Plenty to cheer about
“Downton Abbey”
was slow to start this season, but once it got going, about midway through, it
definitely delivered. The season finale (Season 5, Episode 9) offered fans
plenty to cheer about—a potential new romantic interest for Lady Mary, a
welcome end to the “Who Killed Green?” storyline and Carson and Mrs. Hughes
plighting their troth.
Even better, it
didn’t end with a bang, by which I mean that no one died. A lot of us still haven’t recovered
from the final minutes of Season 3, when Matthew Crawley—Lady Mary’s
loving hubby—perished in a car crash.
For a while, it
did seem during this 90-minute finale that we might indeed be saying a
permanent goodbye to a major character. Robert (Hugh Bonneville) develops signs
of heart trouble, wincing as he clutches at his chest and stomach. He confesses
to wife, Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) that he has visited a doctor in York, who has
told him he might have angina. Not to worry, though. Additional tests later
reveal it’s just an ulcer. If Robert watches his diet and lays off the
booze—“You get plastered on a sniff of sherry,” Cora tells him—he’ll be fine.
The episode opens
on a bleak note. Anna (Joanne Froggatt) is in jail, arrested for murdering
Green, the visiting valet who raped her a season ago. Her husband, valet John
Bates (Brendan Coyle), forgoes his daily visit to the prison so that Lady Mary
(Michelle Dockery) goes in his stead. “Did she take a cake with a file in it?”
cracks Violet (Maggie Smith), the Dowager Countess.
The next day, Mary
and a slew of other Crawleys (Robert, Cora, Edith and son-in-law Tom Branson)
journey to Brancaster Castle. Atticus’s parents, Daniel and Rachel Sinderby
(James Faulkner and Penny Downie), have rented the impressive old heap for the
season and are throwing a shooting party.
There’s nary a
dull moment at Brancaster. Here are four major highlights:
1) Mary meets a
possible new Mr. Right named Henry Talbot (played by Matthew Goode, who set hearts
aflutter as Finn Polmar on “The Good Wife” this season and last). He’s at
Brancaster on sufferance, given that he is the tagalong houseguest of another
shooting party invitee. Mary, true to form, treats this seeming interloper
shabbily at first, but sparks soon fly. Henry is polite, smart, an accomplished
flirt and a crack shot, and he can play it even cooler than Mary. So what does this
hunk do for a living, if anything? No clue, though he does tell Mary before
departing Brancaster that he’s more into cars than shooting. With that, he
vaults into the driver’s seat of a spiffy roadster and vrooms off. Is he a
racecar driver? An automobile manufacturer? We’ll just have to wait until next
season to find out.
2) Robert, while
still under the misimpression that his days may be numbered, has a loving
heart-to-heart with Edith (Laura Carmichael) during which he reveals that he
knows little Marigold is really her child and it’s all good. “But we should
keep it in the family,” he says. “Even in 1924, there are plenty of people who
might be unpleasant.”
3) Lord Sinderby’s
butler, Stowell (Alun Armstrong), turns out to be a supercilious pill. He’s
outright rude to Tom (Allen Leech) because Tom was a lowly chauffeur before
marrying into the Crawley clan. “What does Mr. Branson do when the others are
shooting? Pick up? Or read motor magazines?” Stowe sneeringly asks Thomas
Barrow (Rob James-Collier), who has accompanied the Crawleys to Brancaster.
Barrow, who has himself been the target of Stowell’s sharp tongue, stands up
for Tom, informing Stowell that he is an excellent shot.
At Mary’s request,
Barrow devises a scheme to take Stowell down a peg. He forges a note that
results in Lord Sinderby publicly chewing out his butler over a dinner menu
mix-up. When Lord Sinderby, still fuming, then directs his wrath at Barrow for
serving him the wrong dish—“You stupid fool,” he bellows—the devious Downton
servant decides to get his revenge on the host as well.
4) Barrow’s
revenge? He pumps Stowell for dirt on Lord Sinderby. The butler, angry at his
boss and in his cups, is only too happy to dish. This time, Barrow forges a
telegram from Lord Sinderby. The recipient? It’s an attractive young woman, who
arrives at Brancaster with a small boy in tow, expecting to find Daniel alone.
“Good Lord, what’s she doing here?” says Lord Sinderby, going white as a sheet.
His new
daughter-in-law, Cousin Rose (Lily James), comes to the rescue. Sizing up the
situation, she whispers, “Tell me her name and I’ll save you.” She then greets
the woman, Diana Clark (Alice Patten), as if she’s her best friend. Soon, Lady
Sinderby wanders over, asking to be introduced to Diana and her son, who
is—wait for it—also named Daniel. “How extraordinary! That’s Lord Sinderby’s
name,” Rachel exclaims. (We know she’s a smart cookie. How long before she puts
two and two together?)
Back at Downton
Abbey, Violet and Isobel (Penelope Wilton) keep busy. Princess Kuragin (Jane
Lapotaire) arrives at the Dower House after a long journey from Hong Kong. She
is an ill-tempered, imperious Debbie Downer. No wonder her husband, Prince
Kuragin (Rade Serbedzija), didn’t bother looking for her when they became
separated after the Russian Revolution. He still carries a torch for Violet,
with whom he had an affair in Russia some 50 years ago, and wants her back in
his bed and life. Not going to happen. Violet informs the Prince that he
belongs with his wife. “Is that what you really want?” he asks. “It’s how it
must be,” she replies. After he leaves, Violet tells Isobel, “I will never
again receive an immoral proposition from a man. Was I so wrong to savor
it?”
