This page is for tropes that have appeared in Downton Abbey.
For the rest:
- Take a Third Option: Several, of course, but most significant is the Dowager Countess' effort to repair Robert and Cora's marriage after Lady Sybil's death in Season 3. The nub of the dispute was that Robert had believed Sir Philip Tapsell that Sybil's troubles around delivery time was more or less normal and that her best chance of survival was to leave her alone; Cora, on the other hand, believed Dr Clarkson's assessment that the confusion, etc., were symptoms of toxemia (i.e. pre-eclampsia) and that she could be saved by having the baby by Caesarian section. Violet convinces Dr Clarkson to say, in essence, that both he and Sir Philip were wrong: that yes, it was toxemia, but on the other hand the Caesarian was extremely unlikely to save Sybil, and she would in all likelihood have died no matter what the doctors did. As awful as the assessment was, it helped Cora stop blaming Robert for Sybil's death, so the plan worked.
- Tantrum Throwing: Thomas executes a furious Trash the Set when he discovers his black market goods are all but worthless.
- Team Mom:
- Anna, upstairs and down.
- Mrs Hughes.
- Technical Virgin: Kemal Pamuk promises Mary she'll still be a virgin for her husband. God only knows exactly what happens before he keels over and dies in her bed. Rest assured, nothing untoward occurred. According to the script book, they cut out the line, Pamuk: "Or mine. But a little imagination, a phial of blood hidden beneath your pillow. You wouldn't be the first." According to his commentary Julian Fellowes deeply regrets this cut and never intended for there to be anything unimaginable happen to Mary.
- Tempting Fate: In Season 2, Anna and John Bates can't stop telling each other how in love they are and how happy they are going to be. Cue something horrible to keep them apart in the same episode.
- Thanatos Gambit: In Season 3 Anna figures out that Vera Bates poisoned and ate her own pie in order to frame Mr Bates for her murder.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Bates' reaction to Downton's potential sale: "That makes me sad".
- They Really Do Love Each Other:
- Used in a unique and strictly platonic sense between Thomas and O'Brien. He's attractive, young, gay and snarky; she's a plain, stern woman in her forties, and it generally seems as if their only interest in each other stems from a mutual desire to cause trouble. However, it's rather sweet when you find out that they have consistently and faithfully stayed in touch with one another during his years at the front, and she appears to genuinely worry over his welfare and displays a great deal of happiness (for her) when he returns safely from the war. Though this all pretty much goes out the window in Season 3, when they’re carrying a Conflict Ball.
- Notably averted between Mary and Edith; in Season 1 the two oldest Crawley sisters genuinely loathe each other and have no Aww, Look! moments to soften it. Following the death of Sybil after giving birth in the fifth episode of Season 3, Edith asks if she and Mary can ever be friends. Mary responds "No. But here and now, we'll pretend".
- The second season does give one moment, when Edith tells Mary about Matthew being MIA, not out of a desire to hurt her, but because she genuinely believes Mary ought to know. It's not much, but it is something after how much they're been at each other's throats.
- They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason
- Think Nothing of It: Matthew to Sybil.
- Those Wacky Nazis: A "known gang of toughs in brown shirts ... preaching the most awful things" are responsible for Michael Gregson's disappearance in Munich in 1922 (Season 4).
- The Three Faces of Adam: Robert and his two sons-in-law in Series 3. Tom is the Hunter, the political firebrand who feels caught in-between the upstairs and downstairs. Robert, Lord Grantham, is the Lord, who tries to maintain his place in the world through societal changes. Matthew is the Prophet, whose primary concern, particularly after coming into money which saves Downton, is to ensure the estate has a chance of survival.
- Throwing Off the Disability: Matthew goes from experiencing confusing tingling feelings to becoming fully erect (what are you sniggering at?) in the course of one episode, barring the occasional Hand Wave that he'll need to "take things slowly". Though the way time works on this show, the space between the two episodes could have been months.
- Thunder Equals Downpour: Played as straight as straight can be in episode 6-6. Mary and Henry are walking down a cobblestone street, a clap of thunder is heard, and torrential rain instantly appears.
