Lauren60

Thank-you Northboundtrain for posting the ITV Autumn Preview video! The snippet of Tony and Mary kissing has been quite the source of discussion I see. The comments have been all over the place…

The preview shows Tony and Mary kissing….my reaction “Yes!”

ITV seems a bit too ready to promote Tony/Mary which means he won’t be the one Mary chooses….my reaction “Boo!”

Since Julian Ovenden is so busy with his play, Blake is likely not going to be the one Mary chooses…my reaction “Yay!”

Tom Cullen was in London last week shooting a movie instead of in Scotland where the CS is being shot….my reaction “Boo!”

I’ve been on amusement park roller coasters that had fewer twists and turns!

As a major Tony/Mary shipper I can’t help but be excited by the Mary/Tony kiss! They’re looking as gorgeous as ever and they’re kissing! It looks like Mary is the one initiating the kiss. I think this is an example of the “impulsive” behavior Michelle said Mary displays in S5. I’m not naïve enough to think this means Tony and Mary will end up together but I don’t see it as a negative either.

I’m not sure why it’s being said that ITV seems a bit too ready to promote the Tony/Mary romance. Have there been any other promos for Tony/Mary? Perhaps the photo of them at a hunt? Was that released by ITV? At the TCA event, a Mary/Charles scene was shown so for sure the promos haven’t been exclusively Tony/Mary.

There’s no telling how far things go beyond the kiss. They’re in a hotel room after all aren’t they? Just how impulsive is Mary going to be? Perhaps this behavior of Mary’s prompts the conversation with Charles regarding sex versus love.

This preview ensures Mary and Tony will share at least two kisses. I go back to something I posted many months ago when Mary and Tony kissed in S4. I believe without exception, only long term romantic couples are shown kissing on Downton. I don’t mean a peck on the lips (Mary/Richard) or a peck on the cheek (Edith/Strallan) and I don’t mean a sudden plot device smooch (Mary/Pamuk). We didn’t see a Matthew/Lavinia kiss and we didn’t see any of the Tom/Edna hook up. That’s just my observation so until Mary kisses someone other than Tony I will hold to my belief that he is the one she’ll choose. If Mary and Tony have sex, then game over. Tony will be the one for sure! I don’t think JF would want the heroine of his story to sleep around and then marry someone else. There will be bumps along the way for sure. Perhaps Mary convinces herself that what she feels for Tony is passion not love and she decides to break it off with him only to discover she does love him after all. Who knows?

They are going to be filming in Scotland through this week right? I’ll be interested to know where Tom Cullen is this week. Perhaps his CS scenes were scheduled for this week? It’s hard to say because it seems Downton actors often squeeze in other projects while they’re doing the show. I hope that’s the case for TC.

As far as Tony is in prison....Tony killed Green....I'm not even sure what to say about those theories! Except that I hope neither of them is the case.

I don't have a Twitter account but perhaps a "Are you finished filming Downton?" follow-up tweet is in order. I wonder what he would say....

HarshBench

He has a small role in the movie. Lily James has a role in a movie called "Adam Jones" that is filming in London right now and will be through the end of the month. But she's up there with the DA people, so the actors can make room for both.

SannraB

Unfortunatly i'm not able to watch the preview, because i'm in germany. So i write my comments without

So, Mary and Tony are shown kissing. That can mean everything, but it can also mean nothing.

Do you really think, that Mary would have had Sex with him in a hotel room, Lauren? Without being married and without the possibility of effective sexual prevention? I doubt that. Mary is too conservative for that. She is a mother now and represents Downton Abbey. But i have in mind that the actress of Anna told the audience that Anna will be more honest and direct with Mary in this season. Maybe this would be a good reason to be honest or direct for. But i still don't think Mary would do that.

My preferation would be a totally new man for Mary. A man we all could start new with, because there are too many sympathies for different men at the moment.

And i agree with you, Lauren, the promotion of Mary and Tony is very dominant. I wouldn't wonder if she chooses another one at the end.

