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honest ***** not really I have a soft spot for those who do and their tastes but as we all know to each his own that being written I enjoy the company of anybody I can have a discourse with in a medium that lets me have a discourse so enjoy your choices
I wonder if Edna will be taking on the role of of Barrow's partner in crime as the new nasty in place of O'Brien. Seeing them sitting together laughing made me think maybe that's where they are going.
I suspected O"Brien was headed to India! After the other ladies' maid spiked her drink and poor Molesley ended up with it, O'Brien told ther other maid something like now she didn't need to feel guilty or something. Later she was seen with Rose's mother, but I don't think I heard what she said. Molesley ended up looking like a drunken fool, but he didn't know about the alcohol in the drink!
I suspected O"Brien was headed to India! After the other ladies' maid spiked her drink and poor Molesley ended up with it, O'Brien told ther other maid something like now she didn't need to feel guilty or something. Later she was seen with Rose's mother, but I don't think I heard what she said. Molesley ended up looking like a drunken fool, but he didn't know about the alcohol in the drink!
O'Brien landed on her feet so to speak. After the events of that season with Mr. Barrow providing a taste of what he knew to get O'Brien to back down over (Bates was it?), she had to have known the writing was on the wall. What better to make a fresh start halfway round the world?
After the drink spiking incident O'Brien must have whispered to Lady Rose's mother that if the offer came she was available. Pinching someone's servant then as now in those circles is a big "no-no", so things had to be handled on the down low as it were.
O'Brien proved she was more than capable of handling herself and the other lady's maid had no idea who she was messing about. O'Brien could have eaten her for lunch and still had room for cake afterwards! *LOL*
O'Brien had to go. For one thing she had guilty feelings about what she did to her mistress. The other was that Barrow knew it or enough of it to blackmail the woman. Knowing our Mr. Barrow he wasn't going to let such information not go to good use in future.
The one thing that continuously baffles me about Downton Abbey is why those two still had a job at the house, after the myriad of things they'd done.
The one thing that continuously baffles me about Downton Abbey is why those two still had a job at the house, after the myriad of things they'd done.
Cora had no idea O'Brien caused the demise of her pregnancy. Thomas Barrow does not know exactly what happened either but pieced together enough to blackmail the woman. In general aside from each other and or management (Carson and Mrs. Hughes) no one truly knows the extent of what O'Brien and Barrow got up to and not even then. Both are quite good at covering their tracks and or distorting things to suit their benefit.
Both characters have a bit of Uriah Heep about them; lots of cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, and so forth as if butter wouldn't melt in their mouths; however you'd be wise never to turn your back on either.
Bates protected Thomas to an extent after the whole "gay pass" thing by keeping the whole truth of the matter from the Earl, something he has done before in other situations. Indeed both in other fictional accounts and real life "Upstairs/Downstairs" situations such things happened often.
You would be surprised at how ignorant many "upstairs" were about the goings on downstairs. To an extent that is what trusted household management staff (housekeepers and butlers) were for; to sort out domestic issues. If things rose to a certain level then Milady or Milord were informed, but as you hear Carson say all so often "I don't think we need bother his lordship with........".
Then there was the whole hierarchy thing which meant that lower servants did not usually (if at all) address their betters directly. If anything was wrong or amiss they were to tell someone senior to them (cook, housekeeper, butler, etc...) and *they* would make the decision as to how things were to be handled.
One famous real life case of this was the case of the second nanny to the children of the Duchess of York, Princess May of Teck (later Queen Mary).
Long story short the slightly deranged woman basically was physically abusing the infant princes Edward and Albert. She wanted the children to prefer her to their parents and had a particular dislike for the second born boy. Upon entering the drawing room with the children after tea the nanny would pinch the infant Prince Edward under his blankets. This would cause him to wail and howl which the young duchess took to mean her child didn't like her, and the duke would order the nanny and children back up to the nursery. Once out of their parent's sight the nanny would soothe the child she just abused. There was much more besides and witness to all this was the under nursemaid, Lalla.
Lalla knew what the nanny was up to and feared for the safety of the children, but as an under servant she couldn't approach Princess May nor the Duke for that matter directly with her concerns. Finally after deciding enough was enough Lalla cried her eyes and poured her heart out to the cook. It was cook that spoke to one of the duchesses ladies in waiting who we must assume told her the entire story. In short order the nanny was removed from the nursery and sent packing with a one way rail ticket and what she was owed.
Back to DA, such secrets have come back to bite both Mrs. Hughes and Carson on their rear flanks. The only reason why Edna the Slapper (the maid who was fired the first time for having the hots for Branson) was taken back as lady's maid to Cora was because the latter does not know the real reason why she left Downton. Indeed since Mrs. Hughes gave Edna a glowing reference (which she promptly showed the Countess), the only way out of the mess would be for Hughes and Carson to confess the whole sad story and their parts in it. That wasn't going to happen so they all agree to "manage" Edna as best they can.
This all worked both ways as servants were supposed to be "discrete" and not reveal the goings on of the household. One reason we know so much today about what was got up to in great homes and or lives of the Toffs comes from servants both high and low.
The one thing that continuously baffles me about Downton Abbey is why those two still had a job at the house, after the myriad of things they'd done.
I couldn't believe Cora when she was all "I don't know what we'd do without you, Barrow," about the nanny. Had she been hit on the head and forgotten the general surliness, the theft, the potential gay scandal had Jimmy gone to the police, etc. I know the upstairs people don't register what the downstairs people are doing much, but still. He's had at least three strikes.
I couldn't believe Cora when she was all "I don't know what we'd do without you, Barrow," about the nanny. Had she been hit on the head and forgotten the general surliness, the theft, the potential gay scandal had Jimmy gone to the police, etc. I know the upstairs people don't register what the downstairs people are doing much, but still. He's had at least three strikes.
Sometimes you want to biff Cora round the head with a cricket bat! *LOL*
Countess of Grantham has precious little to say and often do in much of DA and when she does open her mouth out come the most bizarre things.
Don't think Cora knows the full extent of what Barrow got up to with Jimmy, as for that matter neither does her husband. They know what Bates and Carson told them, that Barrow tried to "kiss" Jimmy, not that he nearly pulled off a shirt lifting.
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