Someone Leaves a Plastic Water Bottle in Downton Abbey’s Period Shoot

Kristina Skorbach
8/14/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

It’s not a spoiler, but “Downton Abbey” released a promotional image of their period drama with a small mishap on the fireplace—a plastic water bottle. In a photo of Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) and Lady Edith Crewley (Laura Carmichael) wearing pre-World War One garbs a misplaced object has the fans questioning.

Was it just a mistake or is it a well intentioned clue that reveals something in the next season? The producers have not made any public statements. 

E! News pointed out that there is a chance that the water bottle is a clue. Perhaps the Crawley family will become the inventors of plastic in the next season. This assumption, however, means that the cast will be thrown too far into the future and thus doesn’t seem plausible.

Plastic bottles were first used commercially in 1947, but weren’t widely commodified until the 1960s.

“Downton Abbey” which follows an aristocratic British family, is entering its fifth season which will return to PBS on January 4, 2015.