Downton Abbey - Series Four Premiere - Recap: Cry, My Lady
Recap and review of Downton Abbey - Series Four Premiere:
It's kind of crazy to think that Downton Abbey is back already, especially since it seemed like only yesterday that fans were first faced with the prospect of a Downton without Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens). With the premiere of series four, we face a Downton Abbey that's more or less haunted by his ghost, as Mary (Michelle Dockery) walks through life in a fugue state while everyone does their best to tread lightly around the widow, uncertain what word or phrase might trigger an outburst of grief or rage. While it still feels like Downton Abbey, much of its trademark warmth is noticeably absent in this premiere, even while the show retains its characteristic busyness. And really, that's the point. While a tragic loss may bring the world to a stop for some, the life moves on just the same for everyone else. It must. Or the grieving are as dead as those for whom they grieve.
It's 1922, and six months have passed since Matthew was killed in a car crash while heading back to the hospital to see Mary and his newborn son. Yet it might as well have only been a week, with how Mary is still grieving. Mary is alive, sure, but it's hard to really call what she's doing "living." As Robert (Hugh Bonneville) astutely observes while talking with Branson (Allen Leech), "The price of great love is great misery when one of you dies" (Lord Grantham apologizes for this statement almost immediately, as he recognizes that Branson understands this better than most). Mary's grief has prompted her to refer to her son as an "orphan," despite Anna (Joanne Froggatt) reminding the widow Crawley that the boy still has his mother. Yet Mary is hardly the only one affected. Matthew's mother, Isobel (Penelope Wilton), is questioning the purpose of her life after the loss of her son, saying, "When your only child dies, you're not a mother anymore. You're not anything, really." She even ignores Violet (Maggie Smith) when she points that Isobel is still a grandmother, encouraging her to take a bigger interest in baby George's life. All the fight is gone from Isobel now that her son is gone, and she has neither the strength to intrude in her grandson's life (Violet: "It's a grandmother's duty to intrude!") nor the conviction to help Hughes (Phyllis Logan) in rescuing an old friend of Carson's from his confinement to a dilapidated workhouse.
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But while Matthew's death has put Mary into a virtually catatonic state, Robert doesn't want to address the effect it's having on her, preferring instead to allow time to heal all wounds. Of course, he comes up against opposition from Branson, who feels that Lord Grantham is doing nothing to help Mary heal by refusing to allow her to "be troubled by anything so harsh as reality." But Robert feels he's doing the right thing, particularly when Mary has an outburst at the dinner table over the unfairness of Matthew having survived the war only to be killed in "a stupid car accident." She storms off, and Robert feels vindicated for having treated Mary with kid gloves for all these months. But Violet doesn't believe Robert is doing right by his daughter, grilling him for his "poor judgment" in insisting that Mary should be coddled and shielded from the real world, as the Dowager Countess feels Mary should be thrown back into the business of life. She even tells her granddaughter as much in the episode's best scene. Violet offers her advice to Mary not as "the Dowager Countess" but as a grandmother. "What's the difference?" Mary asks, bitterly. "The difference is I love you," she replies. Mary apologizes for her sour attitude, saying that her former lightness of character died with Matthew. "All the softness he found in me seems to have dried up and drained away. Maybe it was only ever there in his imagination." But Violet isn't content to let Mary lose herself to depression. "You have a straightforward choice ahead of you," Violet tells her granddaughter. "You must choose either death or life." Mary responds, "And you want me to choose life?" It is, understandably, a tall order.
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Naturally, the sooner Mary returns to the land of the living, the sooner she can take a more active role in the running of the estate. Since Matthew didn't leave a will, Mary is granted only enough to live on, while the rest goes to baby George. But Branson believes that Mary should have more of a say in her son's estate and its investiture, and he disagrees with Robert's insistence on managing George's inheritance himself entirely, feeling an obligation to do for Matthew's son. In an attempt to get Robert to see reason, Branson brings up the matter to Carson (Jim Carter), believing that he would be able to convince Mary to take charge. But the eventual conversation backfires, with an embittered Mary giving Carson a verbal dressing down, taking him to task for speaking out of turn and assuming that he had the right to do so. Carson is visibly hurt, having seen Mary as something of a daughter figure all these years, but he cares about her far too much to allow her to succumb to misery, telling her that she is allowing herself to be defeated. He then leaves, and though the scene itself a restrained bit of business, it sets up another stellar scene later in the episode...