- Time Skip: Several times at regular-spaced intervals throughout. The first season begins in 1912 (sinking of the Titanic) while it ends in 1914. The second season begins two years later in 1916 and ends in 1919. There’s a one-year gap between the Season 3 finale and the same season's Christmas special.
- Tomboy: Lady Sybil is less interested in ladylike pursuits than her sisters, dislikes fiddly corsets and skirts and eventually begins wearing ankle-length culottes instead of a dress.
- Tonight, Someone Dies: The Spanish Flu episode, as hinted in the previous week's On the Next montage. Actually used Manipulative Editing for the purpose, as the clip of a hand falling limp onto a bed was an entirely innocent gesture by a perfectly recovered Cora; Lavinia was the one who really died.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: If you're a nice, sweet character in this series you will wind up dead — William, Lavinia and Lady Sybil all die, and just happen to be the most sympathetic and pure characters in the series. All three even get a scene where they are mourned on their death bed.
- Too Happy to Live: At least one half of any couple who produces a baby in this show. Sybil dies of eclampsia moments after giving birth; Matthew is killed in a car crash on his way home from the hospital where Mary has just birthed his son. Cora miscarries as soon as she and Robert realize their unborn son will solve the Succession Crisis. Michael Gregson goes missing after he and Edith consummate their relationship, which later results in a baby daughter, and is later confirmed to have been killed in a Nazi-related brawl in Germany.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Robert in Season 3 seems to become vastly more arrogant and reactionary while his mother, formerly the show's token conservative, mellows somewhat and is given more chances to Pet the Dog. A lot of the change seems to stem from his disapproval of his former chauffeur now being a member of the family, his wounded pride at having to take Matthew's money, and his general creeping irrelevance to the household as a whole — he still feels all the same responsibilities as patriarch of the family, but regularly sees his opinions ignored or mocked as outdated.
- Took a Level in Kindness: O'Brien. Edith, after caring for the injured soldiers staying at Downton. Mary also grows far nicer over the course of the series (as Matthew points out at the end of Season 3). Violet in Season 3. Thomas, by the end of season 6, to the point that everyone is genuinely sad to see him leave Downton. Luckily, it doesn't last.
- Train-Station Goodbye:
- In Season 2 between Mary and Matthew. No, she didn't run after the train, but you know she wanted to.
- Not much later, Mary has a more sedate and business-like one with Sir Richard.
- In Season 4 Carson dramatically emerges from the steam to make his reconciliation with Griggs.
- Translation by Volume: Apparently, Rosmond communicates with foreigners by shouting. This is how Violet guesses that Rosamund's given excuse to visit Switzerland - to improve her French - is bunk."If Rosamund wants to be understood, she shouts."
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Matthew's ability to move between Downton and the Western Front in France.
- Understatement: According to PBS's episode guide for Season 4, "Anna encounters trouble" in 4x02. The "trouble" in question happens to be a rape. Needless to say, some viewers were not pleased
. - Unexpected Successor: Matthew Crawley goes from being a Mancunian lawyer to the heir of the Earl of Grantham and his estate, thanks to a couple of casualties in the line of succession and the current Earl's lack of a male child. Not that either Matthew or Robert are thrilled about this at first.
- The Unfavorite:
- Edith; Mary's the eldest and Sybil's the tearaway, but Edith is just the unassuming, dutiful Middle Child, and nobody pays her much attention. Lampshaded in the Comic Relief parody when she is introduced as "Daughter Number Two".
- Robert's unfavorite son-in-law, hands down, is Branson for most of Season 3. He might not have been thrilled about Strallan as Edith's choice of husband, but at least he was friends with the man, and he thought of Matthew as the son he should have had. But he didn't even go to Sybil & Tom's wedding and cut Tom out of the decisions concerning his wife's treatment during childbirth. Decisions which ultimately led to her death.
- Sybil also becomes this by association in Season 3. She and Cora are still on affectionate terms, but Robert is blatantly disapproving of her marriage and life choices.
- Unique Pilot Title Sequence:
- The opening credits of the first episode follow the news of the Titanic sinking towards the main characters; all the other episodes use a more domestic credit sequence.
