Episode 7

This episode is by far the most frustrating episode of this series. This episode is all about mistakes made that one cannot take back.

In the beginning of the episode, Cora falls sick. We later find out that she is pregnant. Lord Grantham is ecstatic to have another child/possible heir on the way. Everyone is happy, except the completely confused Mary, who has just been proposed to by Matthew. Yes my friends, the moment finally happened. This episode is about her struggle with what to say to him, and then when they hear the news about the baby on the way she doesn't know what to do. If the baby is a boy and she has said yes to Matthew then they'll be married and won't have a penny, however if it is a girl and Mary said yes, Matthew is still the first heir to the estate. Matthew tries to patiently wait for her answer but gets a little fed up because it's seeming like she's stringing him along. Well, long story short, they finally talk and because of Mary's cousin's advice about waiting to see if the baby is a boy, Matthew withdraws his proposal.
 Later on Cora is taking a bath and O'Brien is helping her. Early O'Brien heard Cora and Violet talking about new maids and she assumed that Cora was looking for someone to replace her with. O'Brien is angry and in a moment of weakness decides to get even. Cora accidentally dropped the soap and it fell on the floor next to the tub and broke and she asked O'Brien to grab it for her and she told her that the other piece was under the tub when it was really right next to the side of the tub. She goes into the other room and gets distracted and then regrets what she did so she turned to tell her and then she hears Cora fall in the other room. The saddest moment of the season, she loses the baby (it was a boy) and O'Brien feels terrible. Through the rest of the episode and into the next season O'Brien tries to make up for the one mistake she made.
At the end of the season there is a party at Downton and everyone is there. Mary goes up to try and talk to Matthew to tell him she wants to be with him, but Lord Grantham gets a telegram informing him that they have just gone to war. And that is the end of the episode.
The major theme i see in this episode is that people make mistakes and then try to go back to how things were. Chances are lost and when we don't take good opportunities they won't always be there.

Episode Six..Politics Arise

As this episode opens, it begins to focus on Sybil, Mary's younger sister. Interested in politics she attends rallys in town to learn more about the candidates for voting. At this time it was okay for women to vote, but it was strongly discouraged, for a reason. A fight breaks out by them in the rally and her chauffeur (Branson) immediately races her out of there and takes her home. When her father Lord Grantham later finds this out, he is furious that she put herself in such danger, and forbids her to ever go back to the rallys. Which means of course, because it was forbidden, she would have to go back the next week. Well, by weeks end she has her father convinced that she's going to a meeting in town that she must be at, so he agrees to let her go. When they arrive in town she tells Branson to take her to the political meeting instead and he reluctantly agrees but tells her he's not going to leave her side (Branson actually has feelings for Sybil). They pull up to the meeting and she gets out of the car, but there isn't room to park right in front so Branson must take the car around to park it, he tells her to just come with him and then they can go in but she races in instead of waiting. After she got in she began listening for a minute or so and then on the outside Matthew just happens to be walking by and saw a bunch of men carrying rocks into the meeting area so he goes in after them and finds Sybil, and later joined by Branson. A fight breaks out leaving Sybil hurt and on the ground, Matthew defending her punches the man who did that to her than grabs her and carries her out to the car. They get her back to Downton and begin cleaning up her head wound. Because Matthew was there all the women began to thank him and give him a lot of attention because they were impressed with his saving Sybil. Even Sybil you could tell was very thankful.
Through this entire episode i kept thinking about how we are as children of God. We want to obey, but our childish wordly curiosity usually wins out over obedience. Sybil went against he fathers best wishes  and then she ended up getting hurt pretty bad because of her bad choice to not obey her father who knew best. I see this everywhere in our world. How we as Christians, honestly, we know what God wants, or at least we know what we aren't supposed to do, it's all laid out for us in Exodus, the Ten Commandments ring any bells? But we defy them anyways because our worldly desires thinking "oh i couldn't possibly get hurt" or "what if God doesn't know best?" And than we take the road that wasn't intended for us. So, just as Sybil knew what her father didn't want her to do, we know what God doesn't want us to do, are we going to be disobedient and get hurt by our own choices, or are we gonna do as God says because ultimately he does know best?

