The ultimate meddler, the Dowager Countess, pays a visit to Lord Grantham to continue to send glaring looks and empty threats about refusing pleasantries over the hospital issue. Lady Edith tells the family she’s off to London to deal with her dreadful magazine editor — and she’s even contemplating a move to London…alone. GASP.’Is it proper, for a young woman, to be alone in a flat?’ The Dowager asks Edith when she says she plans on staying in her flat, alone. Enough about Edith’s plans — it is clear that the Dowager is in the middle of Cora and her husband, and this isn’t going to end well.
Sappy Anna is finally pregnant again, and Lady Mary wants to set up her doctor’s appointment to ensure the pregnancy is in the clear — it’s so nice to see Anna smiling again! I honestly couldn’t take another minute of Anna bursting into tears in every corner of the servant’s quarters.
Cora invites Mrs. Hughes to the drawing room with Lady Mary, so that she can be honest about the upcoming nuptials — and much to Lady Mary’s despair, it becomes clear that she wants the celebration to be held off of the grounds. It’s about Charles Carson and Elsie Hughes, she exclaims. After the bride makes her case, Cora calls Lady Mary a bully and she calls her mother a snob — but Mr. Carson quickly enters and shuts them all up.
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With the threat of downsizing still in the air, Barrow goes on a suspicious job interview.
Meanwhile, Lady Edith runs into a fellow in London — the very same fellow we saw her get flirty with last season over one of the countless formal family dinners — and he seems smitten. “I thought it was incredibly modern,” he compliments her for owning a magazine. He invites Lady Edith out for a drink in Covent Garden. Lady Edith finally fires her editor and has a long night ahead of her laying out the pages — but then she remembers her drinks date. I’m impressed and surprised as to how Lady Edith is handling herself — a few years ago she seemed beyond desperate for a suitor, and now she comes across as totally secure. He offers to come along and help Lady Edith finish the paper — and that’s just what they do. I’m loving the fact that love is in the air for Lady Edith.
Mrs. Patmore took it upon herself to order a dress for Mrs. Hughes, but it doesn’t look like it did in the catalog — oh no. Mary arranges for Mrs. Hughes to borrow a coat from Cora, but Cora walks in on her playing dress up before Mary had a chance to explain. Cora is rude and it makes me so sad for poor Mrs. Hughes — this just might be the most uncomfortable scene we have ever seen.
The war regarding the hospital continues to wage on, as the Dowager Countess seems more upset to be losing to cousin Isobel than she is about the actual issue at hand, (shocker).
The wedding is one of the most heart-felt moments in Downton history — and we’re so happy Mrs. Hughes had the ceremony she dreamed of. It becomes even more special when Branson comes back and surprises everyone. After moving to Boston, he realizes Downton is his home and he missed his family. George is so excited to be reunited with his cousin. What a lovely surprise! Downton definitely wasn’t the same without him.