'Downton Abbey' Recap: Season 4 Episode 2

Downton Abbey airs Thursdays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream by WTTW Passport members. Recap the previous episode.
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A month later, Downton is hosting a grand weekend house party that will culminate in a command performance by a real-life opera legend: Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba (played by another real-life opera legend, Kiri Te Kanawa). Carson takes a dim view of performers dining with nobility, so he and Robert agree that Dame Nellie will not be mixing with the guests but eating off a tray in her room. Later, as Violet urges a hesitant Isobel to join the family for the event, it’s clear that Violet too thinks socializing with a singer is beneath her.

Among the party guests are three eligible men. Terence Sampson is an acquaintance from Robert’s London club, while Lord John Bullock and the Crawley girls’ childhood pal Lord Tony Gillingham are longtime family friends. Gillingham’s young valet Green is there too, flirting with Anna in the downstairs passageway. Also in attendance: Michael Gregson. Edith hopes to get her father to warm up to him, but Robert, disapproving of Gregson’s influence on Edith, gives him a wide berth.

Bullock, Gillingham, and Sampson have been invited as potential suitors for Mary despite her obvious inability to move on after Matthew’s death. Sampson is an enigma and Bullock, for his part, seems much more interested in Rose. Gillingham’s family has seen better days: after the war they had to downsize and then sell their estate. He takes an instant interest in Mary, despite telling her he’s “close” to marrying the London debutante Mabel Lane Fox. Mary is politely indifferent, although she does agree to go riding with him on the estate. Later, in front of a stone-faced Isobel, he asks Mary on a dinner date; citing his near-engagement, Mary declines.

Edna hasn’t given up on attracting Tom, complimenting him on his white tie and tails. She suggests resuming their lunches in the village. Careful not to offend her, he turns her down. Later, thoroughly out of his element at the cocktail hour, he struggles to make small talk with a visiting duchess while Violet tries to steer him. But he’s miserable and later confides as much to Edna, who is at least of his class. He later commiserates with Isobel, who is still struggling with her grief and resents Gillingham for propositioning Mary.

Molesley has found a job as a deliveryman for the grocer Bakewell, and he now arrives in the kitchen with provisions for Mrs. Patmore. Everyone tries not to be judgmental. Green continues to flirt outrageously with Anna, and Bates increasingly dislikes and is suspicious of him. 

Daisy, Ivy, Alfred, and Jimmy continue to make fools of themselves. Jimmy, showing off for Daisy and Ivy by juggling a jar of jam, accidentally smashes it, injuring his wrist so he can’t carry a tray at dinner. Carson orders a sullen Thomas to take over but he refuses. Carson then asks Molesley to substitute as footman. He agrees, despite feeling it’s a comedown from his former status as a valet.

Rose, having deemed the party a bit of a bore, fires up some jazz on a gramophone she unearthed in the attic and cajoles everyone to dance. Tom is stuck partnering a tedious middle-aged duchess and Gillingham compels a reluctant Mary to the floor. But she spots the gramophone and suddenly freezes – it was Matthew’s. Her mood ruined, she hurries upstairs. Rose feels guilty.

An Honest Game of Poker?

The young men, apart from Tom, are all in when Sampson suggests they play poker. At breakfast the next morning, both Gillingham and Bullock are chagrined to have lost a great deal of money to Sampson and both decline to play the following night. But Robert decides to take part, and Gregson, seeing it as a bonding opportunity, immediately signs on as well. They too lose big to a smug Sampson. But Gregson, now suspecting that Sampson is a professional card sharp, is eager to play again the following night. Gregson himself has a few skills of his own and he roundly defeats a baffled Sampson. After the other two players depart, Gregson calls out Sampson and forces him to turn over all the money he falsely won over his stay, and Robert and Gillingham are ecstatic to recoup their losses. Mission accomplished: Gregson is now in Robert’s good graces.

During the cocktail hour, Cora is mystified as to why Dame Nellie has not yet appeared. Upon learning that this renowned artist has been relegated by Carson and Robert to dining in her room, Cora icily orders Robert to fetch Dame Nellie downstairs. “You will talk to her at dinner and you will like it,” she orders him, seething. And Robert does like it – he learns that Dame Nellie is a great conversationalist and shares his knowledge of claret.

Down in the kitchen, there’s a different sort of crisis. As Mrs. Patmore, Daisy, and Ivy are frantically putting the finishing touches on dinner, Mrs. Patmore suddenly has an anxiety attack. To everyone’s surprise, Alfred, aspiring to be a chef, successfully takes over making the sauces.

Dame Nellie’s concert commences, with everyone up and downstairs rapt in attendance. Anna, developing a headache, retreats downstairs to take an aspirin in the empty servants hall. But it isn’t empty: Green is lurking there, and after falsely accusing her of leading him on, he beats and brutally rapes her. Anna’s screams go unheard.

Mrs. Hughes returns to her office and is shocked to discover a distraught, bruised, and disheveled Anna hiding there. Having sworn Mrs. Hughes to secrecy and after being cleaned up and given a replacement dress, she lies to Bates about what happened, worried that he’ll be sent back to prison if he learns that Green was her attacker and murders him.

Speaking of predators, Edna encounters a morose Tom brooding in the upstairs hallway. He confesses he has never felt lonelier. She slips him a full glass of whisky, likely with a sleeping pill in it. And late that night, she slips into his bedroom unseen.