Downton Abbey Series 3, Episode 7

I never really saw myself feeling sorry for Thomas, but here we are.

The boy is lonely, truly lonely. His one ‘friend’ O’Brien—whose ‘affection’ was firmly rooted in exploitation—deserted him, stitching him up to boot. Our disgust at the characters’ disgust is only a rather recent attitude; homosexuality, it would seem, is on a par with prostitution. Worse, even. Thomas and Carson’s talk about their fear and loathing, of interpreting sly signs and holding secret passions, surely renders us all the more appreciative of our own (predominantly) accepting age.

Loneliness seemed to be the theme of this week’s episode. Ethel is increasingly being portrayed as Isobel’s sacrifice to the altar of social reform. Edith is doing her best to make herself visible (handsome editor enter stage right) while Jimmy and Daisy simply sulk. O’Brien’s alright, she’s got her demons for company; Daisy clearly just needs to get laid.

Does the taming of Branson just make him boring? His new found respect for his in-laws, as demonstrated by his remonstration of his ‘rough-diamond’ brother, was bittersweet. I guess his revolutionary energies simply died with his wife and his exile from Ireland… Violet did well to interfere and pin him down as foreman of the estate. Selfish in her motives perhaps—baby Sybil won’t be leaving her sight—but kind in fruition. Hopefully we’ll see a return of the ballsy Branson as the estate politics unfold and, hopefully, take his mind off of grieving, poor sod.

Matthew and Mary are proof that the chase is a damn sight more exciting than the thoroughly domestic dreams and disputes that follow being caught. The tag ‘and they lived happily ever after’ ends many a love story for a reason; this business of muddling along together is made all the more awkward by, well, their awkwardness.

Meanwhile, Bates is back at last. I don’t know why they bothered making such a deal of the prison scenes only to have him shoved sideways into a cottage and out of the picture. His and Anna’s romance wasn’t as built up as Mary and Matthew’s, so perhaps their ‘happily ever after’ won’t be quite so disappointing.

I propose a solution. Let’s have Fellowes embrace his deepest, darkest Corrie tendencies and mix shit up.

Next episode, Matthew should take Thomas under his wing. I reckon it’d only take half of O’Brien’s prompting for Matthew to suddenly have some huge sexual epiphany and run off with Thomas back to Manchester, thus solving the awkward fact that Dan Stevens hasn’t renewed his contract for next series… Mary can somehow take control of Matthew’s portion of Downton, what with the escalation of women’s rights, and marry, I don’t know, Jimmy? She has a thing for pretty-boys after all, and he has a reputation for satisfying the mistress of the house.

There you are Julian. Lucky the Crawleys aren’t Catholic, eh?

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