Downton Abbey Spoiler! Lady Edith's Shocking Meltdown

USMagazine, Sunday, January 13, 2013, 8:00pm (PST)

This post contains plot spoilers. If you’ve got Downton waiting for you on your DVR, wait ‘til later to read our recap.

More drama at Downton? You don’t say.

The easiest way to begin processing the second installment of Downton Abbey’s third season is probably just by looking at the pretty, vintage wedding dresses worn by the two eldest Crawley sisters.

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For her nuptials to Cousin Matthew at the start of the season, Lady Mary (and her eyebrows!) looked ethereal in a lacy, long-sleeved cream gown. Tonight, her younger sister, Lady Edith, was equally lovely in a satin dress with a similar silhouette, boasting ruching detail on the hip.

Sadly, Edith’s floor-length veil was soon in a pile in Downton’s main hall after the distraught bride-to-be – jilted at the altar by Sir Anthony Strallen, who gave into the pressure from her father and grandmother – flung it from the banister, before tearfully collapsing on her bed and proclaiming herself a hopeless spinster. (Unlike Edith, the Dowager Countess and Lord Grantham won’t be losing any sleep over the canceled ceremony; as the family’s sharp-tongued matriarch observed at the beginning of the episode, “[She’s] beginning her life as an old man’s drudge.”)

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Although Lady Edith’s big day didn’t go exactly as planned, there was still plenty to celebrate at Downton later that week: the estate is saved (for the time being, anyway – thanks Daisy!) and Mrs. Hughes is cancer-free.

Tell Us: Which Crawley sister’s dress do you like best? And, more importantly, what was your favorite moment from tonight’s episode?

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Downton Abbey Spoiler! Lady Edith's Shocking Meltdown