'Downton Abbey' Recap: Season 2 Episode 2

Downton Abbey airs Sundays at 9:00 pm and is available to stream by WTTW Passport members. Recap the previous episode.
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Hospital staff are everywhere, hurrying to transform Downton into a convalescent home. Already there is major tension: Isobel is in her element, bossing everyone around, including a resentful Cora. Sybil – egalitarian as always – wonders why only officers are going to be welcomed, Clarkson and Thomas are arrogant, Violet is glowering, and Edith is floundering. She envies Sybil for having a purpose but keeps herself busy running errands and distributing books to the patients. She kindly offers to write a letter home for a wounded officer who has lost his hand.

Violet, still rooting for Mary to get back together with Matthew and disliking Carlisle, gleefully shares the altercation between Carlisle and Matthew’s fiancée Lavinia that Rosamund witnessed on the lawn. Mary, fond of Lavinia despite herself, defends her. Violet promises that she and Rosamund will grill Lavinia in London. And they do: Lavinia reveals that Carlisle had been a friend of her father and uncle, but they had a falling out. Violet and Rosamund suspect there’s more to the story.

William will be visiting Downton before he goes overseas – Daisy worries about what that will mean. Later, Carson asks Robert if there’s any way they can keep William from going to battle as the only remaining child in his family. There isn’t. And Tom Branson has received a letter: he has been called up but assures Sybil that he intends to be a conscientious objector. She worries that he’ll be put in prison, but she needn’t – the army rejects Tom due to a heart murmur. He is disappointed that he won’t be able to make a splashy public protest. But then he sees an opportunity: upon learning that Matthew is bringing his commanding officer General Strutt to Downton, he offers to help Mr. Carson serve at the dinner.

Anna, enroute to the post office, is certain that she spots Bates lurking on the village green. But she can’t find him. Later, she confides in Mary, and Mary offers to have Carlisle investigate. Carlisle learns that Bates is working in a nearby pub and Mary, elated, passes the information to Anna.

O’Brien, very much on Team Cora, warns her mistress that she and the servants won’t stand for Isobel telling them what to do and suggests that Thomas (“he’s a medic who has always had a soft spot for Downton”) could take over managing the convalescent home. As always, Cora is too gullible, and O’Brien always has an agenda. Also as expected, Isobel overplays her hand. She and Cora clash and Clarkson struggles in vain to referee.

Lang, his PTSD worsening at the prospect of the house being filled with wounded soldiers, comments to Mrs. Patmore that nobody but him seems to understand how terrifying battle can be. She confides in him about her nephew being shot for cowardice. Haunted, Lang urges her not to blame him. “It could have been me…or any of us.” Later, Lang unwittingly blurts out Mrs. Patmore’s secret to the servants at dinner, to her acute distress. A few nights later, he wakes the other servants with his screaming during a nightmare. 

Meanwhile, Robert, watching his study being converted into a recreation hall and the gallery into an officer’s mess, is having buyer’s remorse – how will his family live as they’ve become accustomed? (News flash: they won’t.) Once he learns that Cora has arranged for Thomas to run the house over Isobel’s angry objections, a bitter argument ensues with Cora pulling rank and Isobel feeling disrespected. Later, when Mary gets a request from her old friend Evelyn Napier to be treated there, Robert, incensed, overrides Clarkson’s veto and also adamantly refuses to bar his dog Isis from the patients’ rooms.

A Convalescent House

The wounded officers begin to arrive, including the dashing Major Bryant, who catches Ethel’s eye. Anna and Mrs. Hughes warn her to stay away from the officers. Will she listen? Two guesses and one doesn’t count.

Anna takes a bus to the pub that Mary indicated and encounters Bates, to his surprise. The spark is very much still there. Bates didn’t tell Anna that he had left his wife Vera because he is working to get a divorce – he has incriminating evidence against her and thinks she will try to head him off by going to the newspapers. But he plans to pay her off with his inheritance. He didn’t want to get Anna’s hopes up but needed to be near her. She offers to be his mistress, but he insists on doing things properly.

At tea, Violet and Rosamund tell Mary what they have learned about Lavinia: she stole secrets from her uncle to give to Carlisle, causing the Marconi scandal. Mary argues that Lavinia did nothing but expose corrupt politicians. Rosamund gleefully surmises that Lavinia and Carlisle were lovers and schemes to get Matthew to break off their engagement. Mary wants nothing to do with their plot.

Lavinia, sweet but no dummy, picks up on Rosamund’s derision as the General’s entourage arrives. She begs Mary to tell her what’s going on, so Mary does. Lavinia confirms her involvement in the Marconi scandal, but not for the reason Rosamund thinks. Lavinia’s father owed Carlisle money, and Carlisle offered to forgive the debt if Lavinia stole the secrets. Mary begins to suspect that Carlisle can’t be trusted. And later, she refuses to disparage Lavinia to Matthew, to Rosamund’s disappointment.

General Strutt is impressed by what he sees on his house tour and heartily approves when he sees William helping to serve dinner in his army uniform. He also commendsEdith for catering so well to the needs of the patients. She is shocked to be recognized.

Downstairs in the servant’s hall, William is on leave and blithely expounding on his training camp experiences. Mrs. Patmore is tearful, remembering her lost nephew. After Daisy tries and fails to avoid being alone with him, William manages to propose as Mrs. Patmore urges her to accept. Daisy can’t bring herself to refuse him. Overjoyed, William announces their engagement to the staff. “After the war,” Daisy nervously interjects, a deer in headlights.

As the dinner commences, Anna is tidying Sybil’s bedroom when she finds a note with “forgive me” scrawled on the front. Whatever is inside sends her on a frantic search for Mrs. Hughes. Meanwhile, Branson, bearing a full soup tureen into the dining room, obviously intends to do something to General Strutt. A horrified Mrs. Hughes passes the note to Carson, who assumes that Branson is an assassin and surreptitiously prevents him from carrying out his plan. It turns out that Branson wanted only to humiliate the General by dumping manure on him. Nobody but Mary notices the kerfuffle.

As the entire staff sees off the General’s convoy, Lang has a public meltdown due to all the soldiers on view. Carson is forced to dismiss him but is generous about it. And Matthew informs Robert that he’s losing his soldier-servant, so Robert asks that William replace him – maybe Matthew can help to keep him safe. Good luck with that.