Remember those nice lodgers Patmores first guests from the previous episode?
Well, it turns out that they werent nice lodgers at all.
One guy even wants compensation because of the association.
Credit: PBS
It is all so funny, and everyone at Downton laughs and laughs and laughs and laughs and laughs.
Mrs. Patmores dream and future livelihood are in jeopardy because of conservative social structures.
Are we really going to have to end the series not liking Carson?
And shes gets a lovely picture with Robert, Cora, and Lady Rosamund.
NEXT: And then things got dark…
There were the happy moments (how cute was Molesley with those school kids?
), but Episode 8 was mostly filled with tragedy.
As I previously mentioned, Barrow had a near brush with death.
She would never have saved his life if he hadnt been someone worth the concern.
We see that here with Mary and Barrows talk while hes on bed rest.
Mary has the benefit of seeing where that can lead, though more metaphorically for her.
The stakes are indeed that high in Ediths and Marys separate and shared dramas.
And as with many conflicts inDownton, it arises out of class.
Bertie Pelhams cousin, the Marquess of Hexham, has died from malaria while in Tangiers.
The former agent at Brancaster Castle now inherits the estate and the title.
Golly gumdrops, what a turn up!
Lord Grantham says about the guy who died.
With a marriage proposal already laid before Edith, Robert can barely contain himself.
The only problem is Marigold.
So to tell Bertie or not to tell Bertie?
Robert comes done hard on the side of Dont screw this up for me I mean, Edith.
While everyone else more or less agrees that Bertie should know.
His arrival at Downton doesnt make anything easier.
Hes stopped on his way to Tangiers so that settle things with Edith.
Edith tries to tell him the truth without telling him the truth.
Im not as simple as I used to be, she says.
My life is not as simple.
Henry Talbot, who arrives after a letter from Tom, has left suddenly.
The reveal is tragic.
Bertie flees, saddened most not by the secret but that it appears Edith was trying to trick him.
Would she ever have told him?
Probably, but shes correct to point out that it doesnt matter now that shell never get the chance.
Tom goes first, and boy, is it brutal.
She is a coward.
You ruined Ediths life today, he says.
How many lives are you going to wreck, just to smother your own misery?
While Tom went for more of an emotional angle, Edith cut straight to the heart of the matter.
I know you to be a nasty, scheming bitch, she says.
She is also totally right.
Mary is such a fascinating character because sheisa bitch.
Not with Mary though.
She has stayed consistent throughout, as an extension of the hardship shes gone through.
The truth comes out when the Dowager Countess arrives back at Downton from her one-episode-long Im leaving forever phase.
She cant be a crash widow again.
I mean, brilliant careers, rich lives are seldom led without just an element of love.
Edith has come back from London (after finding out that Septimus Spratt was her mystery columnist WHAT?)
to see her sister married.
The reason for the surprise return is essentially the thesis of the show.
Every moment that defined their time there is lost and rendered meaningless without people to share them with.
