tribpot I'm not a prude, so I don't mind obscenities being used, in moderation and appropriately. What I find objectionable in the male-dominated forums I am used to (mostly football and other sports) is the number of posters who don't seem to be able to post without using obscenities. There are some females - "ladettes" - who behave similarly, but I'm sure MN posters are above this sort of juvenile behaviour.
As regards Bates - there is no danger now of his being hanged. He has been found guilty of murder, but his sentence has been commuted to Life Imprisonment. At the cost of losing a tear-jerking farewell scene between Bates and Anna, Julian Fellowes has set up the theme of an appeal, and possible vindication of Bates, which can be allowed to run for as long as possible, i.e. until he feels the public will have tired of it.
If JF wants to please public opinion he will have Bates' appeal being successful, and he and Anna living happily ever after (with Bateslings?), being rewarded as good characters should be in any moralistic fairy tale. If he decides on artistic boldness, he will do what a previous poster on MN has suggested. Bates' appeal succeeds, but as Anna and he go on she discovers a much nastier side to his character - with the possibility indeed that he did murder the first Mrs.B., and the threat that Anna herself might be in danger. This is a very risky line to go on with in plot development. I suspect that JF is not quite good enough a writer to carry it off, so I don't think he will try it - but will be pleasantly surprised if he does try it and succeed.
This line would give the Bates character a depth which he doesn't have at present. It is a commonplace of our tabloid press - and I include especially the Daily Mail and the Sun in this - that human beings can be neatly categorised as goodies and baddies, into "heroes" and "scum". The fact is that in real life the same person can often be a hero in some situations, and scum in others. Bates is clearly portrayed as a hero in a military situation, but military heroes aren't necessarily always good towards other people, including towards women.
As for the other untouchables, I didn't mind Sybil and Pickle going off together, as I found neither character particularly interesting, and Pickle I thought a mixture of the unbelievable and the unlikeable. They can stay in Ireland as far as I'm concerned and never darken Downton's rooms again. As for Mary and Matthew, I'm going to be boring and agree with I suspect the vast majority of DA fans - hooray!!!
limitedperiodonly I hope your aspic has turned out OK 
I see that in my first post on this thread I described DA as "puerile rubbish". That's unfortunate terminology which I regret using. DA isn't rubbish. What I should have described it as is "nonsense" - in the highest sense of the term, because nonsense can be worthwhile and enjoyable, as DA certainly is.