Tom must come back soon - ok Fellowes! He and Sybil were much loved characters you cant just get rid of both of them - and their daughter too! Just not on - you will upset a lot of your viewers if you dont bring him back.
Agree Tom should still be in the show. Dont want him back as a failure though. That would be dreadful. Best thing is for Lord Grantham to become ill and Mary begs Tom to come back and help her.
Definitely don't want Tom to be a failure.
Wanting Tom to stay in the series purely for aesthetic reasons (eg, "he's hot!") is ridiculous - he's had no decent storylne since Sybil died, and was only brought into the series to act as her forbidden love. Now that story is all played out, and she's dead, he's just an artifact character, and only there because the writers know he's popular, which is not really fair to the character (who I like, BTW). The writers should rest Tom, and let's catch up with him during the Seies 6 Christmas special - where (I hope) the Crawley clan visit Martha (and him) in Newport.
Julian Fellowes could have given Tom a fabulous story line after Sybils death but he chose not to because he is obsessed with the aristocracy and Mary who is based on his wife. Us Tom fans have suffered because of this but it is not too late for Fellowes to give him a decent storyline and keep him at Downton. He is the conscience of that bloody family for God sake! And Sybbie - everybody just adores her!
The only way Tom will return is if he has failed; we ALL know this.
Agree Toms story has sucked since Sybil died. His only purpose has been to show the aristos in a good light. Such a shame because he was one of the genuinely interesting characters on the show. Fellowes just blew it!
I liked him better too when he was courting Sybil. I'd have thought he'd risen in Irish politics, and might've become an ambassador to England for the new government.
I too hope he does not fail in America, that his relatives aren't involved in the Irish mob of south Boston. Certainly, I believe he would be more careful after having been exiled from his homeland and now having a child to look after.
A quick question for American viewers - is Boston anywhere near Newport? I ask because it sets up potential future storylines involving the Crawleys visiting Martha and tom
Today it is about a 90 minute drive , traffic permitting. They are about 70 miles apart, roughly the same distance the real Highclere Castle in Berkshire is from London. However, in the 1920s, there was no interstate highway system, in fact the first turnpike would not open until 1940. So it would certainly be a more ambitious undertaking in the 1920s than it is today. There certainly would be train service between the two locations, although I do not have any specifics on that.