Episode One
| directed by: Catherine Morshead | air date: September 21, 2014 |
February 1924: Both Robert and Carson are upset by the election of a Labour government. The villagers want to build a war memorial, and ask Carson to head the committee. Lady Edith has had no word from Michael Gregson for several years (he left for Germany in April 1922), and is upset at being unable to participate in the life of her daughter, Marigold. Tom Branson grows closer to school-teacher Sarah Bunting. Lord Merton pursues Isobel, who is uninterested. Baxter reveals that she was sentenced for her stealing from a previous employer. When Thomas tries to expose Baxter to Cora, she rebuffs him. Miss Bunting is invited to Robert and Cora’s 34th wedding anniversary, but causes dissent with her anti-aristocracy comments. Lady Mary agrees to have a secret affair with Lord Gillingham. Thomas rescues Lady Edith from a fire in her bedroom, restoring him to Cora’s good graces. Robert discovers Jimmy in bed with Lady Anstruther, who leaves before morning; Robert instructs Carson to dismiss Jimmy.
Episode Two
| directed by: Catherine Morshead | air date: September 28, 2014 |
April 1924: Thomas reveals Miss Baxter’s crime to Molesley; Baxter confirms everything. Suave art historian Simon Bricker (Richard E. Grant) arrives to view a painting. He flirts with Cora, and Robert considers him a bounder. Bricker is accompanied by Charles Blake, who concedes that Mary prefers Tony Gillingham. Mary asks Anna to procure her a birth-control device for her tryst with Gillingham. Tenant farmer Mr Drewe suggests Edith become Marigold’s patroness, allowing her to visit her daughter more often. Violet and Isobel visit Lord Merton’s country estate. Robert opposes getting a wireless, but rents one when King George V (voiced by Jon Glover) broadcasts a speech from the British Empire Exhibition. The local police sergeant arrives, and tells Carson and Mrs Hughes that inquiries must be made, as there was a witness to Green’s death in London.
Episode Three
| directed by: Catherine Morshead | air date: October 5, 2014 |
May 1924: Sergeant Willis reveals that a witness overheard Green telling someone he had been badly treated at Downton and disliked Bates. Violet’s butler Spratt spots Mary and Gillingham leaving a hotel in Liverpool; he informs Violet, who later tells Mary she disapproves of her behaviour. Mrs Patmore is distressed that her nephew, Archie, who was shot for cowardice during the war, has been excluded from his home village war memorial. Edith’s constant visits to see Marigold are upsetting Mrs Drewe, and Mr Drewe asks Edith to temporarily stay away. A developer wants to build fifty houses near the village, but Robert refuses to sell the land. A group of Russian aristocrats arrives for tea; one of them, Prince Kuragin (Rade Šerbedžija), knew the Dowager Countess when she was in Russia. Lord Gillingham is eager to wed Mary quickly, but she doubts he is the right man for her.
Episode Four
| directed by: Minkie Spiro | air date: October 12, 2014 |
May 1924: Violet takes Isobel to visit the Russian aristocrats, now living in poverty. Tom and Mary push the housing development. Rose’s father, Lord Flintshire (Shrimpy) announces that he and his wife are divorcing. Lord Merton proposes to Isobel. Miss Baxter witnesses Thomas self-medicating. Mary tells Lord Gillingham she will not marry him. Mr Bricker visits again, to Robert’s disapproval. Miss Bunting goes too far in goading Robert with her left-wing views, and is ordered to leave the house. Sergeant Willis returns to Downton; whilst in London with Mary, Anna was observed by an undercover officer visiting Lord Gillingham’s flat in Albany. This is explained as her delivering a letter to Gillingham from Mary. However, she then went to Piccadilly, where Green was killed, making the police suspicious.
