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The Downton Fair
Okay, so other episodes definitely don't follow the A/B/C structure like the last one. I see two main plots in this one - Mrs. Hughes's beau and the Great Matter - with several little side plots. I don't think I'll try and map them again.
- I'm sure it was exciting for the characters, but I was not terribly interested in the fair as a backdrop.
- I liked the little scene with Anna and Mary, where they're basically like "So ... that happened."
- Ah, Branson. An Irish driver who's interested in history and politics. No red flags there. :P Love the detail of Carson reading novels from Robert's library.
- "One can't go to pieces at the death of every foreigner. We'd all be in a state of collapse whenever we opened a newspaper."
- Oh, Isobel. Pride goeth before the fall. :P I do get that she might reasonably believe that Molesley was downplaying the pain in his hands, but she is far too eager to speak her partially informed medical opinion. And erysipelas seems like a drastic diagnosis to be the first, without ruling something simpler out first.
- I like how they sprinkled Daisy's part in the Pamuk story across this episode and the next. Mrs. Patmore and Mrs. Hughes also seem to have the common cook/housekeeper rivalry. Not nearly as much drama as Mrs. Croft and Mrs. Wilson in Gosford, but there's an antipathy there all the same.
- I thought it kind of funny that Mrs. Hughes seemed a bit disappointed that O'Brien was too busy to fix the hat when she *knew* she was about to double her duties for the day by asking her to cover for Anna.
- LOLOL Violet and the swivel chair! Matthew is trying so hard not to laugh!
- Damn, Thomas. Even O'Brien looked disapproving at you interrupting William's attempt to ask Mary to go to the fair. WHEN O'BRIEN DISAPPROVES, YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR, SIR. This is when he definitely stopped being sympathetic for me, because this was clearly not for his own self-interest but just to be mean. We'd seen it from the beginning with his treatment of William, but this has nothing to do with work and is just personal and plain nasty.
- Aw, Matthew buys Mary a turn at the game. I love this scene (though not as much as the later one with the hand holding, of course :D), which I think is the first real glimpse that Mary wants something more out of life than just waiting to marry. This is the first time we get a clear context for her ambivalence about going into mourning in the first episode. The affair with Pamuk speaks to this as well, but here she says it in so many words. Have I mentioned she's my favorite character?
- Nice little moment with Sybil, talking to Violet about wanting a real education as opposed to the etiquette training of a governess. Not as nice a moment as Matthew staring after Mary, though. And then there's just a simple reminder that not much happens in the house that the servants don't know about, as William watches from a distance while Mary whispers to a hidden Matthew.
- I love Robert and his understanding that the servants have lives and a right to fun as much as anyone. Also his clear noticing that there's "something going on" (to use an old HP fandom reference) with Matthew's concern for how the Great Matter hurts Mary and must make her resent him.
- As close as we are to WW1, I wonder what's happened to Joe Burns's son that joined the army.
- "...while I'm sat here, sewing like a cursed princess in a fairy tale" - O'Brien certainly has a way with words, if not with people.
- Lovely, lovely moment with Anna and Bates and the tray. There's even a bouquet on it! Though I suppose the kitchen did that, not him. :P
- Hee! Even Carson seems aware that Mary and Matthew might benefit from a moment or two alone, since he suggests not interrupting them to tell them Robert has gone to bed until they ring.
- "I don't need help to remember you." Aw, Elsie. Her comment about what happens to her after she retires is interesting. What *does* happen to servants when they get to a certain age?
- "Oh, go home, William, if you're gonna be such a spoiled sport!" Daisy, Daisy, Daisy. You do not need to be learning people skills from Thomas. You don't need to be learning ANYTHING from him.
- "On the contrary, you mean a great deal. A very ... great deal." I love a show that can make the simple act of taking a person's hand so incredibly swoony. Aw, and Matthew wins points with Carson for being so concerned at causing Mary any pain.
- There's an interesting moment when Mrs. Hughes returns from the fair, almost like she's watching and thinking what the house might be like without her. LOL at Carson always popping up whenever someone says something crass. And good on Bates for calling Daisy out on her snark.
- William, if I could step into this screen I would HUG YOU SO HARD.
- I suspect that a good deal of the entail talk is for the audience's benefit. The fact that women could not inherit would have been a well known fact in any English household and they most likely would not talk of it as if it's a new or surprising circumstance. Of course, the Crawleys probably wouldn't have thought much about it before James and Patrick died on the Titanic. And the conflict gives Mary a good deal of her characterization. Not just her stubbornness and not accepting her fate but the notion that she's a strong enough person that, in a fairer world, she could wear her father's title and manage the estate quite well. There's a bit of Scarlett O'Hara in her, I think.
