Downton Abbey - update required

[StagnantRabbit]

Any big Downton fans out there who can tell me what happened in the very last episode of series 2 and also the Xmas special? Tryin to get ready for the new series on Sunday but is there anything else I missed? (apart from Lady Mary and Matthew getting together that is)

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

I think so Erik, Thomas has a track record of being pretty confident in his approach to other men, remember he tried it with the Turk.

[zookeeper]

Ethel will be live in housekeeper and then somehow the child will be returned to her and be the darling of the house

[dapplegrey]

It does indeed, notheroldie. Can't wait.

[ErikNorseman]

Well! So I was wrong - so why the bloody hell didn't she think of that before Ethel gave up her son??? FFS.

Do we reckon jimmy isn't gay then but O'brien will convince Thomas that he is interested and stitch him up that way? Thomas is so heading for a fall.

[notheroldie]

next week looks good....

[Chubfuddler]

Newspaper column! Ace!

[Bossybritches22]

Ah not quite arrested but exiled. He'll be off then, Pickle won't stay.

[ErikNorseman]

Aw poor Daisy! Someone needs to start a new thread btw, this one takes months to load.

[Bue]

Feminist Edith!!!!! Yay!!!!!

[notheroldie]

go Edith .... Go EDITH !!! yay!

[ErikNorseman]

O'brien has good gaydar and is setting up Thomas and jimmy, they will be at it somewhere and she will engineer the whole thing getting exposed.

Yay Edith!

[Chubfuddler]

HOORAAAAYYY FOR EDITH

[Chubfuddler]

I love mrs Hughes more than anything.

[notheroldie]

there are the looks from thomas to the new footman... it'll be steaming soon....

[Chubfuddler]

Edith wrote to a newspaper. Good for Edith.

Fuck off fatty bum bum

[Chubfuddler]

Ooh it's w b Yeats all over.

[Chubfuddler]

Yum yum

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Poor Ethel, what a gorgeous little boy.

[MadamGazelleIsMyMum]

bossy I think you're right.

[tribpot]

So Sybil now has the real police as well as the Hairdo Police after her.

I'd like to see them do something other than the most obvious storyline for Ethel. Patrick Stewart's brother was born in 1925 and his mother petitioned his father for child support (he was illegitimate). Obv Ethel can't do that, but it shows there were other (dreadful and stigmatised) choices for a mother of an illegitimate child.

[Chubfuddler]

Struggling to care about pickle and stupid hair Sybil right now.

[ErikNorseman]

I suppose Isobel couldn't take her, everyone in the town knew she was a prostitute, Charlie would have been shunned and it wouldn't have worked. Ethel's best hope would be factory work or similar, which probably just wouldn't pay enough to support her and Charlie. It was pretty impossible for a woman to support herself and a child in a 'respectable' way - no house would employ an unwed mother, even leaving aside the prostitution. And factory work would have been long hours and shit pay, with nobody to look after Charlie. Sadly she probably didn't have a choice if she wanted him to have a decent life. The life of an illegitimate child of a prostitute would have been hopeless.

[GeorginaWorsley]

Oh heartbreaking.What a lovely little boy.
A cruel world then for someone in Ethel's position.