'Downton Abbey' Season 4 Finale Recap: Rose Has Her Coming Out, Edith Wants Her Baby Back

by UInterviewFebruary 24, 2014, 12:00 amNews >

Rose has her big coming out in London and lands the Crawley's in the middle of a royal affair in Downton Abbey’s season 4 finale.

Eight months after the events of last week’s episode, the episode picked up with Edith (Laura Carmichael) already having given birth to her baby. The entire Crawley family is in London for Rose’s big day, and Rose (Lily James) kicks off her coming out party early with a disastrous visit to a nightclub with Madeleine Allsopp. At the nightclub, Rose befriends Freda Dudley Ward, the mistress of the Prince of Wales. After laughing about a letter Freda has in her purse, Freda notices that it is missing and accuses Rose of stealing the letter. In fact, it was Mr. Sampson, the man who cheated the men at Downton out of their small fortunes at cards.

After finding out that Rose might be at the center of a royal controversy – the letter was a love letter from the Prince of Wales – Robert (Hugh Bonneville) calls the family to action and comes up with an elaborate plan to retrieve the letter from Mr. Sampson’s home. While Robert, Harold, Tony, Tom (Allen Leech) and Lord Aysgarth keep Mr. Sampson away from home with a card game, Charles Blake, Rose and Mary break into Mr. Sampson’s apartment. When they return empty handed, Bates (Brendan Coyle) thinks on his feet and offers to help Mr. Sampson into his coat as he is leaving. He pickpockets the deceitful Mr. Sampson, taking the letter right out of his coat pocket.

Bates’ heroic save is shortlived, however, after Mrs. Hughes finds a train ticket in his old coat pocket that proves he went to London the same day Mr. Green, Anna’s (Joanne Froggatt) rapist, died. Unsure of what to do, Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan) takes the letter to Mary (Michelle Dockery), who decides to throw the ticket in the fire. Bates has done the family too many favors, and Mary has always been fond of Anna. Meanwhile, Mary has her hands full trying to decide between her two suitors, Charles and Tony. In the end, she leaves them both hanging, saying she isn’t ready to commit.

As for Edith, after hearing that Michael Gregson is alive and off somewhere fighting Nazis, she takes her baby daughter back from the family in Switzerland where she left her and returns to Downton. Since Michael left her power of attorney, she is hoping to use some of his funds to raise her daughter with the help of Thomas Drew. She lies to Drew, telling him that the baby’s mother was a friend of hers who died, but Drew sees through the lie. Still, he agrees to help her raise the child.

In other couples news, Tom and Sarah Bunting continued to grow close, but were also caught upstairs by Thomas (Rob James-Collier), who later spilled the beans to Robert in London. It is still unclear whether or not Tom will leave and take his daughter to America.

Downstairs, Daisy (Sophie McShera) is asked to go to America by Harold’s valet, Ethan, but she denies the offer and encourages him to take Ivy instead. Molesley (Kevin Doyle) helps Baxter stand up to Thomas and Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) and Mrs. Hughes continue to grow close when she convinces him to take everyone to the beach.