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The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

‘Downton Abbey’ Season 4, Episode 5

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Downton Abbey airs Sundays at 8pm on PBS.

Caution, contains spoilers.

Just like the 1986 hit pop rock song “Manic Monday” says, “I wish it were Sunday.” Not because it’s my “I don’t have to run day,” but because Sunday is the glorious return of “Downtown Abbey” from the week before.

Similar to the four previous excerpts, episode five continues to serve up the drama at Downton, whether Carson likes it or not. We said farewell to Alfred, who got accepted into the cooking program after one of the applicants turned it down, and we also said hello to a new character, Charles Blake.

Although, based on the interaction between Blake and Lady Mary, she most likely would prefer to say goodbye once she discovers he is in Yorkshire to not save big estates like Downton from ruin.

Alfred’s presence at Downton was missed by Daisy, who was crushing on him, and surprisingly, the flirtatious Ivy misses Alfred as well. After a date with Jimmy ends badly, Ivy wishes she would have given Alfred a chance and finally realizes that Jimmy is more interested in her body than her personality.

As they were enjoying a romantic evening in the moonlight, he tries to set the moves on Ivy. Appalled, she refuses which upsets Jimmy. He argues that she “owes” him for being nice and taking her out on a date. This doesn’t sit well with Ivy, who storms off and gives Jimmy the cold shoulder for the remainder of the episode. That is why my mother taught me to pay for myself on dates. Good call mom.

You would think that with Alfred gone, Daisy and Ivy would be friends, right? Wrong.

Daisy is even more livid with Ivy now that Alfred has left Downton. Believing it was Ivy’s love connection with Jimmy (more like lust from Jimmy’s point of view) that drove Alfred away, Daisy refuses to listen to Ivy complain about missing him.

Upstairs, the Crawley family celebrated Lord Grantham’s birthday with a special surprise from Rose. Remember the band singer from previous episodes? He’s back and performed at Downton for his Lordship’s birthday. But that wasn’t the only surprise of the evening. As Lady Mary went down to speak with Mr. Jack Ross, she walked in on Rose and Jack tongue tied and lip locked. It will be interesting to see if Mary keeps Rose’s new beau a secret. However, even if the family should find out, Lady Edith’s secret trumps Rose’s on the scandal scale.

That’s right, Lady Edith is pregnant. Turns out her visit to London was to verify if what she thought was true. After receiving a letter from the doctor’s office, the unplanned pregnancy is confirmed and official. To make matters worse, Edith still hasn’t heard from her baby daddy, Mr. Gregson. Allegedly, he is somewhere in Munich, Germany, and hasn’t been seen or heard of from his colleagues.

A part of me wants to believe that Michael has traveled to Germany to complete his quest for citizenship there in order to be with Edith, yet another part of me feels that he has deserted her. Lady Edith often envied the attention her sister received from her family, but now I think she is wishing she could slip under the radar again.

In the midst of this, Bates and Anna work on rekindling their love and moving on from Anna’s attack. Both are finding it difficult to forget her assault, but a romantic candle light dinner at an elegant restaurant was a much-needed escape for the couple.

Lastly, Baxter is finding it to be difficult living up to Thomas’s demands, and begins to question her relationship with him. He tells her she knew the requirements of the job before she got it and to remember where her loyalties lie.

What are these requirements? Is it to keep tabs on the family? Baxter and Thomas clearly have a partnership worked out and a plot, but as to what their “friendship” means that is still a little hazy at this chapter in the story.

What I do know though, is that any time someone teams up with Thomas Barrow, bad things happen. As to who Barrow is going to bring down this time, we will have to wait for next week’s episode.

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