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Why didn't Michael Gregsen's wife inherit?


Nothing is said about what happened to Michael Gregson's wife - why wouldn't she inherit the apartment and paper? Did Edith take care of her expenses?

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She was no longer convenient so she was written off the show and never discussed and acted as if she never existed.

Fellowes needed a reason for Gregson to not be able to marry Edith, thus the wife. And a reason for why divorce wouldn't be easily obtainable, and thus a crazy wife. She was just a plot device to be used to justify a tricky piece of plot development that otherwise wouldn't have made sense without making Gregson appear a cad and bounder.

I think we can assume in the rosy tinted world of Fellowes' Downton Abbey that there was money set aside to ensure the wife's care in the asylum.

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Fellowes needed a reason for Gregson to not be able to marry Edith, thus the wife. And a reason for why divorce wouldn't be easily obtainable, and thus a crazy wife. She was just a plot device to be used to justify a tricky piece of plot development that otherwise wouldn't have made sense without making Gregson appear a cad and bounder.
According to JF Gregson was written and cast as a nice guy with a problem. And he's said, as if it isn't obvious, he likes writing courtship, not marriage. Like Don Draper, he only likes the start of things.

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I think we can assume in the rosy tinted world of Fellowes' Downton Abbey that there was money set aside to ensure the wife's care in the asylum.


Or we can assume that Fellowes dispatched her the same way he got rid of Matthew Crawley's inconvenient fiancée: he killed her off. 

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That’s the way. You’ve nailed it.

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She was no longer convenient so she was written off the show and never discussed and acted as if she never existed.


Ha ha, true. I'm partially convinced Gregson was never married but just didn't want to marry Edith (the hit it and quit it kind).

I think we can assume in the rosy tinted world of Fellowes' Downton Abbey that there was money set aside to ensure the wife's care in the asylum.


Yeah everything always works out well. I mean, it's not like Gregson was expecting to die in Germany but luckily rewrote it beforehand (as we all do before traveling).

I think it would have been interesting if when Gregson was missing Edith sought out the wife. But a lot of interesting things were actively avoided.

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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.

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Ha ha, true. I'm partially convinced Gregson was never married but just didn't want to marry Edith (the hit it and quit it kind).
Edith called another paper and asked them him--that's how she found out he was married.
I think it would have been interesting if when Gregson was missing Edith sought out the wife. But a lot of interesting things were actively avoided.
Those cut scenes shot up in the scriptbooks--written, and sometimes shot, but cut for time. Mostly they add something, but not too much, to the story.

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[deleted]

Reportedly JF was leaving the door open for Charles Edwards to return but his theatre obligations prevented it--he was in a hit play, and then another hit play. So we got season 5.

Edit: Absolutely nothing remotely improper or wrong about the now-deleted post I replied to. This really is obnoxious.

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Looks like my on topic message was once again pointlessly deleted, but that DOES make more sense if the character was likely to return and writers are at the mercy of actors leaving and sometimes have to recalculate away from original plans. It happens, like with Dan Stevens, that I think the story would be better if he stayed but I also get if he chose not to, the story must go on.

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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.

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I think the given reason was that he changed his will...

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Was Edith ever exposed to her parents as the writer of the letter to the Turkish embassy?

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I want to say yes?

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No, Edith was never exposed about the letter. Among the DA characters, only Mary and Evelyn Napier knew Edith had sent that letter. Neither exposed her.

Also never exposed was that Michael Gregson was married and his trip to Germany was to divorce his insane wife. Considering how quick and easy it was for Edith to discover Gregson was married, it was very strange that Robert/Cora never looked into Gregson and found it out also. Especially Robert who seemed to not approve of Edith's relationship with Gregson.

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Considering how quick and easy it was for Edith to discover Gregson was married, it was very strange that Robert/Cora never looked into Gregson and found it out also. Especially Robert who seemed to not approve of Edith's relationship with Gregson.


I guess you could just chalk it up to them being less observant overall of Edith, but it could have been interesting to add that layer if one of her parents found out he was married but wanted to do the honorable thing and if that parent should try to get Edith away from that unsightly situation or begrudgingly accept that Gregson was trying to inevitably do the right thing and if they should tell the other parent.

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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.

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Yes, it would have been interesting if one of Edith's parents found out the whole scene with Gregson. But like you said - "chalk it up to them being less observant of Edith".

Always found interesting Robert's line that Edith "could do better" when it came to suitors. It was Robert's attitude toward Strallan, Gregson and even Bertie when he was "just" an agent. But never saw Robert & Cora ever throw a party for Edith like they did for Mary to meet "eligible suitors".

What also surprised me with Edith/Gregson was that neither Violet nor Rosamund looked into Gregson's background.

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But never saw Robert & Cora ever throw a party for Edith like they did for Mary to meet "eligible suitors".
Maybe they weren't trying to get rid of Edith.

