Awesome / Downton Abbey

Awesome moments in Downton Abbey.

Series 1

• Robert confronting the Duke of Crowborough for being a gold digger and leading Mary on.
  • Later his response when Carson asks if Bates can ride in the same carriage with the Duke.
  Of course. And if [the Duke] doesn’t like it, his Grace can lump it.
• Isobel saving a local man in the hospital by convincing Dr. Clarkson to remove the fluid blocking his heart then administering adrenaline.
• Bates threatening Thomas to stop bullying William. Granted, it doesn’t work but it’s still awesome.
• Lord Grantham genuinely cares about his hard working staff. He shows it in several ways.
  • His giving Bates a second chance in the pilot after bowing to internal pressure.
  • When it becomes clear Mrs. Patmore cannot continue with her cataracts blinding her, Lord Grantham arranges for her to go to London, get surgery, and then she could be welcomed back. He even has Anna go with her so she won't be alone. In a time when it would be less costly to just hire a new cook, he goes out of his way to help his staff's needs.
• Sybil arranges an interview with the telephone installer for Gwen and then permits them to use her father's library for the interview. To ensure their privacy, she plays guard to the door and even sends her father away. While he is more shocked than angry at the idea of one of his staff borrowing his library to do an interview for a job that would make her leave his employ, he quietly accepts his daughter's actions and walks away.
• It's a beautiful moment when William finally gives Thomas the beatdown he's been asking for all along after Thomas makes an insensitive comment about Cora's miscarriage. Made all the better by the fact that everyone stands around watching in tacit approval until Thomas starts to hit back. Then everyone jumps in to pull them apart. After it's over, Carson pats William on the arm.
• For the garden party at the end of the season, cooks Mrs. Patmore and Mrs. Bird get off to a rocky start to their relationship, but when Mrs. Hughes tries to continue the policy of the housekeeper ordering and maintaining the cupboards without the input of the house's cook, the cooks unite against this policy, calling it out as stupid. While before Mrs. Patmore couldn't get Mrs. Hughes to budge, the two of them together make Mrs. Hughes quietly withdraw from the kitchen, after which Mrs. Patmore happily accepts Mrs. Bird's assistance.

Series 2

• Robert chewing out the white feather girls in the series 2 premiere. The white feather girls are rude, stuck-up pricks who hand out white feathers to men not in uniform and quickly inform them that it's for cowards who were too chicken to enter the army. They do this to William during a fundraiser for the war, and Lord Grantham FLIPS OUT ON THEM, interrupting the entire orchestra as he loudly orders them to get lost.
• Cora supporting the free kitchen for convalescing soldiers that some of the servants have set up, and forcing O'Brien to work in it.
• When Dr. Clarkson, who all season has become more and more willing to fight against the Crawleys, declares that William can't come to Downton (even with them offering a private room and Edith to serve as his nurse) the Dowager calls in every favor she has to go over his head, get William's current doctors to release him, and then force Clarkson to care for him.
• When a dying William wants the local vicar to wed him and Daisy, the Vicar refuses, because he's of the opinion that Daisy just wants to reap the financial benefits of being a war widow by marrying William. Cue The Lady Grantham inviting him for tea and letting him know PRECISELY why you should never mess with the Dowager Countess.
  • When he keeps trying to be condescending to her Violet finally points out that he only has a job because of her son, he only has a house because of her son, and even the flowers in his church are from Robert's garden. The message is clear: We own you. Shut up and do as you are told.
• Violet playing upon Isobel's need to help people to get her to abandon her plans to permanently convert Downton into a hospital.
• Even though he is doing it to pressure Mary into marrying him, how Sir Richard deals with Vera is utterly brilliant. He goes to her, pretending not to know the Crawleys, and agrees to buy her story about Mary and Kemal on the condition that the story will ONLY belong to him and she isn't allowed to tell it to another soul. When she finds out he is engaged to Mary he calmly explains that there is no way out of the contract and if he sees anything about Mary in the papers he will invoke the clauses in the contract, bringing Vera to such ruin she'd be reduced to living on the street. Vera can only lean back in shock that she got outplayed.
• Anna finally laying down the law and telling Bates that he was going to marry her, now, because she's stood by him come what may for seven years, and she absolutely will not face their coming trials as anything but his wife because she refuses to be pushed to the sidelines with no proper place in his life. Guh.
• Sybil fighting for her love of Branson every step of the way in the season 2 finale.
  Robert: Know this, there will be no more money. From here on in, your life will be very different.
  Sybil: Well, bully for that.
• Matthew laying the smackdown on a very smug Sir Richard, after Mary breaks their engagement and Sir Richard insults both her and Lavinia. This is followed by Sir Richard trying to scrape together his dignity to tell the Dowager Countess that he's leaving and will most likely never meet her again. She shoots him down with "Do you promise?"
• Robert telling Mary to break up with Carlisle after he learns about how Carlisle threatens to expose the truth behind the Pamuk scandal.
  Mary: He'll keep my secret if I marry him.
  Robert: Once, I might have thought that a good thing. But I've been through a war and a murder trial since then to say nothing of your sister's choice of husband. I don't want my daughter married to a man who threatens her with ruin. I want a good man for you. A brave man. Find a cowboy from the Middle West and bring him back to shake us up a bit!
• Isobel Crawley spends much of the war years nursing in field hospitals on the front lines of the worst war in human history. No one can ever say that woman doesn't walk her walk.

