'Downton Abbey' Recap: Season 2 Episode 1

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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Two years have passed, and it’s now 1916 at the height of The Great War, as it was then called. We open on a raging battlefield where a blue-eyed soldier covered in mud and debris is ferrying a wounded comrade away from the action and down into a bunker. It’s Matthew, now an army captain. He tells his servant-soldier that he’s been granted a few days’ leave – “There’s a girl I want to see,” Matthew reveals, a smile on his dirty face.

Cut to Downton Abbey, where the staff is setting up for a big event that evening: a benefit concert for the local hospital, which is overflowing with wounded soldiers from the area. Anna is managing a brash new housemaid named Ethel who has ideas above her station.

Upstairs, William is clumsily filling in for Bates as Robert’s valet – Bates has gone down to London for his mother’s funeral, and Robert is now in uniform. His post is purely ceremonial, but at breakfast, he gets news: an invitation to serve as a colonel of a real fighting unit. 

Meanwhile, Sybil also receives a letter – yet another of her local beaux has been killed in action. She rushes out of the dining room in tears. Later, Sybil confides in Isobel that she feels useless and wants a real job, and Isobel suggests that she train as a nurse and to that end, she should ask Mrs. Patmore to teach her some basic cooking skills, such as how to boil water. O’Brien, as usual, hears it all, and immediately spills the beans to Cora, putting a negative spin on it. Cora and Isobel have it out, but Isobel has a surprising ally: Violet, who thinks Sybil should be allowed to “do her bit.”

In the village, Branson is teaching Edith to drive – she’s slowly getting the hang of it. Down in Downton’s kitchens, William complains to Daisy and Mrs. Patmore that he’s itching to enlist but his widowed father Mr. Mason has forbidden it – all of his other siblings are dead.

In the midst of this, Isobel arrives, informing Cora and Robert that Matthew is engaged to be married, to a “Miss Lavinia Swire.” Cora and Robert are disappointed, having hoped that Mary and Matthew would have patched things up between them. Matthew and Lavinia will be attending the concert, and Mary will be returning from London for it as well. Everyone worries about how she will take Matthew’s news.

They’ll soon find out. Mary arrives home from London, on the same train as Bates. Edith smugly tells Mary about Matthew’s engagement and Mary puts on a brave face, informing Cora and her sisters that she has a new beau herself: an older tabloid publisher named Richard Carlisle. But the moment she’s alone with Anna, Mary bursts into tears.

Isobel arrives with Matthew and Lavinia, who is very pretty, but Mary’s polar opposite in just about every other way. Lavinia looks utterly intimidated, and Violet is unimpressed with her as a potential duchess. Lavinia has heard a lot about Mary, and Matthew and Mary’s reunion is cordial but charged.

As a string quartet commences to play, two women circulate in the audience, contemptuously handing out white feathers to civilian men in the audience to signify that they are cowards for not enlisting; William, humiliated, receives a feather, and so does Branson, who laughs it off. In a rage, Robert loudly orders the women ejected.

At dinner, Robert is surprised and angered to learn of Sybil’s plans to become a nurse. Later in the kitchen, Sybil’s cooking lessons proceed. She and the staff intend it to be a surprise for Cora, but Carson, uncomfortable, tells Cora what’s going on. Later, Cora and Carson watch unseen as Sybil successfully bakes a cake. Cora is pleased and touched – perhaps she won’t have to worry about Sybil after all.

Bates has some news for Anna: he might finally be able to get a divorce from his grifter wife, Vera, because his mother bequeathed him enough money to buy her off. Evidently his relationship with Anna has progressed because this is Bates’ way of asking her to marry him. Anna happily accepts. Later, they decide to rent out Bates’ late mother’s house until they can sell it and buy a small hotel to run with the proceeds.

Up in the dining room, Lavinia recounts how she and Matthew met in London – her father Reginald Swire is an attorney like Matthew. Robert proudly tells everyone about his colonelcy and Matthew, while pleased for him, is also alarmed. Mary tries to get Matthew to share his war experiences; Matthew, haunted, cannot. But they are both glad to be friends again.

Ethel is putting on airs in the servants hall when O’Brien tells her that Cora has summoned her upstairs to compliment her. She hasn’t, of course, and Ethel makes a complete fool of herself in front of all the dinner guests. Downstairs, the rest of the servants laugh derisively.

At Crawley House, Dr. Clarkson tells Isobel that the hospital is being overwhelmed with new patients, mostly wounded soldiers, with no room for them to convalesce. As Molesley is serving tea, Clarkson expresses concern about Molesley’s respiratory condition that kept him out of service. Isobel is immediately suspicious as she has observed no such thing – and Clarkson reveals that Violet asked him to write to the War Department to keep Molesley and also William Mason from being accepted for military service on medical grounds. Isobel, appalled that they are being shielded from doing their duty, resolves to do something about it.

