Something truly eye-popping happens involving Lady Mary who turns slutty, and there's a dashing stranger who arrives at Downton and then ... but I've said too much already.
In the 2nd episode of Downton Abbey this past Sunday viewers were introduced to Matthew Crawley, suddenly the new heir to the Grantham estate and his busybody mother (''I have to be myself, mother.'') Mother soon goes to work in the cottage hospital later in the episode.
Of course immediately Lady Mary shows up. Yep, clearly Matty Matthew and Mary Mary are destined for each other although they look at each other with such clear British upper crust disdain. (Ma-Ma has sent her down to welcome them and invite them to dine with the Crawleys.)
Elsewhere in the unmentionables (the Downton Abbey kitchen which is also the servants' home) the lowlies are working hard. Missus Patmore is making fritters and dear Daisy is taking them up to the upstairs. The seam of William's jacket is coming loose but the strict Mister Carson tells him to mend it immediately and commands him to never again appear in public in a similar state of undress. Yet it's Mister Carson getting caught stealing food out of the pantry and taking it into town for a former friend who's now a foe.
Maggie Smith as Lady Grantham is absolutely precious with her cutting and splendid one-liners like: ''What ... what is a weekend?''
Matty Matthew eventually agrees to be manhandled by the mopey Moseley who is allowed to dress him, with Matty Matthew realising servants need work to do.
It's Lord Grantham who tells us why Downton Abbey is wonderful while he's out for a walk with Matty Matthew. ''You see a million bricks that may crumble, a thousand of gutters and pipes that may block and leak, and stones that will crack in the frost. I see my life's work.''