Series 3

• Anthony Strallan spotting a nasty prank to make Branson appear drunk, and turning everyone in the room against the asshole who did it, including the guy's own father.
• Martha Levinson showing some extraordinary quick-thinking and improvising skills when she reorganizes the Crawley's entire fancy dinner for dozens of guests after the ovens stop working and there is no dinner cooked. For all her early cattiness and impertinence, she really saves the day for the Crawleys on more than one occasion.
• Edith's fervent commentary on women's limited suffrage getting printed in the newspaper, plus the support she gets from her brother-in-law as Matthew is visibly proud.
• When Rev. Travis tries to shame Tom for being Catholic, claiming that the Church of England holds God's favor, Edith, Matthew, Mary, and Isobel without missing a beat begin listing every country that is known for being strongly Catholic, asking if God hates them. Even Robert trying to defend Travis gets shoved aside as the family moves to protect Tom.
• All the Crawley women standing up to Robert when he tries to shame them into leaving a meal prepared by Ethel.
• When Thomas tells Carson that, while he may not be like other people, he is not foul. The quiet dignity in the line makes it a CMOA whether you're a Thomas fan or not.
• For 3.08: three words - "Her Ladyship's soap."
• Wilkins tries to out-O'Brien O'Brien by getting her drunk; O'Brien, for her part, detects Wilkins' plan to get her drunk, and tells her that now she isn't bound by any sense of loyalty to her, leading to O'Brien stealing Wilkins' job. Do not try to out-O'Brien O'Brien, it will not work. Only Thomas can - on occasions - manage to out-O'Brien O'Brien!

