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Column: Jessica Fellowes on Episode 7

Jessica Fellowes offers behind-the-scenes access to the world of Downton Abbey, from the cast to the castle, like no one else. Now, Fellowes shares her insights into the most explosive and dramatic moments from Downton Abbey, Season 3. Find out what Fellowes has to say about Episode 7, the season finale. (Note: The following contains plot spoilers for Downton Abbey, Season 3, Episode 7.)

Matthew, Mary and baby

With Valentine's Day just gone, perhaps it was fitting that this final episode of Season Three had the theme of blossoming romance.  But few amongst them survived the first bloom. Of all, the harshest ending was served to Lady Mary -- minutes after she safely delivered the rightful son and heir to Downton Abbey, the only man to know her for the kind woman she really is beneath that porcelain exterior, was dead.

Until that shocking finale, however, we were treated to scenes of idyll. Never before has the phrase ‘Highland fling’ had so many different interpretations but Molesley’s may – yet again – be the most humiliating. Lady Edith danced a jig with her editor despite the fact that, as she says, “I just can’t see a happy ending” – and who can blame her?

O'Brien

It looks as if O’Brien may be in faraway tropical lands by the time we return to Downton but I imagine Cora will have a hard time replacing her with someone lovely. Lady’s maids were notoriously tricky people – they were women who, by and large, had to sacrifice their own lives for someone else’s, occupying that difficult place in which they were one of the most powerful members of staff because of their intimacy with the mistress of the house/castle yet were unable to do much with that power except use it to manipulate those around them. 

O’Brien herself was based on a lady’s maid employed by a cousin of creator and writer Julian Fellowes’s grandfather, who was, he says, “as polite as courtier but she had a black heart." She drove away her mistress’s friends and family until she alone ruled the London house, her employer believing that everyone had betrayed her but her one loyal servant.

Tom Branson in pub

Back at Downton Abbey, the mice were taking full advantage of the cat’s absence. New maid Edna Braithwaite tipped a wink at Tom Branson and was gone (unfair dismissal was easier to arrange in those days). Mrs Patmore enjoyed the attentions of laughing grocer Joe Tufton – “no man’s wanted to squire me since the Golden Jubilee” – but not once she realized he was after her wooden spoon, not her fair hand. Dr Clarkson thought he might reveal his bedside manner to Isobel Crawley but it turned out that she prefers to go to bed alone. I liked both the cook and Isobel’s responses here – in all the discussions about ‘surplus women’ that were had after the First World War, it was often forgotten that many considered themselves lucky to be chained not to a husband but to a career.

Once again, there were some delightful period details. That maids never cleaned after breakfast, when the family might see them, and that servants had to clean more when the family were away. Americans may have picked up on the reference to the Marlboroughs – the marriage, or rather, divorce, between Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Duke of Marlborough. You can read more in her her autobiography, The Glitter and the Gold – it is a gripping tale of an unhappy marriage in the Edwardian era. And the next time anyone has too much to drink, I shall enjoy describing them as “tight as ticks."

Matthew Crawley

When we return to Downton, Matthew will be gone and only then will we discover how the ripples from the shockwave resonate through the Crawleys and their servants. Of course, before that, we have our own ripples to contend with. I must confess that as I had neither read the script nor watched a preview, I was as shocked as the rest of the British viewers when Matthew was so suddenly killed at the end of the episode. There had been rumors of his departure, which I was frequently asked about, but I had chosen not to find out the truth behind them (it’s easier for me to keep secrets that way). The actor, Dan Stevens, has had many exciting opportunities presented to him and we must wish him the very best of luck in pursuing them. But we will miss Matthew Crawley – it was his forward-thinking vision that was to take Downton Abbey successfully into the future and his quietly confident but kind temperament that often calmed the stormiest of waters. Who will take up the mantle now? We must look to a Prince Regent to safeguard the estate until his son and heir can rightfully take over but we know not yet who that will be. So, that’s all, folks – until season four.

Jessica Fellowes is the betselling author of The Chronicles of Downton Abbey, The World of Downton Abbey, and Mud and the City: Dos and Don'ts for Townies in the Country.  Buy books by Jessica Fellowes at ShopPBS.org.

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