Santana

Hello everyone

What I like:
- Tom Branson,
- babies,
- Anna's acting,
- Elsie Hughes,
- Rose and the gardener,
- party for Robert,
- Edith's SL,
- Rosamund,
- Isobel,
- Violet,
- Isobel& Tom friendship,
- Molesley & Baxter,
- Duchess Yeovil, I agree with puffball7,
- pigs were funny ^^
- dresses, hairdos.

What I don't like:
- Gillingham - too pushy,
- too much Mary and suitors,
- Edna,
- Thomas and Cora didn't get SL,
- Rose & Ross ^^ - it was boring to me,
- love quadriangle downstairs - who cares?!
- Sarah Bunting - she seemed to be ok in ep. 7, but in final episode she was rude and pushy. I expected more interesting thread, but she simply popped over and over again. "New love interest" for Tom disappeared me.
- And... There was lack of central thread.

AndieLondon

What I liked:
More Edith
Actual grieving (sorry Sybil)
More Daisy
The Pigs

What I didn't like:
Tom's watered down character
Mary, Mary, Mary!
Edna
The Pigs as a plot device.

HarshBench

Just curious, AndieLondon. You didn't think Tom actually grieved Sybil?

I don't think the family grieved enough last season, personally.

On the other hand, I was kind of glad they moved past the major grief after the first episode of this season.

That was an upside. I didn't want to dwell on Matthew too much. One big episode dedicated to grief was enough.

I did, however, really liked seeing Isobel wrestle with her loss and come back to life. And I loved Tom helping her/bonding with her.

Also agree I want Tom to get some fire back. It was weird seeing him at the mercy of Edna and then sort of steamrolled with questions/challenges by the new lady.

So funny how pretty much everyone hates Edna. MyAnna Buring must be doing something right because clearly we are meant to hate her.

But I must say as awful a schemer as she was, I did not like the way the birth control issue was handled. I would have liked to see a plot in which a woman taking precautions and using family planning was presented as a positive and empowering thing. Instead we got her using it to trap a guy (as in, for evil) and Mrs. Hughes shaming her about it.

I guess Edith getting pregnant was a "lesson" about birth control, but again I would have preferred a positive empowering message. I did not like what we got on that subject.

L i N d $ @ y

I too liked how they handled the grief of Matthew's death. One episode for me was enough. I don't need to see a funeral, I just want to see Mary & Isobel grieve and acknowledge the loss. That's it. The fact that we still got it in small doses in some episodes (from Mary & Isobel) was also enough for me. It also helped me to move on. By the time Napier arrived, I was ready for Mary to fall in love again.

Btw Santana, welcome to the board! Feel free to join us on the threads, we don't bite.

Tbh, Aunt Rosamund wasn't a favorite character because she didn't show up at Sybil's funeral & attended M/M wedding and now fans have done a 360.

So far the only stiff aristocrat (sometimes nice on the side) that I can remember from this series is Susan MacClare, everyone else is quite friendly. Let's not even start talking about Larry Grey.

WildRose

ITA with everything you said

Anna's SL- I have to admit that only now after the season ended and I look back on the major SL I kind of feel the intensity and the depth of what she went through and how it might affect her in the long run even after Green is no longer in the picture. ITA that the way Green died and the fact we don't know much about it is very anti climatic. Also it's even more intense imo, because unlike some plots in which the readers/viewers know more than the characters (or think they know... ) this time it's really not easy to predict. On one hand I'd like to know that Green's death is not linked to Bates/Thomas or any of the DA characters but on the other hand I'd love to know that my beloved A/B were able to put that ordeal behind them and move on with their lives as much as possible.

downstairs love triangle- I was happy for Alfred that he followed his dream but I was also kind of happy that Daisy stood up and spoke for once. Still I'm not 100% sure that Alfred would never come back to DA and that he'll give up on Daisy now, so I basically I'm hoping the triangle would break

ITA about Mr. Black and Lord G.
I wonder where would JF lead this SL next

puffball7

You're right, without a shadow of a doubt we were all meant to hate Evil Edna!
I think Tom was at Edna's mercy and was then seemingly a bit steamrollered by all the twenty questions from the teacher because he was still in the process of learning how to manage without Sybil. The Duchess of Yeovil (who understood and appreciated the stage of grief he was at) more or less told him he was still learning and one day he would manage to cope without her, just as she did with her own husband, but it doesn't matter how long it will take. I must admit I have quite liked how they have shown Tom's grieving process, it's been very subtle and true to life.

I think this is why he's been a bit bamboozled of late.

L i N d $ @ y

The build-up was actually good because now that Bates knows, it got even more tense. Then Tony comes and tells Mary Green died? Uh. What? Plus we're left now with a whodunit which I really hope will be resolved by the CS.

Tbh, I don't even care if Alfred comes back and then woos Daisy. And if she says yes or no to a marriage proposal. And if she gets pregnant along the way.

WildRose

The fact Green was Lord G's valet and that the whole thing happened while they were staying at DA definitely adds to the drama. It also adds another element to the plot imo because now Lord G and Mary are in on a 'secret' and it sort of ties both SL together (Mary/her suitors and the whole Anna SL ). As we mentioned before it turned out a bit anti climatic in 408 but Knowing how fond JF is of this sort of storylines (I mean when there's a drama in the household and both upstairs and downstairs are involved ) I actually expect him to bring us more of it in the CS but I don't want the gory details

Daisy getting pregnant?... umm,,, that might be interesting

L i N d $ @ y

Hopefully that will be the case but I just want the CS to be a generally happy episode, with loose ends tied up.

Come to think of it, this secret of Tony & Mary (if anything) might make them closer too and that's why I don't want it to be a secret anymore and the rest of the family finds out what Green did to Anna.

WildRose

I'm not a Mary/Lord G. shipper myself but since Green was Lord G's valet and Anna is Mary's maid I think they would have to interact at one point in the SC or even in S5. I do hope though that the whole thing won't be a secret anymore because it is a rather intense secret to keep and I don't want to have a very gloomy CS

Stay to the Lights

I haven't seen any of S4 yet, I know it's prob a little different with Matthew no longer in the show

HarshBench

The departed are very much missed.

Rose is a bright spot though. Very different to Sybil (as it should be) but with a similarly sunny, open and somewhat impetuous nature.

ajblondie17

^^^This.

L i N d $ @ y

I really hope that the CS is not gloomy and just end on a happy note. We need some of the stories to have a closure already.

It is unfortunately.

Stay to the Lights

Maybe it's a good thing next season will be the last, then.