ONE
The grounds at Downton as Bates, in coat and bowler hat, walks off the property. A lovely period-dressed shot to establish the village, and then Bates is in the post office. He runs into one of the maids as she enters on her own business.
At the house Anna tries to wrestle a trunk from a high place. In walks Post Maid. “What are you doing?” They’re roommates and Anna needs space. But the luggage is unusually heavy, which is mysterious. Anna insists on knowing the contents.
Outdoors Cora approaches Mary on a bench reading a letter from Evelyn. He’ll be in the area. Cora insists he stay with them.
TWO
Cut to the luggage open on the bed. It’s a typewriter. Post Maid has been taking a correspondence course. O’Brien barges in on business and the two maids quickly block view of the secret until she exits. To want to leave service, to look for a job, is a big deal.
Cora tells Robert and the Dowager of Mary’s interest in Evelyn. Let the matchmaking begin! The Dowager’s only hesitation is to keep fighting for the inheritance for Mary.
Matthew on a bicycle freewheeling through the village, fresh off the train, comes upon Edith. Oh, aha. She and Mary, last episode, argued over Matthew. Mary doesn’t want him and Edith does. Here, she suggests a picnic lunch while touring the local churches. It’s very cringe.
Back to the typewriter. It’s now on the kitchen table and all the staff poke at it as an oddity. Carson comes in with Hughes to tame the wild beast. Ah, O’Brien brought it to light. Big tattletale! Gwen (Post Maid’s name) walks in, quite upset to see her private object in the public kitchen. Hughes, in charge of her and her welfare, insists she has a right to know. Lovely reaction shot of O’Brien as Anna says, “It was you.” Why, Hughes asks, did you buy this typewriter? “I want to be a secretary.” Oh, haha, delicious. The staff react as if a lion is loose. Carson’s face is priceless.
As Anna dresses Mary she talks to Edith about the church tour. Snipe, snipe. In comes Cora with a letter from Evelyn. He includes a visitor, a Turkish ambassador. Cora will invite them both. Be ready to go hunting! She literally means riding a horse, but the double meaning plays.
Here’s Bates again in the village. What’s he up to? Ah, a prosthetics maker. Whoa, the leg brace — a “strengthener” — Bates seeks looks like a torture device. He’ll take it.
THREE
Crawley House. Matthew’s invited to join the gentlemen for dinner. A little dig at Mary, a little pipe-laying for this episode and the entire season of their slow-moving romance.
FOUR
Downton. As Anna and Gwen prepare one of the rooms, Gwen breaks down. Bates comes in. You can change your life. As he gives the pep talk, he winces. He must be wearing the torture device. As he pauses in the hall, Hughes asks if he’s alright.
So many plot lines! Aargh! (This is me reacting belatedly to the amount of threads in the Two. Downton must always be about the clash of modernity with tradition, thus the typewriter plotline. We need also learn, as is reiterated at the Eight, all the elements of Mary’s psychological conflict and Bates’ physical one. It’s a lot to establish.)
The staff hustle for dinner service. Mrs. Patmore, in charge of the kitchen, controls the chaos. Oops, not dinner. Thomas and William serve food out the front door. The hunt riders are assembling. We meet Evelyn. Mary in side saddle looks utterly elegant. They all wait on Kemal Pamuk, the Turkish diplomat. Haha, we get the full set-up and doubletake from Mary as the drop-dead handsome Kemal rides up. More cringe! She sends her minder away, and the hunt is off! Let’s try to forget there’s a fox at the front of these baying dogs and stylish people on charging horses. Kemal challenges Mary to take a jumping shortcut and she agrees. On side saddle!
Meanwhile, in church . . . haha. The intercut travails of the Grantham daughters seeking love. Matthew genuinely enjoys the architecture and history, ignoring Edith except to ask about Mary.
The hunt has returned, fresh-faced and jolly. Mary introduces Kemal to her father. Thomas is to be the valet for him. The maids peer through the door as he goes by, and Thomas gives them an arch look, knowing they’re watching the handsome foreigner.
As Bates dresses Robert, Kemal is the topic. “Quite a treat for the ladies. Why doesn’t the gorgeous Turk not have his own chap?” Haha, okay, settle down. I remember this episode and where it’s going, and I can’t remember what I thought of all this salivating the first time I saw it. Did it feel this heavy-handed, or was it charmingly sly? We do get to see Bates wince from the leg Iron Maiden.
Thomas, in Kemal’s room, helps him dress for dinner. More cringe. Thomas is subtle, but he’s fishing. A stranger fixes your tie, inches from your face. So awkward! And then Thomas touches his cheek. Mistake. Kemal is offended and instantly turns to blackmail. I’ll tell no one of your familiarity if you lead me through the house after hours. This is no plan of the moment. Kemal has been thinking about how to visit Mary’s room.
Dinner. Oh, the family at formal table discusses maid Gwen. Isn’t that funny. The Dowager and Isabelle take opposite sides, of course. Sybil wants to help Gwen achieve her goal. And Mary flirts with Kemal. Matthew watches. Surrounded by three suitors with a large feather in her hair, Mary looks completely undignified. Now I know the showrunners are just playing with us, lol.
Mary snubs Evelyn and he snubs Edith. I had forgotten how pitiful she’s made in season one.
