Season 2 - SPOILERS

Episode 10 - A Special Mischief

Not a particularly good episode this one. Just more of Elizabeth being an idiot. I guess the idea is to show Elizabeth as being bored and dissatisfied with her life and so willing to fall into anything that might bring her a little excitement.

It seemed that Elizabeth had managed to send her baby off with the rest of the family to Scotland while she stayed behind at Eaton Place. So the novelty of motherhood had worn off I guess. It also seemed that she hadn't learned anything from her brush with the Bohemians and so she had taken up with the Suffragettes.

As usual good old faithful Rose ended up carrying the can as Elizabeth got away with making a public nuisance and causing criminal damage as the Suffragettes trashed someone's house. Rose ended up in prison with a rubber nose up her hose, I mean a rubber hose up her nose in order to facilitate forced feeding.

The mysterious Julius Karekin came to the rescue and bailed Elizabeth out at Court and then managed to have Rose released from prison a few days later as well. He had his eye on the fair Elizabeth and was presumably expecting a quid pro quo.

Episode 11 - The Fruits of Love ( or A Pound of Flesh )

Finally Elizabeth finds happiness in the arms and bed of Julius Karekin an upstart Armenian who is doing very well for himself in the City. Lady Marjorie finds out about the affair and goes to plead with Elizabeth in her new position as the Madame of a hat shop paid for by Julius. Elizabeth rather unkindly exposes her mother's hypocrisy and past indiscretions although admittedly she was fighting from her corner.

In the meantime Richard and Lady Marjorie look to be about to lose 165 Eaton Place due to the effects of the deceased Lord Southwold's will. Julius Karekin hears the tale of woe as Rose tells it to Elizabeth at the hat shop and promptly sees to buying the house and signing it over to Elizabeth who then tells her mother that she will give it to her. Suddenly Julius Karekin doesn't seem like such a bad chap after all.

The longer this episode went on the more delightful I found it to be. From Elizabeth turning the tables and saving the day to Rose being overwhelmed by an abundance of fancy hats.

Episode 12 - The Wages of Sin ( or The Pram and the Scam )

Sarah the girl who can't say no has become pregnant to Thomas the chauffeur, scoundrel and part time criminal. At first Thomas is quite happy to see Sarah thrown out on the street without a reference but his criminal mind soon sees a way of extorting more money out of the Bellamy's.

So Thomas effectively threatens to expose the family secrets unless Richard and Lady Marjorie cough up 500 pounds so he can buy a garage business. In return he will marry Sarah and take the problem off their hands and keep his mouth shut.

Richard and Lady Marjorie should have taken them both down to Southwold for some hunting, shot the pair of them and fed them to the pigs. But unfortunately they pay the money and Thomas gets away with it again.

One of the closing scenes where Richard and Lady Marjorie go down to the servants hall and participate as spectators in the general bawdy merriment to celebrate the engagement of Sarah and Thomas was interesting. Was the writer indicating that with a few gins on board we are all the same base creatures underneath regardless of social status and class ? If so I don't buy it. Sarah is an amusing alley cat at best and Thomas is an outright sociopath.

Lady Marjorie showed her selfish and vindictive side in first wanting to keep Thomas as the chauffeur and dismiss Sarah and then wanting to dismiss them both when Thomas defied her and insisted he would marry Sarah. But then Lady Marjorie was all sweetness and light in the end when Richard gave in to Thomas and his blackmail by providing the money for the garage.

Episode 13 - A Family Gathering

That Armenian bounder Julius Karekin has had his fill of pounding Elizabeth's flesh and has moved on to his next conquest. Elizabeth is heartbroken of course as she had hoped that he was "the one". She later confides to Richard her father that she had hoped to marry Karekin and have a family, conveniently forgetting that she already has a child.

And James is back from India with Phyllis the Regimental Vet's daughter. A loud and robust horsey girl who proceeds to make a bit of a spectacle of herself. Completely unsuitable of course but James has seemingly convinced himself that he needs to marry and start a family and Phyllis was agreeable, said yes and well dammit he must be in love with her ! And then Sarah bursts in "...and the walls came tumbling down " !

Oh and the King is dead, it's Lady Marjorie's birthday and Thomas and Sarah gatecrash the party.

James reminds me somewhat of Sebastian Flyte from Brideshead Revisited. He has the same unerring if not quite so intense propensity for sabotaging himself.

And it's a relieved goodbye to Sarah and Thomas who, while they have definitely had their moments, have outstayed their welcome. A spin off show featuring the two characters was produced.

Also goodbye to Elizabeth who was never seen on the show again as she met and married an American and moved to New York, or so the story goes. But she didn't take Rose with her did she ? Nicola Pagett apparently took offense at not being included in the cast for a proposed but never made Upstairs, Downstairs film and quit, or so the story goes.