Four engagements and a funeral take place in this one episode, which aired as two in the U.K. Downton Abbey and its people are returning to their pre-war routine as the last of the medical equipment is carted away. A title card tells us it’s 1919, and the events of the episode take place between February and April.
We need to start with what is by far one of the best soap moments to ever grace the television screen. Matthew and Lavinia are alone in a sitting room, when she notices a spare tea tray. She picks it up to remove it and trips over a footstool. Unthinking, Matthew stands up out of his wheelchair to catch her. Immediately the whole family is summoned to the sitting room, and they make Matthew get up out of the wheelchair again.
Next, Dr. Clarkson is summoned from the village and he’s sheepishly admits that the second opinion he sought out on Matthew’s case was firmly in the he-will-walk-again camp, but he had dismissed it because he didn’t want to give the family false hope. No one seems too bothered by that, so they all move into the dining room for a celebratory dinner.
Matthew and Lavinia reinstate their engagement, and plan to hold the ceremony in April at Downton Abbey. Lady Mary gives them the saddest congratulatory smile, which doesn’t go unnoticed by the Dowager Countess. She corners Matthew in his bedroom and tells him bluntly, “Mary is still in love with you.”
Meanwhile, Lord Grantham and Cora’s relationship has been rocky. Lord Grantham feels Cora is heartless for wanting to keep Matthew and Mary apart. Now that the war is over and the house is empty of patients, Cora decides she wants to take up some charity work. Lord Grantham seems lost in a midlife crisis and it doesn’t help when the widow maid Jane spills her apples in front of him.
They grow closer as he helps her son get into a prestigious school. Finally, he breaks down and kisses her. They are tempted to go further, but Bates interrupts and the spell is broken. In what Lord Grantham’s guilty face seems to believe is directly related, Cora comes down with a bad case of Spanish Flu. The severity of her illness has everyone in the household worried (Sybil is so worried she even busts out her old nursing uniform), but Cora pulls through in the end. Lord Grantham sits by recovering wife’s bedside, where she apologizes to for not being there for him, and asks if they’re relationship is good. Lord Grantham says it is, but he realizes it’s best if Jane leaves. He offers her money to support her son, and they share one long, sad kiss goodbye.
After the death of Mrs. Bates, Anna and Bates still aren’t married. On the surface Mrs. Bates’ death appears to be a suicide, but Bates remembers he bought some rat poison right before she died. Next, his lawyer warns him that Vera sent a friend a letter saying she was scared of Bates. Anna is terrified that Bates will be arrested and she will have no rights to hear news about him, so she tells him they must marry so at least she will be his next of kin. They marry in a quiet ceremony, and share a wedding night in one of Downton’s guest rooms, decorated by Mary and Jane. When the servants return from Lavinia’s funeral, two policemen arrest Bates. Anna watches helplessly as he is taken away from her.
To read complete article: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/02/12/downton-abbey-season-2-episode-6-tv-recap/?mod=google_news_blog
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