during the Great War. She uses her position to curry favour with Lady Grantham to consolidate her influence, although her actions usually benefit them both. Although scheming in nature and always looking to manipulate circumstances to her and Thomas's benefit, she has a conscience and softens up over the second series. She is one of the few servants who smoke on a regular basis. This is at a time when most women did not smoke and it was very rare for a woman to be seen smoking in public. O'Brien and Thomas were the only servants who never did like Bates and the duo constantly try to find faults and uncover his past in an attempt to force Mr Carson to sack him. She tells Bates's vengeful estranged wife Vera about the family's dirty secrets in an attempt to force Bates out and Vera uses that to blackmail Bates. In the last episode of series one, O'Brien comes to believe that Cora is going to replace her. Out of spite, she leaves a bar of soap on the bathroom floor while Cora is taking a bath. When Cora gets out, she slips on the soap, causing her to miscarry. O'Brien is wracked with guilt, and following the incident, she becomes even more loyal and devoted to Cora. When Thomas decides to buy extra food and supplies on the black market to sell to Downton's kitchen staff, she refuses to get involved in his business, but she sympathises with Thomas after he realises he has been swindled. After Lady Grantham is struck by a severe case of Spanish flu, O'Brien maintains a bedside vigil, attempting to atone for the miscarriage. Towards the end of the second series, she becomes guilt-ridden when she finds out her meddling in Bates's private life has started a chain reaction which led to Vera's threatening to expose the family secrets and bring the Crawley family into disrepute. O'Brien is one of several servants asked to testify at Bates's trial and is genuinely relieved when they learn that Bates had been reprieved. She also has a nephew, Alfred Nugent, who later becomes a footman at Downton. When it is revealed the new valet, Henry Lang, had shell shock, she was uncharacteristically sympathetic towards him and it was revealed that her own brother suffered from it due to the War. In the second Christmas special, she accompanies Lady