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Downton Abbey - update required

999 replies

StagnantRabbit · 12/09/2012 21:16

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)

OP posts:
Katienana · 17/09/2012 10:31

Is it that in english law the womens money became the property of her husband? Or it could have been the marriage.contact as you say diddl. if cora had had a boy, it wouldn't have been a problem.

Bossybritches22 · 17/09/2012 10:33

Oops must refresh before posting!

NewChoos · 17/09/2012 10:34

Not read all thread but I am going to find it very tiring if the will he or won't he inherit/ will he or won't he save Downton plot goes on for ever and ever.

Prison rations must have been vv generous in 1920's.

Bit disappointed in Lady's Mary's dress.

Pickle was very irritating and I find his eyes unsettling.
Other then that, looking forward to next week :)

Northernlurkerisbackatwork · 17/09/2012 10:34

Hemlines were rising but not imo quite as high as they went last night - yes they were below the knee but not far enough below the knee in some outfits. They were lower (and rightly so) in the Christmas episode and that's supposed to be only a few months earlier. This is only 1920. The flapper look came in later. Sybil has her hair bobbed - all the rest will be doing that soon.

Northernlurkerisbackatwork · 17/09/2012 10:36

The money thing - Cora's money was tied to the estate by Robert's father so that the Downton estate was supported. Otherwise the money could be bought in and then taken out again leaving to estate up the creek. Of course that didn't stop Lord G taking a flyer with nearly all of it.........

LadyHarrietdeSpook · 17/09/2012 10:52

yes diddl that's my point. she clearly knew what her daughter was marrying into when she did it. and good point about the cash - the woman who is now moaning about it obviously realised what was going to happen when her daughter married Lord G at the time. So all of this: isn't Downton so staid thing is coming a bit late in the day.

squoosh · 17/09/2012 10:56

It needs a big fat injection of zip. Everyone's being so nice to each other which is quite dull. They needs more light and shade amongst the upstairs characters and they need to let Thomas get back to his dasterdly ways.

HoldMeCloserTonyDanza · 17/09/2012 11:31

I used to love Bates and Anna, they need to have him found innocent ASAP and the pair of them move to a house on the estate and be HAPPY. They are lovely when they are happy. They could still be in the show!

But their whole storyline last series was such crapola.

blisterpack · 17/09/2012 11:48

Do these big estates survive so long only by being injected with other, completely unconnected, people's money? In just this generation we're seeing Downton has been saved by the money of Cora's father, and now possibly the family of Lavinia Swire. What a bunch of scroungers. Wink

diddl · 17/09/2012 12:04

What I also meant was that the money was just for the estate & there was never any provision for future GC(?)

And all that the Gs had hoped for was that Mary would marry the heir, therefore benefitting in an indirect way.

I also see that it has turned out as she thought-but hardly Matthew´s fault.

At least he´s going to marry Mary.

Will he have to work now??!!

limitedperiodonly · 17/09/2012 12:19

Right, watched the recording just now so I can FF the adverts.

Lord 6 really is a fuckwit, isn't he?

Branston reminds me a lot of Father Dougal when someone slips Rohypnol in his wine.

Couldn't they save Downton by hiring it out to some company involved in that new-fangled TV business?

messyisthenewtidy · 17/09/2012 12:30

Pickle will have to die in his fight for Irish Home Rule so that Sybil can be exciting again and have a romance. Otherwise there is no-one marriageable with a potential for romance.

Agree to whoever said the whole American "aren't the Brits so quaint and old-fashioned" is getting boring already! The yanks are obsessed with the monarchy plus they had all those distinctions between "old money" and "new money" (as evidenced by Kate's mum and DP in the Titanic) so it's clear they had a class system too.

Hmm Oh lord, have I just started quoting films to argue my point? I think I've finally lost touch with reality ......

DublinMammy · 17/09/2012 12:53

So excited DA is back on - hurrah for the first episode, despite bloody stupid number of ad breaks..... grrrr.....

Am having mental block as to why Thomas and O'Brien have apparently fallen out with each other? They used to be thick as thieves, smoking, plotting, bitching etc and now they are curling their lips at and refusing to help each other... Anyone know?

squoosh · 17/09/2012 12:54

I think they fell out because of Thomas' bullying of the shellshocked footman. O'Brien thought he went too far.

Can't remember anything aside from that.

toysoldiers · 17/09/2012 12:59

Didn't O'Brien have a bit of a character overhaul after the whole Cora slippy soap escapade and suddenly stop being evil?

squoosh · 17/09/2012 13:00

Oh I forgot about the soap incident.

Oooohhh she's a wrong 'un.

dementedma · 17/09/2012 13:04

I think also Thomas is pissed off at O'Brien bringing in her nephew

DublinMammy · 17/09/2012 13:36

Ah, had forgotten about the shellshocked guy..... Thought I must have missed some big falling out as it was such a marked difference in their relationship....

DilysPrice · 17/09/2012 13:57

Am I the only one who still fancies Matthew? Surely not; he's practically perfect in every way (or is that the problem?)

I agree that Sybil will have a "funny turn" at the reception and be ordered by the doctor to stay at Downton until the baby is born. The Anglo-Irish war peaked in early 1921 so they could well kill off Pickle then (cue deeply annoying "I need you with me Pickle!" "I'm disappointed in you Sybil, don't you know that the struggle comes first" "Take care!" "Oh I'll be completely fine" scene).

Actually it would be more interesting to kill him off in the Irish Civil War, but he's always been such an arse to Sybil that I'd rather get rid of him ASAP.

I suspect that "men are like buses" is not anachronistic. Fellowes has a notebook full of earliest sources for phrases so that when someone says "Would Lord Grantham really have said LMFAO?" he can respond with proof that the phrase was first used in Cymbeline (1611). However I doubt that Anna, who's been living in the countryside for ten years would have used it to Mary, who's never been on a bus in her life.

squoosh · 17/09/2012 14:02

Am I the only one who still fancies Matthew? Surely not; he's practically perfect in every way

If Matthew was a paint shade he would be magnolia
If Matthew was a foodstuff he'd be porridge
If Matthew was a material he'd be polyester
If Matthew was a shop he'd be BHS

Matthew is so so, so, so, so, so, so boring. He ruins the programme for me.

Ahhhh, that feels better! Smile

I realise though that lots of people disagree with me.

Vagaceratops · 17/09/2012 14:05

I agree with you Squoosh.

He is just so blah.

outtolunchagain · 17/09/2012 14:11

Dilys you are not aloneBlush

limitedperiodonly · 17/09/2012 14:12

Why do they keep referencing O'Brien's nephew's height? He's tall but he's not a freak.

Did it have something to do with Matthew asking Carson (I think) to bend lower to dish up the sprouts?

Creamy porridge with lots of sugar would be my death row meal. Not that fussed about Matthew though.

diddl · 17/09/2012 14:21

Oh Squoosh, you are so right.

Mind you, I don´t like Mary & am hoping that they´ll ship off to USA with Martha.

I thought he was OK at first, but he just seems an insufferable bore/snob now.

FFS-he´s being kept by Lord G!!

blisterpack · 17/09/2012 14:24

Matthew is better than Pickle. I don't know what Sybil saw, or sees, in him. She was supposed to be this feisty, independent girl and she goes and chooses that miserable, creepy man. It has ruined that character completely. I hope he dies soon so that she's free to be herself again.