Ethel's in the kitchen when Isobel returns, having slipped in without Ethel hearing her. Ethel offers her some tea, but Isobel says she's going straight to bed; she then turns back, however, to ask Ethel if she's happy. Ethel pauses and then says she's happy compared to what she was and Isobel starts to tell her about the Dowager Countess' plan, but stops herself and heads to bed. It's not like her to hold back the truth, but the news will surely keep and it's been a long day...

...emphasized by the Dowager Countess, noting the ringing of distant church bells, saying to Lord Grantham and Cora she can't believe she's still there when all the young people are in bed. Lord Grantham says the car's ready whenever she is, but first she wants to talk about Jarvis; she tells her son that Jarvis was always his father's man and never saw Lord Grantham as anything but "the young master." If that's true, no wonder Matthew was a whippersnapper too far. Lord Grantham points out that regardless, they have to find someone else, but the Dowager Countess thinks the ideal candidate is under their roof -- Branson. I did rather call last episode that this would be the way he ends up staying around, but the suggestion is revelatory for Cora, who breathes, "Tom!" The Dowager Countess, however, thinks that one of the many benefits of giving him the job will be that they can call him "Branson" again and since I never stopped, she'll get no argument from me. Lord Grantham thinks it's a "mad plan," but Cora disagrees, saying that Matthew and Branson can skip through the fields holding hands... I mean, "work on the new ideas together," and while Lord Grantham scoffs at the small experience Branson has had, his mother points out that from a practical standpoint it's still more than Jarvis ever had. She adds that surely Lord Grantham doesn't want his granddaughter "to grow up in a garage with that drunken gorilla," and Cora chimes in that they owe this to Sybil. You see, Lord Grantham, if you'd gone to bed early you could have managed to lose only two arguments today instead of three (and I'm not even counting Edith's announcement). Lord Grantham agrees to do it on two conditions, but the first of them is that Matthew must sign off and even Cora is like, have you heard of bromance? His second term is that the two women both admit it when they realize they were wrong, and we'll just let the Dowager Countess field that one: "That is an easy caveat to accept, because I'm never wrong." If that doesn't signal it's time to go to bed, Lord Grantham, I don't know what will.