Downton Abbey Season 4 Episodes 7-9 Recaps: Times They Are A Changing (Season Finale)

Wow season 4 of "Downton Abbey" ended WAY too quickly. And who ever thought to do Downton Abbey characters as cats, is a frigging genius!

Anyway back yo the show. The Wikipedia episode overviews are listed below. There weren't any big cliffhangers at the end (but there was an eight month time jump). Here's where most of the major characters are going into season 5:

Lady Mary still has her two suitors-- Mr Blake and Lord Gilligham. She finds out that Mr Blake is not the pauper that he pretends to be.
Rose's engagement to Jack was broken up. She has her coming out ball at Buckingham Palace and of course the Prince of Wales is there. Cora's brother Harold (Paul Giamatti) and mother Martha (Shirley Maclaine) and also in attendance.
Edith has given her baby to a nice couple in Switzerland but changes her mind and wants to give the child to a local farmer. Gregson is still MIA.
Mr Greene is dead and Lady Mary, Mrs Hughes and Anna suspect Mr Bates is responsible.
Miss Baxter finally stands up to Thomas (thanks to Molesley's support). What will Thomas reveal about her past?
Violet continues to be delightfully snarky.
Everyone takes a trip to the seashore. The final scene with Carson and Mrs Hughes holding hands and wading was very sweet. Fadeout to season 5.

Favorite season 4 quotes:

"Just because you're a widow, I see no necessity to eat off a tray."- the Dowager Countess
"There can be too much truth in any relationship."- the Dowager Countess
"We must rise to life's challenges"- Lady Mary
"If you thought a man was involved in a crime but you thought right was his side, what would you do"- Mary to Lord Gillingham
"My world is coming nearer, and your world is slipping further and further away."- Martha to Violet.
"You can always hold my hand if it'll make you feel steady."- Mrs Hughes to Carson as they wade in the water.

From Wikipedia:

Episode 7: July 1922
Robert leaves for America to bail out Cora's playboy brother. Mary, told by Mrs. Hughes what happened to Anna, persuades Robert to take Thomas with him as his valet, leaving Bates to support his wife. The Dowager Countess falls ill with bronchitis, and is nursed by a selfless Isobel, who cheerfully ignores her patient's snippy comments. Mary and Mr. Blake visit the newly arrived pigs; finding them dehydrated, they carry buckets of water together, getting muddy and exhausted, and rather enjoy it. Edith and Rose go to London: Rose continues to romantically flirt with Jack; Edith decides to have an abortion, but backs out at the last minute. Lord Gillingham and his valet Green arrive, and Mrs. Hughes warns Green that she knows about him. During the servants' dinner, Green is rash enough to reveal that he went to the servants' hall during Dame Nellie's recital, which earns him a pensive and seething stare from Bates.

Episode 8: August 1922
Edith plans to give her baby to a tenant farmer, but Lady Rosamund suggests they go abroad, to Switzerland, and give up the baby there instead. The Dowager Countess grills them, learns the truth, and offers to support Edith with money; Edith remains troubled by the thought of giving up her child and not being a part of its life. Tom sees Rose and Jack in a teashop, and tells Mary, who first warns Rose off, then goes to London to see Jack; he has already decided to break off the relationship, to spare Rose future trouble. Alfred offers to marry Ivy, but she refuses him. Daisy is confused about how she feels, but gives Alfred up, and he leaves for the last time. Miss Baxter befriends the lugubrious Molesley, seeking information for Thomas, but they get to rather like each other. Lord Gillingham, who has broken off his engagement - but not yet told his fiancée - visits briefly, still pursuing and flirting with Mary; she, learning from Anna of Green's crime, tells him to dismiss the valet, and he agrees. The church bazaar is held, organized by Cora; during it, Lord Grantham arrives back unexpectedly, as does Lord Gillingham, to tell Mary that Green was killed in a road accident in Piccadilly. Anna is disturbed by the realization that her husband had a day off, supposedly in York, but will not say what he did there.

Episode 9: The London Season (Summer 1923, aired as Christmas special)
Almost everyone is in London for Rose's coming-out and presentation as a debutante, including Cora's brother Harold Levinson and their mother Martha, both visiting from the United States, much to Violet's displeasure, and Lord Gillingham and Mr. Blake, still chasing Mary, and mutually antagonistic towards each other. Tom has a chance meeting with school-teacher Sarah Bunting, who asks him to show her around Downton Abbey. When they go to the gallery to better view the hall, Thomas sees them; still resenting that he has to serve Tom, once a mere chauffeur, he tattles to Lord Grantham, slyly implying that Tom had taken a woman to a bedroom, but Tom simply states the truth. At a party, Rose's indiscretion leads to card-sharp Lord Sampson stealing a letter from one of the Prince of Wales's lady friends, Freda Dudley Ward. When he learns of it, Lord Grantham mobilizes the family to get it back, and prevent scandal; he enlists the help of Bates, who uses his forging skills to get Mary into Sampson's flat, but the letter is not found.

Mrs. Hughes finds a train ticket in Bates's coat pocket for York to London on the day Green died; she tells Mary, and they agree to keep quiet, but later Mary has an attack of conscience, and thinks she should reveal it. Only when Bates picks Sampson's pocket as he is leaving, and retrieves the letter, does she relent and burn the ticket.

Edith has had her baby, a girl, and left her in Switzerland, but she is regretting her decision. She ignores Lady Rosamund's protestations and decides to revert to her original plan and give her daughter to a local farmer. Gregson has still not been found or heard from but was last seen in a disagreeable interaction with a group of brownshirts. Thomas still tries to pump Miss Baxter for scandal, but she resists, helped by Molesley's support. At the celebration Ball, Mary is startled to learn from Gillingham that the egalitarian Mr. Blake is actually in line to inherit a huge estate from a cousin, so he is more suitable for her than she thought.

Harold's valet has a crush on Daisy, and invites her to move to the United States and be his employer's personal cook, but she declines; Ivy volunteers for the position instead. The Countess offers the staff a fun day out; Carson's suggestions are rejected as too dull and worthy, and Mrs. Hughes tricks him into choosing the seaside. The episode ends with the two of them holding hands and paddling in the sea.

Grade: 4 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). "Downton Abbey" is not everyones cup of tea but the people who like it, REALLY like it (and that includes me). I just wish the seasons weren't so short.When will season 5 air?