Lord Grantham survived the surgery and is recovering in bed looking like a pale raccoon. His brother from another mother, Carson, tries to bust him out with a flask. What is Carson trying to do, kill him? If he wasn't before, he might now that Lord Grantham joked about how Lady Mary in the bath would have the open house crowds queuing up. Carson is horrified. He would never dare make that kind of joke at M'lady's expense. He excuses himself, and slides down the banister to rush to his Lady Mary shrine to light a candle forthwith. That's better. With the open house a foregone conclusion anyway, Robert is thinking more about the mutiny of the county and the impending wrath of mummy. The Dowager will undoubtedly find it disconcerting that the new hospital administration recommends she be tossed onto a barge and pushed out to sea. That's gratitude for you! Making things worse, it was all with the full support of Clarkson and BFF Isobel. How times have changed: Remember when Isobel ground her teeth down to little nubs over Cora running the wartime Downton hospital? Now she thinks Cora is right for the job.poor Mrs. Hughes can't even take the edge off with a nice glass of wine at dinner because Carson insists they give up drinking in solidarity with His Lordship. Just how long will it be before Mrs. Hughes snaps? Any bookies out there? I think we need to get a pool going. We've got four episodes left; in which one of them will the foie gras finally hit the fan? I'm thinking it's episode nine. The very last one. In fact, here's my prediction for the final scene of the final Downton Abbey episode: The setting, the Carson's cottage kitchen. The scene begins with a close-up on Mrs. Hughes' face. On the Molesley front things are looking up. The headmaster has an idea and wants Molesley to sit for a general knowledge test right alongside Daisy. What it might lead to, he hasn't yet said yet. Hopefully all of this ends up better for Molesley than that time he talked and talked a good game over the cricket, then choked on the day. Maybe he hasn't missed the boat after all.