Impact Model Mugging and Downton Abbey

Spoiler Alert.

If you haven't seen Downton Abbey Season 4 Episode 2 don't read this unless you don't care about spoilage.

Let's talk about the violent scene. The scene that required a warning before the show started. I thought that warning was weird. I thought, "was that in front of the other ones?" It didn't appear before the episodes about war.  I guess it's okay for children to watch  people being blown up. But not the controversial scene where Anna is attacked.

Maybe it's because I used to be a suited self defense instructor where women crane striked my eye targets on a helmet and then used their thigh to strike a large cup I wore for the groin target... but I really thought Anna was going to get away. I was like, "Eyes! Groin!" Because Anna is tough and married to Bates. I thought she was going to own that guy. Not necessarily  beat him down, but surprise him, hit him where it hurts, and then just get upstairs. She's in Downton Abbey. Everyone is upstairs. She even gets a punch in, but then in the next scene the guy (I don't remember his name) has her by the hair and is bringing her somewhere and basically you know she is going to be violently raped. I looked at what people were writing about it and I guess there was a lot of controversy over in and they seemed to say Downton Abbey was becoming a Soap Opera, that type of thing. That thought crossed my mind, and for some reason, even after Sybil died and Mathew Crawley died, I thought Anna was impervious to this. I mean even if she was attacked but fended the attacker off that would still be a harrowing event. But these things happen and I guess that's why Julian Fellows wanted to deal with it. I you just know because of the time and the situation that Anna probably won't come forward. The guy goes back upstairs and even says goodnight and he is going to get away with it. And now since she is a main character this event is going to continue to be an issue throughout the series.

All of that made me kind of overlook the other rape that happens at the same time. Tom Branson is date raped (except he is not dating the new Ladies Maid, although he sort of did go on a date with her a year ago at the Carnival when she put her arm through his without asking.)

But it is clear that she is also a rapist. She drugged him. You don't see her putting drugs in his whiskey (just like you don't see Anna getting raped) but you know it happened. You know because earlier Fellows ties both rapist characters together. The maid says, "I would have won.. a good omen"
The guy rapist asks, "A good omen for what?"
"Never you mind" says the female rapist.


Then you don't see her putting drugs in a drink, but you see Anna putting drugs in a glass of water. Drugs that are the excuse for why she has a battered face. So strong that it is believable enough that they would have made her pass out and hit the table. A lie, but credible enough, so the drugs are in the house.
Then the maid  gives Branson a whiskey.
"What is this?" he asks. If an Irish guy has to ask what he's drinking when he is drinking a whiskey, something is wrong. Then he comments that it is strong. That's also fishy. Then she encourages him to drink it all down and don't think about anything and just bring it to his room and drink it all down there.

Fellowes really wants to deal with rape and race this season. So even if you were to think, "If only Anna had known Impact" or something like that. the second rape shows that sometimes that doesn't matter. Tom is very strong, much stronger than the maid. But emotionally he is at a weak point, and she sees an opening. This will also be the second time that someone has put something in Tom's drink at a social event. The first time, Lady Sybil was still alive. Why does the Maid rape him? She wants to become pregnant because in her mind he will have to Marry her, the family will have to accept her and she will be an Arictocrat, or closer to being an aristocrat than she had been. We'll see how that plays out, who is blamed. Pretty sure Tom will only go to Ms. Hughes, just as Anna did. And Ms. Hughes will be the only one who knows about both rapes and the only one besides the participants that knows about either. I'm not sure if Tom's issue will blow over in terms of the House, or what but the two rapes are definitely foils for each other.