Series 4

• Cora's swift firing of Nanny West, after she discovers her being abusive towards baby Sybbie, to whom she spitefully refers as "that chauffeur's daughter" and a "wicked little crossbreed". Do not talk shit about Sybil's daughter when Cora's around. Cora takes over the situation, chews Nanny West out, gives instructions to Mrs Hughes, and sacks West without once raising her voice — which only makes her scathing fury all the more searing. Don't cross Lady Grantham.
• Carson and Branson repeatedly standing up for Mary in 4.01-02, letting her know that they are on her side.
• Edith gets a powerful one when she reminds Isobel, following Matthew's death, that she still has a lot to live for — "You're a grandmother."
• Mrs. Hughes seeing through Edna's Baby Trap ploy, and sending her packing out of Downton on nothing more than a guide to contraceptives and threats.
  • Mrs. Hughes declaring that if Edna pushes her she will drag her out of Downton, down to the village, and force her legs open so Dr. Clarkson can confirm she's not pregnant. When Branson asks her later how she knew of that test, Mrs. Hughes admit there isn't one... but she wagered Edna didn't either.
• Despite the Mood Whiplash ending of 4.03, there's Gregson thrashing Samson at poker, and affably threatening to out him as a cheat, thereby ruining his reputation and social standing, if he didn't pay back every penny that he stole off Robert and every man he'd fleeced at Downton. He saves Robert some embarrassment and a dressing-down from Cora, and elevates himself in Robert's eyes, who until this point has been steadfastly disapproving of him.
• Edith's entrance at the restaurant where she's about to meet Michael Gregson. She started the series in unflattering clothes and hairdos, always in the shadow of her sisters' beauty and grace and always pitied for it - and there she is, in a Gorgeous Period Dress and with her hair twisted into a chignon, brimming with confidence. Michael is appropriately stunned.
• Daisy giving Ivy the telling-off she's had coming for a while, with Mrs. Hughes backing her up.
• Charles Blake calling out Mary on her snobbish assumption that his primary concern should be securing aristocratic estates and the social standing of the families to which they belong.
  Charles Blake: Mr Lloyd George is more concerned with feeding the population than rescuing the aristocracy. That doesn't seem mean-spirited to me.
• Mrs Hughes tearing into Mr Green telling him exactly what she thinks of him, and to keep a low profile if he values his life. She's in a room alone with this man. And she completely loses her shit when he claims that both he and Anna were to blame. If Mrs. Hughes was a violent woman, this would be where she'd attack him with something.
• Molesley forcefully telling Thomas to leave Miss Baxter alone when he sees him harrassing her, especially because Molesley is usually quite timid.
• Rose sticks it to her mother by having a flawless debut in front of the King. Her mother had written her off - Cora didn't... and Rose performed the act she needed too with supreme fabulousness. And pleased the King by mentioning her father, whom the King likes.
• Bates singlehandedly saving the royal family from an adultery scandal.
• Martha Levinson turning down a perplexed Lord Aysgarth with her very own, self-assured suaveness.
  Martha: I don't really want to spend the rest of my life among people who think me loud and opinionated and common.

