Interesting Downton Abbey Point(s)

Via Vulture:

After finding out that Lord Gillingham — who seriously will not go away — planned to return to Downton, Anna finally confessed to Mary that Gillingham’s valet, Mr. Green, was the man who raped her. “I’m terrified every time Mr. Green and Mr. Bates are in the same room,” she said. I can understand why it would be unsettling for her husband and her rapist to be near each other, especially when she’s trying to keep the identity of her rapist a secret. But first and foremost: Wouldn’t she be terrified just to be in the same room with Mr. Green? On the list of things that terrify her, shouldn’t “possibly being raped again by this horrible bastard” be first and “memories of previously being raped by this horrible bastard” be second, with “my husband possibly trying to kill this bastard who raped me” coming in a distant third?

When Julian Fellowes forces Anna to say things like that, it suggests that one man’s violation of a woman is really the story of how another man (Bates) will respond to it, instead of how the woman who suffered is dealing with it. That’s been the flaw with this plot line from minute one. Using Anna’s rape primarily as a (possible) setup for Bates to commit another crime trivializes the actual crime committed against Anna.

Also, I've mentioned many times on this blog that the writers for some reason HATE Edith, and the Vulture writer agrees:

“Sometimes I feel like God doesn’t want me to be happy,” Edith said. No, no, Edith. It’s not God who’s insisting on your unhappiness. It’s Julian Fellowes.