Matthew, his leave at an end, unexpectedly encounters Mary at the train station. She hands him her good luck charm – a small stuffed toy dog, and he must promise to “bring it back without a scratch.” Matthew asks Mary to look after Isobel and Lavinia if something happens to him. Gutted, Mary agrees. (She still has it bad for him, and maybe the feeling is mutual.)

An Unwelcome Visitor

That same day, an unknown visitor has arrived in the servants hall, gossiping maliciously with Ethel. It’s Bates’ wife Vera, and she is, as advertised, a nasty piece of work. Mrs. Hughes suggests that she and Bates have tea in her personal sitting room. There, Vera threatens Bates that if he doesn’t quit his job and return to their marriage, she will reveal everything she has heard about Mary’s disastrous encounter with Pamuk, and Anna’s role in helping Mary conceal it. Distraught, Bates has no choice but to do as she demands, without telling anyone why. Robert is selfishly furious about Bates’ “disloyalty;” Anna, not caring if Vera exposes her, is shocked and heartbroken as they drive away.

But it turns out that Mrs. Hughes had a reason for offering up her sitting room for the meeting – there’s a heating vent perfect for eavesdropping. Later, she reveals to Carson what she heard. And in turn, Carson spills everything to Robert, without revealing Mary’s secret.

William, still brooding about the white feather incident and powerless to enlist, encounters Daisy, who is sorry to see him so low. To cheer him up, she kisses him. Elated, he asks her to be “his girl” – it would give him the courage to face anything. Daisy, having gotten more than she bargained for, doesn’t know how to react.

Back at the warfront, the shelling is intense. In the dugout, Matthew is surprised to encounter Thomas, now an army medic and deeply regretting having signed up. A soldier walks up to hand him a cigarette and is instantly killed by a sniper. Thomas is traumatized.

Back at the house, all the ladies are helping Sybil pack for nursing training. To everyone’s surprise, Violet reveals that Sybil’s great-aunt served in combat as a loader, which is why she has been more open-minded about Sybil’s plans. When Branson drops Sybil off at her training course, he reveals he is in love with her. Sybil is flattered but mostly indecisive for now. Branson offers to quit his job; Sybil begs him not to – she will keep his secret. 

At Crawley House in front of Dr. Clarkson, Isobel calls out Violet for getting Molesley and William unfairly exempted from military service. While Molesley watches nervously, Isobel insists that there must be no special treatment for the servants of the wealthy. Later, Molesley corners Clarkson to claim that his weak lungs would disqualify him. Dr. Clarkson, clearly not buying it, nevertheless agrees to keep him from being conscripted, urging him to “help the war effort in other ways.”

That night at a regimental dinner, Robert is disappointed to learn that this colonelcy is just an ornamental position. Cora informs him that Mary wants them to invite her suitor Richard Carlisle to stay at Downton. Still unhappy about Mary having let Matthew slip through her fingers, they are resigned. Mary isn’t over it, either…she prays for Matthew’s safe return, to Edith’s derision. 

That evening during a quiet moment, Matthew and Thomas share a cup of tea in the bunker and reminisce about Downton. Thomas asks Matthew if it would be possible to get transferred back to work at the local hospital. Matthew tells Thomas that he would have to be sent home from the front first. Thomas has a plan for how to make that happen: late that night when he is alone, he raises his arm, holding a lit cigarette above the rim of the dugout. An enemy sniper makes his wish come true.

The War Continues

We jump ahead to April 1917. Bates’ replacement, valet Henry Lang, is prepping Robert’s military uniform for the day. Lang seems visibly nervous and Robert, missing Bates’ quiet competence and resentful about being sidelined, is short with him. We learn that Lang had been a soldier but was invalided out – and that Molesley had been hoping to get the valet position.

Down in the kitchen, Mrs. Patmore is visibly upset by the contents of a letter she is reading: her young nephew Archie Philpotts has gone missing from his regiment. An elated William has received a message of his own: his long-awaited call-up notice. Lovesick, he asks Daisy for a photo of herself to take with him. She is conflicted. Carson is not pleased to be losing his last remaining footman to the war effort and isn’t confident that Lang (or he himself) can handle the strain. He asks an apprehensive Lang to help serve the family at dinner.

Two floors above, O’Brien is using her influence with the gullible Cora to advocate for Thomas, currently hospitalized near the front due to his injured hand, to be transferred back to Downton for a job at the local hospital to avoid being sent back into battle. Clarkson assures her that he doesn’t have that kind of clout. But Robert does, of course: Thomas returns to Downton, more ungovernable than ever now that he is no longer a footman.

Also coming home: Matthew, who will be leading a promotional tour of the English provinces for a General Strutt and will be visiting Downton. Mary mentions that her current beau Richard Carlisle will be visiting during that time, so Robert suggests inviting his sister Rosamund down from London along with Lavinia and making it a house party.

