Edith - displaying a great deal more mystery than a bucket - told her family she was off to Michael's London office, but in fact went to see a doctor. After last week's monkeyshines, her visit can only mean one thing: another unwed pregnancy scandal is about to be stuffed into the Crawley family closet along with that dead diplomat, Ethel the prozzie, and the housemaid Robert got off with in series two. Poor Edith, one night of pre-marital fun and it looks like it's curtains for her reputation. Perhaps that camel-maiming straw of misfortune will be enough to muster up some amity between the Crawley sisters (though seeing as a dead sibling, an altar-jilting, and a dead husband weren't enough to stem the tide of Lady Mary's snark, it's unlikely). Least riveting of all is the continuation of Tom, Mary and Robert's adventures in foreclosures, leases and arrears. This week we met Mr Drewe, whose family had been tenants of the Crawleys since the reign of George the Third. His story pulled a Downton Tory double-whammy, by not only serving to remind us what gentle patricians aristocrats are, but how important it is to maintain the status quo. Though ambition in Downton Abbey's lower classes is permissible only when accompanied by a donkey's work ethic and the proper humility of their station (unlike the 'baddies' below stairs, our Alfred's a striver, not a skiver), the drama happily legitimises the status of those who do nothing to earn their positions save emerge wriggling from the right, privileged orifice. Its upper classes are - the odd boorish drunk aside - munificent patriarchs and matriarchs, marshalling their means to ensure the livelihoods of the hard-working people who depend on them. Lord Grantham's dealings with Mr Drewe - whose family has been farming Crawley land since the the days of Chaucer, remember - illustrate just this world view. "If we don't respect our past, we'll find it harder to build our future", the Earl declared, as well might a man who's just seen his Russian counterparts set on fire by Bolsheviks. Speaking of bouncing back, series one's Evelyn Napier has returned to the Abbey to have another crack of Mary's whip after "the whole ghastly business" with that "splendid pal" she married. Mary's fan club really is shameless; another week, another potential beau. Just make us all happy Mary, be a dear and take Branson to bed before he emigrates. This ship can't afford to lose any more of its rats.
Review of Episode #4.5
