‘Downton Abbey’ Recap: Season 6, Episode 7
Previously on Downton Abbey: The Board of Governors decides to turn the village hospital over to the larger institution in York, and proceeds to nominate Cora to replace Violet as President of the local board. Violet is furious and feels betrayed, and everyone around her decides that the best plan of action is just to act like she’s a doddering idiot. Daisy, who is jealous of the attention Mr. Mason’s paying Mrs. Patmore, decides to continue her new role as The Ultimate Worst, by acting out towards both of them and sabotaging their friendship. Carson is something of a disappointment as a husband, Mary and Henry Talbot finally kiss and Robert decides that it’s time to finally start cutting the staff, so Thomas is basically fired. Thomas cries about this, because somehow the writers think that we feel bad for him, despite them doing nothing to show us how the character has changed or grown in the past three years. And the Crawleys open Downton Abbey to the public for a day to raise money for the hospital, and are quite surprised to learn that a lot of people are super (grossly) curious about how the other half lives.
(If you need a more in-depth refresher, last week's recap is right this way.)
Woe is Thomas or Whatever. Thomas is still moping because he now officially has to leave Downton, and hasn’t found another job, and everyone hates him, and blah blah. Mrs. Hughes tries to reach out to him, insisting that the reason he’s so unhappy is that he just hasn’t found the right person yet, and maybe a change of scenery, employ and general human interaction would help make that happen. Thomas whines that Downton is the first place he’s ever been where he actually put down roots, which is sort of hilarious when you think that Thomas’ idea of “putting down roots” is apparently the same thing as “where I blackmailed some people” and “ruined some other people’s lives” and “generally treated everyone I came into contact with like trash”. Hmmm.
