Downton Abbey: Episode 3
January 19, 2015 3:34 PM - Season 5, Episode 3 - Subscribe

Mary and Lord Gillingham put their love to the test. Bates also faces a trial. Cora makes a new friend, and Violet is reunited with an old one.
posted by Sweetie Darling (21 comments total)
 
Can we please have a full length feature film re: Violet Crawley's Russian escapades?
posted by Dr. Zira at 5:00 PM on January 19, 2015 [9 favorites]


When is someone going to pull Lady Rose aside and tell her to stop inviting Sarah Bunting to social events at the Abbey?
posted by Ranucci at 5:16 PM on January 19, 2015 [6 favorites]


I like the relationship that's developed between Mary and Tom, although I can't imagine any man in 1924 saying, "If you love me, you'll support me."
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:36 PM on January 19, 2015 [4 favorites]


Ridiculous Bates and Baxter story lines aside, that was the best episode in a long time. Great material for Maggie Smith to sink her teeth into.
posted by double bubble at 5:59 PM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]


This season is boring me. I don't care which dude Mary picks and apparently she doesn't care either, because after a week of boinking she still doesn't care enough to marry the dude. Tom doesn't seem to care whether or not he dates Miss Bunting or moves to America either. I'm tired of Sad Poor Edith. Rose used to party it up with black jazz singers and now the only trouble she gets up to is inviting Miss Bunting over. Miss Bunting is rude and obnoxious. Nobody wants to see another Bates-in-jail plot. Also, hiding the boss's diaphragm (and again, don't those have to be customized to your body?) is kinda way beyond the boundaries, even here.

On the other hand, if Thomas somehow gets a new job, I'll be pleased. Baxter finally spit it out and while yeah, it was bad, she didn't get fired. And hell, Cora might as well hang out with a dude who appreciates her.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:09 PM on January 19, 2015 [5 favorites]


"No, an unlucky friend is tiresome enough. An unlucky acquaintance is intolerable."
-- The Dowager Countess of Grantham.
posted by dnash at 6:19 PM on January 19, 2015 [4 favorites]


I took so much glee in the scene between Violet and Mary. That was just delightful.

Honestly, it's pretty hard for me to side with anyone besides Sarah Bunting when it comes to the Russian aristocrats. The Russian Revolution may have been brutal, but the system before that was downright feudal, and I don't really feel sorry for them. And all Sarah said was some mumbled thing about the czar's policies, which is maybe not the most polite thing in the world but also not a horrible crime. I don't know, maybe they'll give one of the Russians more than a line or two and they'll become sympathetic but we'll see.
posted by lunasol at 6:48 PM on January 19, 2015


I've wondered if Rose is some sort of instigator of drama. How could she not see that Miss Bunting pretty much walks into the room with her foot on its way into her mouth?
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:26 PM on January 19, 2015


The Macguffins of this seasons are unbelievably stupid, but the real attraction of the show are the punchlines and the side-eyes which were great in this episodes. It was about time for Violet to get her plot line!
posted by bleep at 8:55 PM on January 19, 2015



I've wondered if Rose is some sort of instigator of drama.


I'm pretty sure that's the only reason she's there.
posted by bleep at 8:57 PM on January 19, 2015 [4 favorites]


The Russian Revolution may have been brutal, but the system before that was downright feudal, and I don't really feel sorry for them.
I don't know, I think it was a little over the top? There's such a thing as "reading the room".
posted by bleep at 9:04 PM on January 19, 2015


I cringe every time Sarah Bunting opens her mouth. She has NO charm, and that's the problem. You can say things in such a way as to provoke thought and open a dialog, or you can just be an asshole. Also, don't you know who your people are? If I was offered a chance to hang out with displaced Russian Aristocracy, as a descendant of Jews who fled the pogroms, I'd know enough to know to give it a miss. I've long stopped confusing earnestness for intelligence.

The whole Bates thing is dumb. I'm tired of that drama. I wish the two of them WOULD go somewhere and start over.

Rather than force silly drama on the downstairs folks, it's interesting enough to see how expanded economic options for the younger folks affects the institution of service. So yes, what is Barrow checking out? How will Daisy getting her GED change her?

Rose needs a nice, true romantic plot. I was hoping she'd have friends and hunting parties and bring life to Downton, not have Downton suck the life out of her.

And yet, I watch.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 5:41 AM on January 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


Sarah Bunting is ridiculously insufferable. But I felt the same way about Tom before they "tamed" him. They need to find a more sympathetic way to portray the non-aristocracy, non-servant contingent.
posted by double bubble at 6:05 AM on January 20, 2015


They need to find a more sympathetic way to portray the non-aristocracy, non-servant contingent.

