Downton Abbey - Recap: I Want To Marry Again

This wasn't as tiresomely uninteresting as the season premiere, but there were long stretches in which not a whole lot seemed to happen. Worse, there were scenes that seemed to exist solely to trace back over something addressed in an earlier scene. Basically, anything with Thomas (Rob James-Collier), Baxter (Raquel Cassidy), and Molesley (Kevin Doyle) was needlessly repetitive, with Thomas complaining about Baxter's reluctance to help him spy, Molesley's refusal to believe that Baxter's story is as cut-and-dry as it seems, and Baxter worrying about her employment status while talking to Cora (Elizabeth McGovern). This isn't the only story that feels recursive, as several other stories this week feel as if they're folding back over themselves: Branson (Allen Leech) is slowly reclaiming his revolutionary ideals thanks to his friendship with Miss Bunting (Daisy Lewis). Daisy (Sophie McShera) is still trying to get educated, this time with the help of Miss Bunting, while Rose (Lily James) finally gets Robert to agree to get a wireless radio. We also get more of Violet (Maggie Smith) and Isobel (Penelope Wilton) continue their jaunty back-and-forth rivalry, which basically amounts to the Dowager Countess teasing her cousin over the attentions of Lord Merton (Douglas Reith). All this, without even getting into the interminable business of Carson (Jim Carter) and Robert (Hugh Bonneville) working to reach some kind of agreement with the committee on how to proceed with the memorial gardens project. In short, this is all stuff it's nearly impossible to care about, but that doesn't mean the episode doesn't have its share of promising storylines.

Credit: Nick Briggs/ITV

At the top of the heap is Edith (Laura Carmichael) coming to an arrangement with Tim Drewe (Andrew Scarborough) on how to be a part of little Marigold's life. This, despite Mrs. Drewe's obvious hang-ups about having Edith around all the time. She takes offense at Tim's notion that Marigold doesn't have a real family, due to her birth as an "orphan". Mrs. Drewe also isn't too crazy about her husband proposing that Edith become Marigold's godmother, since her sister is already the girl's godmother. In short, Tim fails to see the myriad ways in which he's offending his wife, going as far as to state that Marigold deserves to have Edith in her life, since they can't provide for her the way a proper lady like Edith could. Naturally, Tim's blindness to his wife's hurt feelings is matched only by Mrs. Drewe's startling lack of awareness regarding Edith's true relationship to Marigold. She assumes Marigold is Edith's latest doll, and worries she'll be tossed away the minute Edith finds a new distraction. She somehow doesn't recognize that Edith is Marigold's birth mother because, even to the proletariat, it's inconceivable that a proper lady would make the same mistakes a commoner would, or have the same physical impulses. A lady isn't supposed to have sex, much less out of wedlock. Yet this is exactly what Edith has done, and she's not the only one either...

Credit: Nick Briggs/ITV

Mary (Michelle Dockery) gets Anna (Joanne Froggatt) to go to the pharmacy on her behalf to get contraception for her. It's one of the more awkwardly amusing scenes of the episode, as Anna has no idea how to broach the subject with the male pharmacist and instead asks for a woman's help. She then has to pretend that another pregnancy would be detrimental to her health, since the female pharmacist doesn't seem to believe in contraception for any other reason. It's an interesting window into the sexual and gender politics of the time, as even Anna makes note, later, how strange it was that she should have to explain herself. Anna suggests that, for all anyone knows, she could be a mother of eight who simply couldn't afford to have another child. Is she supposed to forego sex when modern medicine has made it so that she doesn't have to? Yet even with this issue, it isn't really about the sex, for Mary. As she explains, she needs to have this week-long trip with Gillingham (Tom Cullen) in order to know if he's someone she can really be with, or if it's a passing fancy. "The point is, I want to marry again. And I absolutely don't want a divorce," Mary says. Inevitably, we see the two in the hotel in their adjoining rooms together, and even with the contraception, I just don't see how this arrangement doesn't lead to troubling consequences.

Credit: Nick Briggs/ITV

Speaking of troubling developments, Charles Blake (Julian Ovenden) returns to help a friend get a look at a painting he wishes to appraise in the Grantham household. This friend, Simon Bricker (Richard E. Grant), takes a liking to Lady Cora, and basically throws himself at her in as prim-and-proper a manner as possible. However, Robert is completely oblivious the entire time, assuming that Bricker is trying to win the affections of Isis, the family dog. Robert's overprotectiveness regarding this seemingly-immortal dog is one of my favorite running gags on the show, and here, it's so amusingly absurd that I couldn't help loving it. "Tell your friend Bricker to stop flirting with Isis," he tells Cora before bed. "There is nothing more ill-bred than trying to steal the affections of someone else’s dog." Oh, Robert. Truly the short-sighted one. If only the episode had ended there -- but nope, we're getting a return of the mystery surrounding Green's death, as a sergeant arrives to question Carson about the man, before revealing that a new lead has caused the investigation to be reopened: a witness has come forward.

I suppose Green's possible murder is as good a mystery as any to drive the narrative, although I really wish this season appeared to have more going for it, at this stage. There doesn't seem to be much of interest going on from week-to-week, and that's troubling when you consider that the show hasn't always been this glacially-paced. But I'm still holding out the hope that Downton Abbey will begin to build momentum as the season continues.