Downton Abbey is back for its fifth season and the first episode delivered a new mystery:
WHO IS MADGE!?!
She was referenced a few times in this episode. “Madge said you were going out”, “Madge told Rose…”, etc. I was racking my brain trying to remember if I should know who she is. There was a moment when a no-line servant gets up when a bell rings and leaves the room. Was that Madge?
Aside from that puzzle, this season’s theme seems to be “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. Yes, I know that is the theme for every season but now the Labour Party is in power and Donk is not happy about it. Oh, Lord Grantham will forever be known as Donk now due to little Sybbie calling him that. It seems they played Pin The Tail On the Donkey and now she calls LG “Donk”. So shall we all.
Donk is a bit put out by not being asked to be the chairman of the war memorial a committee is putting up. They ask Carson instead. This puts Carson out. He and Donk are of the same mind: the kids nowadays with their crazy ideas about class. One of those kids is Miss Bunting the schoolteacher who Donk thinks had a dalliance with Tom last year. Lady Rose invites her as Tom’s friend to Donk and Cora’s anniversary dinner. Miss Bunting shoots her mouth off at dinner about class politics. This goes over like gangbusters with Donk as you can imagine. Gangbusters With Donk is my new band, by the way.
Lady Edith has been visiting the Drewes so that she can see her daughter, Marigold. Mr. Drewe tells Edith that they need to figure out a way for her to have a relationship with her daughter and not weirdly come by to visit all the time. Mr. Drewe also has become the new fire chief! Was this important? You’ll find out!
Thomas is now Barrow since he is the under butler (I think). He is such a sweet guy when he’s hangin’ with Jimmy and gossiping about Lady Anstruther. The Lady is Jimmy’s old boss and cougar lover. She’s missing him something fierce and keeps sending him letters. She even invited herself to Downton Abbey to see him. Barrow tells Jimmy that he will keep watch as he goes to Lady Anstruther’s room that night. “You’re such a good friend, Barrow,” says Jimmy right before something happens to challenge this.
Well, that something is a fire that starts in Lady Edith’s room. (How did it get started? I BLAME MADGE.) Barrow rescues her and yells “fire!” Donk and Tom try to put it out. Cora calls the fire chief (Mr. Drewe! Remember?). Donk then goes to wake up the others. He busts in on Jimmy in Lady Anstruther’s bed. “There’s a fire” then he walks out. Later he tells Carson to give him a good reference but would be better suited elsewhere. The bromance may be over sadly.
Of course, after the way Barrow treats Baxter, he deserves to lose his one bud. Barrow still keeps badgering Baxter to find out dirt on Bates or he’ll tell Lady Grantham about her past. Finally Moseley convinces Baxter to tell Cora herself which she does. She had stolen jewels from her old employer and went to prison for three years. Cora takes this in stride and tells her that she can stay for now but hasn’t ultimately decided. There’s more to the story that leads me to believe that it might be a Bates situation where Baxter is covering for someone else or something. I kind of hope she is a straight up jewel thief. Later Cora calls out Barrow for putting forth a lady’s maid candidate with that kind of past. Then turns around and forgives him when he saves Edith from Madge’s Deadly Blaze.
Have I gone this long and not mentioned Maggie Smith? She’s still amazing. Now she is butting into Isobel’s courtship with Dicky Merton. Which is totally justified since his name is Dicky. But Cora thinks the Dowager Countess doesn’t want Isobel on equal social footing with her if she becomes Mrs. Dicky.
Meanwhile, Tony Gillingham comes to visit and full on asks Mary to start being “familiar” with him. He basically says, “I think you’ve chosen me over Charles Blake so let’s really get to know each other by going away, just the two of us.” “No one must ever find out,” Mary says. Hell yeah, that’s the Old Mary Who Slept With Mr. Pamuk that I remember. May he rest in peace.
What else did I learn from Episode One? Moseley is 51 but Baxter thinks he looks 52 causing him despair. He went to York and bought some black hair tint that prompted the best lines of the evening. “You look very Latin all of a sudden, Moseley” was probably my favorite. Donk asks Carson to ban him from upstairs until his “hair stops turning blue”. Poor Moseley. He tries so hard. Bless him. We all work with a Moseley. If you don’t, then you are the Moseley.
Or if people don’t seem to remember you, then you are the Madge.
