REVIEW: Downton Abbey 3.6

I wonder if mine was the only household who was more excited for more Downton Abbey tonight than the Super Bowl.

After last week’s heartache, I needed a little bit of a pick-me-up and a palate cleanser, so was super thankful when I saw this from our friends at the Childrens’ Television Workshop:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPqL-1aSbn0

It’s not quite as genius as the Colbert Downton/Breaking Bad mashup, but it’ll do.

Just as we are all still reeling from last week’s tragedy, so too are the inhabitants of Downton. The episode mainly revolves around the war that’s erupted between the Lady and Lord Grantham. She (rightly) blames him for Sybil’s death, but to get her to change her mind, the Dowager Countess herself intervenes to try to convince Dr. Clarkson to go back on his diagnosis. In the much happier b-storyline, it looks like Bates is on his way to exoneration.

Other things to look forward to:

Ethel continues as an awful cook, and ends up getting some help from Ms. Patmore.
There’s an argument about what to name the child and whether or not she is to baptized Catholic (shock!)
This begins a great to-do about ecumenicism and the long, sometimes bloody, history between Catholics and Protestants in England.
The continuation (yet again) of the servants’ love pentagon, including some nice moments especially of Thomas being a bit too familiar with Jimmy, and Ms Patmore telling everyone they’re in love with the wrong person.
Daisy goes to visit her father-in-law and he makes her an offer she can barely refuse.
The return of badass Bates.
And this one from The Dowager Countess herself: “I suppose she has an appropriate costume for every occasion.”

In any case, this was a great episode, in the sense that it was a needed breath after the gut punch from last week. On to next week, where it looks like Bates prison drama is finally resolved, and we get some arguing over money– yay!