The Televangelist: ‘Downton Abbey,’ Season 2, Ep. 5

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I think Robert, Earl of Grantham summed this episode up the best: “the whole situation is certainly odd. That I freely admit.” What was the point of Peter/Patrick? To Matthew feel even worse? To prove that despite finding a real confidence and sense of herself, Edith is still a desperate spinster who will gladly marry an old man, a poor farmer or a manipulative burn victim, as long as they throw a little kindness her way? In my original viewing of this season of “Downton,” this was the episode where I started to think the wheels were really coming off. Let’s take a look before we give it to Branson to work on in the garage:

The Good

One person who can always be counted on to salvage something mediocre is Lady Violet, who was absolutely on fire in this episode. The subplot of Isobel wanting to keep Downton as a “working” house was aggressively presented and rather out of character given that she had more or less been banished the last time she was at Downton for interfering too much. Her declarations were met with some master manipulations by the Dowager Countess, sending Isobel packing once again (and leaving us with some fantastic zingers from the Dowager, not to mention some splendid acting, which is never a surprise).

The Mary/Matthew storyline picked up some steam by way of a third party - Sir Richard pulls an O’Brien on Cora and gets her to do his bidding, inviting Lavinia back unexpectedly to tend to Matthew and keep Mary away from him. Matthew is what humanizes Mary. Without him, she is cold and sharp, with her emotions hidden deep behind her porcelain mask. With Matthew injured and Lavinia back in the picture, Mary is forced to go back to being the wife-to-be of Sir Richard, which puts her back in Season One Mary Mode: coldly commenting on “his lot” versus her lot, snapping at Edith regarding Peter/Patrick, and using her powers over Carson to steal him away from Downton. To this last point, however, one can see why Mary would want to take that route. Carson is not only an incredibly competent butler, but he is also a friend and confident to Mary, and would help ease her anxieties and misery at being in that huge house alone with Sir Richard. Though there wasn’t much of Matthew in this episode (aside from a few depressive diatribes and one very intriguing twinge), Mary carried the weight of their story in excellent form, casting doubt upon and bucking up for the fact that the two who are truly in love may never be together.