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More Downton Abbey: Matthew’s shocker, then again, you knew it was coming

Dan Stevens

Dan Stevens

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Another Dan Stevens photo

When I first saw the final episode, where new dad, Downton Abbey heir Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), dies in a horrible car accident (ah, those long ago days of convertibles without either seat belts or air bags or roll bars or anything like that – can you just imagine all the blood and guts spilled all over the world’s nascent highways) – must admit, I was pretty shocked they’d kill off one of the main characters in the show. And right after, I mean right fracking after, his first child is born.  

Lady Mary was a f.c.* handful when she had her man, can you just imagine what she’s going to be like now?

I suppose, even though we were shown a long, lingering shot of Matthew under said convertible, lifeless eyes open, a trickle of British blood making its way into the verdant moist earth of the colorful English countryside – there’s always the possibility of a TV-style resurrection – he’s not really dead after all, it’s some horrid dream sequence, it was his evil twin all along, that sort of thing.

But we know from the linked article here that the actor is leaving the show. And the creative force behind Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, tells us it’s pretty normal in an English series when an actor leaves a show, to kill them off in some horrendous fashion.

Geez, Julian, we’re so not used to that over here!

But it was necessary, wasn’t it? It really had to happen, didn’t it? I mean —

we couldn’t let Matthew get away with being Matthew for much longer.

Especially after innocent Lady Sybil’s demise. Not to mention the convenient death of former fiancee Saint Lavinia to the 1918 flu pandemic.
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I mean, really, have you ever known a TV character to be so blessed by Fortuna? Plucked out of obscurity by being the gazillionth heir to the Downton title and fortune – because the person who was supposed to get it died in the Titanic sinking – or wait, no he didn’t, he was just burnt to un-recognizability but very much still alive (and perhaps coming back in all his horrid scarring to reclaim his mansion and his fortune . . . unlikely).

Matthew gets the girl, loses the girl, finds another girl yet realizes he’s in love with girl #1, the one who has the most money anyway, and then there’s that convenient flu. And let’s not forget about the War. The Great War. Surviving it at all is pretty unlikely, so our poor Matthew is injured, and he’s paralyzed from the waist down. Which also means that nothing down there is working, i.e., no sex, no little Granthams. But wait — no, he’s not really injured after all, and he’s going to be able to walk, and he’s going to be able to f***! Yay!

So, everything’s hunky dory. Oh wait, no it’s not. It’s not because that old fool Lord Grantham has invested the money – that Matthew would inherit – in an actual, real-life Ponzi scheme! So the money is gone, and the Downton Abbey world is now land-poor. Unless something big comes to save them, well, they’ll be boring B&B hosts and Matthew will be spending his time making scones and clearing pathways through the woods for rich Americans. Unimaginable horrors!

But then, oh, wait again! Turns out Lavinia’s (you remember her, the Saint who died of the flu so Matthew and Mary could be together, dontchaknow) father has died and left Matthew (again, the only heir around) a whole boatload of money to save Downton Abbey!

The foolish boy is not going to take it, he feels so guilty (as he should) but you know he ends up taking it like we knew he would all along. Cause once you’re rich, well, you get used to it. I mean, the show’s called Downton Abbey, not Downton Townhouse.

So you see, things were just too good, and not just good, they were really unfair. That karma had to come back and bite Matthew Crawley but good.

So, I think he’s really dead.

* fairly c***y

** and thank you cousin Mary C. for the “oh, wait” meme. So good I stole it.

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Chasing After Straight Boys: Downton Abbey’s non-doubting Thomas

My totally biased, non-professional and likely hugely flawed – yet fun – psychological reading of the character of Thomas Barrow (played by actor Rob-James Collier) on Downton Abbey.

nm1674947-1 urlSPOILERS, perhaps, if you haven’t seen all of Season 3 of the show, so don’t read. Unless. You need to know. Minor plot things.

Guess I’m majorly fascinated by a portrayal of a character, a male who is sexually and emotionally attracted to other males, in a land before time had invented homosexuals or gay people.

Of course, I don’t mean that same-sex attraction wasn’t around then, it was. It always has been and always will be. But there weren’t the cultural conventions we have now, or the language we have now, to describe these things. In Thomas Barrow’s time (on the show so far, roughly the years 1912-1921), there was no such thing as a “gay man” or a “gay community.” These things came later, and in the particular understanding we have now of them, not until after WWII (though there were beginnings of a strong gay life in Berlin later in the 1920s, until the Nazis destroyed it, and the English had their own fey traditions and languages [polari]).

So there we have Thomas, this man with homosexual tendencies without a country of his own in a hostile environment. Can you imagine how lonely that must have been? No wonder he’s been portrayed as both someone who desperately needs approval as well as a likely rival to Machiavelli.

With his usual partner-in-crime, Miss Sarah O’Brien (played by Siobhan Finneran) Thomas is at the forefront of not only class warfare with the Granthams, but also the masters of dirty tricks and deceit among the rest of the downstairs staff.

I have to admit that at first I didn’t like this portrayal of “the gay” on the show. I thought it was negative, to show the man as so nasty just because he wasn’t getting laid. (Can’t blame Thomas for thinking that the Turkish diplomat Kemal Pemuk in Season 1 was also enchanted, I mean, he did have those good manners and nice shiny black hair and all – but as we all know, lusting after men with weak hearts just isn’t smart).

Do you suffer from erectile dysfunction or impotence? Erectile dysfunction is an issue caused price for levitra due to unwanted case of penile erection. Left online levitra untreated, major organs can be seriously affected. Poorly controlled blood sugar levels cause damage to canada viagra cialis http://davidfraymusic.com/2017/02/ the blood vessels. Eat Healthy- Eating foods rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products can help lower your blood sugar levels in no time. levitra properien And then now, here in Season 3, after heroically, if a bit megalomaniacally serving the Crown in WWI in Season 2, here he is again chasing after straight boys – this time, the new footman Jimmy (actor Ed Speleers) – who just happens to be Miss O’Brien’s nephew.

So there is a point to all this. A modern, liberated gay man does not chase after straight boys – there is no future to this. But the absolutely perfect note here is, that this, is not a modern gay man. This is a rudderless character in 1921. So it is authentic.

My thought is even though it’s so totally NOT liberated, however, it IS totally accurate for the time. So even though Thomas was so thoroughly rejected by Jimmy when he sneaks into his room that night – it makes sense for his character to still be enthralled and to follow him around – kind of like a puppy dog, maybe hoping that the evidence of rejection was not true (after all, the evil Miss O’Brien has insisted that Jimmy is interested in Thomas, further confusing the issue). That Thomas will accept not only the beating he takes to spare his friend but also then accepts a platonic friendship from his bandaged recovery bed – when that’s not what he really really wants – that does make sense in this time of self-loathing. So I think that Julian Fellowes got it right here, and a more modern reading of the situation would have been dishonest.

Finally, I did like the protectors who come to Thomas’ defense on the show, esp. Lord Grantham, but also Mr. Bates and finally Jimmy himself, who offered his friendship to Thomas. I also found that believable, as they do present the universe of Downton Abbey as united, us against the world.

Knowing Thomas as we do, I bet there’s more to come in Season 4. Will true love find him, and will he become a kindler, gentler man? One can hope for the love but want to preserve the nastiness (please!).

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