Downton Abbey: Episode 2.7

Downton Abbey: Episode 2.7
ITV
12 February 2012
Historical Drama
DVD
B-

Things are still a bit implausible, from the earl kissing a maid he hardly knows, to Matthew suddenly recovering for no clear reason except misdiagnosis, to Lady Sybil somehow still only 21 in 1919 (and her debut was in the summer of '14), but this is definitely a step up from the last couple episodes.  Sybil tries to elope with Branson but Mary pleads with her to come home.  Mary denies her love for Matthew to her fiance, after her grandmother reveals it to Matthew, but I suspect that this will be drawn out even longer.  Ditto for Bates's late wife still making trouble for him and Anna.  It was nice to see Thomas actually have something go wrong for him, being outsmarted in the black market, when he'd hoped to make his fortune.  The war is over but it looks like the post-war period won't be any easier for anyone.

Kevin R. McNally and Christine Mackie make their first of three and four appearances respectively as Horace and Daphne Bryant, the parents of the late father of Ethel's baby.  James Strong directed not only this and the following episode but also seven episodes of Broadchurch.