MISSISSAUGA – In reaction to hearing important plot elements from an unreleased episode of Downton Abbey, 56-year-old administrative assistant Deborah Dean lashed out at her company’s 22-year-old intern, Sophia Lau, because “it’s not OK to spoil Abbey” according to sources.
Dean was restrained by co-workers before she could do any serious physical damage, but Lau was left shaken by the incident nonetheless. Older employees of the human resources firm said they felt sympathetic to Dean even though she tried to attack the young woman.
“Deborah was already dealing with the time Sophie told everyone Gossip Girl turned out to be Dan Humphrey, but she went too far with talking about Downton Abbey,” copywriter Margaret Wendy said. “I understand it that she snapped. You just don’t do that when it comes to Abbey.”
Floor manager, Patton Oakden, said he doesn’t think he will fire Dean over the incident.
“There are a lot of mitigating factors here. After all, I remember how angry I got when my son spoiled the episode of Breaking Bad where Walt killed Mike before I could watch it on the DVD. I didn’t speak to him for a month.”
Downton Abbey episodes air in England months before their North American release on PBS. The divide between the show’s elderly viewers and younger fans has been known to cause tensions when it comes to accessing episodes in advance via internet pirating sites or other modern technology.
“I still don’t get why Deborah lashed out at me like that,” Lau said. “When I downloaded season 3, I even tried to give her all the episodes on a USB. All this violence could have been avoided if she’d just put that stick in the computer like I told her instead of trying to make it work in her VCR.”