Episode Numero 5

Okay, so this is probably one of my favorite episode in season one.
The episode opens up with everyone super excited for the upcoming flower show. A flower show Cousin Violet usually always wins, and Isobel thinks that Violet wins every year because the judges are afraid to choose someone else. So with those two there is some tension throughout the whole episode and in the end Violet gets to announce the winner, and she looks at the paper and it's her name, but she has felt so badgered about winning every year and she also knew that it wasn't a fair win, so she announced that the other man, whose flowers were clearly better, had one.
Also through this episode Mary and Matthew seem to be getting closer but she doesn't want to admit that to anyone and her mom brings in another suitor who is a little bit older, and in Mary's opinion, boring. However Edith takes a liking to him and they start talking and getting to know one another. Well, now that Edith (who Mary is in constant competition with) is going for someone Mary thinks that it's a contest and tries to take this man's interest off of Edith and turn it back to her. Matthew notices this as Mary brushes him off to try and get this other guy away from Edith. That's the worst part. She doesn't even want him but Edith can't have him. Because of this Matthew backs off a bit and doesn't really talk to Mary the rest of the episode.
Through this episode, we see multiple competitions. Between Isobel and Violet, Mary and Edith, and even Mary's suitor and Matthew (a competition Matthew isn't willing to be a part of). Through this episode you see the different ways people win. Isobel by being clever and wanting what is true (a fair flower show) she wins. Mary, though she wins this competition she did it by being conniving and just completely cruel to her sister, and i think she sometimes is mean to Edith just because she wants to be. And last, between Mary's suitor and Matthew, Matthew drew out, so by default her suitor won.
 I realized that throughout life, we have these competitions with people whether we mean to or not and we have a choice to be fair, to do anything we can do to win (cruelty), or we can choose that we don't want to have any part of it. Basically throughout this episode what kept going through my head is "choose your battles." There was no real reason for Mary to have to go after someone Edith truly liked when she didn't like him herself. However with Isobel and Violet, Isobel fought her so hard on it because she knew it wasn't fair that she won every year and the person with the better flowers didn't win. So people what i want to leave you with is: Choose your battles.

Episode 4

In this episode, i was pleased to learn a little more about Ms Hughes, the head maid. The episode opens with all the help talking excitedly about the fair, and there desperate need to go. Ms Hughes tell Carson that she has some business to tend to in town, so Carson tells her that they can manage without her. After Ms hughes is assured that everything will be alright at Downton, she decides to head into town. Later we realize that she has met up with a man from her past. As her day goes by, you get to know that this is an old boyfriend who got married, and is now a widower and came back to Ms Hughes to see if she would be interested in marrying him and moving on from her time at Downton. Back at Downton you see that some things got a little chaotic in the absence of Ms Hughes. When she gets back she realizes that Downton would burn to the ground if she left, so she makes up her mind and has to go tell this man that she loves that she can't marry him because she can't leave her job. This episode was kind of sad to me. Ms Hughes is like the mom of all the help. She's stern and leads them well, and keeps them in line. To see her in this vulnerable situation sucked for me. The fact that she turned down a happy marriage with this man to stay and make sure that everyone would be taken care of is so selfless. As i go through this show i start realizing how much the people of Downton care about each other. They would do anything to make sure everyone will be alright. Those people that care the most make the whole show.

Episode Three.. The drama begins.