ClaireK80

There's a pic of Molesley and Baxter filming a scene in Alnwick.
At first I thought Molesley could have been promoted to valet (which would explain why he is travelling with the Crawleys), but it doesn't make sense if Thomas and Mrs. Patmore are there too.

I wonder who is in prison. I just hope it's not Bates, been there done that.

ETA: Thinking about it, my theory is that the person in prison is one of the two suitors (or is connected with one of them). We saw some pics of Anna in London, and she was interacting with an "undercover detective"; we all thought it could be about Bates, but I doubt it. Also, JF Anna said that Anna will be 'more honest' with Mary this season. I think sooner or later, Anna finds out that something is wrong with either Blake or Gillingham, and will tell Mary.

northboundtrain

I thought I remembered one of the TCA recaps said that the promo included clips of Mary/Tony, but I can't find that article now, so maybe I'm mis-remembering.

Besides that, though, some other hints that DA is encouraging people to think that Mary chooses Tony:
- GN telling TVLine that Tony seems to have the upper hand
- The kiss MD and TC shot outside, which the press ran with as evidence that Mary chooses Tony -- it's hard to believe JF and the producers didn't know that would happen....
- The TCA Mary/Charles conversation seems to imply that Mary has either already gotten engaged to Tony or will be getting engaged to him soon.


I don't know that this theory works, though. I know we've seen other kisses between couples that didn't work out long-term: Thomas and the duke shared a pretty tender kiss in the first episode, Robert kissed that maid he became close to in S2, Jimmy and Ivy kissed at least a couple of times that I can recall, Rose kissed Jack, and we saw Edith kissing Michael a few times.

Mary could still choose Tony, of course, but at the moment I'm still betting on Charles.

HarshBench

Edna kissed shirtless Tom

Andorra

And we know he will kiss Sarah Bunting at least once
I still hope they cut that one and I don't have to watch it.

I still think Charles Blake is gone from the show. It looks like he hasn't filmed since June, which would mean he isn't in Episode 7,8 and the CS. That is weird for an endgame love interest if you ask me.

Lauren___Graham

Do we know anything about new people interacting with Edith? Besides maybe the Drewes?

HarshBench

No, I don't think we do.

Lauren60

I will be very surprised if Mary and Tony have sex before they are married. I agree that it would be very out of character for Mary. I just go back to Michelle Dockery saying how Mary acts very impulsively in S5 and then there's the "sex versus love" content of a conversation she has with Charles. So like I said, I would be very surprised but I guess I wouldn't be shocked. After all Mary's been married and she has needs! We've been told by JF that Mary is very, very strongly physically attracted to Tony. If her impulsive behavior is to the extreme, she may give in to her attraction to him. I doubt it but maybe.

You guys really know how to gang up on a girl and burst her bubble don't you? Some good points were made to rebuke my theory. I will hold to my overall take though. As long as Tony is even just remotely in the picture and as long as Mary doesn't kiss anyone else, I will continue to believe that Tony will be her ultimate choice.

I am a bit concerned that there are pictures of Tom Cullen still filming a movie in London today (Tuesday). Time is running out for him to join the DA gang in Scotland. Perhaps I need to brace myself for disappointment but in my heart of hearts I still think Tony will be the one. I just wish there was some concrete evidence that he's not done filming DA for the season.

Regarding Robert kissing Jane the maid. He totally got away with that and he and Cora experienced wedded bliss last season. I wonder if that kiss will ever come back to bite Robert in the arse. Will Cora ever find out about it? I don't know how she would at this point but it's surprising that he got away with it so easily.

Fire at Downton? The autumn preview snippet of Thomas looks rather ominous. The lighting looks like it could be from a fire plus it appears he has soot on his face and clothes. A fire would definitely explain why he looks so terrified.

SannraB

Mary/Tony, Mary/ Charles, Mary/Evelyn, Mary/whoever - we don't and we can't know yet.

What i really would like to see in S5 is a kind of bound between Mary and Edith. I know, they don't like each other and probably they'll never do. But i'm sure, that Ediths secret will get a bit more transparent in S5. And in case Mary will find out, i would be very proud of her if she helps Edith. Maybe they hate each other, but Mary is also a mother and she has a heart. She'll understand how Edith feels and suffers.

