A Few Notes on Thomas (Downton Abbey)

Thomas Barrow has always been a frustrating but compelling Downton character for me.  As despicable as he can be, he still pulls me in.  Now, that’s partly due to Rob James-Collier’s rich performance, which I love.  It’s also partly due to how strongly I identify with him as a queer character – that’s not an automatic “in” for me, but his situation in series 3 aired as I was preparing to come out to my family, and I think it kind of made me imprint on him.  This post tries to sort out this often-contradictory character (Thomas-related spoilers through the series.)

In series 1 and much of series 2, James-Collier’s acting is pretty much the only thing that keeps me from hating Thomas (now that the series is over, it’d be interesting to see how I react to him going back to those early episodes.)  By and large, he’s written as a broad villain, a haughty malcontent who’s constantly scheming to gain the upper hand over other downstairs folk, especially Bates.  I remember it annoyed me to see the one LGBTQ character written so “evilly.”  Under further consideration, though, there’s more going on here than it seems at first glance. 

Being gay in 1912-1925 doesn’t excuse Thomas’s conniving, but I think it helps explain it to an extent.  We see in the pilot how guarded he is.  Even though he seems to genuinely care for the Duke (more, it appears, than the Duke cares for him,) that doesn’t stop his plans of blackmailing the Duke if he needs to.  We quickly see that this is a pretty defining trait for Thomas.  He constantly tries to get one over on someone else before they can do the same to him.  In early episodes, he frequently suspects Bates of talking about/plotting against him, and he’s always on the offensive.  Living in a society where his orientation could get him fired, or even arrested, he’s cultivated a dog-eat-dog existence where he endeavors to always be the one to strike first.

As time goes by, we see more of Thomas’s vulnerabilities.  He makes brief, tenuous connections, like with the blind soldier he helps care for during the war, and he lets his defenses down just long enough to show he’s not as ambivalent as he pretends to be.  He (very occasionally) uses his scheming powers for good, whether intentionally (helping Andy out of a jam) or as a happy accident (playing a big role in ousting the officious nanny who, it turns out, was mistreating Sybbie.)  The Jimmy situation in series 3 is kind of incredible for him.  Thomas, the man whose self-preservation and self-promotion is always at the fore of his mind, takes an enormous risk with huge possible fallout.  He believes O’Brien’s lie that Jimmy is interested in him even though the evidence before his eyes tells him that can’t be true, just because he wants it so badly.  That’s a major shift in Thomas’s standard MO, and it tells a lot about him.

In light of these more sympathetic moments, though, it’s frustrating to see him continually returning to his old ways, putting his back up and plotting against those around him.  On several levels, I can understand why he does it.  After all, old habits are hard to break, even when he’s taking tentative steps toward trying to be better.  Showing any kind of vulnerability is fairly antithetical to his character, so when his kinder efforts don’t bear immediate fruit, he tends to dismiss them as hopeless and retreat into his isolation.  He’s also quite the self-saboteur.  As he observes in series 6, he disappoints himself when he keeps burning bridges even though he knows he shouldn’t and it won’t get him anywhere.  But while I get all that, I still hate to see him falling back on villainy.  I’m not even sure why, since his more admirable scenes are pretty rare, but I just root so hard for him to turn it around and it kills me to watch him blowing his chances.