Okay. I’m gonna be serious for a bit.
The way Thomas’ suicide was portrayed was borderline offensive. As someone who has been in a horribly similar situation to Thomas I found his general storyline extremely upsetting.
At the beginning of the episode there was no warning for distressing scenes or any indication that something of this scale would happen. I was anticipating the suicide and have been mentally preparing myself because things like this are difficult to watch. For someone who didn’t expect it to happen, this would have been horrible. Even if the subject matter wasn’t upsetting for them, the blood alone would be disturbing to most viewers.
The way Thomas was treated afterwards was awful. Carson acting as if the whole thing was a mere inconvenience to him and Mary using the ordeal to take attention away from what she did, the rest of the characters going on as if nothing had happened (I know only a few of them were told but still). I realise in 1925 mental illness and suicide were largely ignored because people did not understand or felt uncomfortable about it, but this was just unrealistic. You would think the characters who were away of what was going on would be a bit more shaken than they were shown to be. And Thomas was expected to attend the wedding of his employer a few days later????
The whole thing was condensed into about 2 minutes and after Andy and Mrs Baxter found Thomas in the bathtub, there was 1 short scene where Thomas all but blamed himself for his shitty life (which was mostly the fault of the people around him and society at large). If you are going to write a serious issue such as suicide into a story, it must be done properly, not have a couple of scenes spent on it and then everything continues as normal.
I honestly don’t understand the point of this plot beyond Fellowes wanting to give Thomas what most of the viewers think he deserves (or to get said viewers to sympathise with Thomas even though it probably won’t work). If it was of any more significance, it would have had more screentime and much more work gone into the writing. That aside, I am relieved that Thomas is alive I and have a tiny bit of hope for some resolve in the Christmas Special. I am still extremely upset and offended that such a subject was portrayed so flippantly and with so much disregard to fans of Thomas and people affected by suicide or depression.
TL;DR This episode was upsetting. It was completely unfair to the viewers, and to Thomas Barrow.
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