In the sophisticated soap opera "Downton Abbey," melodrama ran especially high in last night's episode for the second season. As the cliche goes, war changes everything and the war wounded Matthew in a way he can no longer perform as a man, William dies after lingering for a few days and marrying Daisey, and Mary becomes somewhat human as she tends Matthew. Here are the details.
One of the villains comes in the form of Bates's wife, who threatens to tell all about whatever and is stopped only by Mary's boyfriend of convenience, a media tycoon who prefigures Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. Now Mary is in debt to him. But the way she tenderly cares for Matthew, it's obvious where her heart is.
Since the war has only three more months to go on, the series will have to find its creative tension elsewhere.
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