Isis has cancer and my heart is broken. That last scene where Lord and Lady Grantham put the dog in their bed to spend her last night between them killed me. I watch this show as a soap opera-y escape. I don’t come across lords and ladies and butlers and manor homes in my daily life so it’s tough to see something that I’m most likely to experience within the next year or so. Will I put my dog in my bed when the time comes like the Crawleys? Hell yeah, I will. In a heartbeat. Rest in peace, Isis. Let your butt grace the credits forever.
Now that Isis is most likely gone, the show’s MVP for me is now Sybbie. Besides christening her grandfather as “Donk” which is amazing, she also had a great scene with her dad, Tom. How would you like to move, Sybbie? “Why?” she asks. Maybe America? “Why?” she asks. And her Make A Wish face is everything. Not to mention when she knelt down beside Isis to pet the doomed pup when she came back from the vet. OK, Julian Fellowes, I’m redrawing the line in the sand: NOTHING will happen to Sybbie, you hear me? She will flourish and own them all, if I have anything to say about it.
Since everything revolves around Sybbie for me now, big news is she is getting a nursery companion, Marigold. Rosamund and the Dowager Countess plan to tell Cora about her secret granddaughter since Lady Edith and Marigold took off for London. Rosamund worries about betraying Edith’s trust but DC says, “You see, as a mother it is her right.” And Donk? “He’s a man. Men don’t have rights.” (Ha! Ha!) Well, they don’t get a chance to tell her because Mrs. Drewe arrives and spills the info to Cora. Off screen for some reason (which makes me wonder if that scene was cut for America). Anyway, Cora and Rosamund go to Edith’s recently inherited publishing company to try to find her. At tea, Edith tells them that she thought about going to America and inventing a dead husband so “then I’d be Mrs. Thing in Detroit or Chicago.” Edith Thing. I like it. Then Cora tells Edith her plan to get Marigold into Downton Abbey without suspicion. Tell everyone the Drewes can’t handle another child and Edith offers to take her in. Edith agrees but doesn’t want Donk or anyone else to know. I’m assuming everyone will find out next week. DA moves fast at times. At the train station, Mr. Drewe comes to meet them to take Marigold, only to then turn around and bring her back to Downton. Snafu! Mary and Anna are at the station. Cora and Edith get off and Mr. Drewe gets on. “Go to the next station…” says Edith. He does and Anna sees him pull away with Marigold on his lap. Edith and Cora get everyone to agree to take Marigold in even though Donk and Mary think it’s weird. Later, Anna tells Mrs. Hughes about Mr. Drewe and Marigold on the train. Let’s not get involved, says Mrs. Hughes. Why, Mrs. Hughes? Is it because you’re already involved in everything else in the house?
Case in point: Mrs. Hughes goes to Lady Mary to see if she still had Bates’s untorn train ticket. No, I burned it, says Mary. Dang, they both think. Meanwhile, Baxter overhears this. She then goes to Anna and Bates to try to make up to them for talking to the police. They aren’t buying the “in a difficult situation” line she gives them. Moseley tries to help and Barrow encourages her to tell the Bates her circumstance but she would be ashamed. This is Bates we’re talking about, Baxter. You know his story, right? Anyway, she tries to tell them that she would swear to the police that she saw an untorn ticket to London. Bates and Anna say, whatevs, the police know he was in York all day. It’s all over we just know it. They seem to forget that they are Anna and Bates and it’s not over.
Two fancy dinners took place this episode. The first had Atticus Aldridge’s parents, Charles Blake, Tony Gillingham and Mabel. Shout out to Mabel for a couple of great lines: at dinner, Tony talks about marriage to his ex-fiancée and she says, “Dogs barking and wrong trees spring to mind.” Later at the kinema (not sure why Blake called it that but it was the movies), Charles and Mary stage a kiss to finally give Tony the brush off so he can be with Mabel. Gilly says, Mary, why didn’t you just say something. Sigh. Mary wishes he and Mabel happiness to which Mabel replies, can we be done with this, “I’ve had quite enough sentiment from John Barrymore and I’m starving.” I’m going to miss Mabel.
Back to the first fancy dinner, Isobel announces her engagement to Dickie Merton and everyone toasts them, even a sad, reluctant Dowager Countess. DC later reveals to Mary that she is not threatened by Isobel’s change in position but because she is losing her companion. I know! I don’t want Dickie to break up the dynamic duo either!
DC might be in luck, though, because of how the second fancy dinner at Downton Abbey turns out. In short, Dickie’s sons are dicks. One of the sons is totally disrespectful to Isobel in front of everyone so Dickie tells him to leave. He continues to cut her down for being middle class and not fit to fill his mother’s shoes so Tom yells, “Why don’t you just get out, you bastard?” Everyone says “Word” in their heads so the son leaves. The other one turns to Isobel and says, “What did you imagine? That we would welcome you with open arms?” No, we thought you would be nice, jerk. Dickie asks Isobel if she is now reconsidering but all she says is let’s not talk about this tonight or for a good long while. Yikes.
All this brouhaha about marriages failing because of different classes and religions prompts Atticus to propose to Rose. She kind of says yes and they kiss. Will there be push back from Atticus’s father? Will their be pushback from Rose’s mother? Will any couple be happy at Downton Abbey? I just thank goodness that Isis didn’t have a male canine companion. Can you imagine the terror Fellowes would have inflicted on him?
What else did I learn from Episode Seven? Daisy is disappointed in the Labour Party and doesn’t think they will last a year in government. So she doesn’t see the point of educating herself now. This makes for a Disappointed Moseley since he offered to help her. Mrs. Patmore gets Mr. Mason in on this. He invites Daisy and Moseley to lunch. They in turn invite Baxter because Barrow thinks she needs a treat for being good to him. (Side note: nobody commented on Barrow’s complexion. He’s looking better and being nicer. Wonder how long it will last…) At lunch, Mr. Mason tells Daisy to keep up with her studies. The Labour Party will be back if they fall out of favor, he says. “And soon a Labour government might seem quite ordinary.” Which led me to look up the Labour Party since all I knew of it was that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were Labour. Anyway, looks like Daisy is back on the education track. Oh, and Charles Blake is going to Poland for several months after all that Mary and Gilly and Mabel business. Thankfully the Invasion Of Poland isn’t for another decade at least so Blake should be safe. But who knows? Those Crawley gals don’t exactly have the best luck.
Which includes the canine Crawley gal. Sniff. Run to America, Sybbie!
