Dishing on Downton,Week 2

Sorry I've been silent during the week. We were moving back from California to Arizona after the Christmas break and we'll be here for three months, meaning a lot of organization required, then two days of driving, sore back muscles afterward etc.

However great weekend--49rs won, we celebrated Three Kings a week late with our Arizona family and we watched Downton, episode 2 together.

Please do not read on if you didn't watch last night's episode and plan to.

Things I liked about it: new clues on Mrs. Bates being poisoned. We now know two things, I believe--that she planned to poison Bates when he came to tea that night. The mystery writer in me has figured it out. She put arsenic in a pie, AND she had already been poisoned herself. The neighbor talks of seeing an aura around her, glowing in the drizzle--classic symptom of arsenic poisoning! So this is what I suspect--she planned to poison Bates by putting arsenic in a pie. She planned to make herself immune to poisoning by gradually building up her tolerance to arsenic by having a little at a time. (This has been done many times). She took too much. Finally killed her.

We'll see if I'm right. And will Bates be released before he does something bad to his cell mate or the cell mate does something bad to him?  What else did I like? Great lines from Maggie Smith, as usual. Mr. Carson's revealing how much he cares about Mrs. Hughes. That whole storyline handled nicely. I like the way Daisy is developing into a more confident young woman and the hint of future romance with Alfred.
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Several things I didn't like: Sir Anthony walking out at the wedding. He struck me as an honorable man. He'd have come to see Edith before to tell her he couldn't go through with it, not left her like that.
The letter from Lavinia giving her blessing to the money so that Downton can be saved. A little too pat, don't you think?
Ethel having turned into something out of Les Miserables. I'm sure she could have found some honest laundry, ironing, mending work.
Thomas becoming too outrageously evil.

So what did you think? As good as previous seasons or not?