Heh. That said, my recollection of Matthew's "war service" from S2 was one long festival of "What a good thing I'm on leave from my harrowing service of which I cannot speak!" He was in basically every episode. I have neither forgiven nor forgotten that sodding concert with Mary and Edith, in which he dueted with Mary.

I'm torn. I get that they were bucking expectations for the character, but I was sort of hoping that Mary would seem affectionate but awkward and distant around the child.

I know what you mean. Thomas's behaviour was genuinely predatory- and stupid, stupid, STUPID. Dumber, even, than Ethel's.
That said, at least Alfred seemed actuated by principle. Jimmy just seemed weak-willed, overcompensating and vindictive.

Is O'Brien Catholic? If ever a girl had a use for confession…..

NO COME BACK! Goddamit I shall have to hug my red-eyed loathing of that vile bullying gobshite to my lonely self.

Oh hells yes. Plucky, religiously and ethnically diverse heroes! Properly hissable villains! An effortless meld of two of modern India's greatest obsessions: cricket and film. A rattling good yarn.

@avclub-7e1ce4ce3124fd9ecc13a151afcff11b:disqus , I am inclined to agree.

@avclub-d7f43e1fb2d4977c86163d9b0cb07814:disqus , it's been a while since I saw the episode, but I seem to remember that Thomas knew early-ish that O'Brien was urging Jimmy to demand that Thomas leave without a reference. I remember watching and thinking "Oh, Thomas, if you only knew about The Soap, you'd go to…

Rajesh Gupta in Bangladesh, eh? And if I scroll further down, I see another completely gratuitous swipe at call-centre workers in the Indian subcontinent.
Right- you know you're not posting on the Daily Mail website, yes? So logically, these remarks betoken an increasingly desperate bid for attention. Is casual racism…

@Big_Knife:disqus , in the common area of the lab where I worked, the manager used to respond to requests for a coffee machine with "You're in England now. Embrace tea.". It always gave me immense pleasure to say "Well, ACTUALLY, coffee was your brew of choice long before you chivvied around China and India for tea.…

And then they coo together over Baby Sybil! That was lovely.

Baseball's closer to rounders, if I'm not mistaken. And rounders WOULD be something with which Branson might be familiar.

Absolutely, but why did it need Bates to lean on him? The show hasn't really shown us a Thomas so beaten-down and extinguished that he wouldn't at least TRY to fight the good fight.

I remember speculating about this when this series first aired, and coming to the conclusion that That Pissy Turnip Jimmy Does Not Deserve the Cheekboned Sex God of Downton.

The scoring of that cricket match didn't make sense, if I remember well.

Which bothered me, honestly. I know they're striving mightily to gooify Thomas, but I don't believe for an instant that he wouldn't have used O'Brien's secret when his life/livelihood was at stake.

YES! Just that moment made me remember why I ever liked Bates. Poor Brendan Coyle. You deserve better.

Oh, pleasepleasePLEASE let it be Jack! This way we get rid of Declan as well! The mewling little putz has no reason to stick around once his only link with Emily vanishes.
Oh, wait- there's Charlotte. Shit.
Can we get rid of Jack anyway?

The whole subcontinent, in fact. Also the West Indies.

"Scandalous? I think I'll have to hear it now." With that gorgeous Caledonian burr, as well. I cheered when she decided to champion Thomas.