'Downton Abbey' Recap: Season 4 Episode 8

Downton Abbey airs Thursdays at 8:00 pm and is available to stream by WTTW Passport members. Recap the previous episodes.
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Eight months have passed, and everyone is busily preparing for Rose’s debut at Buckingham Palace. This unexpectedly includes Mrs. Hughes and Daisy, who accompany the family to their London house to back up the staff there. Ivy asks why Edith, recently returned from her long sabbatical in Switzerland, looks even more tired than when she left. Mrs. Hughes has no clue.

Edith, to take her mind off the baby girl she was secretly forced to put up for adoption, will also be joining the family in London. Tom is too busy to accompany her – he’ll come down for Rose’s ball at the end. In the village after everyone else has left, he encounters Sarah Bunting and casually suggests they dine at the pub. She expresses a desire to see the interior of Downton, and after supper he reluctantly gives her a tour, during which she sneers at the Crawleys’ supposed pretensions, the house’s opulence, and Robert marrying Cora for her money. Tom loyally defends them. Adding to his discomfort, Sarah traipses upstairs to check out the view from the gallery, where they are interrupted by a sardonic Thomas, who clearly thinks they’re up to no good. The next day, Tom attempts to explain to Thomas that nothing happened. Thomas, as always jealous of Tom’s elevation in class, doesn’t care and will certainly be making hay of this. He later tries to get Tom in trouble with Robert, but Robert isn’t much inclined to complain because Tom, after all, is family and a resident and can bring home whomever he likes.

In London, we learn that Cora’s mother and brother, Martha and Harold Levinson, are expected for Rose’s debut. Rose is eager to meet them; Mary and Cora are dreading the drama they are sure to bring. Cora, feeling guilty about the extra work Rose’s debut is creating for the staff, asks Carson to plan a fun outing for them after the ball is over. Carson is amenable, and presents some pretty tedious options to Mrs. Hughes. Later, after Mrs. Hughes has left a few seaside postcards in strategic places, Carson gets the brilliant idea to take the servants to the seaside.

Anna is in London as well, and Mrs. Hughes asks her to spread the word among the staff about a clothing drive to benefit Russian refugees – maybe Bates has some old clothes to contribute? Anna donates one of Bates’ old overcoats without telling him. As Mrs. Hughes is turning it out, she is unsettled to find a London train ticket in one of the pockets – it’s from the day Bates said he was going to York and also the day Green was killed. Privately, she gives the ticket to Mary and they both suspect Bates of being complicit in Green’s death. Mary struggles with her conscience about protecting a potential murderer, but in the end, she burns the ticket.

As the family is heading out to an evening concert, Rose secures permission to join her close friend Madeleine Allsopp at the Embassy Club afterwards to hear a jazz band. Once the girls arrive, Madeleine is chagrined to encounter her father Lord Aysgarth at a table with a real-life couple: the (pre-Wallis Simpson) Prince of Wales and his married mistress Freda Dudley Ward. Madeleine introduces Rose to them all.

Back in Downton village, Lord Merton, in white tie and tails enroute to a formal dinner, drops in on Isobel, who is embarrassed to be slumming it with a bowl of soup on a tray. He asks if she’s planning to attend Rose’s ball, suggesting that if she is, they could go together. Isobel, discomfited by his interest, is reluctant to go but ultimately decides to travel down with Violet.

The next day, Charles Blake escorts Mary to an art exhibition. They are strolling through the museum when they encounter Rose with Freda and Tony Gillingham, who seems to pop up everywhere Mary is, to Blake’s irritation. Mary invites them all to an after-dinner gathering at the Crawleys’.

Americans in London

While this is happening, Harold and Martha arrive; Martha is miffed that nobody is home to receive them except Edith, who has never met Harold. Harold has clearly been dragged to London to avert a scandal back home and is not happy to be there nor to be touring Europe with his mother afterward.

The Levinsons have brought along Harold’s valet Slate, a brash young American on his first trip to England. He is clearly no fan of Martha and is eager to spill the tea about her to the Crawleys’ servants. Carson enlists him to help out as a footman for the parties; it doesn’t go well. Slate develops a fast crush on Daisy, who is decidedly not interested, and after he observes Daisy reading a letter from Alfred (he got the job at the Ritz), he approaches Carson to ask if Daisy is “available.” Bad idea, if Carson’s thunderous expression is anything to go by.