- I love Isobel, but it was about time that Violet got one over on her. And gosh, I love how she just laughs all the way out the door of the doctor's office.
- I adore the nice, rare moments when Mrs. Patmore is not bustling about and yelling at Daisy and plays a bit of Mother Hen. LMAO at her basically telling Daisy "HE IS GAY GURL!" and poor Daisy still doesn't get it.
- On my first watch, my shippy mind misinterpreted the scene in the sitting room with the odd angle on Mary as Robert prattled on about Matthew. It didn't occur to me that she felt neglected by her father. Which brings me to one of my favorite scenes of the whole season...
- "You heard him! Matthew this, Matthew that, Matthew, Matthew, Matthew! Oh mother, don't you see? He has a son now! Of course he didn't argue with the entail! Why would he? When he's got what he always wanted! ... You're no better! You don't care about Matthew getting everything because you don't think I'm worthy of it! ... I wish you'd just admit it! I'm a lost soul to you! I took a lover with no thought of marriage! A Turk! Oh, think of that!" I'm just typing it word for word because I'm too busy crying to form coherent thoughts. Damn, my favorite Mary moment (by herself) by far. And it reminds me of "Daughters are never of so much consequence to a father" (Lady Catherine in P&P, of course), which was sadly a fact of life for a lot of girls back in the day, even in the 20th century. I don't believe it of Robert, but I can definitely see why Mary would feel that way.
- "He's just jealous. Everyone likes you better than him." YES WE DO, WILLIAM.
- Even though Mary is my favorite, Sybil is unarguably the nicest and sweetest of the sisters.
- Wonderful scene with Mrs. Hughes and Carson. I loved the editing here, where they jump from the scene between them to little shots of her and Joe, with her dialogue as voice-over. It's sad to think about what might have been, but she's right - she's not the same person she was when he first proposed to her. "Leaving? Wherever would I find the time?!"
- SYBIL'S PANTS!FROCK RULES! Know what else rules? The looks on everyone's faces when she enters the room. And Sybil's defiant expression!
Okay, so other episodes definitely don't follow the A/B/C structure like the last one. I see two main plots in this one - Mrs. Hughes's beau and the Great Matter - with several little side plots. I don't think I'll try and map them again.
- I'm sure it was exciting for the characters, but I was not terribly interested in the fair as a backdrop.
- I liked the little scene with Anna and Mary, where they're basically like "So ... that happened."
- Ah, Branson. An Irish driver who's interested in history and politics. No red flags there. :P Love the detail of Carson reading novels from Robert's library.
- "One can't go to pieces at the death of every foreigner. We'd all be in a state of collapse whenever we opened a newspaper."
- Oh, Isobel. Pride goeth before the fall. :P I do get that she might reasonably believe that Molesley was downplaying the pain in his hands, but she is far too eager to speak her partially informed medical opinion. And erysipelas seems like a drastic diagnosis to be the first, without ruling something simpler out first.
- I like how they sprinkled Daisy's part in the Pamuk story across this episode and the next. Mrs. Patmore and Mrs. Hughes also seem to have the common cook/housekeeper rivalry. Not nearly as much drama as Mrs. Croft and Mrs. Wilson in Gosford, but there's an antipathy there all the same.
- I thought it kind of funny that Mrs. Hughes seemed a bit disappointed that O'Brien was too busy to fix the hat when she *knew* she was about to double her duties for the day by asking her to cover for Anna.
- LOLOL Violet and the swivel chair! Matthew is trying so hard not to laugh!
- Damn, Thomas. Even O'Brien looked disapproving at you interrupting William's attempt to ask Mary to go to the fair. WHEN O'BRIEN DISAPPROVES, YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR, SIR. This is when he definitely stopped being sympathetic for me, because this was clearly not for his own self-interest but just to be mean. We'd seen it from the beginning with his treatment of William, but this has nothing to do with work and is just personal and plain nasty.
- Aw, Matthew buys Mary a turn at the game. I love this scene (though not as much as the later one with the hand holding, of course :D), which I think is the first real glimpse that Mary wants something more out of life than just waiting to marry. This is the first time we get a clear context for her ambivalence about going into mourning in the first episode. The affair with Pamuk speaks to this as well, but here she says it in so many words. Have I mentioned she's my favorite character?
