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Downton Abbey Part THREE: Shoehorns and Spanish Fly

999 replies

NorfolkNChance · 27/10/2011 20:27

Soooooooooooooo I still reckon Cora to kick the bucket, shuffle of this mortal coil, sing with the choir eternal etc etc

I bet Jane is handy with a shorehorn for Lord 6, he's been out of action for a while so may need some help.

OP posts:
Fiderer · 31/10/2011 07:31

That really was the most wonderful load of old tosh I've seen in a long time.
More signposts than the M1 and a long list of highly unlikely story lines.

Best one was the Lord's lunge. It is annoying how much is "told" and not "shown". We could have played DA Bingo and had a splendid drinking game with each character intoning how the war has changed them.

Sybil and the chauffeur have as much chemistry as a bedpan. All they ever seem to do is gaze at each other in the garage for a couple of minutes. Burning passion and heart-wrenching love it's not. Branson's wrench would have more ardour.

Mary's eyebrows should have been used by the War Office as a secret weapon and the war would have ended in 1914. She's a great actor too.

Edith seemed so dazed as if she couldn't remember where the library was any more. Perhaps she's just very short-sighted and couldn't see the signposts.

Lord G did his best, striding around purposely before pausing to gaze meaningfully into the distance. Why's he so perturbed by the end of the war? All I saw him do was spend most of it changing from uniform (why actually?) to dinner attire and back again.

Love Mrs Padmore and Daisy, who must be the only person ever not to stick her finger in a cake mixture.

Ah, the lovely Anna and lovely Mr Bates - next week An Inspector Calls!
And I'm off to buy the DVD of Series 1.

Northernlurker · 31/10/2011 08:20

I actually felt a bit sorry for Thomas

KreepyInMind · 31/10/2011 08:56

Missed last nights will have to catch up later

Fiderer · 31/10/2011 09:03

I felt a bit sorry for Thomas too

LadyHarrietDeSpook · 31/10/2011 09:41

I have a hellish day but before I crack on, I indulge.

So.

My predictions are:

  1. Thomas to become butler at Downton (needs the money after fiasco with the flour, becomes panicked by self-realisation he's never going to 'get out' of service.)

  2. Think Carson will go - not die but go for some reason. Maybe retires after flu.

  3. Sir R dumps Mary - comes to resent and hate her and even if Pamuk doesn't come up again, he gets enough satisfaction making her an old maid. Finds hot new chick (younger and blonde) in London.

  4. Anna and Bates marry

  5. Cora a goner.

I can't decide about Matthew and Mary even if lavinia catches flu and dies too. I think the whole wedding cake thing was another one of these plot red herrings. But I don't think she's going to die. I think M&M may have a 'tryst' but will realise somehow they've left it too late. I really believed that Lavinia was in the pay of Sir Richard - that she cares about Matthew (who wouldn't) - but that she is nevertheless incentivised somehow. Now I'm just wondering if it's very clumsy writing that makes her come across like this.

I read that Radio Times interview in the grocery story this weekend and it's interesting that now Michelle D is saying things like: "It's so boring when unrequited love gets resolved" as if they are now spinning it to prepare people for the whole thing carrying on into series 3. Before she was saying things like: Mary's moving on from Matthew, I wonder how the audience will take to Lavinia and Sir R (badly so now JF is finding way to backtrack in the XMAS series.) Maybe the feeling that M&M have left it too late is just me being sick of the saga being unresolved.

Anyway, maybe JF will bring some Yanks over for Cora's funeral to cause chaos.

This is a very serious post. I wish I had more humor to add or willies to draw.

CJCregg · 31/10/2011 10:01

Watched very late last night and have only just caught up with this brilliant thread - PMSL at the comments, especially Thomas's black market goods stored on Ikea Expedit shelving Grin

I have one question and one question only - why is Mrs Patmore not wearing her glasses any more? Remember the utter chaos that was the Downton kitchen when she couldn't see what she was doing?

Is this laziness/bad script editing? Or have I missed something?

I don't feel remotely sorry for Thomas. He's a Very Rude Word that I won't use on this thread.

CJCregg · 31/10/2011 10:02
AKMD · 31/10/2011 10:25

Right, my thruppence:

  1. Even I felt a little bit sorry for Thomas. Not for long though, silly man. I just wish he hadn't got into debt :(

  2. We didn't see who was on the bed when 'everything was clearly not alright'. Bet it's Lavinia. Byeee!

  3. Awwww, poor old Carson. I wanted to give him a big squeeze and tell him that she didn't mean it, she is just scared out of her mind atm.

