Well, we couldn't have two happy weddings, could we? Downton Abbey returned to magnificent levels of ridiculousness this week, as the hurried wedding between Lady Edith and Sir Anthony came to just as abrupt an end.
There was always something faintly silly about the union, since we were being asked to believe that the couple were madly in love with no real evidence to support it (and suspicions that Edith just wanted to catch up with her sisters were hardly assuaged when she sent them out of her grieving room for daring to be married and pregnant and all that kind of thing).
Surely there were a few suppressed giggles at Sir Anthony's race to get the hell out of there and Lady Edith's petulant flinging of the veil as she stomped up to her bedroom like a stroppy teenager. To be fair to Downton, it suddenly got genuinely emotional when Edith sobbed on her bed, sent out her sisters, and got a bit of motherly comfort. Just ignore the moment when Anna asked if she could bring anything and Edith sulked: "A different life".
That wasn't the only absurdity which popped up in this episode of Downton Abbey, which finally and totally predictably brought together the handy coincidence that Matthew came into some money just as Downton was in danger. The outcome was inevitable from the very first episode - was there really any other way for things to work themselves out?
But Downton still had to introduce a little tension, so originally Matthew refused to accept the cash out of guilt for his treatment of Lavinia. This was resolved this week, though, as a useful letter appeared, which explained that Lavinia's father knew all about Matthew's love for Mary and still wanted to give him the money.
Yep, Downton Abbey is true recession television - I'm sure we can all relate to having to move to our second home and downsize to just eight servants. Luckily for the Crawleys, they still own most of the village, but I'm almost disappointed that they're not going to have to sell up now since we'll never see Violet's idea to open a shop apparently selling "good manners and decent conversation" come to fruition (if Julian Fellowes decides against this whole "prequel" idea, maybe we could get a sitcom spinoff with Maggie Smith's adventures in customer service).
There were obviously plenty of other things going on in the episode too, whether it was Daisy showing her interest in Alfred again, Ethel returning to Isobel's 'fallen women' scheme and then running right out again, or Thomas spreading the poison (and dropping poor hard-done-by Molesley in it) by stirring rumors that O'Brien was planning to leave the family. Even when O'Brien explained that this wasn't true, Cora was doing her best hurt face and harshly saying she felt "let down". You want to feel let down, Cora? Try finding out about that whole soapy miscarriage.
READ MORE:http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s183/downton-abbey/recaps/a408728/downton-abbey-episode-three-recap-you-know-its-over-my-dear.html
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