Att: @aljohnsonwrites, @balticprincess, @bathshebaeverdenes
I have to confess I cried because I’ve been shipper-trash for these two since the beginning, but oh my weren’t the latest Mary x Henry developments rushed as hell. We could almost hear Fellowes gasping for air so he could just make it across the finish line.
The ‘license-right-here’ thing? WTF. For real. It makes no sense. If it were to be so rushed, I would genuinely prefer the Gretna Green solution. I get that Fellowes probably wanted to have the whole family there and bring the make-amends scene between Mary and Edith (which was lovely nevertheless) up, but it could still have happened in other circumstances. And they didn’t need to take us to Scotland itself; they could have shot it at a church, a registry, their version of ‘White Chapel’ or wherever weddings are held at there and we would have taken their word for it. At least they bothered to bring Lady Shakelton to attend the wedding. At this point, I wouldn’t put it past them to have Henry stand there by himself - a thought that I genuinely had.
When I replied to one of your posts first, I said that as I was writing it came to me that Henry might be a gold digger and when he said the license thing I thought that it would come out at last. I get that maybe he was sort of desperate because a lot of things had pilled up on him and Henry was shaken to the core by Charlie’s death but it came across as creepy sometimes, to be honest. And I hope it doesn’t turn into a nightmare after Henry reveals that he’s the worst at so many levels. I also hope Mary has a tight pre-nup.
Speaking of Mary: I get that she’s a reserved person who doesn’t show her emotions very often but I don’t think she seemed like she was wrestling with her feelings as much as people kept saying she was. I feel that it looks like it wasn’t conveyed to the actors that while Mary says she doesn’t think he’s the man for her, she actually loves him or at least that she can imagine a life with him and that her doubts about the car racing thing do present some conflict. I think her objections to the match - like the aforementioned regard of the car racing thing - are valid but it seemed more like she was sticking to them just because instead of being actual reasons. So when she told Anna (I think), that people think they know her own mind better than she does - or something along these lines -, I trusted her and I thought that the Henry business was done and I wasn’t mad. When she closed the door behind her it seemed that she was overwhelmed by the pressure and not by that struggle and she never seemed particularly happy but for a little after the proposal and once they were out of the church.
I read somewhere on here someone pointing out the lack of two pivotal scenes that could give weight to Mary’s change of mind if she was as torn as apparently she was supposed to be: moments addressing Henry’s take about Downton and about George. I totally agree. The child will get to know him in a way he didn’t get to know his own father and Downton is Mary’s life’s work. Robert will probably die in the CS and Mary will be ‘regent’ for what 17 years or so. Is Henry fully aware that no matter how much they may love each other there’s a lot more involved than just that?
And Tom should sit down and think about what he was doing*. He’s probably Mary’s best friend at this point (and vice-versa) and I get that he would want to see her happy but there were moments where we went back to how he was so involved in their relationship it seemed too much meddling or that he was the one crushing on Henry. ‘Get him or I will!’. I did like him calling Mary out (as well as everybody that did so) because I think it was due, even if I love her so much.
*Everyone should sit down and think about what they have done, to be honest because people were quick to tell Mary what she was feeling (or they thought she was) and what she should do but no one seemed to take the time to actually hear her.
To conclude: while my shipper heart was pleased by the wedding, my ‘writer’/’watcher’ heart was kind of appalled by how things actually happened. Let’s see what happens in the CS.
(The rest of the storylines were alright, I guess, but I hope Edith and Bertie sort their situation out because doesn’t she deserve to be happy. And yet? Will they figure things out and will Gregson show up unnanounced?)
