When I first started watching Downton Abbey, I was all over the place with loving all of the characters, especially the ones with grey areas in their characters. I didn’t quite like Anna May Bates (née Smith) because she was too good, and I didn’t quite like Mrs. Sarah O’Brien because she was a scheming harpy and so obviously wicked. All of the rest of the characters seemed well balanced and doing their best to live good, productive lives, to do their share to support Downton Abbey, and mind their manners and all the rest of it.
The one character I didn’t like, straight out of the box, was Thomas Barrow. And this is why: he’s an oily bohunk, a schemer, and he smoked, so I was pretty much done with him.
And then the plot threw this at me: Thomas Barrow is an evil gay character who will scheme and plot and plan to blackmail his former rich lover.
Naturally, I thought, TV would take the shortest path, and the gay guy is also evil, smokes, and has other bad habits such as manipulating anyone and everyone, lying when the truth would do as well, and plotting with the evile Mrs. O’Brien (see above and below.)
I like gay characters just fine. I like straight characters just fine. I like POC characters, I like white characters. I like characters who are green, striped, sideways, pillowy soft, flinty hard — I like characters. The details don’t matter as much as the…well, the details! But please don’t paint characters with the brush everyone has used before; it gets old, trite, and doesn’t make me feel anything. I’m all set up, with that old brush, to anticipate the banal and I usually get it.
But with Thomas Barrow, I got surprised. In the best way, in the sweetest way. And it’s not exactly that Thomas is The Shady Character With a Secret Heart of Gold (even though he is), because, come down to it, Thomas is still a berk. For all the good that’s come from some of the things he’s done, there’s been such a scum of oil left to trace the path Thomas took to get his own way, to climb that mountain so that he could be Better Than Everyone Else, you could slip in it and hurt yourself badly.
But Thomas only wants to be better than anyone in his own social class. For all of Thomas’ plans, he’s not a revolutionary like Tom Branson (the chauffeur), nor does he have a sordid once-danced-on-the-stage past that Mr. Carson has. No, Thomas fits right in. His sky is no higher than being Lord Grantham’s valet, but for that, he will do Just About Anything.
Because of that willingness to stoop quite, quite low, as I implied by my title, the best thing about Thomas is that he’s a Bad Boy.
First off, he was a complete asshat to Mr. Bates, but then , Mr. Bates can be A Bit Much, and I too was sometimes tempted to kick his leg out from under him. (Sorry, Mr. Bates, but Thomas is my favorite!)
Remember the time that he danced with Daisy just to throw William and Alfred line of hooey so that not only they, but also Daisy, thought that he, Thomas, was courting Daisy? That made Daisy cry. That made William and Alfred confused. It caused a ruckus in the kitchen when they were dancing besides. And what came of that? Nothing. It was just Thomas flinging his weight around. But, my, isn’t he beautiful when he does it?
Then there was the time he figured he’d get into Lord Grantham’s good graces by “finding” the Lord’s favorite hound, Isis. Oh, but first, first, you see, Thomas has to get the dog and “lose” it by hiding it in a shed in the woods. This works very well, not because Thomas finds the dog (someone from the village does), but because Lord Grantham discovers Thomas on his way back from trying to find the dog because she’s no longer in the shed where Thomas put her! Lord Grantham is very impressed, and Thomas, in spite of himself, gets a gold star.
Then there was Thomas stockpiling dry goods in order to sell them for a profit during the war. Well, that idea goes all to hell because after he gives a free sample to Mrs. Patmore, Thomas discovers that the goods are way over their expiration date. In response to this, does Thomas pick himself up and dust himself off? No, Thomas has a fit. A good old fashioned raging, kicking, and screaming fit. He loses his cool, and that, my friends, was when I realized there was a morass of emotion and feeling buried deep inside this sleek schemer.
Yes, it’s true: Thomas Barrow has Feelings.
Oh sure, Thomas shot a bullet into his own hand to get away from the front, and then Thomas Took Over Downton Abbey, not with grace and dignity, but with much gloating and posturing because, well, because this is Thomas, and a zebra doesn’t change its stripes.