Isobel has romantic
woes of her own; she loves Lord Merton (Douglass Reith) but won’t marry him
as long as his adult sons object to the match. Dickie assures her that he’ll
change his sons’ minds. No dice. The elder son writes a nasty note to Isobel,
essentially saying that, as far as he’s concerned, she’ll be the next Lady
Merton when hell freezes over. With real regret, Isobel shows Dickie the gate.
“I will not
have my final years overshadowed by a tear-stained tug of war,” she says.
And, oh yes,
there’s a comic subplot in which Spratt (Jeremy Swift) and Denker (Sue
Johnston), Violet’s battling butler and lady’s maid, lock horns yet again. Call
it The Soup Wars. Spratt maneuvers Denker into making good on her false boast
that she can whip up a tasty chicken broth for the Dowager. Denker can’t,
despite coaching from Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol) and Daisy (Sophie McShera).
Violet, though, is on to Spratt. “It is delicious,” she announces after taking a
tiny sip of Denker’s botched attempt at broth. “That can’t be possible!”
declares Spratt. The Dowager, giving him an imposing stare, says, “There’s a
point, Spratt, where malice ceases to be amusing.”
Everyone returns to
Downton and we head for the homestretch. Storylines resolve in rapid-fire
fashion. Robert announces his ulcer news and everyone breathes a sigh of
relief. Housekeeper Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan) suggests to a season-long-antsy
Daisy that she use her new learning to write a cookbook. And the “Who Killed
Green?” plot is finally put out of its misery, but not before Bates claims that
he did it and then goes into hiding. His confession means that Anna is off the
hook for the murder, so she’s released from prison and returns to Downton.
First footman
Joseph Molesley (Kevin Doyle), aided by Baxter (Raquel Cassidy), turns intrepid
detective to clear Bates’ name. After visiting at least five dozen pubs in
York, they locate the one where Bates had lunch on the day that Green was
murdered in London, thereby confirming Bates’ alibi. (When interviewed by
police earlier, Bates couldn’t remember the name of the pub.) “I’m sure neither
Bates nor we can ever express our gratitude,” Robert tells Molesley and Baxter.
(Sure you can, Robert. Give ‘em a really big Christmas bonus.)
The upshot: Anna
won’t be rearrested, Bates’ innocence has been established and the police are
no longer even sure that Green was murdered. With luck, we’ve heard the last of
this matter.
Just before the
big Christmas party at Downton starts, Tom, Edith and Mary take a moment to
remember Sybil in a hanky-worthy scene. “We were the three who should have
grown old with her. Who knows when we’ll be together again,” says Tom, who is
moving with little Sybie to Boston after the holidays. (Also headed stateside
soon are Rose and Atticus; he has accepted a new job in New York.) The three
join hands and Mary offers up a collective wish: “Darling Sybil, wherever you
are, we send you all our kisses and love for the happiest of happy
Christmases.”
Downstairs, in the
main hall, the wingding is in full swing. Violet and Isobel steal away for a
few minutes of quiet in another room for a scene that, as the Brits themselves
would say, was “brill.” Violet finally spills the beans on her long-ago affair
with Prince Kuragin. The two were running away together when the Princess
overtook them. “She pulled the door of the couch open and reached in and pulled
me out—by my arm, by my hair, my leg, by anything to get me out,” Violet
remembers. “Then she flung me into the cab that had brought her and sent me
back to Lord Grantham.”
“You must have
looked rather disheveled,” Isobel says dryly.
“Oh, men notice
nothing,” Violet replies.
Violet says that
she has always been grateful to the Princess. “She pulled me back from the
brink of the abyss. And now, at last, we are even. She saved me and I saved
her,” she explains.
Isobel asks if
Violet ever strayed again. “I never risked everything
again,” Violet says evasively. Isobel points out that Violet didn’t answer her
question. “That’s all the answer you’ll get,” Violet replies tartly. “Remember,
we were Edwardians.” May we have a rim-shot, please?
Carson (Jim
Carter) spirits Mrs. Hughes downstairs for a tete-a-tete. She had confessed to
him earlier that she couldn’t go in with him on an investment property because
she has no savings, having always spent any extra money to support a disabled
sister. Carson informs her that he’s still buying the bed and breakfast and
putting it in both their names. “I’m not convinced that I’m hearing this
right,” she says, looking confused.
“You are if you
think that I’m asking you to marry me,” he replies.
Mrs. Hughes is
gobsmacked but recovers quickly. “Of course I’ll marry you, you old booby. I
thought you’d never ask.” (Neither did we.)
Back upstairs at
the party, Robert tells Tom that he’ll miss him greatly. “Always remember that
you have a home to come back to,” he says. Tom is touched.
As everyone
launches into a group sing of Christmas carols, Bates quietly lets himself into
the house. He creeps up behind Anna and whispers, “Happy Christmas.” She turns
around and, seeing him, bursts into joyful tears. The two sneak away and
exchange a tender kiss in the hallway.
And so ends Season
5.
Best line of the episode: After Bates declares that he’d cut off
his arm if it would help to free Anna, Barrow, ever the charmer, remarks, “Oh,
I don’t think that’s sensible, Mr. Bates. We can’t have you wobbly at both
ends.” (Bates limps from an injury suffered during the Boer War.)
The Dowager’s best
zinger: When Robert tells Violet that he’s surprised she came to the train station to
see him off, she retorts, “Why do you always talk of me as if I'm a salmon who
laid my eggs in the gravel and then swept back to the sea?”
It takes one to
know one: Given Robert’s own, well-documented penchant for priggishness,
longtime fans had to laugh when he announces, “Daniel Sinderby is a prig!” The
Crawley patriarch has, however, come a long way this season.
How to cope with
“Downton” withdrawal: Get thee to a multiplex to see “Cinderella,” which
stars Lily James as the glass-slipper-wearing heroine and Sophie McShera a mean
stepsister. The film opens March 13. Click here to view the trailer.