At the very least, I am glad that this season finale was happier than last year’s. Even if the episode–with the exception of Rose’s coming out and the royal scandal–wasn’t really necessary for most of the characters. But if you missed the last episode or just want to enjoy my editorializing on it, here’s our last recap of the season:
The Levinsons Visit and the No One Knows What to Do With Them
Cora’s mother and brother come for a visit, more because Martha Levinson hopes that traveling a few thousand miles will change the subject from the Teapot Dome Scandal than because she wants to see Rose come out. And within moments, they have the entire Crawley family (upstairs and down) on edge.
First off, they arrive hours before they planned to. Martha is traveling without a maid (oh, the horror!). Harold’s valet, Ethan, is an over-sharer (even for an American), and the staff have no idea what to do with him. Then they spend the episode being themselves, which, in almost everyone’s opinion is brash, rude, and impossible.
Lord Aysgarth, within seconds of meeting them, throws his daughter (Madeleine Allsop) at Harold while he begins to pursue Martha. The Levinsons react to being pursued in their own ways. Harold continually insults Miss Allsop, but comes to admire her when she insists on authenticity from him. He tells her that he’s a playboy, and that she’s too good for him, but it’s clear that Mr. Fellows left the possibility open to pursue a romance between them in future seasons. Martha, on the other hand, encourages Lord Aysgarth until he proposes. Then she refuses him, telling him that she has no desire to be live in England, where they consider her loud and rude. As a consolation prize, however, she offers to introduce him to all the rich American women she knows who would love to marry and English lord if he visits her in New Jersey next year.
I couldn’t decide which of the next two moments was my favorite of the visit. 1. Harold wanted to know if he could meet the king…and then tried to shake hands with the prince. 2. Lady Violet decided to do battle with Martha, and Martha walked away with the last word: “My world is coming nearer while yours is slipping away.”
Tom Branson and Thomas Barrow Face Off
Thomas is not excited about serving Tom Branson, and he decides to both make that clear and make trouble.
He gets his chance when Sarah Bunting invites herself over to Downton. She meets Branson in town, asks him if he’s been avoiding her, and invites herself to dinner with him. After they eat, she pressures him inviting her back to the house so that she can have a tour. Thomas catches them upstairs in the gallery, looking down at the main hall, and–because it’s near the bedrooms–makes sure that Branson knows that he’s going to take it in the worst way possible.
Thomas’s behavior didn’t surprise me at all. I was wondering about a few other things. Is Tom interested in Sarah? Because it seems to me like he doesn’t know himself. And does Sarah really like him? Because I can’t tell whether she’s trying to pressure him into a relationship with her or whether she just wants to argue him into her political points of view.
And although this has nothing to do with Thomas or Sarah, I had one other question that involved Tom (rather indirectly) in this episode. He brought Isis down to London with him, and I got to wondering: How old is that lab supposed to be? She was in the first season, which started in 1912. The finale took place during 1923. As Isis was never a puppy in the show, she would have to be at least 12. Does that dog look 12? And how long is she going to live?
Edith Makes a Decision
Edith is back from Switzerland, back to her original shape, and not very happy. Between awkward conversations with her grandmother, missing her daughter, and keeping a very large secret, she is feeling stuck.
They finally have some news on Michael Gregson, but it’s only a little, and it isn’t good. He got to his hotel, went out for dinner, and got in a fight with some brown shirts (I had to look it up, but this is code for a paramilitary wing of the Nazis). He was never heard from again, which means that he could be dead or an early prisoner of the coming war. Edith is now the editor of The Sketch and in full control of the paper.
You know just how frustrated she is by her lack of information on Michael and being cut off from her child when she tells Mary and Tony that she thinks the British need to start making more scenes about the things that matter.
Edith can’t quite seem to decide to make a full-blown scene, but she does finally makes some choices that are hers. When Tom tells her that they need to stick up for themselves, or the family they love will steamroll the, her resolve forms. She tells Rosamund that she never made a formal arrangement with the Schroders and tells her in front of family members that she’s going to go abroad for a few days.
She returns to Downton and approaches Mr. Drew. The kind farmer quickly sees through Edith’s explanation that she wants him to take care of her “friend’s” child, and he comes up with a much better plan than the one she created. He’s going to send himself a letter that night, killing off an imaginary old friend of his, who has left an orphaned child. His wife won’t know the friend was made up, and she won’t know that Edith has anything to do with it. Or at least she won’t until Edith starts visiting the farm all the time.
I can’t wait to see how this scandal plays out next season. Well, just so long as they don’t kill off George and Sybbie and leave Edith’s daughter as the sole heir of Downton. But I doubt that’ll happen.
Rose Comes Out Amid a Royal Scandal
The excitement in this episode is Rose’s coming out and the following ball. Isobel thinks that while silly, it’s one of the benchmarks by which the family measures their lives, so she’ll attend (and not roll her eyes). Mrs Hughes is mystified how a curtsy and a nod from the throne turns a girl into a woman, but that’s how they do it. I’ve always wondered why they didn’t just hang a sash across the girls that reads: OPEN FOR BUSINESS (because that was what the whole thing was about).
Rose herself, for all her plans to marry Jack Ross earlier this season, seems enchanted by the whole production. She looks around in awe at the splendor of Buckingham Palace (which was actually filmed in the interior of a house around the corner), nearly faints when the king speaks to her, and is thrilled when she becomes friends with the prince’s mistress, Mrs. Dudley Ward. (I checked. She was a real person, and not a name Fellows picked out because he’s a Harry Potter fan. Maybe J.K. stole an ex-royal-mistress’s name?)
