Downton Abbey series 5, episode 4 brought the battle between Robert and Ms. Bunting to a tipping point, while Gillingham was left very disappointed by Mary.
As usual, tonight’s episode of Downton Abbey was a busy one. However, the show brought its fair share of big announcements which left most characters reeling.
The episode kicked off with Barrow returning from visiting his sick father, but later Ms. Baxter realizes that it’s actually Barrow who’s ill, not dad. What’s he ill with? Mrs. Hughes finds an article that Baxter tries to read in private before Barrow catches her. While viewers don’t learn exactly what he’s up to, one could guess it’s some sort of conversion treatment.
Meanwhile, Lord Grantham, Lady Mary, and Tom are observing a plot of land where they’re considering an offer for homes to be built. By the end of the episode after a second visit to the land, Robert decides that they should seek out a different developer who will build nicer quality homes.
Elsewhere Violet and Mrs. Crawley visit Prince Kuragin, who was once a romantic interest of Violet. Are sparks about to fly between these two again? Speaking of romantic interests, Lord Merton pays a visit to Mrs. Crawley, who proposes they wed. He says he’s fallen in love with Mrs. Crawley and wants to win her over. She promises to spend some time thinking it over.
So long, Lord Gillingham?
Lady Mary heads off to London to visit Lady Rosamund for a dress show. Of course, there will be a little business with Lord Gillingham as well. While at the show, Mary fills Rosamund in on Edith’s parenting situation but is interrupted when she spots Charles Blake at the event. They agree to dinner that night, where Mary tells him he’s calling things off with Gillingham.
Lady Mary breaks the news of her disinterest in pursuing a relationship to Lord Gillingham, who’s upset by the news and won’t accept it. He believes they have to continue working on it, and that’s as far as the relationship goes this episode.
Bricker the romancer
Cora invites Mr. Bricker over to observe a painting, much to the disappointment of Lord Grantham. Bricker goes so far to profess his love for Cora just as Robert walks in the room. Luckily he didn’t explicitly hear Bricker say that he loves Cora, but he certainly suspects that’s the case.
Another dramatic dinner
Ms. Bunting is invited to dinner and speaks of teaching Daisy. Naturally, tension arises between Lord Grantham and Sarah when he can’t remember Daisy’s name. He decides to call Daisy and Mrs. Patmore upstairs to confront of the issue of Daisy’s education, which has been affecting her work downstairs (remember, Ms. Patmore yelled at her earlier in the episode about her schooling).
While Daisy speaks very highly about Ms. Bunting’s teachings, the educator would rather prod Robert. She continues to press Lord Grantham about how much he cares about the people downstairs, and it pushes him to yell very loudly at her and storm out of the room. Violet attempts to save the dinner by speaking to Edith about her newspaper column. Later, Robert apologizes to Tom for his outburst, but the ordeal is just another reason why Tom may seriously consider leaving Downton.
Elsewhere…
– Investigators looking into the Green murder want to question Anna to confirm her whereabouts on the day he was killed.
– Lady Rose’s parents decide to split, her father Shrimpy reveals. It’s been a while since we had seen him (nearly two years)!
– Mr. Molesley is being pushed to the extreme as First Footman and ultimately decides against the position, much to the delight of Carson.
– Edith learns that soon she’ll be finding out what happened to Michael Greyson – it sounds like some German gangs attacked him.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.