'Downton Abbey' Season 5 Spoilers News: Plot Recap for Episode 3
On last Sunday's episode of "Downton Abbey," Lady Mary is unsure about marrying Tony, Violet pressures Mary to get married, and a prince from Violet's past shows up at the abbey.
The episode opens with Mary and Tony in bed in a hotel in Liverpool. Tony wants her to stay and tells her that it won't matter if people find out about them since they're about to get married anyway. Mary says that although she won't be walking down the aisle anytime soon, appearances do matter and says, "I've been tarnished once and I won't be tarnished again." Later, Violet's butler, Spratt, sees Mary and Tony outside the hotel.
Back at the abbey, Spratt tells Violet that he saw Mary and Tony. Violet comes up with an excuse and tells him that the two were attending a landowner's conference and said that she knew that they were there.
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"What did you imagine you were witnessing?" Violet asks Spratt. "Nothing vulgar I hope. Nothing beneath the dignity of a butler of this house."
But of course, the Dowager knows what Spratt is trying to tell her. Later, Violet confronts Mary about her behavior and spending the night with Tony. Mary says that it must be shocking for someone of Violet's age, but Violet tells her, "Don't let us hide behind the changing times my dear. This is shocking to most people in 1924."
Mary reassures her that Tony has proposed and wants to set a date, only she's not sure when it will be. Violet advises her to set a date immediately as it is scandalous for an Earl's daughter to be seduced. When Mary says that she wasn't seduced, Violet retorts, "A young woman of good family who finds herself in the bed of a man who is not her husband has invariably been seduced."
Rose brings a number of Russian refugees to the estate for tea. It was revealed that Violet and her husband attended the wedding of Queen Victoria's son to the Grand Duchess Maria in St. Petersburg. Violet starts to reminisce about a fan that a guest at the wedding gave her, when she is shocked as she realizes that that particular guest—Prince Kuragin—is now in her home.
Mary instantly starts ribbing her grandmother.
"Granny has a past," Mary teases. "Thank God Papa and Aunt Rosamund were already born or we could spin all sort of tales."
"I met the prince when I was traveling with your grandfather," Violet explains. "Nothing could have been more respectable."
"Downton Abbey" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on PBS.
