Downton Abbey

[harrietthespook]

Ladies....as we were?

Can't quite understand what Ethel and baby are still doing in it if they don't reappear in a greater capacity. All she gets to do is moan and sit in a darkened shed.

Quite like Sir R in a weird type of way. Mary has to tell MAtthew about the dead turk.

What's the age difference between cora and sir r meant to be?

I bet you if Lord G cops it, he could find a way to break that entail and cora get her money back.

Sir R bringing Lav in - why would she do what he said? Wouldn't she wait for an invitation from Cora?

But I guess he wants heirs too...

Avantia Brilliant idea!

I'm sure someone from MNHQ is a lurker on this thread !

smiles & waves at lurkers all

I think Cora did invite Lavvy-poo. She and Sir R hatched it up together didn't they?

Bossy, Avantia
JF would be far too terrified to come on here. He would get a rougher ride than DC or GB pre election.

She said something like: "Sir Richard says I am expected...I hope that#s right?" Or something like that. I don't think cora did make the overture.

I agree they discussed it but I think Sir Richard executed...

awwwww noooo we'd grill him for sure but much more gently, as we want spoilers!

"Did Patrick not have any family of his own ? Perhaps Lord G meant ... that he would n't have wiped his own mouth. "

Good point LIZS. I'm sure mouth-wiping was a valet's duty.

Lord 6 - that's how he'll be for me from now on.

Also, when was the sex scene, did I miss that?

Marthasharbour. Very good point - of course Patrick would have called Ld Grantham Uncle Robert. First names only were not used lightly in those days.

We've had the wedding and was Ethel and the Major the sex scene? I think there might be more sex scenes if Matthew's got his groove back.

I feel sorry for Ethel but I don't like her. I'm not sure if the kindness she's received from Mrs Hughes and the concern from Cora is how it would have been. Unmarried mothers were given short shrift in those days. (Though there was an interesting case in the Mitford family: Nancy Mitford's grandfather was the son of the then Lord Redesdale and probably a housemaid. 'probably' because he was brought up by his father and his wife as one of their family. He went on to found 'The Lady' magazine which is still going today.
Sorry - a bit off topic.

Good point Dapple

Don't worry "off-topic" is a speciality around here!

Mind you the family are/were unusual because Lord G believes in looking after his servants so the staff take their cue from him I suppose.

Re the sex scene, there was the time they found Ethel and the Major in bed, but that wasn't really a sex scene?

I wondered if it was coming next week - in the trailer there was the 'unusual' request from Sir R where he 'just wants to make Mary happy' and Anna goes off to ask Carson and Mrs Hughes?

Given her 'history' is he perhaps wanting to compromise her again - thus hoping even if someone else (Matthew?) might forgive her for one lapse of judgement, they wouldn't forgive her for doing it twice?

In my perfect Downton world, Sr R and Lavvy-poo would take the hint and go away. Preferably together and live happily ever after. M&M would also get together and live happily ever after. Ethel would be taken in the Major's parents as the mother of their grandson and looked after for the rest of her life. Carson would die happily surrounded by M&M's rosy-cheeked children in nankeens. Bates would jump in the lake. Cora would cop it from the flu and Lord 6 would marry Anna, who would give birth to another 3 girls. Sybil & Branson would run off together and he would become the first Taisoeach (sp?). Ethel would marry Sir A from the first series and become an F1 driver. Darling Daisy would become head maid and then housekeeper. Mrs current housekeeper would change her mind and marry the farmer from series 1. New maid would go away. The end.

Anna will also be poached by Sir R :(

And agree about calling him Uncle Robert too - they still often refer to Matthew as cousin Matthew (although do they do this in conversation with him, or just when talking about him?)

I like the idea of Edith & Sir Strallan.

That was very disappointing if it was the sex scene - Ethel clutching the sheet to her breasts and the Major hopping about with another sheet round him.

Do you think Major Bryant really is dead or his family have just said that to shake off yet another maid he has casually impregnated?

I can't work out what in DA is a nod to a SIGNIFICANT PLOT DEVELOPMENT or what's something that JF has forgotten to follow up and that the production staff are too nervous to remind him about.

It's really making me laugh. The opening scene of Mary trundling Matthew round the garden reminded me of Little Britain. Why did anyone think Bates, who has a limp for God's sake, would be more effective at pushing Matthew's wheelchair than Lavvie? And did anyone notice that Matthew got a stirring only when his chair was pushed over a bump in the carpet. That might add an interesting twist to the story his sexual reawakening. Not that there'd be a bump in the carpet with Carson on patrol with his trusty ruler.

bossybritches Patrick/Peter's bandage was annoying me too. Why was he wearing one anyway? The scarring was well-healed - surely far too old to fit the timeline?

"in the trailer there was the 'unusual' request from Sir R where he 'just wants to make Mary happy' and Anna goes off to ask Carson and Mrs Hughes?"

I think she went to fetch the shoehorn biscuits

Maybe he was burned all the way through like the mayor in The Dark Knight?

limitedperiod i also thought that Major Bryant is not really dead, didnt Cora say something like 'his parents wrote - their handwriting was bad' or something like that, it was certainly a nod to a fish being off (or something)

vairy excited about Matthew's 'stirring' do you think it was Lavvie's booty shaking in front of him wot did it?

Forget Lavvie's booty. I gave DH a very fristy glare during that Keira Knightley advert. He was all, "What? What have I done?"

Please take 'fristy' as 'frosty'. NOT frisky. Stupid perfume ad.

Looking at the preview I suspect Major Git's mother will be interested in the baby but not in Ethel. It's all going to end up a bit Vanity Fair I think - honestly is there any literary plot JF won't plunder?

limited Yes the bandage was not doing much except keep that manky old dressing over his ear vaguely on his head, Matron would not approve, but then y'see, Isobel wasn't there was she to ensure Standards were Maintained??!

Well I'm sure it happened more than once Northern, in RL as well as fiction!