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)

Well when M&M marry-what´s left?

They could start a rap act or a chocolate business.

Cora really irritates me with her breathless voice and fixed wide-eyed expression. Her acting is so wooden. She could have had a wonderful role as the girls' mother but I just don't believe in her.

He isn't nice. Saw him on the Review Show last year discussing the Booker shortlist. He tore most of the books to shreds in a supercilious and spiteful way,and came across as an thoroughly nasty little public schoolboy.I've disliked him ever since.

Dan Stevens I mean!!sorry.

Cora is a bit wide eyed and breathy alright. I don't really count her as an actual character, she's just another bit of furniture more than anything else.

at Soupy.

Cora's reaction to Lord G losing most of her money and therefore Downton too was laughable. Oh well, let's just have a really big party then.

She was more shocked at the thought of Violet losing her lady's maid, "Is there anything worse?" iirc.

Yes, I didn't believe that reaction of Cora's either - does the woman actually have no feelings? Perhaps she's a waxwork or something.

Coras breathless voice gets on my tits .She is a really lousy actress of the keira knightly school of woodenness.

Cora's forehead is so full of botox there's no expression left.

And she's a rock star as well dontchaknow

Cora was a glass of water. Que sera sera - whatever will be will be.

It was a good man cry though from his lordship I thought.

There's something not right with the guy Edith likes. She seems to be doing all the running and he looks over cautious to me as if he's got something to hide - despite giving her those teethy smiles

I've always assumed Strallan doesn't actually like Edith that way. Not totally consistent with the plot in S1 but that isn't always - foremost in Fellowes' mind.

Re: Daisy and the bike, isn't it just another round of 1920s Bingo like the cocktails and hemlines?

Yes - Sir Anthony Strallan - I don't think he likes her that way either - probably just being polite. I think he could be gay.

Strallen has had a lot of shit happen, he could just be wary of committing - 1st wife died, the fiasco with Edith, fiance died, injury to arm...

And he was a bit of a wet fish in S1 too.

I think he's just very shy. He was very hurt by what Mary said as he believed it might be true. Then after his injury he got another bout of "She can do better-itis".

I thought he did like Edith because he asked her to go to a concert(?) with him when Mary was expecting to be asked.

He was also going to propose, wasn´t he?

What fiancee, Soup?

Yes, diddl, he was, till Mary sabotaged it to pay Edith back for writing to the Turkish Embassy about Mr Pamuk.

Which never made sense as she and Sybil would have been equally tainted by the scandal, surely.

Yes, whole thing strange.

I think Edith was so pissed off at being overlooked though & everyone depending on the perfect Mary to make the best marriage that she didn´t think it through.

IIRC there was a conversation which she overheard with Robert & Cora-something about how wonderful Mary was, & Sybil with her causes & then something about "poor Edith" (dull, boring unattractive, unmarriageable).

I may have just made that up btw!

Strallen had another woman lined up after Edith didn't he? I thought they were engaged and she died. S2?

Don´t remember that at all, Soup-that´s not to say that you´re not right, of course.

Hmm-wife died, fiancee died-Run, Edith, run

Maybe I"m misremembering. It hought I remembered him telling Edith about a new woman.

I have an image of Strallen and Edith outside Downton, him telling her about some woman and Edith looking distraught-but-resigned in that "not showing it" way. I must have imagined it!