Series 5

• Thomas rescuing Edith from the fire. He charges right in with no thought for himself and scoops her up, then, after she's safe, volunteers to keep helping. Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
• In Series 5, Robert telling Miss Bunting to get the hell out of his house after she trolls him one time too many.
• Branson telling Smug Snake Lord Merton's son, "Why don't you get out, you bastard?" after he insults Isobel, Atticus, and himself (and, by extension, Sybil.)
• When Robert finds that Mr. Bricker has forced his way into Cora's bedroom while he was away, he gives him a truly epic thrashing.
• Cora having had enough of Robert basically blaming her for Mr. Bricker's flirtation. In a steely but soft voice, she tells Robert that she'll stop pestering him to come back to their marital bedroom if he's never, ever been in a situation where a flirtation got out of hand or a woman got the wrong impression from him. Otherwise, she expects him back in bed. Robert's Oh, Crap! face as he remembers his indiscretions with the maid Jane Moorsum from Series 2 is something to behold, and it only takes him a few seconds after Cora leaves to grumpily leave the spare bedroom.
• Cora in Series 5 Episode 7. Right after finding out that Edith has an illegitimate daughter, she rightly chews out Rosamund and Violet for not telling her ("What makes you think I'll ever trust you again?"), is properly aghast at all their "respectable" solutions that have only made Edith more miserable, and determines to find Edith and ask her what she wants. After finding Edith, and learning that what Edith wants is to raise her own daughter while still staying in England to keep Gregson's publishing firm afloat, Cora instantly comes up with a cover story that will allow Edith to do just that. One gets the feeling that Edith could've avoided much of her usual misery if she and her Secret Keepers had just confided in Cora in the first place.
• Violet to Mary after a season of her being exceptionally bitchy: "My dear, a lack of compassion can be as vulgar as an excess of tears."
• Rose telling off her awful mother after she tried to say her actions were all in the name of love.
  "I suppose we have different definitions of the word."
• Thomas protecting Andy after Mrs Denker has lured the latter to the Velvet Violin casino where he'd been taken to the cleaners. He goes with them to the Violin on the second night, wins back all of Andy's losses at pontoon, hands those winnings over to Andy, then lies to the casino owner, telling him Denker was only standing outside the Violin's door waiting to come in with the first person she saw so she could get free drinks for being the roper, leaving Denker to pay up her now considerable bar tab.
• After Rose and Atticus' wedding, a guest comes up to Robert and Cora and commends them from 'putting on a brave face' from their cousin marrying into a Jewish family. Cora smiles serenely, and gently asks the woman if she can remember that her father was a Jewish man.
• Shrimpie Flintshire tearing a new one into his wife - who deserves every bit of it.
• Lady Sinderby defusing the tension at the wedding when Lady Flintshire loudly declares that she and her husband are getting a divorce. As Lord Sinderby is about to blow a gasket and call the wedding off, she fixes him with a steely glare and tells him that he will allow the wedding, or she'll divorce him and put him through as much scandal and shame as the Flintshires.
• Robert gets two Awesome Moments that double as Heartwarming Moments in the Series 5 Finale. First, while going over the samples of the tombstone maker he's hired to make Isis' tombstone, Robert discovers the maker also makes small World War I memorials for individuals. Robert quickly realizes he can use this to get around all the objections to Mrs. Patmore's request to include her nephew in the main memorial, and at the end of the Remembrance ceremony, is able to announce the separate memorial for Patmore's nephew while giving a respectable reason why he isn't on the main memorial ("he was not from here...but he does have family here.") Cue Mrs. Patmore's Tears of Joy. The second moment is when he figures out all by himself that Marigold is Edith and Gregson's illegitimate child, and promises Cora not to make a row about it.
  Robert: It's an unusual sensation, having a secret in the house I'm actually privy to.
• Rose saving Lord Sinderby from the scandal of his illegitimate child. Before anyone else can find out, she immediately claims the mother was her friend – she even gets the entire Crawley family to help her pull it off. That took some quick thinking.
• Molesley and Baxter working tirelessly to help prove Anna and Bates' innocence - and their work ends up proving fruitful! Not bad for Molesley, someone who was considered by most to be a bit of a joke.
• The moment in Series 5 Episode 8 when Anna is arrested and Inspector Vyner learns that you do not mess with Lady Mary Crawley.
  Mary: I'm not "Miss", I'm Lady Mary Crawley.
  • Also equally awesome, Mary sticking up for Anna the whole way through and visiting her in jail.
  • Arguably, and considering how Mary spent all of Series 5 lording her sense of entitlement over everyone else, Inspector Vyner's unimpressed reply is quite awesome in its own right, even while his arrest of Anna is still pretty terrible.
    Vyner: I don't care if you're the queen of the Upper Nile.
• Cora shuts down Rose's future father-in-law when he keeps needling her about not converting to Judaism by pointing out her family kept their original last names. All he can do is admit she is right on that.
• Stowell, the butler of the Sinderbys, is an enormous snob who unites all the Downton upstairs and downstairs residents in their loathing of him; triggered by his open mistreatment of Tom, Mary comes up with countermeasures: She lets Thomas loose on him. And boy does he deliver—by the end of the Christmas Special, Stowell is utterly humiliated and fearing for his job. Thomas is rather pleased with himself.

