Downton Abbey 3.03

From left to right: Sybil Branson (played by Jessica Brown-Findlay), Edith Crawley (played by Laura Carmichael), and Mary Crawley (played by Michelle Docker). The photo is taken from a review by the Telegraph.

I have to say, the entire episode was eclipsed by the fifteen second preview that came after. I have so much to say on the preview that I’m going to write a separate entry for that. “Let’s not steal Edith’s thunder.” The preview is going to do that for us! Anyway…

The episode opens with such excitement and promise. Downton Abbey is in full preparation mode for a wedding. Carpets are rolled up and carried away, flowers are arranged  in the sitting room, and flutes of champagne stand ready for toasts. As Edith says, “Something here is finally about me.” Good for you, darling. You deserve to be happy. Though I wish you were marrying Evelyn Napier rather than Sir Anthony Strallan. Edith is so happy; she wanted to married for the longest time. For her, and for many women of the age, marriage equals happiness. She’s so happy, that even Mary is nice to her. They get to the church, she walks down the aisle I looked right past and squeed over the Bransons and the priest begins.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today –”

And then Strallan decides he can’t go through with it. He just interrupts the priest and announces to the whole church, “I can’t do this.” Edith, bewildered, tries to convince Strallan that he can, he must. Even Robert, who is still against the married, is surprised. But Robert only puts up half a fight. Violet eventually convinces Edith to let Strallan go, and he walks out of the church and drives away. Edith is devastated. And she understandably runs up the stairs of Downton, throws her view over the railing, throws her wedding tiara (which is the same as Mary’s and only cost $200,000) across the room, and cries. And here I was believing that Strallan would be one of two guys, the other being Tom Branson, that wouldn’t pull an asshole move. Of course, I totally forgot that Charles Edwards was cast as Michael Gregson, one of Edith’s suitors that hasn’t even appeared in the series yet (Source: Daily Mail). Still, Strallan had many chances to stop the wedding before they got to the altar. But he didn’t, and then we get this whole debacle.

The parallelism was great though. Once the news spreads through Downton, we get these scenes of the opening in reverse: the carpet is rolled out again, the flowers are carried out, the flutes of champagne sent away.

I was so happy to see Tom and Sybil again this week. They are so adorable. I kept looking past everything and fangirled over them being in the background. I loved their sass this episode. Tom on how “small” and “cramped” the Crawley summer home is “You do realize that for most people it looks like a fairy palace?” Love him, telling it like it is. And my favorite exchange in the whole episode. On the night before Edith’s wedding:

Edith: “I won’t sleep a wink.”
Sybil: Tonight or tomorrow?

I’ll just take this to mean that Tom lets her say whatever’s on her mind. And his sass and honesty is rubbing off on her. But they had more screentime in the preview for next week (which I’ll cover in a different post) than they did in the actual episode. They just suddenly appeared in the house. We know they went home to Ireland and we know they don’t have the money to simply shuttle back and forth. And when they have dinner Branson is wearing a tuxedo. I know a tux isn’t a tailcoat, but Branson still has no reason to buy a tux. And the clothing they wear to dinner is a big deal, that’s why there were three scenes devoted to it in the series premiere. This tux doesn’t get a reaction, it gets no explanation. Though I really don’t care if a fairy gave it to him, he just looks so good in it. I just really wanted to see the family’s reaction.

And talking about family’s reaction, I don’t understand why Branson is suddenly so docile. He eats dinner with them without incident (something that the series premiere was proving is impossible). At one point, Robert calls him their tame republican, or something to that effect, and Branson simply goes along with it. He’s doing the whole sitting around in the dining room before the men go through to the sitting room business. He suddenly looks comfortable with the family.

Interesting quote. Implies a lot of upcoming conflict between Robert and Tom. Image is the New Zealand poster for Downton Abbey series three.

This isn’t new either. Fellowes has a serious problem with character consistency. He’s ruining a fantastic class conflict/tension storyline by dropping the ball. Well, that’s a bit harsh as it’s only episode three so far and we’re promised more of this issue later in the series. And, Hugh Bonneville posted a photo of a poster on twitter bearing the words “Civility is a facade” between photos of Robert and Branson. Interesting.

I do have to say that the whole Matthew and Tom going out to play billiards thing was just adorable. I love them and their whole bromance.

I really am miffed at Fellowes though. He’s having a hard time juggling all these characters and he plans to introduce at least four more: Gregson, a new footman, a new maid, a new kitchen maid. And he has a problem with content characters. For example, now that Sybil is happy she gets barely any mention. Doesn’t Fellowes remember that the Bransons’s life in Ireland isn’t exactly peachy? I don’t know the specifics, but I do know that being a young Republican in Ireland was dangerous in 1920 (but more on that in my entry on the preview). But he’ll probably ruin that storyline too.

And he really can’t write forty minute episodes. He has all these pacing issues. I find that episodes feel rushed and that he often does not know what to do. Plot development is uneven across the characters, and he skips time in the weirdest ways. He leaves great scenes out and gives us another Matthew and Mary arguing scene. Please, just get back to hour long episodes.

Random thoughts

• I am so happy this Lavinia’s father’s money storyline is done. And this whole selling Downton thing. I kind of wanted them to sell it. It would’ve been interesting watching them try to adjust and it would fuel the class conflict between Robert and Branson.
• The Thomas vs. O’Brien thing is getting really interesting.
• I’m so happy that Mrs Hughes is okay. It’s a “benign something or other.” And it appears that CarsonxHughes is canon.
• I swear, Daisy. She has an eye on Alfred, and he has an eye on her. However, the series three trailer shows Daisy dancing with the new footman, who will probably get hired soon. I’m tired of Daisy being in the center of love triangles. Well, the Thomas-Daisy-Williams one wasn’t really a triangle as Thomas wasn’t interested and was only doing it to bully William.
• Evelyn! Return to us and marry Edith!
• I hope Edith gets a good storyline. (More on that in the preview entry).