Unfortunately, the friendship is not as discreet as a friendship between a royal mistress and a debutante needs to be. They mention a letter the prince wrote Mrs. DW in Sampson’s hearing. ( Remember the card sharp [British slang–the American is shark] from earlier in the season? He crashed Rose’s party.) Sampson filches it, and the Crawley family isn’t sure whether he plans to use it for blackmail or to make some money while he shames the crown, but they aren’t happy about it either way.
An elaborate plan is concocted in which the Crawleys get Sampson over for a card game. Meanwhile, Bates forges a note in “Sampson’s” writing to gain Mary, Rose, and Charles entrance into his sitting room so that they can steal back the letter. They don’t find it, and it looks like the prince and his mistress will be exposed. At least until Bates does some quick thinking and pick-pockets the letter straight from Sampson’s jacket. Robert is relieved that if the prince’s indiscretions go public, it won’t have anything to do with the Downton family. (The information did eventually circulate. When the prince moved onto a new mistress–an American divorcee–an insulted Mrs. DW leaked the info herself.)
In thanks for saving their reputations until she’s ready to ruin them, Mrs. DW convinces the prince to attend Rose’s coming out ball and open the dancing with her. Cora says that if Rose doesn’t turn out to be the darling of the London season, she’ll be shocked. Because who wouldn’t want to marry someone who’s danced with the prince, right?
Did He? Or Didn’t He? (We All Knew He Did)
The finale finally solved the question of what happened to Mr. Green. When the staff collect clothing to give to a church request to help some refugees, Anna gives Mrs. Hughes an old coat of Mr. Bates.
In the coat, Mrs. Hughes finds a ticket stub from the day that Mr. Green died. The ticket is to London, not York. She passes the ticket and her suspicions off to Lady Mary, who wavers about whether or not to turn Bates in. After Bates helps the family return the scandalous letter to Mrs. Dudley Ward, and Anna tells her of how loyal Mr. Bates is to the family, Mary throws the ticket into the fire. She seems to decide that although she does not think Bates’s murder can be condoned, she can’t quite condemn him for it, either.
And it looks as though Anna and Bates have gotten past the horrors of this season. I’m hoping their characters get a bit of a break next season, don’t you?
Mary Officially Sanctions the Competition
Mary spends time with Charles Blake, going to a museum with him, and then calling on him to help them when they need to break into Sampson’s flat, but when she dances (and then sneaks away) with Tony at Rose’s ball, she tells him that she doesn’t really think Charles is in the running for her romantic future. Being a member of the aristocracy, she doesn’t think she could be with someone who wants to take them down. Tony, with some reluctance, tells her that she’s under a false impression. No matter the work he’s doing, Charles is the heir to his cousin, Lord Severus (who, according to Google did not exist, so maybe Fellows is a HP fan!). When he inherits the Ulster estate, Charles will be more eligible than Tony.
Mary, surprised, admits that this does make a difference to her–to know that Charles isn’t out to destroy the aristocracy if he’s going to join it. She tells Tony that although she hasn’t made any sort of decision, they should celebrate the fact that she can envision a future for herself that involves more than mourning Matthew until the end of her days.
The next morning, she confronts Charles, asking him why he didn’t tell her about his estate. He wants to know who told her, and she replies that Tony did. She thinks he wants it to be a fair fight. They part, Mary saying “Let battle commence” and Charles agreeing to it. And if you don’t hate her character, you have to laugh at Mary’s arrogance–she’s encouraging men (outright!)–to fight over her.
New Relationships, New Starts, and a Day Off at the Beach
At the beginning of the episode, Daisy claims that it doesn’t make any difference to her if she peels potatoes at Downton or in London, but it turns out she’s very wrong. Ethan, Harold Levinson’s valet, immediately shows interest in her. Daisy doesn’t know what to do with his over-eager attention and his blabber-mouth, but is flattered anyway. Particularly when he convinces Harold to hire her as his cook. Ethan hopes to get Daisy to America, assuming that if he has enough time, he can win her heart. Daisy declines his invitation, saying that it wouldn’t work between them.
Ivy, however, sees this as her chance. She asks Ethan if she can go to America instead. Daisy encourages Ethan to take her, saying it won’t make any difference to Mr. Levinson since they know how to make all the same dishes. I wonder if Harold (and Ivy) will be back for cameos next season or if this is the last we’ve seen of Daisy’s nemisis.
Moseley encourages Miss Baxter to stand her ground against Thomas, saying that sometimes it’s better to take a risk than back yourself into a situation you know you don’t want to be in. She takes his advice, and thanks him for giving her the strength not to fear her past. Moseley clearly doesn’t know what to do with her admiration, but I hope he figures it out (and we learn about Miss Baxter’s mysterious past) during season five.
The staff enjoys a day off at the beach, and the season ends as Carson, in bare feet, goes wading with Mrs. Hughes. She tells him that he can always hold her hand if it makes him feel steady, to which he teases her that her offer sounds a little risque. Mrs. Hughes counters that they’re getting on and they can live a little. They walk into the ocean hand and hand just as the final credits roll.
So that’s it! What did you think of season four? Will you tune in for season five, or did you decide the show died for you in that car crash last year? And, most importantly:
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