Downton Abbey Season 4 premiered last Sunday to stellar ratings in North America after the U.K. got to see it several months before on BBC. Watch Downton Abbey Season 4 Episode 2 online free live streaming on PBS Masterpiece tonight to catch Episode 2 on your TV or on the go.
To recap last week’s Downton Abbey Season 4 premiere with plenty of spoilers, so consider yourself warned, six months have passed since Matthew Crawley was killed in a tragic car accident immediately after visiting his wife and newborn child at the hospital. He was the lone heir of Downton Abbey, and it remains a mystery as to who or whom is next in line as the will has yet to be read.
Without Matthew around to run affairs at the estate, Branson and Lord Grantham are at odds with one another about estate management and also are having difficulties keeping up with the death duty, i.e. inheritance tax. No one is taking Matthew’s death worse than this widow, Lady Mary, who dresses in black, seems a shell of her former self, and still struggles to truly connect with baby George despite half a year as his mother.
Cora has lost her maid Miss O’Brien, who left for India to serve Lady Flintshire. To quickly fill the void, she hires Edna, a former maid who comes highly recommended by Tom. Thomas, meanwhile, is quite suspicious of a new nanny for the children and tells Cora his feelings about the matter. Watch Downton Abbey Season 4 Episode 2 live online tonight to see where this plot thread goes.
In a cruel twist, Mr. Molesley no longer has a butler job following the death of Matthew. Feeling Mr. Molesley’s unfortunate circumstances, the Dowager Countess decides to invite him to a luncheon for a friend in need of butler services for the day. However, the Countess’ butler thinks this move is some backhanded attempt to steal his job so Mr. Molesley’s job is sabotaged and he comes out looking like an incompetent fool as a result.
The episode ends with Lady Mary apologizing to Carson after berating him for trying to get her to snap out of her funk, she cries in his arms, and attends the big luncheon without wearing black. The synopsis for tonight’s episode is as follows, “The fates of several characters converge at an opulent house party where a famous guest performs and a new friendship forms. But the flurry of guests and their servants put Mrs. Patmore on edge, Branson ill-at-ease, and Anna in peril.”
The official cast list next to tonight’s Downton Abbey Season 4 Episode 2 set in March 1922 includes Dame Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Joanne Froggatt, Penelope Wilton, along with special guest stars Shirley MacLaine and Paul Giamatti.
Downton Abbey Season 4 Episode 2 will premiere in the U.S. tonight at a start time of 9/8c on PBS Masterpiece.
