One of the more lopsided Super Bowl games in recent history (and not too many memorable commercials to look out for) made it easy to slip over to “Downton Abbey” Sunday.
Cousin Rose, the young houseguest, was planning her own party, albeit one not involving football or chicken wings. Lord Grantham’s birthday was coming up and to surprise him — and to rekindle an acquaintance she made in London — she invited the suave young bandleader and his group for a house party.
By doing so, she also introduced race into the aristocratic world of the British countryside circa 1923. That Mr. Ross, the band leader with whom Rose is smitten, is black, is shocking enough to take both Carson and Lord Grantham aback for a second. No doubt they were thinking: Isn’t this exactly the plotline of “Dancing on the Edge,” the BBC miniseries known chiefly for Jacqueline Bisset’s loopy Golden Globe acceptance speech?
Well, maybe it was. But they were also taken aback by the sudden diversity at Downton. Carson asked if he was planning a trip to Africa anytime soon. Ross said a bit disingenuously that he was no more African than Carson, which surely made the mighty eyebrows rise.
Edith treated him as if he were an alien, asking the Dowager Grantham “Who is this singer? How did he get here?” But the old woman, to her credit, was more welcoming, realizing that they shouldn’t seem so provincial.
There was some earlier kerfuffle in the episode about Maggie Smith’s character dismissing the gardener on her suspicion that he was pocketing her valuables. Mrs. Crawley, who arranged the charity hire, was appalled, but the dowager had also rehired the young man even before Mrs. Crawley presented her with evidence that he hadn’t stolen a thing.
Downstairs, things between Anna and Bates were healing a bit; they were back in the cottage together and they even arranged a night out together for dinner to put the “shadows” behind them. They almost didn’t get seated until Lady Grantham, who happened to be dining there with her club, used her influence. But since when do servants and lords both go to the same restaurants — then or now?
Albert was resigning himself to the staff after not being chosen for training at the RItz, but his mood cheered when he learned that someone else dropped out and suddenly he was in. Daisy was sad about this but before he left, sincerely wished him good luck.
This left an opening downstairs and after some lobbying from Mrs. Hughes, Moseley got the job over Carson’s initial resistance. As a footman he’d usually be called by his first name (which turns out to be Charles); but Lord Grantham asks if they can still call him Moseley.
Thank goodness they do, because I still have high hopes of a half hour spinoff comedy with laugh track called “Moseley!” about his weekly bumblings.
Also downstairs, Jimmy takes Ivy out to see Valentino in “The Sheik,” which she does not care for. They kiss beneath a full moon but when he reaches for her knickers, she slaps him away. He accuses her of dishonesty “to give nothing in return” after such a full evening. She wants no part of it and flees.
The bigger news upstairs, that Edith is largely keeping to herself, is that her beau Michael is missing in Germany. Bad time, then, when a mailed confirmation comes from her doctor that her “symptoms are consistent with those of first trimester pregnancy.” Back then she couldn’t just pick up her own drugstore pregnancy test. She cries a lot, nobody is quite sure what’s wrong with her, though things are almost always wrong with Edith.
Tom still talks about going to America because he’ll never fit in with this family. Lord and Lady Grantham hear from her brother who is in some kind of pickle in America (we already know this will be Paul Giamatti, but there’s no sign of him yet).
Barrow wants to know about all of this and enlists the new lady’s maid Baxter to keep him informed. It hasn’t been explained why Baxer is beholden to Barrow and must do what he says. She certainly seems like a reluctant informant.
Just in time for the party, a pair of young men who are also some sort of distant acquaintances arrive to do a study of Downton as part of a survey trying to determine why big estates all over England are failing.
Maybe they’re not so distant. The taller of the two, Evelyn Napier, was the one who brought the Turkish diplomat along when he visited Lady Mary and Downton in season one.
Then as now, it is Napier’s companion that command’s Mary’s attention, in this case because they clash.
Mary thought at first the two were there to help big estates. But Charles Blake makes clear they’re not there to help at all — only to see how this social change may affect the food supply in the future. Blake assures her they are much more interested in “feeding the population rather than saving the aristocracy.” To which Mary recoils.
We look forward to more spats between Blake and Mary, which of course will lead to love (and maybe death).
The immediate concern as the episode ends, in terms of romance, is when Mary discovers Rose kissing the bandleader in the servants’ headquarters. What’s more shocking, the interracial relationship or that Rose is in the servants’ quarters?
At any rate, Mary composes herself and says good night to him, pretending she hadn’t seen. Rose seems to know she had.
Odd place to end an episode that seemed full of more in-between stories than major plot points. But it was a whole lot better than the Super Bowl.
What will become of the Rose/Mr. Ross relationship? Mary will likely look up the “Dancing on the Edge” miniseries to get an inkling.