SPOILER ALERT! This post is intended for those who have already seen Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 6
Great Episode! My goodness a lot happened in this one, and it was all fabulous! Champagne and ice cream for Edith and Marigold, as they have finally broken free from Downton and taken off, likely to run the newspaper in London. I think that was the best possible reaction to the news about Mr. Gregson. Bravo Edith!
And I was very happy that Edith told off Lady Mary before she left. Atticus Aldridge didn't seem put off by the sisterly squabbling: "I'm sorry Mr. Aldridge but you might as well know what we're like."
And Lady Mary is back in the saddle again, bobbed hair and all. I can't wait to see her string Charles Blake along now and try her tricks with him. I think she may find he is not the puppyish follower she is used to. Yeehaw!
Dr. Clarkson says Thomas will have to learn to live with his natural proclivities, and we now are sure that Baxter is a saint! Molesley is a frustrated history teacher and was that a marriage proposal or a business proposition from Carson to Mrs. Hughes? From the smirk on her face I think she assumes the former.
The older set and their romances were simmering away. It seems as though Isobel has decided to accept the proposal from her exalted suitor and Violet seems quite resigned to the fact. These two are getting to be wonderful friends with their cards and their jigsaw puzzles. Lovely!
And one of the steamiest scenes in this episode was between Violet and her Igor. He is one hot Russian silver fox, and if the Dowager Countess could have stopped staring disgustedly at her muddy tea and concentrated on her old flame, her frostiness may have thawed a little. Ah, soon methinks!
Anna and Bates ended up pretty well in this episode too. The happy snuggling is back, now that she knows he didn't off the rapist after all. I hope she sets him straight about Lady Mary's unnamed contraceptive device pretty soon. Does this mean we finally can set this drawn out plot to rest and get down to some "Married Love" between the Bates's? (by the way, does anyone else have an uncontrollable urge to read that Marie Stopes book?
Kudos to Cora for giving it to Lord Grantham about his sanctimonious attitude and telling him to march right back into that marital bed. Man the ladies were hot in this episode!
But Isis is ill? Noooooooo!!!!!!! Just don't let Dr. Clarkson take a look at her. Let's hope it was just a dodgy dead squirrel.
Best Lines of the Week (and they were really good this week!)
French Yorkshireman Hairdresser: At least she can carry it off. Most of them look like bald monkeys.
Dowager Violet to Mary: Oh it is you! I thought it was a man wearing your clothes.
Dowager Violet: All this endless thinking, it's very overrated. I blame the war. Before 1914 no one thought about anything at all.
Lady Edith: I'm just amazed that even you would choose the day after I learn the man I love is dead to try out a new fashion.
Prince Kuragin: I wanted you from the moment I saw you. More than mortal man ever wanted woman.
Countess Violet: That is an historical detail.
Countess Violet: We all pander to Spratt in this house. He rules us with a rod of iron.
Cora: If you can honestly say you have never let a flirtation get out of hand since we married, never given a woman the wrong impression, by all means stay away. Otherwise, I expect you back in my room tonight.
Mabel Lane Fox: Why turn up looking like a cross between a Vogue fashion plate and a crate of dynamite?