Series 6

• Violet firing Denker for deliberately spreading unrest in the staff, ironically over the need to let some of them go.
• Thomas' plan to embarrass Gwen upon her return blowing up in his face spectacularly, as everyone both upstairs and downstairs is nothing but proud of all she's achieved, and he's left looking like a complete ass.
  • Robert calling out Thomas for exposing Gwen, who had come to Downton as a guest with her husband, as a former housemaid at Downton.
• Tom and Edith telling off Mary as she deserves to be after she destroys Edith's engagement by revealing Marigold's parentage.
  Tom: You're a coward, Mary. Like all bullies, you're a coward.
• After seasons of constant sniping and snarking at Edith, Mary finally pushes her too far by ruining her engagement to Bertie by telling him about Marigold. When she goes to "apologize" - i.e. continue to be condescending and refuse to actually admit that she was wrong - Edith finally just snaps at her. Mary is so stunned she can't speak.
  Mary: [seeing Edith is packing] Going away?
  Edith: Do you care?
  Mary: [patronizingly] Look, I wasn't to know you hadn't told him. It never occurred to me -
  Edith: [furiously] Just shut up! [Mary's jaw drops] I don't know what's happened; Tom's made you feel bad, or Papa. Or maybe it's just the same old Mary who wants her cake and to hate me too.
  Mary: [even more patronizingly] I never meant to—
  Edith: Yes, you did! Who do you think you’re talking to? Your maid? Mama? I know you. I know you to be a nasty, jealous, scheming bitch.
  Mary: Now listen here, you pathetic—
  Edith: You're a bitch!
• Edith ends up becoming a Marchioness through her marriage, thus having the highest social rank of the entire family, including her father!
• Violet decides that Isobel is going to be happy with Lord Merton. even if she has to physically force the two together (which is, fortunately, something they both want!) This results in her barging into his house and putting his family exactly where they belong — on the bottom of her shoe like a peace of dog excrement — while his son and daughter-in-law try to keep her out. As you can expect, it all goes swimmingly; Lord Merton agrees to marry Isobel and leaves the huge empty house to his children. Violet just ends it with "and who can argue with that?!" and looks rather smug. Her explanation for doing so put simply.
  Violet: As my late father used to say, if reason fails try force!
• Mr. Molesley originally began getting involved with the exams to help Daisy. Not only did he help her pass but he did so well that he is offered a teaching position. As the head of the school tells him, there are college graduates who aren't as smart as Molseley is!
• When Baxter realises that Thomas has tried to kill himself, she can't get into the bathroom to save him. So Andy, who's with her, kicks open the door.

The Film

• The opening. In a beautiful Mythology Gag to the first episode, the camera follows the journey of a letter from London, to its nighttime train trip, to the village, all this while the actors' names scroll on the screen and the music builds up in a crescendo. When the postman arrives to his destination, just as the Abbey finally appears from behind the hill, the main theme plays and the title appears in golden letters. We're home.
• Tom and Mary foiling the regicide attempt.
• Thomas' epic rant against Mary and Carson, making it clear that he isn't going to meekly take them shoving him aside because they don't know what's really going on. Complete with slamming the door on them.
  • When Mary petulantly asks if her father will fire Thomas for his outburst, Robert, who is vastly unhappy with Mary's tactics, smugly tells her he doesn't see why.
  • As Carson discovers just how many problems Thomas was smoothing over, Thomas, now free to just sit around, wonders why he's even there.
• The Downton staff successfully put the royal household staff out of commission and manage to serve dinner to the King and Queen themselves (notwithstanding Molesley's Open Mouth, Insert Foot moment).
  • The fact that it is ANNA of all people who comes up with the entire plot. Not Thomas. Not Bates. Not any of the known cunning and sneaky characters. ANNA is the one who pulls it off.
    • To get rid of the footmen, Anna enlists Thomas (looking for a bit of revenge himself), who gets the King's valet to impersonate a member of the King's staff and get all the footmen sent away. This in turn allows Mrs. Hughes to take back control of her part of the staff.
    • Anna then locks the King's royal chef and the King's butler in their rooms, allowing Mrs. Patmore and Mr. Carson to take command.
    • She blackmails the Queen's seamstress into fixing Edith's dress (forcing her to spend her entire night working and sleeping on the train) when she gets evidence she's a thief.
    • Finally, when the King's staff are ready to reveal what happened Anna (and the rest of the staff) point out that it would be an embarrassment for the King's staff if it was revealed how they were tricked away (and they have no proof anyone at Downton did it).
• Cora helping to ensure that Edith gets her wish that Bertie remain in England and NOT have to join the king on a long tour of the world. While everyone else tried to subtly hint at it to the King... Cora went to the Queen and told her Edith was pregnant. The Queen put her foot down and told her husband Bertie was staying.