Downton Abbey Recap: Everyone is happy and gets what they want after playing a game of cricket in episode 6

Date February 11, 2013

Downton Abbey Season 3 Episode 6 — Image courtesy eOne Entertainment

By Randi Bergman and Paige Dzenis

Oh, PBS problems: First, North America has to wait four months after Downtown Abbey airs in the UK to watch the third season legally. Then we’re randomly forced to watch the season in super quick doses when PBS schedules two hour-long episodes back-to-back as one mega episode. Such was the case last night, when we went from discussions of christening into gossip about cricket. There was plenty of drama to keep us entertained throughout the 120 minute run of the penultimate episode, with the introduction of new characters, possible persecutions and many an evil plot in action. (How evil, you ask? Let’s just say “her ladyship’s soap” is all you need to know…) Read on for our full recap of episode “six”

Best use of a map:
If you’re going to own an estate-slash-small village, we can’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon than looming over a giant map of said estate with a drink in hand. Well done, Mary, Matthew and Branson!

Best return of a minor character:
Mosley! From your chuckle and “doesn’t seem like nothing!”comment when everyone’s curious about what transpired between Thomas, Jimmy and Alfred to your obsession with cricket, it was nice to see that while you haven’t been around this season, you really haven’t changed.

Best allusion to Elizabeth Taylor:
Lest we forget that Mary is grande dame in training for even a moment, she’ll remind us. When Branson worries that his gruff brother wont fit in at the Abbey because he’s a “rough diamond,” Mary responds, “I love diamonds.”

Best compliment:
Branson’s brother proved to be the biggest nothing of a new character, aside from his arrival finally earning Branson some props from Carson: “I thought his respect for her ladyship’s invitation was exemplary!”

Just when things were looking up for Edith:
She goes and gets herself Jane Eyre’d. At least this development didn’t happen at the altar?

Best Edith episode in history:
While we admit that the bar isn’t set too high where Edith is concerned but my my are we impressed by her this episode. Wearing two of her finest outfits to date (turquoise, what that hue can do!), she manages to shuffle about London and capture the heart of a handsome, powerful and Rochester-esque editor (the wife in the asylum, the Fassbender jawline). Here’s hoping for a makeout sesh way more satisfying than hers with John Drake the farmer.

Most grappling plotline:
We never thought it’d come to this, but we feel awful for Thomas. While Anna’s “Mister Stick It Up Your Jumper” nickname seems suitable for the man who’s not once shown his kind side, it seems that the whole house (minus O’Brien of course) helped in trying to save him from suffering a cruel fate after being outed as gay. A sad, if small reminder of the way things used to be.

Speaking of Thomas:
We weren’t the only ones expecting a little more… sympathy, shall we say… from Carson when Thomas told him he was gay, were we?

Most curious love/hate list:
Things Lord Grantham hates: Catholicism, relinquishing power, the opinions of local doctors, Branson, Edith’s job at the newspaper, responsibly managing money, giving prostitutes a second chance, any sign of progress or change. Things Lord Grantham loves: homosexuality.

Most redeeming moment:
Lord Grantham has shown poor judgement time and time again this season, but his soft approach to Thomas’s potential firing really impressed us. Almost enough to forget that white-on-white-on-white boych during the cricket match. And that he cited Charles Ponzi* as a good example of finance management.

Worst brushes:
Honestly, painting is hard enough. We cannot imagine how long it took Bates and Anna to freshen up their new cottage with a pair of brushes that looked like an old mop.

*Uh oh! We found a little hole in Downton History. When Lord Grantham mentions Charles Ponzi as a good finance manager, we assume it is before his famed scheme was discovered. However, given that we’re currently in the 1920s during season three and Ponzi was caught in 1910, we’re raising a red flag!

Strangest surgery:
By now we’re used to the hush-hush way of discussing reproductive concerns at Downton Abbey but we still want to know: What surgery did Mary have that would make her suddenly super-fertile?

Worst hat:
Thought O’Brien couldn’t look any worse than with her curly bangs? The hat she wears while visiting Bates and Anna’s cottage proves otherwise.

Best insult:
Bates, we finally remembered why we endured all those boring prison scenes: because you’re actually the nicest guy at Downton! And because you come up with the best insults ever, à la asking Jimmy why he has to be “such a big girl’s blouse!” about his demands to keep Thomas from getting a reference.

Best Dowager moments:
Boy was the Dowager full of the one liners this episode. We can’t decide which is better: “When I asked you to speak your mind, I didn’t mean literally,” to Rose the rebellious teenager or “That is an easy caveat to accept since I am never wrong” to Robert’s holding out for an “I told you so” about Branson becoming the new finance manager.

And what do you do with a problem like Rose?
AKA which male at Downton will end up sleeping with her in next week’s finale?

And that’s it folks, until next week! Stay tuned for our recap of the season three finale! You can catch new episodes of Downton Abbey Sunday nights at 9 p.m on PBS