'Downton Abbey' Recap: Season 3 Episode 7

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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A year has passed – it’s now September 1921. The servants are packing up for the Crawleys’ annual deer stalking excursion to Duneagle, the opulent Scottish estate owned by Violet’s cousin and Rose’s father Shrimpy, the Earl of Flintshire. As Jimmy, Thomas, and Alfred load the luggage into wagons bound for the train, there is still evident awkwardness between them. In the upstairs hall, a new young housemaid, Edna Braithwaite, glances with interest at Tom Branson.

Upstairs, Mary is dressing; she is almost nine months pregnant. She reassures a concerned Matthew that she is fine to make the trip. Downstairs, Edith is on the phone with Gregson – he will be on a fishing-and-sketching holiday in Scotland and wants to look in on the family. Cora, eager to meet him, urges Edith to invite him. Tom, it turns out, was not invited and appears relieved about it – he will care for Robert’s dog in their absence. Later, Isobel invites Dr. Clarkson for tea and they commiserate about Mary’s delicate condition (he is understandably skittish after what happened with Sybil). She suggests they should have dinner while everyone is away. And they do, a few times.

The rest of the servants are looking forward to a break while the family is away, but Carson admonishes them that it will be anything but. Edna is disappointed, and after finding a portrait of Sybil in a room she is cleaning, grills Mrs. Hughes about her. Mrs. Hughes thinks she should mind her own business. She doesn’t, of course, and tries to ingratiate herself with Tom while he is lunching in the dining room. He is polite but noncommittal.

The family caravan arrives at Duneagle. Rose and Shrimpy are warm and welcoming, but his wife Lady Susan is on edge, and it’s clear her relationships with both Rose and her husband are fraught with tension.

Downstairs at Downton, a new grocer, Jos Tufton, delivers an order to Mrs. Patmore and flirts outrageously with her. She shoos him away but is flattered by the attention.

We meet the servants of Duneagle – Lady Susan’s scary maid, Wilkins, is O’Brien 2.0 and actively befriends her.

At dinner, Edith broaches the subject of Gregson; Shrimpy encourages Edith to invite him for dinner the following night. 

Tom, dining with Isobel, acknowledges his awkward position – the family has left him on his own upstairs, but the servants he once worked with don’t want him downstairs either. Isobel thinks he’s overreacting, and reminds him that as the estate agent, he has a right to associate with anyone he wants.

That night, Mary admits to Anna that she may have taken on more than she should, physically. But they’re both excited about the upcoming Ghillies Ball, although Mary shouldn’t dance and Anna doesn’t know how.

The next day, Shrimpy reveals to Robert that he has been reassigned to a foreign diplomatic post, which he hopes will benefit his troubled marriage. Elsewhere, Lady Susan is simmering with resentment about the posting, which she opines to Violet will be “filthy, dirty, and the food will be awful with no one to talk to within a hundred miles.” Later, O’Brien confides to Wilkins, who is also apprehensive about the posting, that she herself would like to travel more. 

Violet, having observed Lady Susan’s acrimonious treatment of Rose, advises her to lighten up. “It’s no crime to be young,” she tells her.

New Romances?

Back at Downton, Tom is walking Robert’s dog when he stops into the local pub for a pint. Waiting there at a table, unexpectedly, is Edna. Not wanting to be rude, he sits down with her. With an obvious agenda, she asks several intrusive questions that make him doubt himself. She suggests he should come down to dine with the servants while the family is away. Still reluctant, he comes down to ask Mrs. Hughes for a plate at dinner. Carson resents this.

Thomas, Jimmy, and Alfred, having run an errand for Mrs. Patmore to Tufton’s grocery in Thirsk, learn that there will be a county fair there at the end of the week. Tufton sends them back to Mrs. Patmore with a note: he’ll have a booth there and hopes she’ll come. Mrs. Hughes decides that the whole staff should go to the fair, over Carson’s objections. Mrs. Patmore, responding to Tufton’s obvious interest, has excitedly bought a new blouse for the occasion.

Gregson arrives for dinner at Duneagle. Mary is snobbish and Robert is borderline rude, but everyone else is cordial. Lady Susan sharply upbraids Rose in front of everyone. Cora and Violet look on, sorrowfully recalling Sybil’s youthful rebelliousness. Later out on the lawn, Anna and Bates encounter a sobbing Rose sneaking a cigarette. They offer her a mint and some sympathy when Lady Susan abruptly summons her back inside. Later, to repay her, Rose secretly teaches Anna how to reel in advance of the ball.

Later, Edith asks Gregson why he really came to Duneagle. Gregson confesses that he wanted to get the family on his side – he’s in love with her and wants to be able to continue seeing Edith despite being married. Edith can’t see a happy ending. Matthew has invited Gregson to join him for the deer stalking the following day while the ladies picnic, he tells her, and he’s been invited to the ball as well.

Dr. Clarkson invites Isobel to accompany him to the Thirsk fair.

That evening, Wilkins icily summons O’Brien to Lady Susan’s room – Lady Susan dislikes how Wilkins does her hair and wants O’Brien to show her how she does Cora’s. O’Brien, flattered, is glad to oblige, but Wilkins is humiliated. Now O’Brien has gotten on her bad side.

