Community Chat

[KathyPet]

I missed two episodes while on vacation but taped them and watched them last night. I am a bit fuzzy on a couple of plot threads so if someone could bring me up to speed I would appreciate it.

1. Mrs. Bates: A horrible woman who is interested in nothing but money. Bates paid her off in order to secure a divorce from her and to ensure her silence about the scandal involving Mary's ill fated night with the son of the turkish ambassador which she threatened to go public with. SHe broke her promise and told Bates she was going to sell the story anyway. Bates tells Mary and Mary then goes to Richard Carlisle and tells him everything asking for his help to keep the story from going public. He arranges to buy Mrs. Bates story with a iroinclad contract with her that says she cannot sell the story to any other news outlet and that he has control over when the story get published.

Carlisle then announces his engagement to Mary. WHen Mrs. Bates finds out she is furious because it is obvious he never intends to print the story. She confronts him and he warns her not even to try to take the story to anyone else because she has a ironclad contract with him for exclusive rights and he will sue her and she will go to jail. She is furious and says she will take Bates and the family down.

Question: How did Mrs. Bates find out about the "encounter" between Mary and the ambassador's son to start with and why is she so determined to ruin Bates and the entire family by having the story become public?

2. Mrs. Hughes finds Ethel and the Major in bed together. She fires Ethel immediately. Ethel then returns and asks Mrs. Hughes for her help because she is pregnant by the Major. NExt thing you see is Ethel in her cottage with Mrs. Bates with a baby who is obviously a few months old. Ethel was not pregnant enough to be "showing" when she was fired and the baby is obviously not a newborn.

Question: Are we just to accept that a period of 9 months or so passes by in the story line between Ethel's firing and Mrs. Hughes visiting her to bring food?