Anna shocks the Downton staff with her bruised and battered face, and is anyone else wondering why no one even entertains the idea that Bates might be smacking her around, having been accused of murdering his ex-wife and all? Oh, how soon they forget. Anyway, Mary’s handsome and unavailable suitor, Mr. Gillingham, whose valet happens to be Anna’s rapist, is back. Mary turns down his offer to meet again, but Mr. Gillingham is not one to take no for an answer so I’m guessing this is not the last we will see of him at Downton.
The tax people want to meet with the Downton Estate in London, and Mary is taking the meeting herself. She chooses to pay the estate tax in installments instead of selling off a hunk of property to pay it off all at once. And oh good, Lady Rose is going to London with them, so shenanigans!
Edna is still hitting on Tom, and he wants nothing to do with her because he is doing a fairly good job of becoming a fahncy man in his fahncy pahnts. She bursts into his room and claims that she’s pregnant and, duh, it’s his, and she wants to be sure that he’ll marry her if it’s his child…but when did they have sexytime? I guess they do things pretty quick over in merry old England. The soaring string orchestra plays in the background as Tom tells her that he is filled with regret.
Anne tells Mrs. Hughes that when she gets back from London, she wants to move back into the servants’ quarters because she can’t let Bates touch her. She feels like she’s not good enough for him now that she’s all soiled and damaged. Mrs. Hughes suggests that she go to the police, but Anna reminds Mrs. Hughes that if Mr. Bates found out about it, he would kill the man who did it and then he would hang for his crime.
Mary, Edith, Tom, and Rose are in London on business (well, Mary and Tom are in London on business, the others tagged along because whee!!!). Mr. Gillingham surprises Mary with a visit and brings a man for Rose. They make plans to go hear music at a club that night, and Tom gets roped into the group as Aunt Rosalind’s partner. There is much dancing, and Mary and Mr. Gillingham look quite cozy together. He asks to see her again, but she reminds him that he is almost engaged. Also, she is not ready “and won’t be for some years.” You know what we haven’t seen in a while? Mary’s baby. Mother Of The Year she ain’t.
Meanwhile, Rose’s date is hammered and bolts out of the club to vomit. The band’s singer runs to Rose’s rescue on the dance floor because it is deeply humiliating to be alone on a dance floor, or so says every 15-year-old girl at a junior prom, but shocking! He’s black! Tom then rescues Rose from her rescuer, who goes back to his post at the microphone and serenade’s Rose with “A rose by any other name….”
When Anna returns from London, she learns that Mr. Gillingham is at Downton. This freaks her out because that means the rapist is back. Mr. Gillingham is very taken with Mary. “You fill my brain, I see you when I close my eyes, I can’t stop thinking about you….” Ooh, he’s good. He tells her to take as long as she needs, but I suspect he means a week or two and not the years and years of dramatic mourning Mary scheduled.
Oh! Tom confides in Mrs. Hughes about Edna. She sends for Edna and says that there is no child. Because Mrs. Hughes is clever and smart, she knows that Edna would not have gotten pregnant until she knew that Tom was locked down as a sure thing. Also, she found a book in Edna’s room that teaches married women how not to get knocked up. And with that, Edna quits and flees Downton on foot.
Edith visits her near-German lovah. He’s leaving for Munich in a week, and he has her sign some sort of power of attorney paperwork so that she will have authority over some of his affairs. Ooh! How romantic! Kisses, my darlings, more kisses, and Edith sneaks back into Aunt Rosalind’s home early the next morning.
Mary and Mr. Gillingham stroll on the sprawling lawn. Mary needs more time, but there isn’t much time left because Mr. Gillingham is honor bound to either break up with his fiancée or go through with the marriage. “I caaahnt, I’m not free of him….” He asks for a kiss to remember her by, and it’s a full embrace tearful goodbye with the music swelling and the sun shining in Downton for the first time ever. Sigh.