‘Downton Abbey’ season 5, episode 2 (PBS) review: Michelle Dockery’s Mary and a choice

While the Golden Globes aired on NBC tonight, there was yet another installment of “Downton Abbey” over on PBS. With that, we are going to continue our spotlight series by talking about the decisions that Lady Mary made during this episode, and how unusual / daring they were for her.

Do we like Michelle Dockery’s character more now than we did going into this episode? Surprisingly, that is a more difficult question that we figured that it would be. In a way, we greatly admire Mary taking fate into her own hands, and deciding that she wanted to see where her relationship with Tony Gillingham went before deciding to marry him. How often does that happen in this time? Hardly ever, and it’s a great way to differentiate her more as a modern women in a far-from modern time.

The one part that we did not enjoy so much was her basically throwing Anna to the woods, and forcing her more or less to purchase a contraceptive for her because of her being a married woman. She could do it without (some ) judgment. Isn’t Anna going through enough? Interestingly, Joanne Froggatt won a Golden Globe tonight for season 5, but she is even more worthy for season 5.

In the end, the Lady Mary storyline is one that we appreciate, in part because we’re never meant to really love Mary all of the time. That actually makes us appreciate her more, since she is a true-to-life person. She’s not always happy, and she is going to take risks. Not all of them will end up working, and that is fine.

You can read our full review of this episode from when it aired in Britain at the link here.

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