mrv3000 | (no subject)

Aww, Sybil. Your storyline turned to crap and so they killed you off. I can't say that I'm overly upset at her death, other than the fact that she was wasted from S2 on.
What did get me sniffling were the reactions. At the top of the list were Cora, Mary and Edith. The three of them knocked it out of the park acting-wise. At least those were the three that made me sniffly.
It would be unrealistic (LOL THIS SHOW) if Mary and Edith would suddenly be BFFs now, but I can see them at least trying with each other.
Oh Robert, you're such a douche. Yeah, Sybil would have had a slim chance anyway during this time period, but his pompousness during all this - expect Cora to be angry at you for a long time, dude. Between this and the estate, he really should go fishing for the rest of his life.
I can understand Mary's reaction to Matthew (that was incredibly stupid and insensitive to discuss business then), but Mary's got to let go of her inherited pompousness as well, otherwise the estate is going to go down the drain. And she'll really only have herself to blame if she keeps digging her heels in with Matthew.
BATES. WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?

How did her storyline go to crap? She fell in love with someone beneath her class and fought for it despite societal conventions. She also found her footing as a nurse and fighting for things she believed in. She certainly did more then attend balls and swoon over finding a husband. I felt like Sybil was the very heart of the show.

IMO it went to crap in that they didn't do anything with her character. The whole Branson thing felt tacked on, and the nursing thing went nowhere. After the war she just sort of faded into obscurity.

ETA: To put it another way, I don't think they wrote her very well. The should have done 100x more with the character.

Edited 2012-10-15 01:02 (UTC)

Agree to disagree. :) I think Sybil was the glue of the family and had the kindest heart. I don't think she was done a disservice other then dying as I think there was more story for her. I will miss all three sisters being together.

That line about the last time the three of them being together in this life KILLED ME. It makes me tear up just thinking about it.

(deleted comment)

*nods*

I should clarify that it's not what Sybil did, but how they portrayed it. We had no idea how she felt about giving stuff up for married life (other than "I LOVE BRANSON OMG"). Even when she was nursing we never really had any insight into her character, other than "she is a nurse which equals progressive." We're meant to fill in a huge amount of blanks with her, which I'm not really willing to do. And at the very least she should have bonded with Edith lately, but...Sybil was always just sitting off to the side.

The romance + "modern mindest" of that time period can be done very well. Just look at Dorothy Sayers, who actually lived and wrote during that time period. Her character Harriet Vane angsted out who she was as a person and a woman vs how she was deeply in love.

Well Robert is still feeling useless cause hes making bad decisions that led to a death of his youngest daughter.

Cora, take care of your grandbaby and Tom and hold that grudge against Robert.

Matthew, good that you're worried about your potential to produce an heir but bad decision on talking to Murray when the morgue guys were taking your sister-in-law about the estate's mismanagement. Do you still have your job as a lawyer in Ripon cause if you did there would have been a good time to talk to Murray.

Mary and Edith, yes you two will be getting along.

Edith, be a writer and dont listen to Robert.

Ethel, not here for your storyline.

Isobel, first of all your an fing nurse you should have been there cause your a nurse and you know your shit and you know could have saved Sybil if you would have been there and you would have agreed with Clarkson.

Bates, not here for your storyline either but I hope you fuck up next week so badly.

Anna, for the love that is holy, if Bates die, move on.

Edited 2012-10-15 00:54 (UTC)

I have the feeling Tom and the kidlet will be leaving soon, and pretty much everyone will side with him against Robert.

And I would LOVE to see Anna move on. The funniest thing to me is the #free anna tag roaming around twitter and tumblr. FREE ANNA! :D

I agree we wont see more of Tom and the baby.

I thought the reactions were beautifully underplayed and the moment when the Dowager Countess wobbles across the hall, though, was a killer. Suddenly, she was old.

YES. It was definitely a GIVE US AWARDS episode, but they would actually deserve it. For as much as I sometimes laugh at the melodrama on this show, there were some beautifully understated and powerful moments in this ep.

BECAUSE BATES IS AMAZING!

*eyes you*

What? He is. Okay as amazing as a male character on that show can be. :D

I'm sad that they killed off Sybil, because she was my favorite of the sisters, but I saw that coming. I think Robert is going to be in trouble for a while! Now I'm actually more interested in what Edith decides to do with her life - I don't particularly like her, but Mary irritates me with her unwillingness to consider change (that goes for Robert too, what a shock!). I did like her and Matthew when they were trying to get their act together, but they're both such consistent idiots that they're losing my sympathy. Lady Violet continues to be the best.

I think a big theme coming up will be old vs new. Whether it's managing the estate or hiring a former prostitute. Robert will obviously dig his heels in, so it will be interesting where Mary ultimately winds up. Will she adapt or stagnate? It's sort of confusing that she's so "OLD SCHOOL" considering her dad just almost lost the estate. You'd think she wouldn't be drinking the kool-aid as much.

Although I tend to agree with you on Mary, I think it being the day her sister died gives her a bit of a pass on this one.

Matthew was bang out of order and he knows it.

PS- oh yes, everyone I watch this with is over the Bates storyline. Julien started emoting about other scenes whenever Bates came on, "Let's be serious, guys, this is basically a commercial break." :)

HA! Yeah, pretty much that.

I would have been all for Tom dying and Sybil struggling through single parenting and wanting to go back to a career! IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME. Instead we're left with Tom. I wanted the opposite of this.

I have absolutely no idea on the historical accuracy of how the childbirth thing went down. I sort of got the impression that everyone felt that hospitals were "common" and any proper birth was still done at home. (I've read a book where some upper class person had a home birth during this time, so maybe it was a thing?) However, Sybil was pretty out of it most the time to even say "GET ME TO A HOSPITAL."

Mary was bugging me a bit as well when she and Matthew were walking around. She's so defensive about her father that I just want to shake her a bit. Family loyalty is all good, but Matthew's family as well, and his opinion should be more important than her father's. (Unless he's being stupid, which he's not.)

I'm with you on how Sybil's storyline turned to crap but I still think it is rude that they killed Sybil and yet it looks like Bates will get out of jail. COULD YOU NOT HAVE KILLED BATES INSTEAD FOR THE "OMFG!"

I would not argue with you. :D