- The opening credits of the Season 3 Christmas special also eschews the usual opening, featuring simple text overwriting the house’s inhabitants preparing to leave for Scotland. Weirdly enough, though, this doesn't actually have much to do with the biggest twists of the episode, unlike the previous example.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: A quick example with Daisy and Andy in the series finale. She is cold and disinterested right up until he gets the hint and stops paying attention to her. They sort things out by the end of the episode.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Found in the earlier seasons mostly between Matthew/Mary and Branson/Sybil (resolved favorably in both cases. Later, between Edith and Gregson, and Mary and Gillingham or Charles.
- Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: Violet and the Sixth Earl, of course, had Robert and Rosamund, but history repeats after skipping a generation (Robert had three daughters and Rosamund is childless). By the end of the second movie, all of Mary, Edith and Tom have one of each though, unlike Violet, each with a different partner. Mary bore George to Matthew and Caroline to Henry, Edith bore Marigold to the late Michael and Peter to Bertie, and Tom had Sybbie with Sybil and (as of yet unnamed) baby boy with Lucy.
- Unwitting Pawn: Thomas takes advantage of Daisy's crush on him to manipulate her into his plans to ruin Bates. She eventually wises up and can't stomach the dishonesty.
- Uptown Girl: Sybil and Branson fall in love in Season 2.
- Valentine's Day Episode: Season 4, Episode 1 has all the servants receiving Valentines.
- Vitriolic Best Buds:
- Thomas and O'Brien's conversations all start like hostile interrogations ("And just where have you been?"), but the two are thick as thieves, sharing secrets during their smoke breaks. Until their falling out in a latter season.
- By season 3, Violet and Isobel are undoubtedly this.
- Wartime Wedding: William leaves to fight in WWI and asks Daisy to marry him when the war is over; she doesn't love him and wants to turn him down, but accepts because Mrs Patmore tells her that William should not have to go to war heartbroken. He is mortally wounded in the trenches, and marries Daisy hours before his death because he wants her to have a widow's pension.
- Webcomic Time: While the first two seasons quite explicitly take place over eight years (April 1912 to January 1920), the characters tend to act like it has been a shorter period of time, and the younger characters do not seem to have aged eight years. In particular, (nearly) eight years go by with none of the Earl's daughters getting married. At their ages, in that era, this would be a huge problem — although the war provides some excuse for the delay, it's still cause for scepticism. In fairness, it is considered a huge problem with Mary, though Robert is not aware of her, uhm, past. It's less emphasized with Edith, as both Robert and Cora seem to have decided early on she's nigh-on unmarriageable. Sybil was just barely of marriageable age before the war, and winds up marrying Tom almost immediately after it. (A few of the actors have alluded to the time issues in the show. Dame Maggie Smith commented in an interview that "she must be about 110" by the show's last season, and Sophie McShera has joked that Daisy must have been about 10 when the show started. (Note that it's All There in the Manual on the Dowager Countess' part; she was apparently born in the 1840s, which would make her in her 60s at the start of the series and in her 70s or 80s by Season 4).
- Wedding Episode:
- Matthew and Mary get married in the Season 3 opener.
- Subverted with poor Edith and Sir Anthony in episode 2 of Season 3. The whole ceremony is prepared, but he leaves her at the altar.
- Rose and Atticus' wedding day in Season 5. Much commentary over the fact that it's held at a court instead of a church, Rose doesn't have a veil, etc. etc. etc. (Atticus is Jewish).
- Wedding Finale: The series finale is a wedding day for Edith and Bertie.
- Welcome Episode: Introduced Bates, Isabel and Matthew.
- Wham Episode:
- The ante-penultimate episode of Season 2 — where to start? Richard tries to pay Anna to spy on Mary, Carson finds out and refuses to work for him; Matthew gets almost total use of his legs back over the course of about ten minutes, and Violet wastes no time in trying to set him back up with Mary; Ethel bursts in on dinner to present her lovechild to its grandparents; Bates reveals he bought the rat poison his wife used to kill herself; Thomas invests all his money in a black market business and gets screwed over; Sybil elopes with Branson and her sisters chase her down and bring her back to the house.
- There's the Season 3 Christmas special, when Matthew is brutally killed in an automobile accident in the final seconds... right after everyone started breathing a sigh of relief that the succession was finally in the bag.
- Wham Line:
- "It seems James and Patrick were on board [the Titanic]."