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Mary finally realizes that her father is trying to shield her from the world and decides it isn't what she wants. She goes to Carson's quarters and offers her apologies for speaking so unkindly to him, to which Carson replies that there's nothing to apologize for, citing that her attitude was understandable given how fond she was of "Mr. Crawley." At the mention of his name, Mary lets it all out, unleashing a torrent of tears and unfiltered grief as Carson holds her. "Cry, my Lady. A good cry, that's what's called for," he coos, as Mary weeps into his arms. She confesses that she isn't sure if she's strong enough, and fears that her father may be right for wanting to keep her locked away. But Carson insists that Mary has a duty to Matthew's memory, to fight to keep his reforms for the estate from being undone, and to look after their son and keep his memory alive. It's a wonderful scene that highlights just how vital a connection like the one shared between Carter and Mary is to the series (I'd argue it's one of two or three key relationships in the show, without which the series just wouldn't be the same). Mary has decided to return to the a more public life, and arrives at a dinner party in purple, having cast aside her mournful black gown. She may not be back entirely, but she's on the road to recovery...well, as much as any one person can recover from the death of their loved one.
Even Isobel manages to find some measure of strength, deciding to help out Carson's old pal, Charles Grigg (Nicky Henson), at the behest of Hughes, who knows Isobel has, in the past, found ways to stand for what's right. She offers the man employment, and rediscovers the strength and kindness she thought she'd lost following Matthew's passing. Of course, Carson has unresolved issues with Grigg, and advises Isobel against hiring him, but she believes the man deserves an opportunity. Penelope Wilton remains one of the more underrated actresses in the ensemble, and she does a remarkable job contrasting Mary's more overt grief with a more restrained mourning. But the reach of Matthew's death doesn't stop there. Molelsey (Kevin Doyle) is out of a job now that his charge has been killed, and though Downton has tried to find accommodations for him over the last six months, the job market is pretty dour for an experienced butler. Even though Violet is able to secure an "audition" of sorts with her friend, Lady Shackleton, he's sabotaged by the bitter head butler of the Shackleton estate, who feels his job is being threatened. It's a minor subplot among many such plot threads, but it mostly works thanks to the affable, fuddy-duddy quality of Kevin Doyle's performance.
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Some of the other subplots, however, are a bit of a misfire. The tyrannical new nanny, Nanny West, spends the episode running roughshod over Downton, exerting her presumed superiority over the rest of the staff, since she occupies that comfortable space of privilege between staff and family. She doesn't let anyone near George or Sybil, not even Isobel or Thomas (Rob James-Collier), who reminds West that he actually knew Sybil's mother, unlike her. This sparks a feud between the two servants, as Thomas warns Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) about Nanny West, eventually leading to the discovery that the nanny is prejudiced against the Irish, calling little Sybil a "dirty half-breed." Cora is quick to give Nanny West her walking papers, to say the least, and she's even quicker to thank Thomas for his invaluable judgment of character. But it doesn't really make for involving television, nor does the love rectangle between Daisy (Sophie McShera), Alfred (Matt Milne), Jimmy (Ed Speelers) and Ivy (Cara Theobald). It mostly involves a lot of mixed signals, with Ivy getting drunk at the pub with Jimmy, Alfred continuing to have hearts for eyes whenever she enters a room, and Daisy discovering that a Valentine she assumed Alfred had written her was actually written by Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol) -- although I did like the show of Daisy's maturity, in that she recognized and thanked Mrs. Patmore for her good intentions in not wanting to see Daisy be the only one without a Valentine. But it still wasn't all that interesting, especially when there are some characters we didn't get very much of this week, such as Anna or Bates (Brendan Coyle), even if their storylines are as hit-or-miss as any in the series.
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That said, I did like that the show immediately addressed the departure of Siobhan Finneran, as the opening of the episode saw a shadowy figure packing up and fleeing Downton Abbey. Only the next morning do we learn that Mrs. O'Brien has unceremoniously ditched Downton in favor of work elsewhere. Her departure naturally leaves the door open for a new lady's maid at Downton, and the person opting to fill the role is none other than Edna Braithwaite (MyAnna Buring), the former maid who nearly had a dalliance with Branson before being dismissed, a back story that's being kept very hush-hush for fear of Lady Cora learning that her son-in-law was "unworthy" (in Carson's words). Speaking of dalliances, Edith (Laura Carmichael) is getting pretty serious with her editor, Michael Gregson (Charles Edwards). Gregson learns that he can finally get a divorce from his wife, but only in Germany, so he asks Edith to move there with him. Edith, deeply touched that he would willingly become a citizen of "the most hated nation in the world" (it is post-WWI after all) for her, accepts the offer and seals it with a kiss. I'm sure the rest of the Crawley clan will be perfectly understanding of Edith eloping to Germany with a man who's still technically married. Should be some good drama.
Ultimately, the first episode of the post-Matthew era of Downton Abbey was a bit of a dry affair, but it went a long way in setting the table for the season to come. It's going to take a while for the show to find its feet again, as very few seasons of this show hit the ground running. But there's no reason to believe that the show won't be able to find engaging stories to tell beyond the business of mourning Matthew. I'll definitely be interested to see how the show manages. As for now, it's simply good to have Downton back.