But after, he sat with a soldier who had been blinded, and with Miss Sybil’s assistance, attempted to help the young solder recuperate. The evil Dr. Clarkson (who might or might not have actually killed Miss Sybil – my jury’s still out on that one) was going to have the blind soldier shipped out. He’s well, you see, and no longer needs the gentle confines of Downton. Well, the blind soldier kills himself, leaving Thomas in a State. Poor little monkey.
And, lest we forget, Thomas did a really, really good job of organizing and running the hospital at Downton.
After the Dance of Gay between Thomas and Jimmy (orated by Mrs. O’Brien), Thomas confessed to Mrs. Hughes that he was Gay, sobbing and crying that he was a monster. And then, he let himself be comforted.
I thought it was a very sweet scene; Thomas’ soul is flayed bare and open and he’s sure he’s going to be kicked to the curb. But Mrs. Hughes knows, has always known it seems, that Thomas is gay. In her mind, so what? There are worse things in this world of ours, Mr. Carson, as Mrs. Hughes would say.
Then, there was the time he protects Miss Sibbie. At first, there’s only a little scene when Thomas overhears Evil Nanny ordering the children’s tea. I remember distinctly that Thomas asks, “Why can’t Miss Sibbie have an egg with her tea?” And the Evil Nanny mumbles something, and then actually gives Thomas an order.
Thomas doesn’t follow those orders, but instead determines that Evil Nanny is a Bad Thing, and goes and tells some lie to Lady Grantham about Evil Nanny. Except, when Lady Grantham goes to check it out (because for some reason she trusts Thomas), she actually overhears Evil Nanny telling Young Master Crawley that she would protect him from the Demon Beast that is the half-breed who goes by the name of Miss Sibbie. Which gets Evil Nanny fired, and puts Thomas directly into Lady Grantham’s good graces.
He defended Jimmy at the local fair, and got himself beat half to death for his pains, but his reward was Jimmy’s true friendship. That was a jolly good story arc because what Thomas needs more than more notches in his bedpost are some good friends. People he can talk to about his next diabolical scheme, so he can check in with them and they can tell him, “Nope, Thomas old boy, that’s a bad plan.”
And then there was a time that Thomas cried over Sybil’s death. This was when I realized that yes, Thomas had feelings.
I saw him crying over Sybil, just on the verge of draping himself with sackcloth and ashes, and I had to ask: Were they friends? Did he really know her? And then he says, “She were the only one treated me decent.”
Oh.
So I had to go back and think about this. I had to go back and watch all the eps (I know right? Big punishment!) and figure it out. And yes, Sybil treated Thomas decently, but then, she treated everyone that way, because in Sybil’s world, that’s what you did. It was part of who she was.
But to someone like Thomas? To be treated decently without first having to prove that he is worth it? To him, that would have been the Crown of Gold.
This is why I really like Thomas. He values what he is given. Yes, he values (and sometimes covets) what other people have, and he sometimes pushes himself in where he’s not wanted. And yes, sometimes, he will Sweep the Leg in the case of Mr. Bates.
But Thomas, you see, does not want to be dancing with Daisy when he’d much rather be dancing with Jimmy.
He does not want to run some smarmy war-time business in a damp shed in the village somewhere.
Thomas doesn’t want to be running through the woods looking for a lost dog who wouldn’t be lost in the first place if not for him.
Thomas probably never enjoyed scheming with Mrs. O’Brien except that it was going to get him what he wanted.
And what’s that?
Well, most importantly, Thomas does not want to leave Downton Abbey ever. He does want to be Lord Grantham’s valet, because that’s the most secure, most trusted potion, but he will be a footman, the head butler, whatever it takes, just so he can stay in that place, that one place, that doesn’t move and never changes.
But all in all, what Thomas wants is a warm room, with a nice cozy chair to sit in, someone to tousle his hair and bring him a nice cup of tea. (And yes, his horrible smokes, too.) He wants something secure, and, if not quite traditional, then something, and particularly, someone, he can depend on.
For you see, what Thomas wants, what he really, really wants, is to be loved.
And that, in my mind, is a character worth caring about, even if he is, truly, a Naughty Boy.