- Even if you knew this was coming, the last line from the first season changes everything:Robert: I am sorry to announce that we are at war with Germany.
- "Are you saying all the money is gone?"
- Wham Shot: At the end of 4x07, Green nonchalantly reveals to the whole table, thanks to a little prompting from Baxter, that he came downstairs during the Nellie Melba concert when Anna was raped. The final shot of the episode is Bates, who had been led to believe that Anna's rapist was a burglar who broke in; his hands are trembling and he is glaring right at Green. Bates knows.
- The shot of Thomas lying pale and unconscious in a bath full of blood as Miss Baxter leaps to start binding his wounds is equal parts shocking and heartbreaking.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In Series 3, Carson says that now with Downton's future saved for the time being, he needs a new footman, Mrs. Patmore needs a new kitchenmaid, and Mrs. Hughes needs a new housemaid. The first two are addressed with Jimmy and Ivy, but the third is Left Hanging.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Mrs Patmore forced Daisy to pretend to be William's sweetheart as he went to war. It started with Daisy giving him a picture and ended with a deathbed marriage. Daisy got increasingly unhappy with the lie and ended up calling the cook out for it.
- When Mary walks in on Matthew and Mr Murray discussing the management of Downton on the morning after the death of her sister, Sybil, she rather gently chews them out for their poor taste.
- Cora blames Robert for Sybil's death after he makes the wrong call in a case of conflicting medical advice, and he accepts that there's some truth to this, despite Violet's attempt to comfort him.
- Branson calls Mary out for spitefully revealing to Bertie, Edith's fiance, that Marigold is secretly Edith's daughter, pointing out that it nearly ruined Edith's life.
- Carson, whose treatment of Thomas in season 6 drives him to attempt suicide.
- What Were You Thinking?:
- Sybil when she goes to a dangerous political meeting where she gets injured.
- Ethel when she gets involved with Major Bryant. Anna even tried to warn her.
- Who Murdered the Asshole: The concern is not so much who killed Mrs Bates or Mr Green, it's proving that certain people didn't.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The flower show conflict is almost a straight rerun of the Best Picture-winning 1942 film Mrs. Miniver (except that the old man is not killed in a German air raid the same night).
- The Wicked Stage: It's revealed that the Comically Serious head butler, Carson, was a vaudeville performer in his youth. Carson is deeply ashamed of this. The rest of the characters look on this revelation as amusing at worst, and Lord Grantham is actually quite impressed by it.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Sybil and Daisy.
- Women Are Delicate: The men think so, but the women prove them wrong.
- Women Are Wiser: A common pattern as Cora, Mrs Hughes, Sybil and Anna are generally more tolerant, sensible and level-headed than their male counterparts Robert, Carson, Branson and Bates.
- Worst Aid: Incompetent doctor Sir Philip — and Lord Robert's insistence in believing him over Dr Clarkson, who made the correct diagnosis—leads to Sybil's death from eclampsia in Season 3.
- Wretched Hive: Jazz clubs, apparently. The utter horror of high-born Edith and Rosamund (and even formerly middle-class Matthew) upon entering one is one of the funniest moments in Season 3.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Lady Sybil is stated as being 21 years old when she marries Tom. That same year at Christmas it is revealed that she's pregnant. In the episode where she gives birth to Sybbie she is said to be 24 when she ought to be either still 21 or at the most 22.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Basically all of Molesley's subplots.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Thomas's fellow stretcher-bearer in France says words to this effect right before a German bullet goes through his head.
- You Didn't Ask:
- Bates uses this once. Word for word.
- Later, in Season 3, Branson says this to Sybil after they have to flee Ireland when the authorities catch wind of his political involvements.
- You Do Not Have to Say Anything: Which may seem anachronistic, but in fact the Judges' Rules on police arrest procedure came out in 1912.
- You Just Told Me: How Carson gets confirmation of Mrs Hughes' health problems from Mrs Patmore
- Zany Scheme: All of Thomas' schemes to become Lord Grantham's valet, but plotting to steal and then return his beloved Labrador, Isis, takes the cake. Zany, perhaps, but note that this was the scheme that ended up getting him the job. Lord Grantham was so touched by Thomas spending all night out searching for his dog, that he decided to give Thomas a try after all.
