‘Downton Abbey’ season 4, episode 7 spoilers: Joanne Froggatt on the Mr. Green dilemma
Why hasn’t Anna told the truth to the authorities on “Downton Abbey” about Mr. Green? This is a question that we hear time and time again, and to a certain extent we understand the frustration every time that the question is asked. This is a man who (Spoiler alert!) did some pretty unspeakable things to Anna earlier this year, and should be brought to justice; however, she has gone so far as to deny to Bates that he was a guilty party, mostly out of fear that Brendan Coyle’s character would murder him and she would be without the love of her life forever.
So in trying to explain the reasoning behind Anna’s move, which is hopefully going to play out more on both Sunday night’s new episode and the subsequent finale, Joanne Froggatt was fairly diplomatic. Take a look at her comments in an interview with the Press Association, where she explains that the actions of her character were appropriate for her time, even if this may not be something that she wants to personally see her do:
“This is something I wanted to know myself, because as a modern woman you want the character to tell somebody. Please tell somebody, and let the character get his comeuppance. But our historic adviser talked me through remembering being a woman in that time period, and all a woman had was her reputation and that was it. If she lost her reputation she lost everything – her job, her husband, her family.
“And in those days unfortunately the public still had the mindset of ‘There’s no smoke without fire’, ‘He’s a man he can’t control himself’, all things we in this day and age find repulsive to think of. But for Anna there’s so much at stake.”
But if you think that this story is going to be buried now that Bates at least knows about the rape, you are clearly wrong. The man is going to continue his hunt for the culprit, and eventually someone who was not involved in the cover-up is going to spill the beans to Bates (even on accident, perhaps) that Green was not present during part of the opera performance. This will be enough to lead to a confrontation, and at that point Anna better just hope that someone will be there to help pick up the pieces.
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Photo: ITV