Shrimpy has learned that his posting is to be to “very hot” Bombay. Violet thinks that unless Rose is to be married off to “a third-rate government official with no money and bad teeth,” they shouldn’t bring her along. Rose, needing a break from her mother’s constant criticism, would be on board with that. Later, Shrimpy confesses that he is broke and the estate must be sold. If only he had modernized as Matthew is doing at Downton, he tells Robert. This gives Robert a new appreciation of Matthew.

Still puzzling over Gregson’s presence at Duneagle, Matthew invites him to go fishing so he can grill him privately before the ball. Gregson tells him the complete truth. Matthew is sympathetic and thinks Robert would be too, if it didn’t involve his own daughter being Gregson’s mistress. Matthew urges Gregson to end it with Edith if he can never marry her, despite his professed love for her. “Use the ball to tell her a proper goodbye,” Matthew tells him, promising to tell nobody about their discussion.

A Fair and a Ball

At the fair, the men form teams for a tug of war. Jimmy places a big wager on the Downton team winning, and recruits Tufton to join them. After the Downton team prevails, Jimmy collects his big wad of cash and spends some of it getting thoroughly hammered. He foots the bill for Daisy and Ivy to try a ring toss game. Daisy, to her delight, wins a gold sovereign. And Alfred shares a secret with Mrs. Hughes: he wants to be a chef.

A drunken Jimmy stumbles off to the outskirts of the fair. Under the viaduct he encounters a pair of thugs from the losing tug-of-war who attempt to rob him of his winnings. They are about to beat him senseless when Thomas, who has followed Jimmy without his knowledge, intervenes. Thomas urges Jimmy to run for help as he suffers the robbery and beating instead.

As Mrs. Hughes sourly watches, Tufton flirts openly with Mrs. Patmore…but also with everyone else in a skirt. “I love to be in love!” he pronounces. Someone who feels the same way: Edna, who tries to canoodle with Tom while Mrs. Hughes glares. Tufton sits down in the dining tent with Mrs. Patmore, as does Dr. Clarkson with Isobel. He tries to broach marriage, but Isobel doesn’t comprehend that he means her. Before he can clarify, a frantic Jimmy appears and begs Dr. Clarkson to follow him – Thomas is in trouble. They all ferry the injured Thomas back to Downton.

At Duneagle prior to the ball, Rose is proudly descending the staircase in her new evening gown when her mother harshly objects to the dress. Shrimpy and Lady Susan have words in front of Robert and Violet. They all leave the defeated Lady Susan to her own devices. She soon perks up, though, and showers O’Brien with praise over the new hairstyle she has created for her while Wilkins seethes. Wilkins offers O’Brien a heavily spiked drink. O’Brien, realizing what Wilkins is up to, declines to drink it; Molesley takes it from her hands and drains it before she can warn him.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Patmore have a nighttime heart-to-heart. Mrs. Hughes breaks the news that Tufton was flirting with everyone and probably wants her only for her cooking. Turns out, Mrs. Patmore suspected he was leading her on and is vastly relieved to be done with him. 

During a break in the dancing, Gregson fills in Edith about his afternoon with Matthew and tries to break things off with her. But now Edith won’t hear of it.

Molesley, famously an easy drunk, makes a complete fool of himself on the dance floor as O’Brien and Wilkins watch. O’Brien feels no further obligation to spare Wilkins’ feelings, and she goes over to overtly ingratiate herself with Lady Susan. 

Upstairs at Downton, Edna barges into Tom’s bedroom while he is dressing. He rebuffs her and she leaves, but not before kissing him and proposing lunch in the village the next day.

Mary insists on dancing but quickly regrets it. On the sidelines, she tells Matthew she thinks she and Anna should go home early – to avoid being rude to their hosts, he should stay. Matthew tries to argue that he should accompany them, but she is adamant. Back at Downton, Carson tells the staff that the family will be returning. Edna boldly asks if she can keep her lunch plans with Tom at the pub. It’s the final straw for Mrs. Hughes, who is fed up with Edna’s presumptuous behavior. The next day, Tom feels responsible for Edna being fired, but Mrs. Hughes assures him that it’s for the best. She feels he shouldn’t let anyone undermine his confidence, but that he’s handled his change in status as well as he can. For her part, Edna lies to Mrs. Hughes that nothing improper occurred.

A Beginning and an End

Lady Susan reveals to Cora that she and Shrimpy have agreed on one thing: Rose should live at Downton while they are in India.

Alighting from the train in Downton, Mary is clearly in distress and is rushed straight to the hospital. Cut to the Scottish countryside, where a messenger on horseback notifies Matthew. The whole family hastily packs up and leaves Duneagle to come home.

Jimmy, feeling guilty, awkwardly pays the battered Thomas a visit as he recovers. They finally talk about their relationship. Jimmy tells Thomas he can never give him what he wants. Thomas asks if they can be friends and is pleased when Jimmy agrees.

A dusty but elated Matthew arrives at the hospital to see Mary and greet his son. He has never been happier in his life, and their marriage has never been stronger.

Back at Downton, the family is reunited with Tom, and they all gleefully celebrate the arrival of a new Crawley heir. Cut back to Matthew, who is driving home too fast without a care in the world and doesn’t see a truck on the road coming straight for him. Then the aftermath: Matthew’s car is flipped upside down in a woody ravine with his lifeless body crushed under it.

Mary, cradling her baby in the hospital, is blissfully unaware.