- Nice little moment with Sybil, talking to Violet about wanting a real education as opposed to the etiquette training of a governess. Not as nice a moment as Matthew staring after Mary, though. And then there's just a simple reminder that not much happens in the house that the servants don't know about, as William watches from a distance while Mary whispers to a hidden Matthew.
- I love Robert and his understanding that the servants have lives and a right to fun as much as anyone. Also his clear noticing that there's "something going on" (to use an old HP fandom reference) with Matthew's concern for how the Great Matter hurts Mary and must make her resent him.
- As close as we are to WW1, I wonder what's happened to Joe Burns's son that joined the army.
- "...while I'm sat here, sewing like a cursed princess in a fairy tale" - O'Brien certainly has a way with words, if not with people.
- Lovely, lovely moment with Anna and Bates and the tray. There's even a bouquet on it! Though I suppose the kitchen did that, not him. :P
- Hee! Even Carson seems aware that Mary and Matthew might benefit from a moment or two alone, since he suggests not interrupting them to tell them Robert has gone to bed until they ring.
- "I don't need help to remember you." Aw, Elsie. Her comment about what happens to her after she retires is interesting. What *does* happen to servants when they get to a certain age?
- "Oh, go home, William, if you're gonna be such a spoiled sport!" Daisy, Daisy, Daisy. You do not need to be learning people skills from Thomas. You don't need to be learning ANYTHING from him.
- "On the contrary, you mean a great deal. A very ... great deal." I love a show that can make the simple act of taking a person's hand so incredibly swoony. Aw, and Matthew wins points with Carson for being so concerned at causing Mary any pain.
- There's an interesting moment when Mrs. Hughes returns from the fair, almost like she's watching and thinking what the house might be like without her. LOL at Carson always popping up whenever someone says something crass. And good on Bates for calling Daisy out on her snark.
- William, if I could step into this screen I would HUG YOU SO HARD.
- I suspect that a good deal of the entail talk is for the audience's benefit. The fact that women could not inherit would have been a well known fact in any English household and they most likely would not talk of it as if it's a new or surprising circumstance. Of course, the Crawleys probably wouldn't have thought much about it before James and Patrick died on the Titanic. And the conflict gives Mary a good deal of her characterization. Not just her stubbornness and not accepting her fate but the notion that she's a strong enough person that, in a fairer world, she could wear her father's title and manage the estate quite well. There's a bit of Scarlett O'Hara in her, I think.
- I love Isobel, but it was about time that Violet got one over on her. And gosh, I love how she just laughs all the way out the door of the doctor's office.
- I adore the nice, rare moments when Mrs. Patmore is not bustling about and yelling at Daisy and plays a bit of Mother Hen. LMAO at her basically telling Daisy "HE IS GAY GURL!" and poor Daisy still doesn't get it.
- On my first watch, my shippy mind misinterpreted the scene in the sitting room with the odd angle on Mary as Robert prattled on about Matthew. It didn't occur to me that she felt neglected by her father. Which brings me to one of my favorite scenes of the whole season...
- "You heard him! Matthew this, Matthew that, Matthew, Matthew, Matthew! Oh mother, don't you see? He has a son now! Of course he didn't argue with the entail! Why would he? When he's got what he always wanted! ... You're no better! You don't care about Matthew getting everything because you don't think I'm worthy of it! ... I wish you'd just admit it! I'm a lost soul to you! I took a lover with no thought of marriage! A Turk! Oh, think of that!" I'm just typing it word for word because I'm too busy crying to form coherent thoughts. Damn, my favorite Mary moment (by herself) by far. And it reminds me of "Daughters are never of so much consequence to a father" (Lady Catherine in P&P, of course), which was sadly a fact of life for a lot of girls back in the day, even in the 20th century. I don't believe it of Robert, but I can definitely see why Mary would feel that way.
- "He's just jealous. Everyone likes you better than him." YES WE DO, WILLIAM.
- Even though Mary is my favorite, Sybil is unarguably the nicest and sweetest of the sisters.
- Wonderful scene with Mrs. Hughes and Carson. I loved the editing here, where they jump from the scene between them to little shots of her and Joe, with her dialogue as voice-over. It's sad to think about what might have been, but she's right - she's not the same person she was when he first proposed to her. "Leaving? Wherever would I find the time?!"
- SYBIL'S PANTS!FROCK RULES! Know what else rules? The looks on everyone's faces when she enters the room. And Sybil's defiant expression!
tired