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War is looming, but the residents of Downton have matters closer to home on their minds. Cora discovers she is pregnant, which rather puts a spanner in the works with regards to Mary and Matthew. Mrs Patmore is sent to London to have an operation on her eyes, and Anna goes with her, giving her the chance to do a bit of research into Mr Bates’s past. And a misunderstanding leads O’Brien to do something terrible.
With the extra long running time, this was a pretty packed final episode. Still, all the characters got their moment in one way or another, even if happy endings were pretty thin on the ground. Sure, things weren’t all bad among the servants: Mrs Patmore didn’t lose her job; Bates turned out to be even more noble than we could have ever suspected; Daisy realised that William was a bit lovely; and Gwen finally managed to find a job as a secretary. They had some great moments, particularly Carson, first in his quiet championing of Lady Mary, and then in comforting her as she realised she’d lost Matthew.
But, then, none of the great Lords and Ladies (bar Sybil) were having much luck. Poor Edith (I found the family’s continued casual dismissal of her marriage prospects hilarious) lost out on her chance of marital bliss thanks to Mary’s calm, collected revenge for her letter to the Turkish Embassy. And Mary’s dithering cost her a real chance of being happy and settled with the actually rather charming Matthew. Michelle Dockery and Dan Stevens were brilliant over the course of the series as their characters developed from instant enemies to comfortable friends and then potentially more; I hope they get another chance in the second series.
As always, the very best work came from the older characters. It was lovely to see the warmth that has grown between Cora and Violet over these seven episodes, and Maggie Smith and Elizabeth McGovern were pitch perfect in their scenes together. Smith is rightly getting much praise for this role: she’s been given most of the best lines, and has taken full advantage of that fact, delivering them all beautifully. The small moment of agreement between Violet and Mrs Crawley was a nice pay-off to their rivalry throughout the series.
But, for me, the episode was stolen by Hugh Bonneville. I was already a little bit in love with him before Downton Abbey and he’s been a quietly brilliant its centre, balancing the concerns of the servants with the well-being of his family and the house he loves. Here in particular, his breakdown following the loss of the baby had me in tears, and I completely believed him and McGovern as a long-married, generally happy couple. After this, I’m a lot in love with him.
Julian Fellowes should be given full credit and praise for creating such a wonderful and entertaining programme. It’s kept people interested over seven episodes, and this was a perfect end, even if the mentions of the coming war were a little heavy-handed. These are characters that have felt consistently real and compelling, even when they’ve not always been overly likeable. The decision to give the concerns of the servants equal weight to the affairs of the aristocrats worked throughout, and I can’t wait to spend more time with these characters next year.
Lord Grantham’s announcement of the start of the war was beautifully written, filmed and acted, and a perfect, arresting ending to what has been a fantastic opening series of Downton Abbey. Sunday evenings are going to feel very empty from now on.
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