Three Up, Three Down: Downton Abbey, Season 5 Episode 3

Three Up

1. Lady Violet. The dowager gets wind of Lady Mary's salacious vacation - Spratt saw Mary and Gillingham while in Liverpool for a relative's wedding - and she gets to read her the riot act about stepping out and how in her day that didn't happen until orders came from on high (one's mother). We learn later, however, that Lady Violet had an admirer in a Russian prince who is now a refugee. The pair are reunited at a tea Lady Rose put together for the refugees, which gives the dowager a little more context for Mary's assignation (not that Violet engaged in any hanky panky, just that she understands the impulse a little more than she let on). She even gets to slip in another dig at Lord Merton and Isobel, so a good outing all around.

2. Baxter. Baxter finally comes clean with Lady Cora as to why she stole from her former employer - she was under the influence of a man who left her holding the bag after he split with the booty. She never put the police on him as she wanted to put the entire thing behind her. Lady Cora winds up letting her stay. We also learn that Baxter knows Thomas's family pretty well, enough to express concern over the ill health of his father (which he doesn't take well, saying his dad treated her better than him, and it may be untrue to boot). We also get another moment of Baxter getting advice from Molesley, further the possibility of their relationship developing into something more intimate.

3. Daisy Mason. Her studies with Miss Bunting are apparently going well, as we see Daisy at the start of the episode flitting around the kitchen, chirping about where she might have wound up had she been able to go to school until she was 14 rather than only going until she was 11. There's some talk about her taking an examination, which sees like it will happen in short order. Interestingly, her success has seemed to put a spark in Thomas, as he makes a phone call about a self-improvement course (not that she knows about this). Daisy still has to work hard in the kitchen, but you can tell she's thinking more and more about life outside of it.

Honorable Mention: Prince Kuragin. While he's been holding himself apart from the other refugees in York, Lady Rose does get him to come out of his shell a bit, especially after she mentions she's currently living at Downton. As noted above, he seems to have taken a shine to Lady Violet back in the 1870s, when she and her husband went to St. Petersburg for a wedding (turns out the Earl of Grantham was part of the household of the groom, the young Prince Albert). He is genuinely pleased to see her again, even finishing the story of how Lady Violet came in possession of a fan during one of the balls. There is a tinge of sadness, though, when he mentions he does not know if his wife is alive (the assumption being that she didn't get out).

Three Down

1. Lord Robert. The season-long campaign of being an ass continues. To start, Robert rejects out of hand a plan to build 50 houses on or near the estate, complaining of not wanting to see modern houses  (by which I think he means anything built after 1800). He then goes to London to surprise Lady Cora (who's gone down to see that art historian again to talk about paintings), only to have to cancel plans when she dines with the historian. He suspects the historian wants more than her opinion on paintings, and while Robert's not wrong he comes across as saying Cora has no opinions that the historian would want to hear. It's needlessly cruel, and his attempts to apologize the next day are rebuffed. He's also immediately cross when he sees Sarah Bunting at the tea, and while her outspokenness almost leads to the abrupt end of the tea he's still kind of an ass about her. He's becoming less able to deal with the present by the minute.

2. Lady Edith. Her attention to Marigold comes to a head, with Mrs. Drewe finally putting the kibosh on further visits (at one point she literally thought Edith had ran off with the child). This causes obvious distress, as Mrs. Hughes notes it's a blow to someone who has little enough love in her life as it is. Edith also casually asks Mary to show the sketches from her trip around, clearly not believing any were made. Mary is seen leafing through some later in the episode, so Edith doesn't get the pleasure of blowing Mary's cover, either.

3. Lady Cora. In some ways this is a good episode for her, as we get to see her demonstrating knowledge about something she cares about and gets to talk about herself and how she wound up in England looking for a husband (short version: a new money partly-Jewish family in New York City climbs up the social ladder more quickly if they marry into European aristocracy). What turns this into a negative isn't just Robert's dismissal of her intellect, but the way Cora notes that a night out in London is past her now, and as much as her art historian would like to keep the night alive and meet again in the future, neither are really in the cards. Cora has accepted her role as an older, country-dwelling countess, and we can see some of the regret in not having a more exciting or fulfilled life.

Honorable Mention: Anna Bates. In some ways she had a worse episode than Lady Cora, as she has to hide Lady Mary's birth control (and the book that inspired the purchase) in some corner of her cottage (ripe for Mr. Bates to discover in the next episode or two, I'm sure) and continue to keep the secret about Lady Mary's trip. Now throw in the police investigation into the death of Green, as there's now talk among Gillingham's household staff that Green spoke of not getting along with Mr. Bates. Bates is able to put together enough of an alibi to satisfy the local cop, but Anna (and Mrs. Hughes) fear that a more skilled officer may be able to determine that, even with the alibi, Bates could have had time to get into London, off Green, and get back to Downton. I fear Anna is going to worry her way into getting Bates caught.