Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 3

All seems well, but it's not.

Isn’t this a cozy but illicit scene of Lady Mary and Tony in their adjoining hotel rooms in Liverpool. In bed. Tony talks about walking down the aisle, so he seems onboard. But Lady Mary wants to make sure everything is done right because she was tarnished once before. After a week of eating out and being seen together all over town, Lady Mary doesn’t want to push her luck. Unluckily, Countess Violet’s butler, Spratt, sees the two bidding a fond farewell in front of the hotel. After Spratt tells Violet, she invites Mary for tea to discuss her dangerous liaison and prompts her to get married as soon as possible. Later, Lady Mary has a heart to heart with Branson: now that her hormones have cleared, Lady Mary is no longer so settled on Tony Gillingham. Upon Lady Mary’s return to Downton, she asks Anna to hide her mysterious contraception in the cottage.

Could it be a love interest for Countess Violet?

Rose spends all her time with her new Russian immigrant friends. She invites them to tea at Downton Abbey. The Granthams visited St Petersburg back in the day for a wedding, so Robert digs out some artifacts they brought back, reducing the Russians to tears. Violet is all flustered at Prince Kuragin, who gave her a fan in St Petersburg. And what would an episode of Downton be like lately if Miss Bunting didn’t show up and cause trouble at a family function. Indeed, she’s invited upstairs for tea and upsets the Russians with her revolutionary talk, presumably.

We miss the days of mysterious letters arriving at Downton. Mrs Patmore looks suitably crushed when she opens the letter detailing how her nephew is exuded from his local war memorial because he was shot for cowardice. Mrs. Patmore wants him included in the local Downton war memorial. Mrs Hughes goes to work on Carson on behalf of Mrs Patmore, but Carson doesn’t feel its fair to the millions of men who stood bravely in battle.

Tom Barrow calls London on mysterious business and tells Carson his father is dying in order to travel there. We do not know why.

Daisy’s studies are progressing well.

Lady Cora says she will give Baxter a decision about her continued employment when Baxter tells Cora the missing element of the story. Baxter tells Lady Cora she stole the jewels for a handsome but cruel coworker who ditched her later. Baxter is allowed to stay.

Someone wants to offer the cash strapped Downton Abbey estate money to build fifty houses on Pip’s corner, but Lord Grantham is aghast at this modern idea.

Mrs Drewe has enough of Lady Edith and her visits

Lady Cora notices how fond Edith is becoming of Marigold. Lord Grantham says “I only hope she isn’t driving the mother mad”. But of course Edith is driving Mrs Drewe mad with her frequent visits. Mr Drewe comes to the back door of Downton to tell Lady Edith she must stay away for now. Naturally, Lady Edith is heartbroken.

Carson and the copper

The police continue to question Carson about Valet Mr Green. A young woman in London heard Mr Green say “Why have you come?” seconds before he died. When Mrs Hughes tells Anna about the witness, Anna is worried everyone will find out she was raped. Bates is questioned by the copper since Mr Green made it known before he died that there was bad blood between them.

Lady Cora has an admirer

Lady Cora meets flirty Mr. Bricker in London to visit the National Gallery. Clearly Mr Bricker enjoys Cora’s company and invites her to dinner at the Ritz. Afterward, Lady Cora regales him with the stories of her life as a young debutante in London. Mr Bricker asks Lady Cora out again and she takes the offer as a compliment but says it’s unlikely they can repeat the experience. Lord Grantham surprises Cora in London with reservations at Claridges but she isn’t to be found at Rosalind’s house, like he thought she would be. Lord Grantham’s jealous streak shows up when he finds out Cora’s been out on the town with another man.

Quotes from Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 3

Lady Mary: It hasn’t taken me long to get used to sharing a bed again.

Lord Tony Gillingham: I want to acclimate myself with the routines and rituals that will govern the rest of my life.

Lady Mary: I’ve been tarnished once and I won’t be tarnished again.

Countess Violet: What is the latest from your aging Romeo?

Isobel: Servants are human beings too
Violet: Preferably only on their days off

Isobel: Hopeless lovers wandering over a desolate moor, if it wasn’t Emily Bronte it could be Tolstoy or Gogol.

Anna: Do you ever what it would be like to go to a place where nobody knows us? Just start again…

Mrs. Hughes:Mr Carson, surely by now we know enough about shell shock to be more understanding than we were at the start of the war.

Mrs Patmore: Sympathy butters no parsnips.

Mrs Hughes: My advice Daisy, is to go as far in life as God and luck allow.

Countess Violet: If I were seduced by a man, I would not let any grass grow under his feet if he’s offered to do the decent thing.

Countess Violet: A young woman of good family who finds herself in the bed of a man who is not her husband has invariably been seduced.
Lady Mary: She couldn’t have gone to bed with him of her own free will?
Countess Violet: Not if she was the daughter of an Earl.

Lord Grantham: That an art expert would find your observations on the work of Piero della Francesca impossible to resist, yes, it is hard to believe.

Countess Violet: Knowing an unlucky friend is tiresome enough. A unlucky acquaintance is intolerable.

Lady Mary: Granny has a past!

Isobel (to Violet): Have you made plans to see your admirer again?