We here at Frock Flicks (okay, Kendra and Trystan) are so excited for the final season of Downton Abbey that we’re doing weekly costume recaps AND podcasts! Tune in each week for an episode-by-episode recap of our thoughts on both the plot and (especially) the costumes (designed by Anna Robbins) — because really, while we all are invested in the lives of the fictional Crawley family, don’t we actually keep coming back to see what they’re wearing? You can find the podcast at the bottom of this post, or on iTunes!
It’s the home stretch, the last episode before the final finale, the so-called Christmas special (which obviously isn’t airing at Christmas for us Yanks). That means the show had best wrap up some storylines, stat!
Our friendly local police officer shows up to inform Mrs. Patmore that she’s running a House of Ill Repute.
The next day, Mary is grumpy.
Over at Mrs. Patmore’s, her sister is bearing the brunt of the ire for the Ill Repute Debacle of 1925.
Mr. Moseley has his first day of teaching. It doesn’t go great.
Meanwhile, Edith and Bertie get some alone time:
Back in the Abbey, the children continue to be The Calmest Children of All Time (Kendra thinks they are drugged).
And Henry shows up to annoy Mary (okay, because Tom invited him).
Everyone’s getting dressed for dinner:
After dinner, Bertie and Edith talk and Bertie leaves feeling like they are Officially Engaged.
The next day, Mary shits on Edith because she’s jealous, telling Bertie that Marigold is Edith’s biological daughter.
In the library, Cora and Rosamund are hanging:
Over at Lord Merton’s house, Isobel confronts Miss Cruikshanks:
Back at the Abbey, Bertie is breaking up with Edith. Noooooo!
Back inside, Tom channels all of us and tells off Mary:
Moseley heads back for teaching day 2 with Baxter along:
Daisy does some (nice) snooping as Moseley teaches, which goes WAY better today:
That night, Mary is snappy with Anna and feels bad. About being snappy.
In London, Edith focuses on work:
Over at the Abbey, Violet heard about Mary and Henry and is back from France to fix shit.
Downstairs, Mrs. Patmore and Daisy are prepping for Operation Recover Reputation.
Upstairs, Granny sits Mary down to ‘splain things:
In London, we discover the true identity of the magazine’s advice columnist — Sprat!
In Yorkshire, Mary goes to have a talk with Mathew’s grave:
Over at Mrs. Patmore’s house, Roberta, Cora, and Rosamund have tea in order to get some good press.
Meanwhile at the Abbey, Mary and Hnery get hitched. But we can’t enjoy it because we’re still so pissed at Mary.
It’s the wedding day! Edith is a better person than we and shows up.
At the wedding:
That’s almost it! The story is coming to a close. What do you think will happen in the very last episode?
Downton Abbey Season Six, Episode Eight, Podcast Recap
Listen to our podcast recap of the episode here or on iTunes!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:56 — 37.7MB)
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Mary’s wedding gown is meh-to-the-1,000th power. I know it’s a rush affair, but couldn’t the designer come up with something better.
Edith is really coming into her own. But I think she should have told Bertie. So did everyone in the Crawley family.
My favourite scene is Edith’s telling Mary that she forgives her bc one day they’ll be the only ones who remember Sybil.
But I have a feeling that Mary will be instrumental in getting Bertie & Edith to marry, even though Edith will outrank her.
Edith got THE BEST outfits this episode and finally called Mary on her bullying.
As to Mary’s wedding dress (can’t really call it a “gown”), I was actually happy to see it, as it actually looked much more appropriate to the twenties than her first wedding gown did. Frumpy? Yeah, kinda, but that’s par for the course with 20s wedding gowns.
Personally, I found the way the Henry plot went super troubling. She breaks up and is clear about not wanting to see him. He shows up at Downton anyways, and all the characters, presumably as stand ins for the omnipotent writing gods are like “Oh, it’s so clear you are in love!” and “You need a man who you can’t boss around!” and don’t respect her boundaries at all. It doesn’t matter if her reason for breaking up was good enough or made sense. They’re broken up. Why does everyone enable his stalker ass?! And when he follows her upstairs and is all “I know better than you what you want!”
For some reason all that caught my eye this time around was the shoes and hats. Loved everyone’s shoes! But WTH was up with Rosamund’s hat for Mary’s wedding? She looked like a demented pirate!
listening to your podcast now..YES!!!!!! total Cee You Next Tuesday – Mary…grrr…still fuming from last night…couldn’t wait to hear your commentary!! Love listening to you guys and reading your reviews.
Marietta
Yay! Glad you share our fury.
I’ve seen bits an pieces of the series as my mom watched it. All I have to say is this: Mary was such a raging bitch-(five minute long bleep) she deserved a fugly wedding dress.
As the long suffering Edith to my own sister Mary/Cheri, I totally get why she forgave her awful sister for blowing up her life. However, I did/do what Edith to punch Mary right in that self-righteous mouth. How dare she throw stones at Edith for Marigold when she is not exactly pure as the driven snow. If Edith does not get her happy ending in the Christmas Special I am going to fly to England and throttle all the writers.
Love the podcast! The grave that the kids are playing around is Sibyl’s I thought. Also, I thought that was Mrs. Patmore’s niece that was running the B&B.
Sybil’s grave – you’re probably right! Sister, daughter, whatever! :)
Yes, they showed her name on the gravestone: Sybil Cora Branson. I didn’t know her middle name was Cora!
Neither did I, but it’s logical and period. Children were often christened with the parents’ names as either first or middle. I expect Edith was Rosamund or Violet. Mary probably got the queen’s, Victoria.
Which is why I’m still pissed at Lord Grantham for being such a jerk about Tom wanting to name his daughter Sybil!
Donk was being basically ‘Donkish’ in his grief and guilt over Sybil’s demise. After all, he insisted that the knighted physician treat her. This was over the objections of both Cora and more importantly her husband, Tom. Practise was to defer to wishes of spouse. Medieval, but it was the way things were done.
I finally noticed, thanks to your photos, what a nice job the casting folk did in matching Samantha Bond as the daughter of the ineffable Maggie Smith.
Even more exciting, being a women’s basketball fan, I finally realized that Laura Carmichael looks like Lindsay Gottlieb (Cal Berkeley coach). Now, every time I see Lindsay hollering instructions from the sidelines, I’ll imagine her doing so in ’20s frocks and little cloches.
Re: the black beaded head-thingy on Mary. My grandmother, born in 1899, had a sleek bob and wore one of these in the 1920s. Hers was black with natting across and little crystals at each netting point. It has a slight frame that folds up- almost like you lined the inside of a banana clip. I always thought it was worn farther back on the head though…
I don’t think I’ve cackled at anything else on the show more than I did when Edith drops the marquess bomb and the resulting glee of the family/Mary’s face of horror! This podcast episode made me laugh almost as hard though… Loved it!
We literally ran it back so we could watch it again, it was so good!
What kind of over coat/dress was Edith wearing in the break up?
I’m really curious how about Edith’s peach coat. Most of the embroidered pieces on the show are original (e.g. the black chinoiserie coat) or they’ve taken original embroidery and sewn it to a garment they made. On this coat, the embroidery looks like it’s directly embroidered onto the garment, but it also looks way to clean to be vintage. Any thoughts on how they made this?