Rosings Park

The war years were obviously difficult for Siegfried. He has always prided himself on "his flock" being under his wing, but suddenly everyone had flown the nest and he spent the next three-ish years mostly alone.

In 1945, everyone is slowly returning. But, as I'm sure Siegfried is well aware of, because any truly lonely person will fear the possibility of becoming lonely again, and as Mrs. Stokes so gently reminded him, they won't be there forever. Audrey has improved her relationship with Edward and she's a grandmother now; Tristan is in a serious relationship with Charlotte; James has his own family. Everyone has their own #1 priority and it's never Siegfried (or at least that's what he thinks.)

Then along comes Dorothy. At first he's clearly reluctant. He almost seems uncomfortable.

The conversation he has with Audrey is illuminating to me. Siegfried quite beautifully admits he wants to find a soulmate. He's such a romantic person. Yearning personified. But then in waltzes Audrey who is always lovingly meddling, always thinking there's something that needs to be fixed, but who is not always perfectly in touch with her own or other people's feelings. Here she majorly misses the bull's eye by pushing Siegfried at Dorothy, because (paraphrased) soulmates don't exist and we should go for the next best thing?

It's just such a shame to me that this scene is read as OOC... But I can understand why. I wish the writers paid more attention to Audrey's private struggles. Perhaps if Helen hadn't been absent for so much of s6, we would have had more scenes with Audrey talking about her feelings. It's hard to understand why, in the understanding that A/S is endgame, she would push another woman at him. Especially after the steps taken in s6. If we had had just one conversation where she, I don't know, talks to Helen about someone mistaking her for Mrs. Farnon again, and expresses her awkwardness..?, then this move would've been much more understandable in line with their romantic development.

Meanwhile the actual wording of that conversation is beyond significant of course -- I don't think either of them realise it. I can't remember the exact words but "what if it [love] is right under your nose?" Was Dorothy ever right under his nose....... I don't think so, Audrey ;)

I saw some complaints on Twitter that the animal story usually ties in with character development, but that it didn't here. I'm here to say I disagree majorly! Mrs Stokes had a rich life on the stage, but in her old age she's all by herself on a Yorkshire farm (at the edge of the world, she calls it, or something like that?), with only an ageing goat for comfort. Then that goat DIES. Now she's all alone, forever.

And I feel like this is the catalyst for Siegfried, who fears loneliness more than anything, to reach out to Dorothy and invite her to the Drovers. This is what makes Siegfried decide: "Well, maybe Mrs. Hall is right, maybe the next best thing will suffice, if there's no soulmate for me. She's nice enough."

I do genuinely wonder if this whole storyline was added because of the double season renewal. Was s7 supposed to be the final one? Do we now need to fill 14 episodes with conflict, instead of 7?

I think s7 will (need to) be focused on the consequences of Audrey's actions.