  4. Yay for Matthew! But the stupid, stupid man! 'Lavinia came back' yah yah yah w/e. The point is, you stupid man that Mary never left and she nursed you and pushed you around and would have loved you and taken care of you exactly the same as dragged-back, poorly-dressed Lavvy-poo. What the heck was that witch's outfit she was wearing again! Black rags and weirdo boots suit no one.

  5. Friggin Sybil. Has she never heard that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission?!

AKMD · 31/10/2011 10:32

CJ I think she didn't need to wear them after the operation. Or maybe only for reading.

Question - why do none of the girls ever change their hairstyle?

CJCregg · 31/10/2011 10:37

Thanks AKMD - operation? Confused Must have missed that Blush

I can watch without worriting about culinary fuck-ups now Grin

AKMD · 31/10/2011 10:42

Series 1 - she had cataracts and thought she was goign blind so there was a big bust-up, followed by her putting salt instead of sugar in a pudding, so Lord G packed her off to London to have them removed.

AKMD · 31/10/2011 10:43

For everyone who asked - next week is the last episode of this series. The Christmas special is an extra and will include a wedding and a funeral. The funeral has already been filmed but not the wedding.

LadyHarrietDeSpook · 31/10/2011 10:45

Mi'Lady. I'm fairly sure the funeral is happening next wk.

And I'd argue wedding too.

I really think JF is still cooking the books for XMAS.

alemci · 31/10/2011 10:46

one question. what happened to the heir with the damaged face. that story seemed to disappear without any explanation?

Had to laugh at Thomas's contraband and him covered in flour.

AKMD · 31/10/2011 11:09

He ran off didn't he? He could come back if JF is short of ideas for series 3 but he doesn't need to.

I was a bit Confused for Mary when Sir R mentioned selling on that house. It looks like if she does marry him she'll be on the other side of the country from her family and friends, surrounded by servants paid to spy on her. No wonder she lost it with Carson!

Avantia · 31/10/2011 11:10

He disappeared as quick as he appeared - seemed a non - story ... or was it ? Wink

soverylucky · 31/10/2011 11:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Animation · 31/10/2011 12:13

Really enjoyed it again last night.

That baby is gorgeous. Smile

Mary's in a a bit of a predicament saddled with this psycho Sir R so I can understand why she's coming across stressed and love locked out. She needs the love of Matthew.

Edith has blossomed into a lovely sweet sensitive person and I hope Patrick comes back to her next week.

And I'm rooting for Sybil to stick to her guns and insists on marrying Branson. She's obviously smitten.

Animation · 31/10/2011 12:25

Violet was a star btw - having that talk with Matthew - she's becoming more and more my favourite character!

Cora is my least favourite character - a glass of water really with her lanquid demeaour perminently tilted to the left. His Lordship's irritation with her is perfectly understandable.

ThePsychicSatsuma · 31/10/2011 12:29

yyy they all confess to cora then pure american rage at them carries her back to wellness. eeeeeek. then she elopes with sybil to go sod off and be useful.

ScatterChasse · 31/10/2011 12:31

I liked Cora last series, but this year she just doesn't have anything about her.

Balconygarden · 31/10/2011 12:32

Still love it, but so many things have sat a bit oddly for me in this series.
Maybe JF has had to backtrack a bit due to the success of the first series and certain characters. For example, Thomas had been exposed as a bad 'un in series one, and now he looks set to get his foot back in door (I like the actor 'though, he's come along way from being Carla's squeeze in Corrie!).

Some of the language, as mentioned here, sounds wrong. I cringed at the Major's father saying they must "eat and go", wouldn't he have said something old fashioned sounding like they could not "dally", or "delay their departure".

Just don't believe in Sybil and Branston.

Not really sure if Mary and Matthew have much of a spark.

Love Daisy and Mrs Pattmore.

Bates and Anna to marry, Cora to die I think.

I wonder if anyone from the production team/ or close to JF have been reading the MN's threads on Downton.

HermanMumster · 31/10/2011 12:35

I reckon Edith's the goner. Spanish flu carried off young healthy adults, oddly, not infants or the elderly. And Edith is a bit, er, surplus to requirements in plot terms.

ScatterChasse · 31/10/2011 12:37

Is the Christmas special set at Christmas do we know? Will there be snow and a Christmas ball? I'd love that Smile

ScatterChasse · 31/10/2011 12:38

Ah yes Herman, but she's "so much nicer after the war"...

I think I might have socked Sybil if she'd said that to me!

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