In the absence of anything of value to report for You've Got Mail Monday, I wanted to follow up my Downton Abbey Season 3 Finale post with a discussion of the great things about Season 3. Be forewarned, if you haven't watched the third season yet, there are spoilers ahead.
Let's start upstairs. In the opening scenes of the first episode, Lord Grantham learns one of his investments has gone bad, very bad. He loses the lion's share of Cora's fortune, which sets the scene for everything that will transpire for the rest of the season. I love how creator and writer Julian Fellowes starts immediately with the main issue and how he builds an entire season around it, just like he did in Season 1 with the entail and Season 2 with World War I. Yes, there are other issues that branch off of the larger problem, but everything ties in nicely.
Matthew and Lady Mary end on a happy note in Season 2, but that isn't destined to last. After the family learns of Robert's misstep, Mary and the Dowager Countess conspire to influence Cora's mother, Martha Levinson to help save the estate. When they realize why it won't work, Mary hopes that Matthew will agree to take the Squire fortune to save Downton. Of course, that would be too easy. The honest and honorable Matthew does not want to take the money because he feels he did wrong by Lavinia. While recovering from the Spanish Flu she learned Matthew was in love with Mary despite being engaged to her. Matthew believes this news was responsible for her relapse and ultimately her death. Even once the whole money issue is settled, Mary and Matthew find themselves warring over Matthew's plans to modernize the estate against Lord Grantham's wishes. Their troubles carry over until the last couple of episodes, where we finally see them looking forward to a life of wedded bliss and influencing the future of Downton.
Poor Lady Edith. If she didn't have bad luck she would have none at all. Not as beautiful as her stunning older sister and not as much of a rebel as her younger sister, she's been ignored most of her life. Just when things seem to be looking up for the middle Crawley daughter, she gets jilted at the altar by a conscience-stricken Sir Anthony Strallan, who realizes marrying a crippled man old enough to be her father is not what's best for her. Unlike her married sisters, she's expected to break the fast at the table instead of in bed. It's at this table she receives the news that an article she wrote has attracted the attention of Michael Gregson, an editor who offers her a job writing for his publication. Of course, Lord Grantham is against it, claiming Gregson is only after her name. She is an amateur, after all. Does anyone other than me wish Lord Grantham would get off his high horse?
Lady Sybil is destined to be just as big in death as she was in life. Her spirit will be felt through the halls of Downton Abbey for years to come. After marrying the chauffeur, Tom Branson, they move to Ireland and live the life of regular people without servants where she is known as Mrs. Branson. Their return to the estate for Matthew and Mary's wedding is filled with controversy. Lord Grantham didn't want Tom there and it was his mother who gave them the money to come. Tom is just as much of a rebel as ever, and Mr. Carson isn't having an easy time adjusting to Tom's move from servant to member of the family--like many of them. After the wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Branson return to Ireland until a tragic event brings them back to the estate.
Now, unable to return to the land of his birth, Tom feels like a man without a home. Life doesn't get any easier. According to Dr. Clarkson, Lady Sybil shows all the signs of eclampsia, but the obstetrician Lord Grantham brings in to handle the delivery disagrees. Emotions run high after the birth of Tom's daughter, as the entire family watches Lady Sybil succumb to seizures that cut off her ability to breathe. "This can't be," says Lord Grantham. "She's only twenty-four years old."
While Lady Sybil's death is one of the saddest moments of Season 3, it is also one that was well-written by Fellowes, well-performed by the actors, and necessary for Tom's character to grow. If Sybil had lived, Tom never would have stepped out of her shadow. By the end of Season 3, we find Tom enlisted as the estate's agent, helping Matthew, and eventually their father-in-law, to modernize the estate and make it profitable.
Sybil's death brings about changes for other characters, too. Lady Mary and Lady Edith temporarily bury the hatchet and even share a hug to love each other as sisters should. Robert and Cora were at odds over how to deal with Dr. Clarkson's news of Sybil's condition, and Cora ends up blaming Robert for her death. It's not often we see this couple at odds, but Fellowes and the actors handle it superbly, making their reconciliation that much more powerful. And who can forget the Dowager Countess, overcome with grief over the loss of her youngest granddaughter, clutching a pillar for support as she walks across the entryway of the estate the next morning or grasping the mantle after she has finagled Dr. Clarkson to tell Robert and Cora that even if they had brought Lady Sybil to the hospital and performed a cesarean, she most likely would have died, allowing the healing to begin.
In my next post, we'll take a look at Season 3 downstairs.
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