That evening as the Crawleys’ party is in full swing, Rosamond arrives with an uninvited guest: card sharp Terence Sampson, who has taken advantage of Rosamond’s ignorance to let him tag along. Robert, Mary, and Gillingham are unhappy to see him. Lord Aysgarth, however, is delighted – he and Sampson are in cahoots and they size up Harold as an easy mark. Madeleine, listening to them, is uncomfortably aware of her role – to butter Harold up. She tries, but is surprised when Harold treats her with humor and kindness despite being perfectly aware of her intent (he’s used to golddiggers).

Rose drags everyone, including Harold and Sampson, back to the Embassy Club for a second night. Rose, tipsy, reveals that Freda has a salacious letter from the Prince of Wales in her handbag. When Freda leaves the bag on their table to hit the dance floor, Sampson pockets the letter. When Freda finds it missing, she is greatly alarmed, thinking it will be leaked to the tabloids.

Rose, to Robert’s ire, confesses what happened, and that she suspects Sampson of taking the letter to extort the Prince. Robert, not wanting the Crawleys to be blamed, sets up a card game with Gillingham, Tom, Lord Aysgarth, and Harold to distract Sampson while Rose, Mary, and Blake search Sampson’s flat to retrieve the letter. A handwritten note from Sampson will have to be presented to his building’s concierge to gain entry, and Robert turns to his very own criminal mastermind for help: Bates, who claims to “know” an expert forger.

A thorough ransacking of Sampson’s flat turns up nothing. But another of Bates’s newly acquired skills come into play when the gentlemen are leaving the Crawleys’ home after the card game: Bates assists Sampson on with his coat and afterwards presents an elated Robert with the missing letter. (Bates’ time in prison was well spent.)

A Royal Debut

The day arrives for Rose’s presentation at Buckingham Palace before the King and Queen, with Cora sponsoring her. Lord Aysgarth, not content to have unleashed his daughter Madeleine on Harold, flirts openly with Martha at the reception. She, like her son, can sniff out a fortunehunter at 20 paces, but when Harold jokes about this with Madeleine, she is genuinely hurt – she has become fond of Harold. To make amends, Harold arranges a picnic to which Isobel and Violet also invite themselves. He and Madeleine have an honest talk – he likes and respects her and won’t marry her under false pretenses. They agree to write, and she will stop letting her father use her as a pawn. And Martha turns down Lord Aysgarth but does invite him to Newport – she will invite a coterie of rich single women who will be more receptive to his offer than she has been.

Unexpected visitors crash Rose’s ball that evening: The Prince of Wales with Freda. In a huge social coup, the prince leads Rose in the opening waltz to thank her for getting his letter back. As everyone else is dancing, Lord Merton arrives and to Violet’s amusement, sweeps a reluctant Isobel onto the floor.

To Blake’s dismay, Gillingham pulls Mary aside to ask about his prospects, yet again. Mary is gradually coming out of mourning, but still isn’t ready to consider a proposal from any of the men in her life. Gillingham, hoping to sway her, reveals that Blake is not an outsider as Mary had believed; he is actually heir to a baronetcy with a large estate in Ireland. This tactic backfires, as Mary is now more intrigued by Blake than she was before.

Edith is having second thoughts about having given up her child – also, she will have to take the helm of Gregson’s paper until there’s a definite answer about his fate. And having gotten word that Gregson may have been injured or killed in a fight with Nazi brownshirts in Germany, Edith decides over Rosamond’s vociferous objections to go and get her baby back. To that end, she comes home early from London and invites the farmer Tim Drewe to Downton to make a proposition: she will pay handsomely if he and his wife Margie agree to take custody of Edith’s baby girl and raise her as their own. Drewe accepts her offer, emphasizing that nobody must know about their arrangement except the two of them.

The staff is enjoying their seaside excursion. Thomas again threatens Baxter, but she tells him she is no longer afraid of him and will accept whatever consequences there are. She credits Molesley for strengthening her resolve.

The picnic food was such a hit with Harold that Slate delivers a job offer to Daisy: a chance to come to America as Harold’s cook. Daisy is dumbfounded but ultimately declines. She is aware that he is interested in more than her cooking and is flattered, but doesn’t want to marry him or go to America. Ivy steps up: could she go? Slate, more or less agreeing with her argument that one English cook is pretty much like any other, considers and reluctantly agrees.

As Anna and Bates get ice cream on the shore, Carson and Mrs. Hughes wade out into the surf. He is leery of the water, but she promises to hold his hand…to steady him, she says.