I don't think they will. The whole point of the show seems to be justifying the nobs and their consumption of capital.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:28 AM on January 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


Yeah, I mean Julian Fellowes is pretty much a confirmed royalist. That's why I tend to give the Toms and Sarahs of the show a free pass on obnoxiousness because it's all filtered through Fellowes' general dislike of leftists and rabble-rousers.

Also, don't you know who your people are? If I was offered a chance to hang out with displaced Russian Aristocracy, as a descendant of Jews who fled the pogroms, I'd know enough to know to give it a miss.

Yeah, in real life Sarah would have better things to do with her time, but the show needs her in the room with these people for the Drama so there you go.
posted by lunasol at 7:33 AM on January 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


The only way I can really enjoy the show is to basically ignore the politics and focus on the pretty dresses and witty repartee.
posted by lunasol at 7:34 AM on January 20, 2015 [1 favorite]



The only way I can really enjoy the show is to basically ignore the politics and focus on the pretty dresses and witty repartee.


Good point. I lost my head for a minute.
posted by double bubble at 7:45 AM on January 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


Mary, Mary, Mary...perhaps the most outrageous thing she did was to imply that Violet was engaging in premarital sex with a Russian Prince, because, well, she received a fan from him at a ball at the Winter Palace. For all that may or may not be attached to this storyline, the actual events, Mary going off for a week to sleep with a man she may or may not give a rose (yes, this is Edwardian Bachelorette) is probably quite different than any flirting or crushing by the married wife of an Earl meeting a Russian Prince (granted, the aristocracy were by no means chaste - but Violet has never given over any evidence as being as free spirited). Hmph. I honestly look forward to Mary telling Lord Gillingham the boot, as he's about as exciting as watching someone watch paint dry. There's a lot about him that seems to scream, "I love you for who I think you are!" Which is never a good thing when someone turns out not to be who that person was pretty confident they were.

Edith. The pain train is on a non-stop circuit of the world, passenger one: Edith. If they don't give her a happy ending at some point, Fellowes will have to admit he simply hates her as a character and wants her to suffer endlessly.

Bates and Green. Green and Bates. One is a valet and the other is road kill. Let's hope this marks the beginning of the end of this horse beaten to death storyline. Am I odd by wanting him to have insecure feelings about his bad leg again as his chief dramatic plot point? Perhaps his cane can break on the walk back from the cottage or something.

Bunting. Apparently they don't teach manners in the school of Revolution. I'm totally sympathetic with her view points, but perhaps, for the life of her, she could simply engage in some chit chat with someone without dropping the moral outcry bomb? There's just something to be said about being a good dinner guest! (But was the Russian aristocracy over the top obsession with the Tsar really on the mark? Were they treating Tsar I've Got Bullets in the Uniform Nick as a holy saint so soon after the revolution? Further note, can we have a few of them grumbling over the Duma not being harsh enough and the reforms of Tsar Alexander needed to be rolled back?")

Tom. I like Tom. I don't want him to go to America. Unless, Bates and Anna go with him, and actually, how about the whole household? They can go settle down in Oklahoma and we can watch it like a serialized sequel to the end of Far and Away? (This week the Earl learns to turn a bull into a steer!)

Baxter. Ironic in an episode where an Earl's daughter is instructed she was seduced into a week long dalliance, and that's the only thing possible, that we have a lady's maid who admits to being seduced into stealing her lady's jewels. I'm just waiting for Mr. Barrow to steal those jewels and frame Baxter. Wait for it. It's coming.

Cora and the Art Critic. Poor Cora. Rest with ease that at some point in the near future, Robert will come around and somehow support your interest and opinions in the arts.
posted by Atreides at 8:54 AM on January 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


Honestly, it's pretty hard for me to side with anyone besides Sarah Bunting when it comes to the Russian aristocrats.

Yes, if they hadn't been able to find a way to work the Czarist aristocracy into the storyline, I imagine the next step would have been to have a young and ambitious Hitler turn up at Downton to provide someone who could make Miss Bunting seem not so bad.

I mean I am kind of a leftist irritant to the conservatives within my reach, and I find her insufferable.
posted by Naberius at 11:21 AM on January 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


I don't think Mary meant to imply that Granny actually did it with the prince (although there was that throw-away line where she said something about Aunt Rosamund already having been born at that point). I think it was a jab in particular at Violet's remark about not having any improper feelings whatsoever.
posted by bleep at 12:44 PM on January 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


Which was its own revolution- Even wise old matriarchs go too far sometimes and have to be taken down a notch. See also Marigold's mom.
posted by bleep at 12:54 PM on January 20, 2015


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