Andorra

I'm afraid, even if he is in the CS, he will not be in Alnwick with the rest. As is sadly true for Poppy Drayton, too, who started working on a new film a week ago and who is, like Tom Cullen, still in London and working on her new film.

So maybe Alnwick is just a family gathering and the (hoped for) Love interests are just not with them, or they have left.

I hope this is not true for either Tom Cullen nor Poppy Drayton, but with the latter we don't haven have confirmation that she is IN the series at all, not talking about knowing she might be there for Tom Bransons IF she is. It's just speculation at this point anyway.

But I'd like to hear a bit of speculation from you guys: What do you think would happen if BOTH suitors are gone? We don't know if Evelyn will be back, but I think Brendan Patricks is pretty busy, so it doesn't look to good for his return.

Would Mary stay unmarried? Could this be what Julian Fellows called "people are going to be irritated" when asked about what he has in mind for the ending of the show?

And what about Tom? We know Sarah Bunting is out of the picture, we know Rose will leave. We don't know if Madeline Allsop will return and there has been no official casting of another young lady who could be meant for him.

Will he stay unmarried, too? Somehow I doubt that. Michelle and Allen said at the TCA press conference "They're both looking for love. Just not with each other" about Mary and Tom. Allen Leech has also said in another interview that Tom is "keen on finding love" and in yet another interview he said he is searching for "happiness".

So based on what Allen said, I think finding love will be an essential part of his storyline in series 5 yet there is no love interest in sight?

Allen, Michelle and Julian Fellows have been very vocal about "Brary" not being an option. They said repeatedly that they've become good friends, but they won't be more. Julian Fellows said he would be reluctant to let go of the nice friendship they built, which he likes very much.

I really wonder if Tom AND Mary will both end the series with all their potential love interests gone and if cards will be completely new mixed in the next series. I ruled Mary/Tom out so far, based on what they said, but I'm not ruling it out completley any more. Personally I wouldn't mind that much, but I know others would find it awful, others are still hoping for it even though the show has denied it so often.

I'm really, really curious by now what is going to happen. I think we never had less clues about the storylines than this year.

Lauren60

I don't have much time to post right now so real quickly regarding both of Mary's suitors maybe being gone by the end of S5....Somewhere along the way I saw a quote from Rob James-Collier saying that Mary finds love this season. If that is the case and if it's not one of the suitors then she'll find love with someone totally new by season's end. That seems awfully quick and would mean S4 was basically wasted as far as Mary's love life goes. For her to let both suitors go, find a new man and fall in love all in the span of S5 seems unlikely to me. I don't know....

Andorra

But when we take this all into account, it gets more and more puzzling, don't you agree??

Julian Ovenden has quit filming in June.
Tom Cullen is not filming the CS either.
Brendan Patricks has given not the slightest clue that he might be in the series and has been involved in several other projects, which would make his reappearance difficult.

Sarah Bunting has left the show in April.
Madeline Allsop is not confirmed to be back and even if she is, we don't know if she is meant for Tom Branson and also it looks like she won't be in the CS.
Rose is going to leave in series 6.
Edith???

And yet we hear:
"They're both looking for love, just not with each other."
"Tom is keen on finding love and for the family to accept that person he loves."
"Lady Mary will find love in the new series"

So love is the theme but all potential love interests leave???

What will be the outcome of the CS if there' no love interest left??

Lauren60

Very puzzling indeed Andorra!

Does it usually take four weeks for them to film the CS? So even if Tom Cullen hasn't been in Scotland for these past two weeks he could still be in the CS right? Perhaps it's good that he's filming something else while the others are in Scotland. Hopefully it's a case of "I have a break from Downton these two weeks so I'm available to film my bits for the movie". The operative word there is "break". Will they still be filming the CS after their time in Scotland or do you think it'll wrap after Scotland?

As far as Tom's situation I really have no idea. They have to at least start a love interest for him this season don't they? It's been a long time coming.

Very puzzling indeed!!!