Three Up, Three Down: Downton Abbey, Season 5 Episode 2

Three Up

1. Mary Crawley. No title for her this week, as she's off on her assignation with Tony Gillingham, disguised as a week of sketching with a friend.  And she's gotten to this point with minimal work, between getting her friend to cover for her and sending poor Anna Bates to get protection for her. To her credit, Mary does give a fairly well-reasoned speech about how she needs to be sure that she's completely compatible with Tony, as she wants to marry again but absolutely does not want to divorce.

2. Lady Edith. She's continuing to spend time with her daughter, and has finally found a way to normalize that relationship to the extent one can - she's going to back up her personal support with finances, etc. as some sort of godmother. This does not necessarily sit well with Marigold's adoptive mother - she's still on the fence about Edith's presence, and shares Lord Grantham's concern that Edith will lose interest - but it seems to suit Edith's need to be close to her daughter. And with others thinking it's a way for her to distract herself from Gregson, they're thrown even farther off the scent as to the real connection between Edith and Marigold.

3. Isobel Crawley. The work of the Dowager Countess to get Lord Merton interested in someone of the appropriate station seems to not have worked, as he's still interested in Mrs. Crawley. Lady Violet continues to try to run interference between the two, but a visit to Lord Merton's estate to visit the gardens keeps things alive. The dowager is going to have to break out her finest cutting remarks, as her regular ones aren't quite working.

Honorable Mention: Mrs. Hughes. Her relationship with Carsten looks like it's going to take a hit when they disagree on the location of the village's war memorial, but when the location winds up being where Mrs. Hughes favored Carsten notes that one of the benefits of the location (which he didn't favor) is the the two of them are back on the same page. She's clearly pleased by that.

Three Down

1. Tom Barrow. While his position is secure, the loss of James makes him realize that he's lost the closest thing to a friend he has at the house. And now that he doesn't have the power of Baxter that he used to have, he doesn't even have a source for information that he can use against others. Even Molesley gets the upper hand on him at one point when discussing Baxter. Anna does reach out to him at one point, but he's seemingly comping to grips with being alone in the house.

2. Lord Robert. Mostly small issues - he's against the original location for the war memorial (though he wins that one), and is resistant to having a wireless set (though he relents after renting a set to listen to a speech by the king) - but he comes off as a dick in a couple places. He's flippant about Edith's interest in Marigold (he also thinks she'll tire of her), and is openly rude about Branson, Sarah Bunting and the return of Branson's leftist leanings (he as much as says he's parroting Sarah, which ignores pretty much all of Branson's political past). He also grouses about a visiting art historian flirting with his dog - missing that he was actually flirting with Cora.

3. Mrs. Drewe. As much as she appreciates Edith's interest in Marigold, her increased presence (and financial backing) isn't sitting as well as it could. She's concerned about Edith losing interest, but also that Edith is trying to muscle in on areas that are already covered (noting, for example, that Marigold already has a godmother when Edith suggests that sort of role for herself). I fear this conflict is going to continue to build over the course of the season.

Honorable Mention: John Bates. He's not in the episode much, but when a policeman comes to visit Carsten at the end of the episode, asking about the death of Green and revealing that there's a witness, we all know who is going to be in the middle of the investigation.