It’s 1922, folks. And times are a-changin’ in Yorkshire. Especially things like the opening credits to this season of Downton Abbey. Where’s Isis’s canine behind? I was thrown for a bit so it took me a minute to catch on that someone was slipping out of DA in the dark of night. We soon find out it’s O’Brien who up and left without a word. Apparently, Rose’s mother stole her away from Cora to do her hair in India. And I say O’Brien got off easy. Usually when an actor isn’t returning to the series, they wind up dead. I’m surprised the new opening credits didn’t show feet dangling and an audible gasp from Anna.
With O’Brien gone, Cora needs a new lady’s maid. And guess who applies? No, not her. No, not the one Lord Grantham made out with. Edna Braithwaite! You know, the one who brazenly came onto Branson last season? Yeah, it took me a minute, too. This two-hour premiere featured a lot of “Hey! Remember that person?” You have Braithwaite (the new O’Brien…in the lady’s maid position and in alliance with Thomas against Anna and Bates), Moseley’s dad, Gwen the secretary from Season One (via a letter announcing her joining the Wildings and telling Jon Snow he knows nothing…wait, same actress, wrong show…I meant announcing her marriage) and Griggs, Carson’s ex-vaudeville partner. I had my glass ready to drink to a Mr. Pamuk reference but sadly it did not come.
The kitchen staff love quadrilateral is still in effect: Daisy still fancies Alfred who fancies Ivy who fancies Jimmy who fancies…not sure but he keeps flirting with Ivy to tease Alfred. Rude. To make matters worse it’s Valentine’s Day and the valentines are passed around. Daisy gets an anonymous one that she hopes is from Alfred but turns out it was from Mrs. Patmore because she didn’t want Daisy to be without one. Cue a tear from me. Bates and Anna sweetly send each other ones. They are too happy right now. It worries me. Meanwhile, Carson gets a letter that he promptly throws away and Mrs. Hughes nosily reads it. She is shocked to hear that Carson’s name is Charlie that Carson has a sick friend in the workhouse. She convinces Isobel Crawley to put aside her grief and to take him in to get him back on his feet. He and Carson eventually leave on good terms. It was all about a chick, man.
Oh yes, let’s go back to “put aside her grief”. We must address the overturned car in the room: Matthew’s death. Isobel just needed to have a project again and she started back to feeling like her self. Mary, on the other hand, is still heavily grieving. In a way, she’s back to her humorless Season One self. She actually alludes to this by saying something along the lines of “Matthew was the one who saw the good in me. Maybe it was just an illusion.” Branson thinks the key to perking her up is to get involved in the boring estate stuff because little baby George owns half of it. Yes, the baby is the other owner besides Lord Grantham because Matthew the lawyer didn’t have a will. Or did he?!? LG finds a letter that makes Mary Matthew’s sole heir but of course LG wants it looked at first. Man, LG had the greedy vibes in this episode: “Don’t worry Mary about the estate stuff. I’ll take care of it.” “Mary, do you know what it takes to run Downton Abbey? You don’t, do you? Now the whole dinner table knows your incompetence.” Well, the letter turned out to be legit and LG feigns happiness for Mary. Branson shows her the ropes and now Mary has “ideas” on how to handle things. Methinks there will be a lot of LG v Mary this season. My money is on Mary.
Also on Mary’s side: Carson and the Dowager Countess. Mary’s crying in Carson’s arms elicited tear #2 from me and DC telling Mary, “I love you” was a killer. Ah yes, Maggie Smith. She is so good with the one-liners that you forget she can deliver some heartbreaking sincerity, too.
But never fear Maggie had some good lines this episode, like this one in her subplot to help out poor Moseley:
Violet: We are selling Moseley to Mrs. Shackleton.
Cora: You mean as a servant?
Violet: No, as a Chinese laundryman.
Yes, Moseley (sad trumpet sound). Since Matthew is dead, Moseley is out of a job. DC sets up an “audition” luncheon for a butler job but the other butler sabotages his chances. He then has to patch up roads for cash. He refuses Anna’s offer for a loan so Bates does a bit of skullduggery and forges Moseley’s name on a fake IOU that Bates pays back. “Prison was an education,” says Bates.
While her husband is up to no-good good, Anna accompanies Rose to York for a dance party-shindig-thing. (Side note: perhaps I had forgotten but there have been a lot of references to York this episode and how close Downton Abbey is to it. Has this been mentioned before? I didn’t know this. I guess I’m not a true fan.) Rose dances with Sam Thawley whom I suspect will show up again because we got his full name and he gets into a fight with a guy over her. And he does show up again! At DA, thinking she works there. Sweet moment between the two and he leaves but I think she’s smitten.
Also smitten? Edith’s married beau in London. You know, he with the crazy wife? The literally crazy wife? He spends this episode brainstorming the different countries where he can divorce crazy wives so he can marry Edith. He settles on Germany…in 1922 between the World Wars. I guess at this point he thinks Germany is no longer the enemy and everything will be OK with him becoming a German citizen just so he can divorce. That will go over really well.
What else did I learn from Episode One? Mrs. Patmore is scared of the new electric mixer. Also, there’s a new nanny who apparently didn’t watch the previous seasons of Downton Abbey and tries to boss Thomas around. He warns Cora that she should keep an eye on Nanny West. She does and overhears the nanny call Branson’s daughter Sybbie the “chauffeur’s daughter” and “wicked little cross-breed”. Damn. It’s like the Crawley’s hired Dolores Umbridge straight out of the Ministry of Magic. Needless to say, she was fired.
Finally, more Dowager Countess quotes!
“It is the job of grandmothers to interfere.”
“There can be too much truth in any relationship.”
And my personal favorite:
“I thought I could call him Branson again?”