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I thought it was really weird they thought Edith was too good for Strallen. He was introduced as a possible suitor for Mary, was around at a time when a lot of young eligible bachelors had died in war, and had a title. I don't really buy an earl would be thrown off by the age difference, especially given the circumstances. It wasn't like Strallen was abusive or something where protecting his daughter would trump things he's always valued.

Not that I was shipping them, but it didn't seem to make sense they'd be opposed to him. It's not like they were exactly encouraging her write a column.

And I wish Violet and Rosamund did some sleuthing. They were always great to watch, so any excuse for them to get involved in a story was a win.

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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.

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When Strallan showed interest in Mary, than switched to Edith (before Mary told him he was considered a joke by Edith) it was before the war. I don't think the objection to him after the War was his age, so much as hiss unseen and unexplained wounds, which would soon turn him into an invalid and relegate Edith to the role of nursemaid. We know his arm was not functional, but there seemed to be some other underlying damage - perhaps mustard gas had affected his lungs - that they all believed would incapacitate him.

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Really? I don't recall there being any objection or thought that he wouldn't be able to father children or she'd have to take care of him like a nurse. Maybe there was, but that's an awful lot of massive assuming for a guy with an arm problem. I'm trying to remember, did Mary get together with Matthew while he was still paralyzed? because no one was ever worried a formerly paralyzed guy might have long term problems.

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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.

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I'm trying to remember, did Mary get together with Matthew while he was still paralyzed? because no one was ever worried a formerly paralyzed guy might have long term problems.

Mary did not get back together with Matthew while he was still paralyzed, no. Lavina was the one, who had to act like a nurse to him.

Robert asked the doctor if Matthew would be able to father children, so there was a concern about that.

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I thought it was really weird they thought Edith was too good for Strallen. He was introduced as a possible suitor for Mary, was around at a time when a lot of young eligible bachelors had died in war, and had a title. I don't really buy an earl would be thrown off by the age difference, especially given the circumstances. It wasn't like Strallen was abusive or something where protecting his daughter would trump things he's always valued.
In the fiction of that time, a woman who married a man disabled from the war was looked upon as noble. (In some classes, it still is.) No, it didn't make a lot of sense, particularly in light of the fact that aside from his very slight stammer, Strallan seems younger and more vital than Robert. If there was another disability, Strallan might have mentioned it when he was trying to dissuade Edith.
As for the arm, it's hardly disfiguring, and with one arm Strallan still manages something better than Robert does with two--the act of pushing himself away from the table.

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Yikes.

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In the first season they were quite open to Strallan. There are even scenes that were cut from the final shooting in the second season that showed Cora and Violet wondering what had happened to Strallan and why he never proposed. The implication was quite clear - they expected him to propose and were disappointed he didn't.

Fact is: Strallan has a title, an estate, a lovely house. The age difference would have easily been overlooked, especially as it was not unusual for an aristocrat to have a much younger wife (quite common, actually). Robert and Cora would have been all over him as a prospective husband of a proper background who'd take a spinster daughter off their hands.

If one looks at the story arches of Downton Abbey you can see how the first three seasons had their own arches that pointed to a wrap at the end of the third season. Which is why Strallan suddenly appears again at the end of the second Season and Edith is determined to have him back.

But when Fellowes realised the show was going to go on for a few more seasons he decided to change the storyline and dumped Strallan. If Edith had married Strallan then there really wouldn't have been much use for her on the show. He realised he could use Edith to explore a whole side of the 20s that he couldn't with Mary. So it was bye bye Strallan.

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But when Fellowes realised the show was going to go on for a few more seasons he decided to change the storyline and dumped Strallan. If Edith had married Strallan then there really wouldn't have been much use for her on the show. He realised he could use Edith to explore a whole side of the 20s that he couldn't with Mary. So it was bye bye Strallan.
JF's said that when he writes someone, he doesn't know for five episodes how that character will play--then he sees the actual film and knows where they might be taken. By the start of season three he knew he was losing Jessica Brown Findley, and he knew that Laura Carmichael could handle the modern women threads that Sybil had carried. By then, LC was no longer an unknown quantity. (Of all the cast she was the only one without form--this was her first credit. If she wasn't working out, they could have married her off or sent her off to drive an ambulance in France and get blown up.)
And he gave her a cataclysmic shock to reboot her from Dutiful Daughter to New Woman.

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No, Mary was much better person than the lying, sneaking bitch, Edith.

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[deleted]

I believe that you have the two sisters mixed up somehow.

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Can an insane person in a mental asylum inherit anything? I mean they're not of sound mind. Period.

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Obviously a will would provide for a trust and a trustee who would ensure that the Gregson's legal spouse, who was entitled to his estate, and whom he was legally obligated to care for, was actually cared for and not left to the mercy of a State asylum.

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What happened to Gregson? I just started season 5 but I want to know.

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Answer comes in S5 Episode 6.

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I don't know.

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