{"id":691,"date":"2014-01-14T17:19:17","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T17:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/?p=691"},"modified":"2014-01-14T17:33:11","modified_gmt":"2014-01-14T17:33:11","slug":"downton-abbey-season-4-episode-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/downton-abbey-season-4-episode-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Downton Abbey &#8211; Season 4 Episode 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>I&#8217;m glad to see:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Mary emerging from her grief.\u00a0 And while the new Mary may not be the kinder, gentler Matthew&#8217;s Mary, she&#8217;s a stronger and more clear-sighted person.\u00a0Actually, I&#8217;ve never been entirely convinced that she softened much under Matthew&#8217;s influence.\u00a0Her response to Edith right after Sybil&#8217;s death wasn&#8217;t particularly kind, gentle or conciliatory.\u00a0 But she is taking an active interest in management of the estate and recognizing the need for a new and different approach to preserving it. And she has enough backbone to pull it off.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Edith with a man who appears to\u00a0value her as she deserves (or at least I HOPE so!)<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Cora and the girls calling Lord Grantham on his outdated snobbery in regard to the singer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Jimmy showing off and getting what he deserves for it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Alfred stepping in as cook when Mrs. Patmore has her episode.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did they have to?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Have Anna be raped?\u00a0 Can&#8217;t the Bates&#8217;s catch any kind of a break?\u00a0 Are the writers so unimaginative that they can&#8217;t find ways to use a HAPPY couple?<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Bring back the conniving Edna?\u00a0 Why didn&#8217;t Mrs. Hughes go directly to Lady Grantham and tell her why hiring that woman wouldn&#8217;t be a good idea?\u00a0 To me that doesn&#8217;t seem consistent for Mrs. Hughes. I can&#8217;t believe she would hide what she knows, given the potential dangers. And while we&#8217;re on the subject&#8211; Wasn&#8217;t what was implied happened to Branson sort of like rape as well?\u00a0Especially if he really did drink himself to sleep, as\u00a0suggested.\u00a0If the gender roles had been reversed, wouldn&#8217;t we call it that?<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Continue to make Lord Grantham look stupid and insanely stubborn?\u00a0 We know he&#8217;s human and makes mistakes, but the constant stream of them don&#8217;t seem consistent with him being the man Cora fell in love with and who raised three smart, interesting, and strong-willed daughters. Resisting change is one thing; being totally stupid about it is another.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Appear to pair Mary with ANOTHER guy who&#8217;s already engaged to someone else?\u00a0 Please let this storyline play out differently this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m glad to see: &#8211; Mary emerging from her grief.\u00a0 And while the new Mary may not be the kinder, gentler Matthew&#8217;s Mary, she&#8217;s a stronger and more clear-sighted person.\u00a0Actually, I&#8217;ve never been entirely convinced that she softened much under <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/downton-abbey-season-4-episode-2\/\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-downton-abbey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":695,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions\/695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}