Edith has news, too: the local farmer Drake (whom Isobel helped to save in season 1) has lost his last able-bodied farmhand to the war effort and has nobody to drive his tractor. So Edith has volunteered. This announcement is met with derision and astonishment. “You’re a lady…not Toad of Toad Hall!” sputters Violet. The Drakes are equally shocked, but Edith proves to be surprisingly adept at farm work and becomes cozy with Drake, to his wife’s alarm and growing resentment. Shortly after she observes her husband kissing Edith in the barn, a letter arrives at Downton abruptly cutting off any further assistance from her. Edith is crestfallen.

Cora asks Tom to fetch an obstreperous Sybil from the hospital for the house party. She and Thomas are helping to treat a new patient – a blinded young soldier, Edward Courtenay. Meanwhile, with Bates out of the picture, Molesley makes an awkward play for Anna, but is tactfully rebuffed.

Mary’s tabloid publisher beau Richard Carlisle – rich, older, and oily – arrives from London with meddling Aunt Rosamund as Matthew and Lavinia also appear. Rosamund quickly senses that Carlisle and Lavinia know each other, and that Lavinia is highly uncomfortable with the association. 

At dinner, Carson is clearly unwell and in handing off a tray to the jittery Lang, he collapses, dropping it in Edith’s lap, ruining her dress. O’Brien later discovers Lang upstairs and guesses that he suffers from shell shock. In a rare moment of decency, O’Brien empathizes – her brother was also a victim but was ordered back to the front and died there. We sense that O’Brien will keep Lang’s secret.

Carson has been sent to rest, and Mary has a heart-to-heart with him. Carson can plainly see that Mary is still in love with Matthew and, not really a fan of Lavinia, urges her to tell him how she feels.

Second-Best

The next day, the family and their guests are strolling through the woods as Carlisle makes a case for himself to Mary as a “self-made man.” Mary is accepting enough, but is having misgivings. Later at tea with Violet, Rosamund wonders why Mary is settling for such a man, blindly speculating that Mary’s reputation might be the reason why. Violet doesn’t share anything. Rosamund is, however, on board with the match with Carlisle given that he is powerful and rich, and she herself married a similar man. Violet, for her part, wonders how Matthew could have chosen “that little blonde piece.”

The next day on the lawn, Rosamund overhears Carlisle threatening Lavinia. They break off before we learn why. Later, Rosamund makes sure that Mary and Violet know about it. And when Carlisle delivers an unromantic proposal at the train station as he is departing for London, Mary is reluctant but promises to think about it.

Meanwhile at the hospital, Thomas tries to commiserate with the blinded Courtenay, whose former privileged life was devoted to hunting, shooting, and fishing. He is despondent – his ambitious younger brother will be usurping his place as heir to the estate. Thomas tries to bolster his confidence and almost comes clean about his homosexuality. A few days later, Clarkson decides that Courtenay is well enough to be transferred to a convalescent home, over the vociferous objections of Sybil, Thomas, and Courtenay himself – he is depressed and still needs their help. Clarkson contemptuously refuses, but this proves to be a tragic error: that night in bed, Courtenay dies by suicide with a razor. Thomas is inconsolable and Sybil is furious. Clarkson insists he made the right call: there was no room at the hospital for convalescent soldiers. Isobel, resolute, decides there is a solution right in front of them: Downton Abbey. Sybil is instantly on Isobel’s side.

Later, Matthew stops by the hospital, disturbed to find it overwhelmed with wounded soldiers. Meanwhile, Mary has arrived at Crawley House, intending to take Carson’s advice and reveal her feelings to Matthew. But she encounters Lavinia weeping at the prospect of Matthew leaving early for the tour. And when Matthew himself appears, she loses her nerve and retreats in frustration.

Robert, having used his connections at the war office, has tragic news for Mrs. Patmore about her nephew Archie: he deserted his regiment and was shot for cowardice. Robert advises her to keep silent about how he died.

In the drawing room, Isobel and Sybil have made their case for converting Downton into a convalescent home. Violet is apoplectic but it is Cora and Robert’s house now, and while they are hesitant, they’re going to make this sacrifice for the war effort. Later, Matthew, still haunted by the grievous disfigurement he saw in battle and at the hospital, tells Robert that he and his fellow soldiers pray to avoid being wounded or killed, but failing that, they hope for “a bullet that kills them cleanly.”

William, with eyes only for Daisy, stops by in full uniform from his training camp – he’s a difficult sight for the grieving Mrs. Patmore and the still-traumatized Lang. Later, Daisy worries about leading William on (she feels only friendship for him), but Mrs. Patmore urges the girl to marry him, to give him something to fight for.

And Mary, after observing Matthew with Lavinia, confides to Anna that she’s going to accept Carlisle’s “second-best” offer of marriage. Anna, still pining for Bates, thinks “second-best” is not good enough.