The staff and family make arrangements for Rose's (Lily James) wedding taking place in London, as Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) and Daisy (Sophie McShera) make the three tier wedding cake. Also Thomas (Robert James-Collier) passes the staff their inventory for the London trip. Rose shows off her wedding dress, she'll be wed at the Registry Office and then later have a blessing. Mentioning how her mother, Lady Susan Flintshire (Phoebe Nicholls) doesn't approve of Atticus (Matt Barber) and neither does Lord Sinderby (James Faulkner). The family discuss the wedding and also how they need to sort out the plans for building houses too, so whilst they're in London they can look into the matter of the costs, though Robert (Hugh Bonneville) is unsure as to how he is going to pay for it. Mary (Michelle Dockery) has another jibe at Edith (Laura Carmichael) and how she dotes on Marigold and Robert also notices too, when playing snakes and ladders with Sibbie, Mary referring to him as "Donk."
Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and Bates (Brendan Coyle) will check out the London house when they are there and Carson (Jim Carter) tells Mrs Hughes (Phyliss Logan) they'll need another footman too, so they'll hire one, just for the sake of appearances, since times are changing and yet another comment on this too. Anna is told Inspector Vyner (Louis Hilyer) is here again and would like to see her. He tells them about a witness who has come forward when Green was attacked and Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) says she will swear she saw the entire train ticket if it comes down to it. They thought the whole business was over. She will be in London so the Inspector tells Anna to come to Scotland Yard when she's there.
Kuragin (Rade Sherbedgia) visits the Dowager (Maggie Smith) who's just had breakfast and Denker (Sue Johnston) has laid out the violet dress for her, since it compliments her, talk about sucking up. He tells her even when the Princess arrives he will leave her since he wants to spend his time with the Dowager, wanting to be her friend and lover, but she doesn't think that will be easy, now what will everyone think? Spratt (Jeremy Swift) is still unhappy with Denker and with good reason tries to sabotage her job and hides one of the Dowager's cases under the bed, but the Dowager notices a case seems to be missing and asks him to retrieve it from its hiding place. Yeah, one up for Denker, but not for long.
The War Memorial will be unveiled back at the village and Mrs Patmore decides she won't be there cos it's too painful and besides her nephew's name won't be on it, which Carson relays to Robert. Also wanting Daisy to inform Mr Mason (Paul Copley) to be there by letter when she writes to him for William. Branson (Allen Leech) is determined to leave for Boston and they need people familiar with farm machinery, so he can make a good living out of it. Mary doesn't want him to leave and neither does Edith. But he knows she'll make a good run with the publishing business as she's a good writer.
At dinner with the two families, at the London house, they still talk of their religions. The Dowager asking if Isabel has changed her mind about Lord Merton and whether he'll be at the wedding. Rose's mother arrives and refuses to share a room with Shrimpy (Peter Egan) as well as threatening to make their divorce public, which Sinderby doesn't approve of. But the family tries to steer the conversation towards other lines. Atticus is staying at the Hornby which Mary adds is her favourite hotel (was that with or without Gillingham, ha.) His mother, Lady Sinderby (Pennie Downie) says he's having his stag night there. Shrimpy warns her not to tell anyone about the divorce until after the wedding and they discuss how they don't have any money left for any of the children. She wants Rose to do better than Atticus.
Molesley (Kevin Doyle) decides he wants to see the galleries and museums and the Wallace Collection, and Baxter decides she wants to go with him, as does Daisy. She's still working on the wedding cake, a joint effort with Mrs Patmore, but Baxter tells her she's good at creating things too.
At the stag party, Atticus calls it a night, but a woman gets too friendly with him and comes up to his room, even when he turns her down. She pulls down her dress to her shoulders and then comes out, obviously she was posing with someone taking photos outside, just to disrupt the wedding in the hopes Rose will call it off. Mary invites the four of them to lunch as a send off for Rose, that's Rose, Branson and also adds Edith can come too and calls it her treat, oh how charitable! At lunch, Rose is sent the photos and thinks that Atticus has been fooling around, Mary calls it with some, "tart!" Branson tells her to call Atticus and meet him to talk about it, telling Edith it's obviously some prank being played like they do at stag nights. He agrees to meet int he park, where Baxter, Molesley and Daisy see them arguing. Baxter says nothing's final until the ring's one her finger and Molesley asks her if she wants a ring on her finger too one day, which she does. Daisy decides she doesn't like working in the kitchen anymore and feels like she was in coal mine and has come up for air, she doesn't want to go back now. Molesley feels guilty that he's made things worse for her.