In this episode all the drama starts to happen.
When Cora, tries to set up Mary with a young man (Napier) coming to visit, it somewhat backfires. Mary becomes interested in Mr Pamuk, Mr Napier's acquaintance who comes along. Well long story short he was interested too. And get this, when the footman Thomas goes into Pamuk's room to help him get ready for bed, Pamuk allows Thomas to hit on him and then refuse him and then blackmails him into letting him into Mary's room that night. Another long story short, Mr Pamuk and Mary end up sleeping together, which at this point in time would be a scandal because they weren't married and had no intention of being married. Not only that! But Mr Pamuk dies of a heart attack in her bed. Scared to death Mary wakes up Anna her ladies maid to come and help her. Not being able to figure out how to get him back to his own room all the way across the house, they wake up Cora to come and help them carry Mr Pamuk's body back to his room. They get all the way there and back fine, except. Yup, you guessed it, someone saw them. And who else but one of the lowly kitchen maids Daisy. Quiet and sweet Daisy doesn't know what to think of this so she doesn't say anything. Mary goes through this whole episode grieving. One she went to bed with a man who was not her husband, and two he died. Cora becomes scared that this will become a scandal and through the rest of the episode all live in secrecy and fear that the story of Mary and Mr Pamuk will leak out and Mary will be ruined. What a crazy episode, however one of my favorites. Though it leaves this feeling of dread in Mary's heart, that she can never tell anyone about, something had to happen to show that no one is perfect. Mary knew what she had done was wrong. And i love her strength to accept that it happened, but move past it.

Episode Two

In the second episode of Downton Abbey, i really started getting into the show. In this episode the heir to the Downton estate (Matthew) has gotten a letter informing him of his position, as cousin of Lord Grantham he shall be the one to inherit the estate. But i'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you about the characters. In order from top to bottom i say that Lord Grantham and Lady Grantham (Cora) are the parents or Mary, Edith, and Sybil Crawley. Violet Grantham is Lord Grantham's mother, she's a character. Matthew Crawley is there cousin, and Isobel is his mother. Then we have the staff: Carson who runs the house and makes sure all the male workers stay in line, including William, Thomas, and Mr Bates (Lord Grantham's valet). Ms. Hughes is the lady version of Carson's job but she mostly does background stuff because women aren't allowed to be seen serving in front of company. Then There is Ms O'Brien who is Cora's lady's maid. Anna and Gwen are the daughters lady's maids. That's it for now, but there will be more later. =]

Okay, so back to where i was. Matthew Crawley. Matthew gets a letter informing him that he is the heir to the estate, so in the second episode him and his mother arrive in Downton from Manchester. Mary the eldest daughter goes into town to welcome them and invite them to a welcome dinner, but overhears Matthew complaining about probably having to marry one of the daughters. Well you can probably already know that their relationship starts on a bit of a rough patch.

(Through this entire episode Matthew is always complaining to his mother about not needing all the staff they have because he can do things himself and doesn't want this new move and improvement in his life to change his character. His mother encourages him to do his part and not mind the service, she doesn't want the people to think they don't belong.)

After accepting the invitation they go to Downton and finally visit their family, whom are all very welcoming, including Edith who takes a shining to Matthew right away. Isobel Matthew's mother tries to get involved and do her part by joining the hospital which cousin Violet doesn't like too much.

This is a lot of information so i'll just give you a good background. =]

Matthew doesn't really want to be there, Mary doesn't like Matthew. However Mary doesn't necessarily like the fact that Edith likes Matthew and the two sisters are in constant competition. Anna has a crush on Mr Bates who is getting sabotaged by Thomas and Ms O'Brien because they don't like him. Also, because i have already finished the season because i love this show i can say confidently that you will probably come to hate both Thomas and Ms O'Brien. But i'll let you decide in my coming blog posts. =] Have a nice day and i can't wait to tell you what happens next.

Social Class

Today i embarked on my very first episode of Downton Abbey, and within the first few minutes i knew what the whole show would consist of, the social classes, and customs/traditions of that time. The time of Aristocrats, and estates. In the first scene they show all the maids waking up in the morning and getting everything in Downton started, lighting fires, making breakfast, ironing the paper, higher maids bossing the lower maids around, and the residents of Downton ringing bells to get the helps attention to bring them their breakfast or help them get ready. The servants are often rude to one another, and bossy, and somewhat sarcastic. 

Already i have learned that in this time, women aren't eligible to inherit anything, because well,  they are women. The Titanic has sunk and the heir to Downton with it. As the first episode plays out, the people of Downton go through mourning of the Titanic passengers, as well as mourning and anxiety about what to do without an heir to their estate. 

My thoughts on the show so far are that it's really going to make me think of how different that time was, and how much things have changed. 

I'm excited to learn what happens next in the show.