Downton Abbey 3.06
I don't really post here anymore, but I want to jot down some thoughts on DA last night and if I post them to Tumblr I'll never find them again.
This season is really growing on me. Initially I felt that nothing much was happening but bit by bit things were set up and by now the season seems to be in full swing. Last week's episode was a showstopper, in more than one way, but I did like the quieter episode last night which dealt with the aftermath.
Men in S3 DA
The premise of this season is 'change'. This has been driven home almost at nauseam, but it's still worth remembering, and it seems to be what all the men are grappling with, and it being a patriarchal world in which men hold all the power it's really predominantly the men because they stand to lose the most. The women deal with it quite well, because they never held the power in the first place, and because in this new world they actually stand to gain quite a lot. As for the men, the ones that do OK are the ones that embrace change and the ones that didn't hold much power anyway. This means that men like Matthew, like Branson, like Daisy's father-in-law, like the footmen of Downton, deal quite well with it all, while it's the traditional upholders of the patriarchal order, namely Robert and Carson, who seem to struggle the most.
This doesn't mean that the 'new men' don't also have their wobblers. On average, it seems, men, when feeling out of their depth, behave in very random, and often rather exasperating ways. At the beginning of the season this was Matthew, who just COULD NOT GET OVER HIMSELF with the Swire money. Granted, Matthew has never been much of a pragmatist, and things like 'rightness' are much more important to him that probably to most of us, LOL, but in character or not, I think a lot of people felt that he was letting the side down somewhat. As soon as he solved the issue in a way that made him come to a decision that he could live with, that permitted him to act on family loyalty without compromising his own integrity, he improved by leaps and bounds. He's found his feet, and I can honestly say that despite occasional slip-ups (he does pick his moments for certain things, doesn't he?!) he's doing OK. Similarly Branson. At the start of the season he annoyed me so much. Not because I can't sympathise with his politics but because of the way he went about things. I guess I'm quite a pragmatist at heart, so I don't go in much for beliefs at any cost when it hurts those closest to us... That said, Sybil's death and the arrival of baby Sybil have given Branson some perspective. In the end it's all about people and sometimes ideals have to take second place you know? And at heart he is a sensible person.
The same can't be said of Robert, or Carson for that matter, who both managed to behave in rather appalling ways and, in the case of Robert, have been for some time. His attempts to regain his position as respected head of the household are increasingly desperate as he has lost all sense of perspective. He seems to disagree now on the basis of principle rather than senes (baby Sybil's name being one of those instances) and his outbursts and his attempts to regain control seem increasingly pathetic and embarrassing (his 'scene' at Isobel's where a display of power ended in a rather humiliating defeat). He is clearly grappling with the loss of control that he is experiencing in more or less all areas of his life. There is his marriage, but that is very much linked to the issues that have arisen in the wake of Sybil's marriage, which shook the foundations of his personal world because of the irrevocable blurring of the spheres of upstairs and downstairs. He is still dealing with the fall-out from this re-dressing of the balance of power on which his world is built. Then there is the fall-out from his financial miscalculations, which resulted in him allowing Matthew a degree of control over what previously had been his domain alone. I bet he is bitterly regretting that one. :/
Carson, downstairs, is in a similar position of having to fend for a position that was previously uncontested. Control, in both instances, is slipping. Of course we still live in a patriarchal world, so it's hardly a turning over of a system we are experiencing with DA this season, but there are small victories where change makes inroads into hitherto unchallenged rules and social structures. So what initially looks like a curious bias in favour of the women of Downton and a deliberate portrayal of men as ludicrous and idiotic is actually quite astute.
In other observations:
M/M - there were some very sweet scenes this episode, and I noted that there has been no fall-out from Matthew's rather untimely decision to discuss estate matters. I quite like this, because it shows a growing maturity of Mary's part, a deliberate attempt to pick her battles. She does not want to be at odds with her husband, in particular at a time like this, and she knows that he knows that he's done wrong I think. He apologised - there was nothing else that needed to be said.
I am trying hard not to read too much into Matthew's 'till my last breath' because I simply do not want it to be foreshadowing. That OK? Good. :)
Branson and the baby plot - I'm on the fence wether I'd like this plot twist or not, but I wonder if Matthew's suggestion to leave baby Sybil at Downton is foreshadowing. It seems to go with the later scene when Branson is watching Mary and Matthew with baby Sybil. Also, it would give meaning to Ethel's storyline - giving up children to give them a better chance in life, etc. JF likes his parallels, so I think it's a definite possibility. I just hope Branson won't cave on the issue of the christening. I don't know how well I'd cope with that but I wouldn't put it past JF...
On that note, Ethel was OK this week and the luncheon at Isobel's was priceless. Shame to waste the pudding indeed! ;)
Bates - I continue not to care about Bates. I don't even want him to be released, tbh. So dull.
Cora / Robert - the husband and I have had quite a few discussions about this one because I can really understand Cora, not because I think it would necessarily have made a difference for Sybil (my own research matches what Clarkson later tells Cora - that the Cesarian would most likely not have made a difference since delivery didn't resolve the eclampsia) but because of the way Robert behaved. Although he obviously wasn't intending to harm Sybil he still put his own ego above everything. This was about him, showning Branson his place ('he isn't paying for the doctor) and pulling rank on the rest of the house. It was NOT WELL DONE on his behalf, so part of me felt disgruntled when Clarkson was made to tell Cora about his findings. What made it somewhat better was the fact that when Robert jumps on the chance to be vindicated by asking if Sir Thingy was right after all, Clarkson so vehemently re-states his opinion that the other doctor was acting in an unprofessional way. Well done, Clarkson, for retaining his professional integrity.