Downton Abbey series 5 episode 7 recap: Breakups and tears

Season 5, episode 7 | Aired Sunday, Nov 2 2014 at 21:00 GMT on ITV

The penultimate episode of Downton Abbey's fifth series had a decent combination of tears, laughs and anger, as things picked up steam before next week's finale (sniff).

The Edith storyline finally found some kind of a happy resolution, as Cora found out about the Marigold situation. It was great to see Cora show some proper emotion and annoyance, rightly taking it out on Rosamund and Violet.

Eventually, the four are able to keep the whole situation quiet from the others - including Robert - and Edith is able to 'adopt' her own baby, for the sake of the rest of the world finding out. Nowadays, this situation is so non-scandalous that it wouldn't even make The Jeremy Kyle Show.

It's inevitable that Robert and the rest of the family are going to find out about the real story eventually, but for now it's good that Edith can have a bit of happiness for the first time, ever.

Mary was on fine bitchy form too: "Why the song and dance, Edith's gone away, so what?". Violet had one of the best lines of the series to date, telling Mary: "A lack of passion can be as vulgar as an excess of tears", which is simply excellent from Julian Fellowes.

Isobel and Lord Merton announced their engagement, which was greeted with joy by everybody. However, his douche sons did not agree. Larry and Timothy returned, and were able to alienate and piss off pretty much everyone within a record three minutes. I bet Robert was actually wishing Sarah Bunting would return.

Isobel now doesn't seem convinced that marrying Lord Merton is the best idea, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's called off in the next episode. Violet worrying about potentially losing her confidant was genuinely moving too.

Lady Mary and Lord Gillingham are still technically going steady, despite neither of them wanting to stay together, purely down to the fact that they once had some 'how's your father'. Blake and Gillingham have a mini-bromance while trying to work out how to escape this situation so that the latter can get back with Mabel.

In the end, it all comes down to just Blake coming up with the ingenious idea of kissing Mary! Bloody hell. It works though, and like some kind of weird loophole, Gillingham presumably walks off into the sunset with Mabel, while Blake also appears to leave for good as he needs to work abroad for ages. After all that, Mary ends up with neither of them. We probably should have seen that coming.

The Green/Bates storyline didn't get much coverage this week, but something tells us that it's bubbling enough to explode next week in some fashion. Is Bates in the clear, or could one final twist emerge at the last minute?

The most enjoyable moment goes to Lady Rose and Atticus's sweet romance and eventual engagement. The pair have a genuinely lovely connection, and it's great to see a nice couple actually find happiness. Let's hope it lasts!

Boring storyline of the week has to go with Daisy pondering her future now that Labour aren't in power. Poor Daisy has had pretty much zero storylines this year now that she doesn't have anyone to pine over or be pined after. Let's hope that she will be given more interesting plots next time, if she decides to stay in Downton, that is.

Finally, because Julian Fellowes likes to make us cry at least 19 times per series, Robert's beloved and loyal dog Isis has got cancer, and is on her deathbed. Anything with animals and pets dying is always going to make me tear up, and this was no exception.

While we didn't actually see Isis pass away, it's fair to say that she won't be back next week. It was a genuinely moving scene seeing Robert and Cora settle for bed with her one last time.

Next week should prove to be an exciting episode, as storylines come to a conclusion and decisions are made for good. Will Tom stay in Downton? Will Thomas and Baxter stay mates? Will Bates get away with (not actually) murder? All the questions will be (hopefully) answered next Sunday.