delivered these lines–and others like them throughout the episode–she seemed like a hollowed-out shell of the character she was. As she said herself: “Somehow, with Matthew’s death, all the softness that he found in me seems to have dried up and drained away. Maybe it was only ever there in his imagination.”
What Will Thomas Do?
Alfred: “He is a servant.”
Bates: “Don’t tell him that. He’ll never get over the shock.”
Without O’Brien, I was wondering how Mr. Fellows was going to give Thomas some mischief in this episode.
Enter Nanny West, who might be one of the most irritating minor characters ever to grace the screen. Did any of you other mothers out there want to stab her when she was so awful to “Miss Sybbie”? I wanted to cheer for Cora as she dismissed her immediately. (For those of you who aren’t as into history as others, firing someone in this way–an immediate dismissal without a letter of reference–wasn’t just firing someone. Cora ended Miss West’s entire career.)
Anyone Want to Introduce Lord Grantham to Lady Mary?
I’m sure I’m not the only person watching this episode who wanted to strangle Lord Grantham. Although I believed his concern for his daughter, I sat there wondering whether he’d ever met her. Because I missed the episode where Mary was the little woman without a thought in her brain that he seemed to believe her to be. I loved that Branson ignored his wishes–repeatedly–and dragged Carson into it when he was needed.
On that note, I just love Carson and Mary’s relationship. They’ve all done such an excellent job making that relationship a wonderful surrogate father-daughter one, without ever hinting at anything untoward.The moment where Mary finally broke down in his arms was one of most touching of the episode.
(Confession: I was watching this Downton episode whilst typing the first draft of this post at a furious speed. Downton seems to have the same effect on me that Austen novels do: I love to slip into their patterns of speech [e.g. untoward, whilst], even if it sounds ridiculously stuck-up and out-of-date. So enjoy it…or suffer through it, depending on your tastes.)
Say It With Me: “Aaaawwww!”
The Valentine’s Day card exchange was the cutest part of the episode. Daisy, Ivy, Alfred, and Jimmy just can’t quite seem to figure out their love lives, but it’s amusing to watch them angst over each other. And I loved Mrs. Patmore being so thoughtful that she’d send Daisy a card so she wouldn’t feel badly. (It reminded me of the time my father sent me flowers for V-day when I was boyfriend-less in college. I have a great dad.)
But, of course, the best Valentine’s Day moment was between Bates and Anna. Their romance has yet to tire me.
Whatever Will They Think of Next?
One of the most successful ways this show feels genuinely historical are all the ways the characters get so worked up over the new inventions. I loved Mrs. Patmore in tears over not being able to use an electric mixer–and her fears that she was a part of the past.
Onward
The end of this episode was perfect–Mary going to the farmers’ luncheon, re-entering the “land of the living” and telling her father in no uncertain terms that she is going to be a part of his world.I can’t imagine he’s going to take his daughter’s interference lying down, and I can’t wait to see the fireworks spark between these two in future episodes.
What Didn’t Work For Me in This Episode:
Until the Michael Gregson story line, I had always pitied Edith. But over the last few romantic choices she’s made, I’ve gotten disgusted. Trying to help someone figure out how divorce his insane wife (which at that point would send her to an assylum)? Its’s despicable…and just a little too desperate. She couldn’t find someone single? Someone she wouldn’t have to lie about to her parents?
But maybe not, since Mary’s take on him was: “He’s not bad looking, and he’s still alive, which puts him two points ahead of most of the men of our generation.”
That said, I loved her dress when she met Gregson at the restaurant. And kissing in a public restaurant? The scandal! I don’t know which was worse–that or the fact that he wanted to move to Germany and take a member of the English aristocracy with him.
Mosely’s story bored me a bit. I often enjoy Mosely being awkward to the point of silliness. But when pairing it with his desperation to find away to support himself, it just didn’t work for me. Laughing at that felt heartless.
I also thought that Fellows got all he could out of Carson’s friend Grigg in the first episode. Although he worked well as a plot device to help Isobel out of seclusion, I kept wishing the narrative would go back to following other characters.
Lady Violet’s Zingers
As everyone who watches Downton knows, Maggie Smith continually gets the best lines of the entire show. And I plan to end each recap with my favorites from the episode. Because why not?
“It’s the job of grandmothers to interfere.”
“May I stay, or is it a secret assignation?”
“Just because you are an old widow, I see no necessity for eating off a tray.”
“It’s not his business to mind.”
“My dear, I’m not really very interested in whether you behave badly or well. I’m not your governess.”
So, what did you think? Did the start of season 4 work for you without Matthew? Did you refuse to watch because you were so mad that Dan Stevens wanted to leave the show and they killed him off? Are you excited to see where the season goes from here?
Yes, you’re RIGHT! The US got TWO new Downton episodes last night. We’ll share Episode 2’s recap later today!
