thumbs up

[chocolatepot]

I loved the latest episode so much more than the first two. Much of this is, I think, because:

- I kind of like seeing a conflict between Isobel and Cora where there isn't a clear Right Side. I felt like last season Isobel was a little too Right all the time, even in the one episode with the tree-allergy-rash where she was technically wrong. So seeing her a little grey is very nice.

- Especially when she was dismissive of Edith. I like h/c, which means I like some hurt feelings - I want everyone to recognize that Edith is awesome, but I need them to think she's nothing first. So I was like, "awwwww, Edith," at first, but at the same time I knew she was going to find something to be her niche, so. And I could tell it was going to be in this episode, just because they've been treating her like this more noticeably for the first two eps and I felt like they needed to be more positive by now.

- Speaking of which, this is exactly why I said, last week, that Edith seemed like a perfect candidate for the VAD. VAD nurses weren't really nurses - they acted more like orderlies, and did things the nurses needed to have done but didn't have the time to do themselves, like scrubbing things and making beds and tea and sitting with invalids. The VAD mainly wanted middle/working-class women, because they thought they'd be more willing to take orders, but it was a perfectly respectable wartime job. (I have to admit that I just kind of identify with the VADs more than the regular nurses in general, if you can be said to identify with a job.)

- Oh, Daisy. :/ That storyline is so difficult, because I feel for both of them. You really shouldn't get engaged to someone when you're not ready, but ... there's something so romantic about wanting someone to cling to when you're planning to descend into hell.

- OH, BRANSON! I am so glad for that heart murmur, I'm pretty sure he would have ended up executed or something if he'd done his original plan. And I'm glad we're finally getting into his political issues more explicitly.

- It's funny, I am all about O'Brian/Lang now, that hits two of my buttons at the same time (one character is messed up and gets comfort, one character is trying to reform) - but at the same time I still get so annoyed when O'Brian runs the house through Cora.

- I'm back on the Bates/Anna wagon! So-close-yet-so-far is a button of mine, and so is let's-have-sex-and-damn-the-consequences (in the right circumstances).

- Is it just me or does Samantha Bond always play this same character? Right? Lark Rise, Outnumbered ...

- I bet this officer that's flirting with Ethel is planning to just sleep with her and then abandon her. I bet you anything.

- I also bet that Edith's romantic endgame is with an ordinary soldier, and that Sybil is either going to end up married to a career or with someone else of their class with similar political views.