Downton Abbey: S06E07

Let's play a game I like to call Take It Out Of Context.

A distraught woman stands in a darkened hall. A man watches her from the nearest doorway and then quickly approaches to clasp her hands. Both of them are on the verge of tears as he tells her: "You’re frightened of being hurt again. But let me tell you this, you will be hurt again, and so will I, because being hurt is part of being alive. But that is no reason to give up on the man who is right for you." Overcome, the woman breaks away and rushes upstairs, the man sadly watching her go.

They're lovers, obviously. Or at least on the verge of becoming so. Right?

Nope, it's Tom and Mary, once again proving that more emotion and vulnerability exists between the two of them than it does with any of the love interests they've ever had – including Matthew and Sybil. YEAH I SAID IT.

I just can't seem to pin down my opinion on the possibility that these two might become a couple. Sometimes (most of the time) I think "no, this would never work, they're too different", and yet other times, during scenes like the one above, I immediately turn into a panic-stricken Michael Scott:

Then I flip back to loving their brother/sister dynamic, and telling myself there's no way they would have brought in Matthew Goode to play yet another Romantic False Lead for Mary, or spared time for a rather pointed Tom and Laura (Edith's new editor) scene at the races.

I see you, Fellowes.

And yet I'm clearly not the only one to have noticed the emphasis on Tom/Mary (here's a rather lovely meta on the subject) and no matter what endgame holds for either of them, it's obvious the love story of this season has been between them.  

But hey, it's not like I dislike Henry Talbot, so I suppose I better start calling him by his proper name. And he's got to be endgame considering he was given the honour of having a scene to his own without any of the Crawleys present. That more than anything marks him as a character in his own right and not just a love interest (unlike Gillingham and Blake of yore).

And he had some good material here; first in managing to make a car race done at about fifty miles per hour reasonably exciting, and then in his grief over Charlie's death (bye guy from Reign).

It was pretty obvious a car accident was going to be the main Spanner In The Works between these two, though I was surprised that the preview for next week has Mary accuse Henry of believing she's a gold-digger. You know, a part of me is still seriously considering the possibility that Mary/Henry has been one big red herring.

***

The Isabel/Lord Merton saga continues elsewhere, with Isabel having received an invitation to Larry and Amelia Cruikshank's wedding. Isabel is bewildered, but Violet is suspicious and decides to sniff out the young woman's true motivations.

In typical Violet fashion (which very much felt like a parting gift to Isabel and to Maggie Smith) she marches into Amelia's sitting room and gives her the once-over, quickly coming to the conclusion that she wants the Lord Merton/Isabel marriage to take place so that she won't have to become a nurse to her elderly father-in-law.

Okay Fellowes, I realize that to you a young woman not being interested in her domestic duties makes her selfish and cruel, but jeez. If you want to make Amelia a villain, maybe not have this subplot running parallel to another in which a woman has to fake a hand injury in order to have a reprieve from the relentless demands of another elderly man? I don't blame Amelia one bit for wanting to rescue herself from such a fate.

And so off goes Violet, heading to the Mediterranean on a luxury cruise. Surely she'll be back for the Christmas Special, right? There's got to be more to her departure than that! (even if she did leave a puppy behind).

***

The Edith/Mary sniping continues, though Mary seems a bit oblivious to it.

Here's my take on the sisterly relationship in its entirety: they're both pretty awful to each other because Edith is convinced that this is still the Mary of season one, and Mary simply doesn't give a shit about Edith. As such, she gets confused when her perfectly innocent comments ("will you get on alright without us?") are met with snippiness. And as a result, Edith's casual comments are interpreted by Mary as attempts to bring gloom over any and all conversations. So we're left with Edith convinced that Mary is still out to get her, and Mary convinced that Edith is a drama queen who turns every conversation and comment into a personal insult. They just don't get each other.

And yet they were supportive of each other in this moment, so I still hold out hope there'll be an eventual reconciliation:

Next week things are definitely coming to a head between them ("I know you to be a nasty, jealous, scheming bitch" – yikes!) but I can't believe that Fellowes would sunder them so completely this close to the finish line. My predications are that Mary – and therefore Bertie – finds out about Marigold prematurely, though I hope the ensuing meltdown will be a cathartic experience for both of them, allowing for an eventual understanding.

***

So that's the end of service for Moseley. Good for him! Actually, I was surprised by how happy I was for him, and even got a little teary when he teared up. I think what really got to me is when he ponders out loud that he didn't think he deserved such happiness – and that maybe he was wrong about that. We've all been there.

And Thomas is still there. Even his attempt to do something kind for Andy is cut short, and at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if the kitchen staff woke up one morning to find him hanging from the rafters. Come on Fellowes, you're running out of time to cut this guy a break.

Miscellaneous Observations:

If Tom/Mary is a no-go, then I can understand why fans of Tom are annoyed by his role in season six. He's basically just a matchmaker to Mary/Henry, which is a strange role for any man to play in his sister-in-law's life. I get on well with my sister's boyfriend, but there's no way in hell he'd be this invested in my dating habits, and nor would I expect (or want) him to be.

So either Tom just really wants the perks of having a race-car driver as a new brother-in-law, or he's in love with Mary himself without being conscious of it, and is unknowingly projecting himself onto the situation. That second one actually makes a LOT of sense, but I can't bring myself to believe it's actually happening.  

Whew, this type of speculation and theorizing is what diehard shippers thrive on. It's easy to see how and why the act of investing oneself in a potential couple can spiral into madness.

Violet sends a letter to Tom because "he's the most sensible." HAH! True enough, though can you picture her saying that four or so seasons ago?

Sunglasses have arrived!

Stupid and pointless scene of the episode: what on earth was Anna trying to achieve by rushing to the car accident? How the heck was she planning to help?

Geez, Robert was a bit harsh, telling Rosamund to "shut up" after she tried to inject the tiniest bit of levity into the situation. I actually flinched. I wonder if Hugo Bonneville just delivered that line wrong or whether it was meant to be that nasty.

But as if to make up for all this, there were two lovely scenes between four different ladies. Baxter stops Anna in the hallway and congratulates her on her pregnancy (and I'm not even sure these two have interacted with each other on-screen before) and Mrs Patmore tells Daisy that love isn't finite, and she can always count on herself and Mr Mason to love her. Beautiful, especially since neither scene needed to be included; they were there simply because the world is just as much filled with love and kindness as it is cruelty and grief.

Case in point: Robert's face when he sees his mother's parting gift:

For some reason I've been under the impression that this season was ten episodes long, so it was a shock to realize we've only got one episode and a Christmas Special left to go. I don’t think I'm ready! I don't think Fellowes is ready either, because how on earth is all this going to be wrapped up in time?