#because ok AND ANOTHER THING. thomas was literally going to be made redundant anyway and carson was still going to give him a good referenc

[flowersandfashion]

I have very similar thoughts about his plotline with Jimmy. it's out of character and just very stupid writing. what was Thomas hoping to achieve by kissing him in his sleep? even if Jimmy did like him back, there's nothing romantic about that

it's like Julian Fellowes just wanted to punish him for being gay without even giving him a chance at a happy relationship

I think that sexually assaulting Jimmy is one of the only genuinely bad things that Thomas does and yet it's the only thing framed sympathetically. it's conflated with being gay generally and we're meant to pity him

you know what would have been a sympathetic narrative? if they were actually in a relationship and punished for an innocent love. if you still want all the angst, then you could have Thomas take the blame for it to protect Jimmy. then he would go to prison and Jimmy would have to live with that guilt while being separated from him, which also would have been way more interesting than the bullshit Anna and Bates prison plot that dragged on way too long

sorry let me rant about downton abbey 10 years later

Thomas's conversion therapy plot pisses me off so much. firstly, it's incredibly out of character. he never wanted to change to conform to society, he wanted the world to change to accomodate him. the man who said "it's not against the law to hope is it" and "I'm not foul, Mr Carson, I'm not like you, but I'm not foul" would NEVER

secondly, from a storytelling perspective, the only 'problem' is that he used infected needles. did we forget that Thomas was a sergeant in the RAMC? he knows how to sterilise needles and how to recognise and treat infection. this also shifts the blame to Thomas himself for getting sick and implies that the conversion therapy itself is harmless (Dr Clarkson says it's just saline solution)

thirdly, it's not historically accurate. I'm not an expert but conversion therapy was not at all common in the 1920s, even Sigmund Freud was against it. hormone therapy and chemical castration were barely developing let alone available to the public (I can't imagine what else the 'treatment' was supposed to be). the only practices that I can find evidence of were psychoanalysis and electric shock therapy

Thomas also mentions that he did electric shock treatment - if you really want to make a point about homophobia in the 1920s (and make Thomas suffer as much as possible), show that instead. watching him be literally tortured for his sexuality would have been far more impactful than him just... looking sweaty for a few episodes