With the exception of Isobel Crawley, most everyone on tonight's episode either gave or got bad news.
Really, no one has been in really good spirits so far this season. Is the dog happy at least?
But hey, there was a fashion show! And we did finally get to meet Mary's socialite nemesis, Mabel Lane Fox! And, as her name pretty much suggests, she was awful.
Let's get right to the big bombshells.
Mary makes a break for it
Poor Lord Gillingham. It's not like we really enjoy him all that much, but he's not a terrible guy. Well, until tonight.
Mary's just not feeling it, so when she goes to London to attend a fashion show, she decides to break the news to him in person. At a park. In front of a Peter Pan statue. I guess that's the way you cushioned the blow in 1924.
Gillingham's not having it, and basically says that if a woman of Mary's social class sleeps with a man then it's expected that she will marry him. For her part, Mary seems taken aback but keeps her cool, even when he desperately asks if all of this is because he's a bad lover.
Ugh.
Mary's all, "Dude, get it together." But Gillingham is just treating this as a minor setback. "It's something we just have to get through together!" he yells. Gillingham, when your girlfriend loses her job you "have to get through" it together, not when she says she doesn't want to marry you.
But the trip to London wasn't an entire bust. During the risque fashion show (a lady wearing a blazer and tie!), Mary spots Charles Blake, her other would-be suitor, who introduces her to Mabel Lane Fox. Reminder: MLF was once engaged to Gillingham -- until her pursued Mary and called off the engagement.
"It's not often you meet the woman you're jilted for," MLF coolly says as she meets Mary. Can we have more of these interactions this season?
Post-fashion show but pre-attempt-at-Gillingham-break-up, Mary dines with Charles, who feigns surprise when Mary tells him that she's turning Gillingham down.
"I wish I could work you out," Charles playfully says. Don't we all.
Merton goes for it
Though it had been all quiet on the Downton front last episode when it came to Merton wooing Isobel, he finally decides to make his move.
It's a very cute proposal, even though he says he would like to get on one knee but then he wouldn't be able to get back up.
Oh, Lord Merton! You're so old and playful about it!
Not-so surprisingly, Isobel is about to turn him down, until Merton, expecting this, eloquently explains that he's not doing this just because he's lonely or that it's expected that he should have a wife, but because he was genuinely fallen in love with her.
You can basically see Isobel's heart melting, and she agrees to think about it, which in Isobel Crawley language means "YES YES YES."
The Dowager seems not too pleased with the news. However her mind is occupied by other issues (see next).
Princess search
Rose is still busy reinventing herself as the Mother Teresa of Downton, and Isobel and the dowager surprise her with a visit to her "poor Russians" as the Crawleys decide to call them.
(Side note: I don't know what other space was available for Russian Revolution refugees in 1924 London, but surely they could have found a better place than the dark, dingy basement of a church.)