Top Ten Lines from Downton Abbey, Season 3, Episode 6 -- The Cricket Episode
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So, was it just me, or did all of you have a scary dream
about O’Brien last night, too? She of the beady eyes and crazy curly-Qs on the
side of her head. She haunted me in my dreams last night, and I awoke this
morning with the disturbing feeling that if I hadn’t woken up, I was just about
to be killed in my sleep.
O’Brien gives me the creeps.
*shudder*
Anyway, back to business. Did anyone else notice the overuse
of a certain word last night? It’s not a word I ever remember hearing on the
show before, and last night it got used five times (I know because I counted.
You can thank me later.). It’s the
word “stuff.” Mary used it twice, Edith used it twice, and Matthew used it
once.
What’s up with that?
It was bothering me, so I looked up the etymology (that
means the study of the origins and uses of words) of the word “stuff.” Of
course, there’s the original meaning, “stuffing,” as in the stuffing of a quilt
or mattress. There were several other meanings and origins noted, most from the
14th and 15th centuries. (Still with me?)
And then I noticed that in 1927, just about the time this
drama is being set right now, the word “stuff” came to have a new meaning: to
have a grasp on something, as in He
really knows his stuff. And in 1929, the word “stuff” began to be used in
reference to narcotic drugs. Isn’t that interesting?
Don’t ever say you don’t learn something here.
But surprisingly, it looks like you have to go back earlier,
around the 1570s, to find its usual meaning: “matter of an unspecified kind.” I
thought it would be later, like, I mean, totally around the 1990s and all that
stuff, dude.
Anyway, tell me I’m not the only one who noticed that they
used the word “stuff” five times last night. And tell me that I’m not the only
one for whom that use felt kind of, I don’t know, awkward? I wonder, were the writers trying to tell us that the word "stuff" came into vogue right around the 1920s? Hmmm.
Alright, we really should get down to business. Last night
was a two-hour episode, and I’ve had a couple of people ask if I would share my
top TEN lines this week rather than my top five.
Oh, all right. If you insist.
10. Are we happy that Bates is out of jail now? And that he
got his job back? And that he and Anna are decorating a lovely little cottage
together? (Oh, the fun blog post we could have with that one!)
Apparently people Upstairs lack a bit of just-out-of-jail
sensitivity because there were a couple of lines thrown Bates’s way last night
that just made me laugh.
How about this one? As Robert was trying to figure out what
to do about Thomas in order to get Bates his job back he told Mr. B: “I’ll sort
it out, I promise. Until then, you just rest. Stay in bed. Read books.”
ISN'T THAT WHAT BATES HAS BEEN DOING?
Anyway, Matthew, Mary, and Anna are discussing the upcoming
cricket match and, by the way, who knew this family was so into cricket???
[Side note: we just kept cracking up with all the cricket
talk. Cricket, cricket, cricket! They just couldn’t let it go!]
So as the "teenagers" talk about how much they don't want to play cricket but they'll do it for dear old Dad, Matthew says, "Bates must count himself lucky to be out of it." To which Anna sweetly replies: "I think he’d like to walk normally, sir, even if playing cricket was the price he had to pay."
So as the "teenagers" talk about how much they don't want to play cricket but they'll do it for dear old Dad, Matthew says, "Bates must count himself lucky to be out of it." To which Anna sweetly replies: "I think he’d like to walk normally, sir, even if playing cricket was the price he had to pay."
Way to put him in his place, Anna.
“It’s a relief to be reminded that I’m not an object of pity
to the entire world.”
And later, she just blurts out her big news in the middle of
dinner to which Violet has a great response.
Edith: Listen everyone, you have a journalist in the family.
Violet: Since we have a country solicitor and a car
mechanic, it was only a matter of time.
8. And another of Violet’s great remarks (there were so many
last night): “If Branson is watering down his revolutionary fervor, let us give
thanks.”
7. Of course, Isobel got in a rare zinger, pointing her guns
directly at Violet: “Oh, have you changed your pills?”
6. And then there’s Ethel. Doesn’t she seem sweet these
days? Must be Isobel’s magnanimity doing her some good. I’m sure Isobel thinks
so.
I cracked up at this exchange:
Ethel: These days a working woman must have a skill.
Violet: But you seem to have so many.
