TEXT: [OPENING CREDITS] [SCENE_BREAK] Amiens, 1918 [INT. BATTLEFRONT TRENCHES - MORNING] [William finishes helping Matthew dress.] Matthew Crawley: Am I ready? William: Only you can answer that, sir. Matthew Crawley: They're going to chuck everything they've got at us. William: Then we shall have to chuck it back, won't we, sir? Matthew Crawley: Quite right. [Matthew grabs his helmet and they head out. The men in the trenches read letters from home, smoke, and pray.] Matthew Crawley: Now, there's no point pretending this is going to be easy! [Matthew turns to a soldier standing next to him.] Matthew Crawley: How are you, Thompson? You've shaken that cold? Thompson: I'm all right, sir, thank you. Matthew Crawley: Good man. We're nearly there, chaps! Just hold fast! Won't be long now. Wakefield: We're with you, sir. Matthew Crawley: I know you are, Wakefield. I can't tell you how much lighter that makes the task. [Matthew holds his watch, waiting as the seconds tick down.] Matthew Crawley: [?] Officer: Make bayonets! [The soldiers pull out the bayonets and fix them on their gun barrels. Matthew blows a whistle and the men climb out of the trenches yelling as they charge the enemy. Soldiers fall from gunshots and bombshells.] [SCENE_BREAK] [INT. DOWNTON, KITCHENS - MORNING] [SCENE_BREAK] [Suddenly we're in the Downton kitchens. Daisy stands frozen for a moment at the stove.] Mrs Patmore: Daisy, what's ever the matter with you? Daisy: Someone walked over me grave. [Mrs Patmore rolls her eyes and walks off with a pot.] [SCENE_BREAK] [The battle continues on the front.] Matthew Crawley: Forward!
SUMMARY:
August 1918. Matthew has suffered a serious spinal injury and is paralysed from the waist down. He is told that he will never walk again or father children. He wants Lavinia to forget him and sends her away, while Mary attempts to nurse him back to health. Mrs Hughes secretly helps Ethel and her baby since Ethel's lover, Major Bryant, has ignored her. William's injuries are fatal, prompting him to ask Daisy to marry him before he dies. Mrs Patmore persuades Daisy to go through with it; William dies a few hours later. Bates is taken aback when Vera promises to expose old secrets about Lady Mary and Pamuk's death, as he paid her to divorce him. When Mary discovers this, she confesses everything to Sir Richard Carlisle and asks him to help. He pays Vera to sign a contract with confidentiality obligations. Unknown to Mary, Sir Richard announces his engagement to her in his paper. On finding out she was tricked into silence, Vera warns Bates she will still ruin him.