Episode Five
| directed by: Minkie Spiro | air date: October 19, 2014 |
1924: Inspector Vyner of Scotland Yard interviews Mary and Anna about Mr Green. Mrs Patmore decides to buy a cottage with her inheritance money and rent it out. Mrs Drewe tells her husband to forbid further contact with Edith. Violet gets the entire story from Rosamund; they advise Edith to take the child to France. Charles Blake invites Mary to lunch, along with Tony Gillingham’s ex-fiancée, Mabel Lane Fox; he has a cunning plan to reunite Gillingham and Mabel, leaving him free to court Mary, but Mabel flounces out. Thomas is looking increasingly ill. With Robert away, Mr Bricker visits again and sneaks uninvited to Cora’s bedroom. Robert arrives back early and discovers them. Robert remains distant with Cora, believing she is also at fault.
Episode Six
| directed by: Philip John | air date: October 26, 2014 |
1924: Violet visits Prince Kuragin. Edith learns that Michael was killed by some of Hitler’s associates during so called Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. She inherits his publishing company and removes Marigold from the Drewes and goes to London. The police return and interview Miss Baxter. She admits to some suspicions about Bates and Green. Bates discovers Mary’s contraceptive device hidden in Anna’s drawer and accuses her of not wanting his child because she believes him a murderer. His unused train ticket would have proved he had never gone there, but Mary burned it, believing she was protecting him. Anna and Bates reconcile. Baxter takes Thomas to Dr Clarkson, and he admits he was attempting to “cure” his homosexuality. Cora and Robert reconcile. Carson asks Mrs Hughes if she would be interested in investing in a property with him. Robert’s dog, Isis, appears to be unwell.
Episode Seven
| directed by: Philip John | air date: November 2, 2014 |
1924: Rose introduces her new friend Atticus Aldridge and his parents, Lord and Lady Sinderby, to the family. Isobel announces her engagement to Lord Merton. Mrs Drewe tells Cora Edith’s secret, and Cora goes with Rosamund to see Edith in London. She suggests that Edith return home and pretend to adopt Marigold. Bates and Anna plan their future, and contemplate selling Bates’s mother’s house in London and buying a house or hotel nearby to let out. Tom has written to his cousin in Boston about moving to the United States. Lord Merton’s two sons are rude and insolent to Isobel during dinner. Atticus proposes to Rose. Robert’s beloved dog Isis is ill with cancer. He and Cora take her into their bed to comfort her in her final hours.
Episode Eight
| directed by: Michael Engler | air date: November 9, 2014 |
1924: Everyone is in London for Rose and Atticus’s wedding. Inspector Vyner calls Anna to take part in an identity parade at Scotland Yard. Tom shares with his sisters-in-law that he plans to move to Boston and become partners with his cousin. Inspector Vyner turns up unexpectedly and arrests Anna on suspicion of Green’s murder, as she was identified by the witness as having been on the pavement near Green just before the accident. The war memorial is unveiled, and Robert unveils a separate stone which he ordered that honours Mrs Patmore’s late nephew. Robert comes to the realisation that Marigold is Edith and the late Michael Gregson’s daughter.
A Moorland Holiday
| directed by: Minkie Spiro | air date: December 25, 2014 |
September and December 1924. Lord and Lady Sinderby invite the Granthams to the country estate they have hired for driven grouse shooting. The Dowager Countess reunites Prince Kuragin and his estranged wife. Carson and Mrs Hughes search for a house as an investment together, but Mrs Hughes reveals she has no money and cannot retire as she must pay for her mentally disabled younger sister Becky’s care. Carson reveals he has bought a property in both their names. He then proposes marriage to Mrs Hughes, and she accepts. Isobel declines Lord Merton’s earlier marriage proposal, not wanting to come between him and his sons. Robert learns he has a stomach ulcer, and agrees to stop drinking. He also tells Edith that he knows that Marigold is his granddaughter and agrees to continue the charade that she has been adopted by Edith. To absolve Anna, Bates writes a letter confessing to having attempted to kill Mr Green, and disappears, apparently, to Ireland. Molesley and Baxter find the pub where he had lunch on the day in question, proving he was not in London when Green was killed. Anna is released on bail. A big Christmas party is held for the Downton household. Tom has found work with his cousin in America and will be taking his daughter Sybbie with him. Bates returns and reunites with Anna. Violet confesses to Isobel that she and Prince Kuragin had attempted to run away together.