5. Another great Violet line. As she, Robert, and Cora are
discussing the estate agent’s leaving, Violet comes up with the great plan to
give the job to Tom. Robert objects, of course, but Violet has logic on her
side this time.
Well, logic and a great sense of timing.
Violet: Think of the child. You cannot want your only
granddaughter to grow up in a garage with that drunken gorilla.
Cora, pleading as she does: Don’t we owe this to Sybil?
Robert: I will do it on one condition. No, two. First,
Matthew agrees. And, second, you will both admit it when you realize you were
wrong.
Violet: Oh well, that is an easy caveat to accept because I
am never wrong.
4. Oh goodness, I haven’t even touched on the Thomas
scandal. Was that a twist of fate or a play of justice or simply the writers
trying their best to add some political correctness to an era that could never
even begin to conceive of such a notion?
Whatever the case, Thomas comes out on top. Again.
*sorry*
He not only saves his sniveling, sorry behind, he gets a
promotion! Go figure. I would never have figured that could happen in Edwardian
England.
But who am I?
Anyway, Thomas does NOT get one of my favorite lines of the
episode. He really wasn’t that clever or funny this time around. He was more
like . . . pathetic.
But what I really enjoyed was the interplay between Carson
and Mrs. Hughes. They really are the best of friends, aren’t they. And I love
how Mrs. Hughes can say it like it is, in a nice way.
So just as everything is coming to light, Carson sits, shell-shocked, with Mrs. Hughes to talk things over.
Carson: Human nature is a funny business, isn’t it?
Mrs. Hughes: Now why didn’t the poets come to you, Mr.
Carson? They would have saved themselves a lot of time and trouble.
3. I learned a put-down last night that I think I’m going to
tuck away to use another day. I’m sure it will come in handy.
Anna and Bates invite O’Brien for “tea”—we’ll get to that
later. But Anna says something to O’Brien that she doesn’t care for, so O'Brien comes back with,
“Get back in the knife box, Miss Sharp!”
Oh yeah, I’ll be sure to pull that one out (ha!) sometime.
2. There’s a very important scene between Robert and Bates,
just after Bates gets his job back as Robert’s valet. Everyone’s flummoxed by
what’s happened with Thomas. People are taking sides.
And some deep reflection is going on as well.
Robert: Why didn’t Carson tell me? He’s the one who’s being
undermined.
Bates: It’s a very difficult subject for him to discuss.
Robert: I can imagine. It’s not as if we didn’t all know
about Barrow.
Bates: That’s what I said to Mrs. Hughes.
Robert: I mean, if I had tried to call Blue Murder every
time someone tried to kiss me at Eaton, I’d be hoarse in a month.
Can I just say,
Eeeeew! to that one? Eeeeew! But
still, so funny.
And, yes, I had to look up the origin of the term “blue
murder” and here’s what I found: "’Getting away with blue
murder’
implies a person has gotten away with something so bad that they were
expected to get caught for. If a royal was murdered it would be assumed that
the culprit would be apprehended as there would be an unusual large manhunt
undertaken making getting away with this murder harder than the murder of a
normal person. And since royals are known as blue bloods this is where the term
originated.”
Consider yourselves wiki-informed.
1. Now, my number one choice for this week might seem a
little strange to you, especially if you haven’t seen Seasons 1 or 2, but, to
me, this little line was quintessential Downton—just a little hint, just a
little jab, but a tiny little line that packs a lot of punch.
Remember that scene in Bates and Anna’s cottage? They’ve
been having tea with O’Brien. Tea-with-a-purpose, that is, because Bates is
asking O’Brien to tell Jimmy to drop his threats against Thomas. (Following this?) She, of
course, refuses. Bates stands up, walks over to O’Brien, and whispers something in
her ear that makes her turn as white as a ghost.
Later, Anna asks Bates what exactly he said to her. He kind
of shrugs his shoulders and tells Anna that he has no idea what it means, but Thomas had said it:
“It was her ladyship’s soap.”
You got chills, didn’t you? Come on, you know you did!
And there you have it, my friends. Hope you’ve enjoyed this
little foray into fictional Edwardian land, or as my little friend C calls it, “The
beautiful show.”
And it really is beautiful, isn’t it?
Now, head to the comments and discuss. And have a great
week!
