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Post by ruffles on Jan 27, 2013 23:45:56 GMT -5
How's everybody?
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Post by meggie on Jan 28, 2013 1:03:43 GMT -5
Still in shock!! Wow! who would have seen that coming??
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Post by meggie on Jan 28, 2013 1:29:29 GMT -5
I'm still trying to process it all, but had to say how incredible the writing and acting were in this episode. The intrigue of OBrien setting up CuteNewFootman encouraging him to get closer to Thomas, Mrs. Crawley dealing with Mrs. Bird, Daisy's jealousy, the relief that Bates is innocent, and the birth of the baby brought us to a wonderful high, to all come crashing down and leaving us devastated and empty! Absolutely brilliant!
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Post by karenk on Jan 28, 2013 6:26:26 GMT -5
I am so glad Elizabeth McGovern kicked Lord Grantham out of her bedroom! I was SOOO pissed at him!!! Charlie flees the lower level when DA comes on, but he could hear me screaming "You F***ING A**HOLE at the tv. I wanted to reach into the screen and throttle Lord Grantham and the snooty doctor. Bates may be innocent because of the pastry, but I still don't trust him. There's something about him I don't like. Go O'Brien, Go! Poor poor Jimmy... He knows not what he is in for.
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Post by meggie on Jan 28, 2013 14:03:36 GMT -5
Sadly, this was the reality of the medical profession at that time, (and maybe today). Title and power overroad common sense. This is off topic, but have you read "The Cry and the Covanent" about Dr. Semmelwies who was vilified for insisting that doctors should wash their hands between patients. It's an oldie but an excellent book.
"Jimmy"-that's NewCuteFootman's name-couldn't think of it last night. O'Brien has him in her sites all right.
Daisy sure has let a little power go to her head, but I suppose she's been down trodden for so long that it's almost to be expected especially when Albert(Alfred?) is involved. I'm hoping that she and Ivy will become friends and have some laughs together. Right now, Daisy is such a sour little thing.
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Post by Amanda on Jan 28, 2013 15:19:41 GMT -5
This was a major shock and tearjerker for me, because I loved Sybil -- she was, by far, my favorite of the sisters. Poor Tom, who was given no real say in his wife's care, is now a single father in a family where he doesn't belong, and has lost the love of his life.
I've never been angrier with any character on Downton as I was with Lord Grantham. He acted like a Class A Jerk, and I can't fathom how anyone would be able to move past that moment with him.
It also pulled at my heartstrings to see Thomas break down over Sybil's death.
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Post by karenk on Jan 28, 2013 17:41:24 GMT -5
I agree, I've never been angrier at a fictional character than I was at Lord Grantham and the snooty doctor. That was just horrible to watch because with all those symptoms, anyone who knows ANYTHING about pregnancy knew what was happening. How could the snooty doctor be SUCH a dolt (also the p word, but I'm trying to control my anger and my language). It's too bad they killed off Sybil because her character had loads of potential story left. sigh...
I'm glad they showed Thomas breaking down. He seems so unfeeling, that little scene gave his character more depth and vulnerability. I actually feel sorry for him with his crush on Jimmy. His gaydar must be broken, because Jimmy seems 100% hetero to me.
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Post by ruffles on Jan 28, 2013 19:53:30 GMT -5
Is their grief counseling for Downton fans?
Thomas's tears were a killer. There's such an unspeakable wave of depth for this heart wrenching loss. It has consumed all of Downton.
Daisy has well learned how scullery maids are treated. The jealousy is no help.
Duck Jimmy! Duck!
Doctors should team together for the good of the patient. The snooty doc made it impossible. They are living in a class based, male dominated, chauvinistic society. Very important is the loss of respect for Dr Clarkson due to his misdiagnosis of Matthew's spinal injury and Lavinia's death from the Spanish flu. It was a ghastly situation. Common sense was out the window, lost and gone. It was crazy with pressure.
What was weird during the crisis of Sybil's dying, is that the docs both stood off by the side watching from the far side of the room while she was surrounded by loved ones who were holding her hand and begging her to breathe. Seems like the docs should have been at her side responding to the seizures and doing something. ................ I was desperately hoping someone would become inspired to perform spontaneous, rudimentary CPR and start pushing on her diaphragm.
What I've yet to figure out is how in the world an actor plays dead. Time and again, I watch for signs of breathing as we are allowed to view the freshly deceased person. I have never been able to detect breathing movement. How do they do it?
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Post by ruffles on Jan 29, 2013 1:16:16 GMT -5
My granddaughter has added another thought:
In all fairness, the idea of a cesarean section in the 20th century was still absurd and more people died in hospitals than got better
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Post by karenk on Jan 29, 2013 6:33:06 GMT -5
This is also why malpractice suits were invented. Dr. Snooty Pants should have been held accountable. I think the doctors stood back because they knew what was happening and knew there was nothing they could do.
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Post by karenk on Jan 29, 2013 6:56:44 GMT -5
It's striking the difference in medical care in the last 100 years, isn't it? My PCP is a woman my age with children the same age as mine, we are both professional women working full time, so our conversations are very much peer-to-peer. If I ever questioned anything she was telling me to do, I would have no qualms asking her about it. On the other hand, very few of us (maybe Amanda?) have a "Dr. Clarkson" in our lives, a physician who has known us "since we were girls."
I also see a generational shift in attitudes toward doctors, not so much with my parents, who have the same doctor I do and will question, but with my in-laws, who seem to take everything a doctor says as gospel truth and would NEVER question their advice. It drives Charlie and me CRAZY!!! They don't know why they're doing something, they're just doing it because the doctor said to. Perhaps it's because we're from a generation who was taught to question authority. I have the deepest respect for my health care providers (and believe me at this point I have quite a crowd of them!), but I always ask about things I don't understand. They seem very ready to include me in the decision.
It's also interesting that Lord Grantham didn't want to hear about any bodily functions. I am an informed consumer when it comes to health care. He didn't want to hear the words "urine test," LOL! It makes me appreciate the courage of Mrs. Hughes when she had the lump in her breast examined. A good number of women died because their problem involved an embarrassing body part. My great grandmother died of some kind of bleeding "down there" and to this day my mother doesn't know if it was uterine or bowel cancer, it was just "down there."
I wonder what people will think was barbaric 100 years from now. I suspect chemotherapy will be seen as primitive. By then they'll have drugs that can precisely target a tumor. I'm sure the Granthams thought they were living in the most modern of times.
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