Downton Abbey
Season 2 episode 5
The year is 1918. The Hundred Days Offensive, the push
that ultimately won the allies the war is about to start. In Amiens, France
soldiers walk through the trenches. Some are war weary, others eager to do
their part for King and country. They all gather around an Earl in waiting, a
man who only a few years ago shared the same station but now was expected to
lead. With him, his trusted batman, once a loyal footman who spent a long time
wishing and praying for his call to battle and now it was here.
The call is made, the men rush out, bayonets and pistols
drawn, ready to fight the enemy that threatened all they hold dear. Shots ring
out, soldiers fall. Matthew and William, two men born into different classes,
now united and equal in courage and combat sharing the same goal, defeat the
enemy and make it home. The battle rages on and in one swift blow, an
explosion, terrible, loud and lethal ends the fight for these two warriors.
William the brave lays still, his lungs crushed by the force of the blast.
Matthew Crawley, sheltered by William, is also still, any feeling or hope slowly
leaves the lower half of his broken body.
Both men helped defeat the enemy, both men are going
home, but only one of them will get to stay.
With this episode the battle portion of the war ends for
Downton Abbey in the most tragic way. From the moment war was declared at the
end of the first season, as a viewer you knew that there would be at least one causality
from the front, but it doesn’t make it any less shocking or terrible.
Poor, sweet, positive William’s last wish was to marry
Daisy, his sweetheart, so that she would be cared for after he passed away.
Daisy who had never been comfortable with their engagement,
following some gentle prodding, put her issues aside and married William in a
small ceremony in one of Downton’s guest rooms (a room probably the size of the
house he grew up in) surrounded by his friends and colleagues and those who had
fought so hard to bring him home, moving passed their own grief to give William
one final moment of happiness before he passed away (Carson cried, it doesn’t
get much sadder than that.)
Despite the fact that we have seen changes in the social
ladder since the start of the war, Lady Violet and Edith had to fight tooth and
nail to get William back to Downton. Calling on familial favours and the fine
act of blackmail Violet was able to give the former footman peace at the end.
For Matthew however, any sense of peace was gone for now.
Not only had he lost the use of his legs, but he had also lost the chance of
ever having a family (and supplying Downton with legion of heirs.)
The makeup
department did a fanatic job this episode. From the moment Matthew was brought
into the hospital on that stretcher he looked realistically broken. The
contrast of William looking so perfectly healthy compared to Matthew but still knowing
that his body was slowly failing him, that much more horrible.
The entire cast was on fire tonight. From Mary’s grief, to
Matthew’s anguish, to Robert’s fear, to Violet’s guilt, even the villains of
the piece, Richard and Vera Bates, brought their A-game well done.
Other news from the front:
-Vera Bates, a pinnacle of wisdom and kind-heartedness,
decided that now would be the best time to make good on her threat to destroy
Bates and Anna, by exposing Mary’s death-inducing fling with the Turkish prince
or Lord or Earl or whatever he was, season one was a very long time ago. Luckily
for all involved, except for Mary it turns out, that Miss Crawley is now engaged
to people in low places. May the real Sir Richard Carlisle stand up please?
Yep, there you are.
- On another note, even though I am now completely scared
for Mr Bates well-being I couldn’t help but be distracted by the live animal
that was clearly trying chew its way
through Vera’s neck during her scene final scene with Richard.
- No good is going to come from Robert and maid blue-eyes.
Stay away, Lord Grantham, stay away. Lock yourself in a room in some secret
room that has a million and one doors until your mid-life crisis is over.
Please and thank you.
- Major Bryant’s a keeper isn’t he?
- Exchange of the night courtesy of Lady Violet and a
phone: “Is
this is an instrument of communication or torture? Hello, SHRIMPIE? Yes, this
is Aunt Violet...I won’t beat about the bush, dear. Whom might we know on the
board of the General Infirmary?”
(If she thinks the phone’s torture now, wait until she tries some
of the new Angry Bird levels, those tiny green pigs will not beat me!)
Thank you for reading, until next episode goodbye dear William,
hopefully the actor who plays you will find a new television show soon.
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