Downton Abbey (TV Series) Episode #4.2 (2013) User Reviews

Reconciliation

[jpismyname · 8/10 · 1 January 2018]

Thomas Barrow tries to destroy Anna. He's just despicable as ever, and so is the new lady's maid. Carson and his old friend finally reconcile, and Carson finds out something about his old flame.

It's a pretty good episode, definitely a better one than the previous ones.

Transitional episode. Not really much going on although the will issue moves forward.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 23 February 2021]

While a good episode, it is not a great follow-up to the excellent season 4 opener. Carson and Mr. Grigg are reconciled, and we get to understand why they aren't friends anymore, because of a woman from their past. You get to see why Carson, beyond the simple fact of being an upper crust family butler, is so staid and conservative, keeping his emotions in under all the circumstances. Thanks to Mrs. Hughes and Isabel (two characters who really had a great understated friendship), Grigg is able to recover and gets a good job so it's a happy ending. One week of decent behavior from Mr. Barrow doesn't last long as he seems to take on Edna as a new partner in crime, for some reason, putting the blame for a burnt item of clothing on Anna. That doesn't really have any consequences and diminishes the achievement he's made to not be so nasty.

Not much going on for Edith in this episode but Anna and Rose go out dancing and Rose finds affection from a working class young man who shows up at Downton looking for a job. The discovery of a letter Matthew never intended to mail indicating his wishes for Mary and son George to inherit his estate becomes a subject of discourse between Mary and her father. Eventually, legal investigation settles everything involving the document. Anna and Bates go out of their way to help Mr. Mosley, showing their generous nature.

While a lot of viewers were put off by Rose being brought on to replace Sybil as the young feisty heroine who gets into trouble while mixing with lower classes, I enjoy her, and Lily James is a shining light among the sometimes stuffy Granthams. Her enjoyment of life shows her as a positive reflection of changing times, and it's obvious more are coming.

A Rose By Any Other Name

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 17 August 2020]

We get to see more of Rose's wild side here, dragging others into her childish games. She is an innocent and really not dangerous. Edna is the new villain, cooking things up through Thomas (who continues to be a cad). Once again, Cora doesn't listen to advice and allows a serpent into her bosom. Mary tries to embrace her new role, but Robert stands in the way. Meanwhile, Carson must face his past and embrace mistakes.

family bonds together again

[moviesfilmsreviewsinc · 10/10 · 14 May 2022]

To wit, the kitchen was abuzz when former under house maid Gwen (Rose Leslie, now numbering amongst Game of Thrones' wildlings) sent them all a mail from Beyond the Wall. Not to be outdone, Cousin Matthew borrowed an idea from his dead fiancée last series by sending one from beyond the grave, and handily resolving a plot point into the bargain. When the Earl began reading Cousin Matthew's missive aloud, you'd have done well to remember we were watching Downton Abbey proper and not a Mitchell & Webb parody of the same. Here, unadulterated, is its content: "My darling Mary, we are off to Duneagle in the morning and I have suddenly realised that I have never made a will or anything like one, which seems pretty feeble for a lawyer, and you being pregnant makes it even more irresponsible. I'll do it properly when I get back and tear this up before you ever see it, but I'll feel easier that I've recorded on paper that I wish you to be my sole heiress. I cannot know if our baby is a boy or a girl but I do know it will be a baby if anything happens to me before I have drawn up a will, and so you must take charge. And now I shall sign this and get off home for dinner with you, what a lovely, lovely thought. Matthew." "I have suddenly realised...?" For that, creator Julian Fellowes deserves to have his tuck privileges taken away at the House of Lords for a full week. Now it's been established - as astutely observed in said mail - that baby George is in fact a baby, the question of who should manage Matthew's half of the estate has been resolved, but not before the Earl threw his silver rattle out of the pram. (On that - did anyone else find it a bit excitingly kinky when Lady Violet threatened to ring for Nanny and have Lord Grantham put to bed with no supper? Part of the fun of Downton Abbey has always been its role as a safari park for observing the habits of old-fashioned rich-os, with all the 'she doesn't know what a weekend is!', 'he can't boil a kettle!' hilarity that entails (what is Lady Violet if not a class-inverted Jade Goody?). Showcased this week at the aristocracy zoo was the cold and business-like nature of Lord Grantham's dealings with daughter Mary. When she drew him a picture as a child, he probably sent it off to Murray for appraisal before committing himself to a cheery pat on the head.

Great episode for the most part but-

[rlaws-34175 · 9/10 · 9 April 2024]

I love the series Downtown Abbey except that I don't like all of the scheming that goes on. I didn't mind Thomas and O' Brien as much this time because I knew what to expect, but I'd forgotten that "Mr. Barrow," who earned his new title and his home and not going to jail due to John and Anna Bates' help, decided to help the already scheming Edna Braithwaite to set up Anna. What really gets me though is how easily both Lord and Lady Grantham believe the story. Lord Grantham knows very well that Thomas is a thief and a liar. As for Lady Grantham, to believe that Anna is capable of deliberately destroy a piece of her clothing simply to discredit Edna Braithwaite whose only "reference" as a lady's maid is from a dead woman and her insistence that they rely solely on Mrs. Hughes's recommendation which only states that she's a good kitchen maid but says nothing about her abilities as a lady's maid, etc, while Anna has never in all her years of service done anything to harm anyone. In fact she helped the Countess and Lady Mary to carry a man's body across the house and never said a word, yet both of them are foolish enough to believe these two people, one whom they hardly know and one who is a known thief and a liar (he's like a cockroach you can't get rid of; I really hate scheming.) They ignore Anna's many years of exemplary service and help in bizarre situations in which she tells no one what happened, and yet Lord and Lady Grantham are so ready to believe those two over Anna whose never put a toe out of line. For crying out loud, no wonder the Earls of Grantham can't seem to hold onto their money when they're that gullible.

Besides the fact that they attribute it to Edna suddenly being head housemaid when she left the house under Anna in the hierarchy, but Anna hardly knew Edna during those days because she was in the Highlands with Lady Mary. Frankly, I don't think Anna would dress Lady Grantham is asked. She is actually friends with Lady Mary, and she's been taking caring of all the girls for years. She's close to Lady Mary, not so much to Cora, except for when she helped carry a body across the house with Cora and Mary. A woman who helps out like that and never says a word to anyone, deserves to be at least given the benefit of the doubt over a known liar and thief and some woman who has to meet in the village because of her Aunt, but has no problem ditching the Aunt to go live at Downtown Abbey again, and as I said all on the reference of a supposedly dead woman and Mrs. Hughes recommendation that would only have talked about her as a hard worker as a housemaid, not a lady's maid! It's amazing how gullible those two really are.

Why Edna?

[JosephFabeetz · 6/10 · 2 April 2021]

Why bring back O'Brien in form of Edna to scheme with Barrow? That story line was amply harvested over three seasons. "Grannie" aka Dowager Countess remains star of this series. She saves the day by injecting interest into tiresome (often redundant) plots.