Denker tries to influence the new footman, Andy (Michael Fox) and wants to take him out on the town, with Mrs Patmore noticing she's trying to be a bad influence him and so does Thomas. At the police station, Anna is placed in a line up where the witness looks at all the women and Bates tells the Inspector he knows she didn't do it, but he calls it routine after what Bates has been through he should know that. Obviously it's not routine and especially not the way Anna was acting, she seemed nervous and was bound to look guilty, even if she is innocent. The Inspector having said that some other women have come forward and accused Green of attacking them too, which means some other woman did it and so Anna is going to be accused now, just to make sure the Down Abbey Christmas Special has some excitement for the viewer! More like repetition with the Bates killing his wife storyline.
Apparently Denker took Andy to a gambling den where he lost his savings and Thomas tells him next time she goes he's coming too, cos obviously he's going to get his money back. Atticus confronts his father about the photos and he admits he isn't happy about the wedding cos their children won't be Jewish since Rose isn't and Atticus is vocal that their children will make their on choices. He tells Atticus he didn't take the photos, well no, it had to be Susan, she comes across as more bitter anyway and we knew she's always been a troublemaker. The family arrive for dinner at the Sinderby's which is one again fraught with tension.
Mary tells the Dowager about the photos and thinks it could be Sinderby and asks Shrimpy if they should confront him. But Shrimpy knows better and tells Susan she did that to Rose, he checked the chequebook and saw the money was withdrawn. He tells her if she mentions the divorce before the wedding then he'll tell Rose what she did and she'll never forgive her. Which brings to mind the question of why Rose didn't bother to think it could have been her mother, especially since she's also so vehemently opposed to the wedding.
The wedding day arrives and Susan makes a speech saying she's divorcing Shrimpy to which Sinderby isn't pleased, but his wife says the wedding will go ahead, otherwise she'll leave him and that'll make an even bigger scandal. Shrimpy obviously not being there so she doesn't know she's done this, but he's happy for Rose and that she found Atticus. The Dowager tells Isabel (Penelope Wilton) she hopes she'll fight his sons and marry him since she's had a change of heart and other circumstances have led her to rethink her opposition tot he marriage. She'll have more of a fight on her hands since Merton doesn't have a wife but Kuragin does.
Daisy yells Mrs Patmore she's decided she wants to study in London and will hand in her notice, which upsets Mrs Patmore since she thinks Daisy a daughter, almost. Thomas accompanies Denker and Andy to the gambling place and he plays cards and wins back money so he can pay off his debt, they'll talk about his paying him back later but has a score to settle with Denker, so he tells Basil Shute (Darren Machin) that she comes in here telling him she's brought people with him, but he came himself and has free drinks after saying she recommended people there. He asks her to pay her bill before she leaves.
Edith wonders how they can leave their children alone with the nannies and Mary comments on how she's got the book on being a doting mother, also adding it'll be harder when she has one of her own. Rose wants to leave it all to the nannies too. Edith wants to get home as soon as possible. At the blessing, Sinderby invites Robert over to some gathering and he'll be pleased to go. Also Gillingham (Tom Cullen) turns up with Mabel (Catherine Steadman) and they're engaged. Mary telling him she needed him at the time and Edith tells Robert that he should give it up since he and Mary won't be together. Carson telling Mary that Gillinghma wasn't right for her either, but she's upset how the family is breaking up and especially with Rose gone and now Branson will be leaving too, she'll be left alone with Edith, oh how positively ghastly for Mary!! Ha. Robert notices there's something about Marigold but can't put his finger on it and sees how she dotes on her.
At the War Memorial Robert gives an added mention to Mrs Patmore and her nephew, Archie as he's had a separate memorial made for him which is on the wall which she's grateful for. With Mason also agreeing. He's sad but he also is proud of William and how he fought and died for his country. Mrs Patmore tells him Daisy will be leaving, but she's changed her mind. Robert finally works out that Marigold has a lot of Micheal in her and Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) asks him not to tell Edith just yet cos it'll be her secret for a while longer since even Mary and Branson don't know. Cora also asks if he could love his other grandchild as much as the other two and he believes he can.
Robert finding a way of financing the building of the houses by selling the painting, not cos of Bricker, but cos he gets angry when he thinks of how he didn't trust Cora.
This episode was timed to air on Remembrance Sunday, Lest We Forget, so the War Memorial was a fitting tribute for those who served, especially with it also being the centenary of the First World war.
Mrs Hughes mentioning how Anna is in prison but Carson doesn't think she will be convicted, she hates how they have such sadness and how they feel that way too when something like this happens. Seems they do have all the bad luck, especially with the same old storyline, first Bates was accused of being a killer and now it's Anna, as I said, saw this storyline coming last series. Robert being happy that he can be at least party to one family secret. yet there was no mention of the passing of Isis, which means next series and yes there will be a next series, that picture of him in the opening credits with said dog will be old and irrelevant. You can see there's not much to add in terms of comments for this episode in that it speaks for itself and was just a warp up of the storylines for this series, except for the Anna one, which appears will be dragged to the gallow!
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