The central themes of this week’s Downton Abbey seemed to be pardoning and acceptance. Violet concocted a plan to help fix Robert and Cora’s marriage; Bates’ quest for freedom very almost went awry; and the folks of Downton started to soften towards Ethel, despite her recent past. Meanwhile, not everyone approved of Branson’s plan to christen his daughter as a Catholic, the love square downstairs firmly became a triangle, and Daisy received an offer that could change her life completely.
The episode began straight after Sybil’s funeral and, of course, emotions were running high. Cora was still upset with Robert for not listening to Dr Clarkson when he said Sybil had eclampsia, and things were not looking good for the future of their marriage. Violet decided to intervene; she asked Dr Clarkson to lie and say that the chances of a cesarean saving Sybil’s life were much lower than he thought. Now thinking that nothing they did could have saved their daughter, Cora and Robert reconciled.
In the grand scheme of all things Downton, it doesn’t feel like a particularly big lie, and there’s always the matter of when a lie is for the greater good. Violet’s plan has saved Robert and Cora from further upset, but was it the right thing to do? Personally, I found it a terrible idea that only serves to give Robert a pass for his poor decisions. The pain of losing his daughter may be punishment enough, but maybe the guilt would have given him a kick and made him reevaluate his life. From what we’ve seen this week, he’s still no closer to listening to Matthew when he’s trying to share plans for improving Downton.
It took Robert a while to begin to change his mind about Baby Sybil’s christening, if indeed he has. Branson was adamant she would be christened Catholic, since he’s Irish, and Mary told everyone that Sybil had wanted that too. This didn’t initially go down well with Robert (or Carson), but feelings seemed to ease over the course of the episode. I can only assume that this will be debated more in future episodes, because as a way of drawing the Irish conflict into the Crawley home (which I assume was the intent on the writers’ part), this was quite weak. None of the arguments for why Baby Sybil should be christened Catholic or Anglican seemed particularly compelling, but I’m willing to accept that it might have struck a chord with more religious-minded viewers.
Bates’ quest for freedom almost came to an end this week after a prison warden coerced Mrs Bates’ friend into lying about what she had seen. That scary side of Bates came out again as he threatened the prisoner working with the corrupt warden — who arranged for her to lie — and it wasn’t long before the witness was spilling all to Bates’ lawyer. By the end of the episode, Bates’ freedom had been ensured.
READ MORE:http://www.tvequals.com/2012/10/21/downton-abbey-series-3-episode-6-review-downtons-women-find-their-inner-sybil/
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