Kemal entices Mary into a side room and there kisses her, backing her against the wall. Mary’s surprised. She rebuffs. For all of her dewy-eyed looks, she really didn’t expect this.
Night. Thomas by candlelight guides Kemal down the hallway. Mary, reading in bed, jumps up when he, in his dressing gown, enters her room. Negotiation, protestation, seduction, compliance. Again, Mary at heart is proper. Kemal taps into the unconventional side of her, though, and she acquiesces. The last we see is him kissing her on the bed.
Cut to Anna asleep. A hand comes over her mouth, waking her. It’s Mary. Cut to the hall, where Mary says, “He’s dead.” Anna, processing: “In your room?” We’ve had Kemal shoved down our throats as this Byronesque hottie in order to land this moment, this sort-of joke. The quick cuts are meant to amuse and shock.
SWITCH
Let the real story begin.
FIVE
Anna and Mary aren’t strong enough to move a man all the way back to the other wing of the house. Who will they wake? Cut to Cora. So priceless, great face. The fact that he didn’t force himself on you (and the loose morals that implies), we’ll deal with that later, she says. Scandal, ruin, shame — these are the immediate concerns. Now the Kemal actor has one job: look pale as three women hoist you down the hall.
Unbeknownst to them, Daisy sees. It’s already established that she works early to prepare the house. Most of all this is farce about a foreigner. He’s not here to be a real character; he’s fridged! He dies, Mary gets to feel emotions. It’s hard to watch without squirming. What I enjoy, though, is Anna. When Mary is in trouble, she goes to her maid first. This is partly because a servant will follow orders, but also the scene has a sense of friendship, of a team. The complexity of their relationship is interesting to me. Also, Cora’s mix of practicality and anger when she’s awakened is well done.
Exterior shot, new day. Thomas carries the breakfast tray. Oh, poor guy. He gets to find the body. Haha. Sorry, the sense of justice is juicy. Evelyn says a somewhat pointed goodbye to Mary, extolling dead Kemal’s qualities, and she breaks down crying.
Staff discuss the death. Thomas has some insinuating comments, and Daisy wants to know what he means. Gwen is stopped by Sybil, come down to the kitchen to show her an ad in the paper for a secretary. She says, Name me as a reference and I won’t specify what kind of work you did for me. Sybil The Nice One shows herself again.
Evelyn says goodbye to Cora and makes clear he won’t come back. I know I’m a boring person but my future wife shouldn’t think I am.
Carson checks in with Lord Grantham. The body has been removed. The staff is coping. Robert says something about ladies’ sensibilities and don’t let the footmen be too coarse. Of course, it’s all an in-joke for us. The ladies carried the dead guy about the house! A bit of too-easy writing. That was a lazy wink on the part of the showrunners.
Hughes catches Bates in the staff area, doubled over with pain. He still dissembles — it’s nothing — an answer she accepts for now.
The Dowager visits the ladies, remarking on the “foreigner” who died in the house. Mary loses it and leaves the room.
Gwen in the kitchen confronts Thomas: What did you mean when you said Mr. Pamuk lived each day as if it were his last? O’Brien would also like an answer. Meanwhile, Daisy is more out of it than usual.
SIX
At Crawley House they debate if they should go up to the family.
SEVEN
Isabelle already sent a note, Matthew can’t make up his own mind, and it’s decided to do nothing.
(This is a crap Seven, and I pondered for a while if this would count. It is a decision, although a paltry one. It might be a Seven that reverberates later in the season, I don’t know. With Crawley House as the Three/Six, this Seven feels tacked on. I guess we’re to note that Matthew still has one foot in and one foot out. Its passivity makes for a workman and bland Eight.)
EIGHT
O’Brien prepares Cora’s hair for the night. The staff wanted Evelyn to hit it off with Mary, she says. It’s not a resolution to the typewriter plotline, but it is a sense that downstairs and upstairs are one team. Downton still holds.
Carson with a light checks on the dead man’s room only to find Mary sitting in the dark. She asks his advice and admits she doesn’t think she’ll ever be happy. “We’re all behind you, my lady. The staff, we’re all on your side.” She’s grateful. Carson has always been kind to her, even when she was a little girl. Another team moment, but more focused on Mary and the repercussions of Kemal’s death on her specifically.
Bates dresses Robert for the day. The doctor said Kemal had a heart attack. Do you think anything sinister happened? Like a spy who killed him? Bates turns away, wincing in pain. Again, Bates refuses help! Passing Hughes in the hall, Robert starts to say something to her, looking back at his room and Bates. Here she comes, and she won’t be denied this time! Go Hughes! Holy crap, the brace is tightened into the flesh, turning his leg into meat.
NINE
Outside, Matthew catches up with Mary. Is there anything he can do? No, but thanks. (Again, with a different Seven decision, this scene would’ve changed. I guess you could say that this was a Mary episode and to interject a stronger Matthew would’ve diminished her story.)
And here are Hughes and Bates at the pond with his brace in hand. Good riddance. Toss! Bates has seemed a little idiotic and masochistic with all this, but the important point is that Hughes treats him as settled staff. He’s part of the household, and his problems are shared now.
O’Brien and Thomas stand around outside the house smoking. Aha. She now knows what he knows. Kemal went through the door to Mary’s room. Your secret’s safe with me, as the camera pulls in on O’Brien’s face. Rut-roh.