Downton Abbey recap: We feel rushed through the two-hour season finale, avoid the Spanish flu, and worry about jumping the shark

Date February 13, 2012

Photography By Nick Briggs/itv For Masterpiece Courtesy Of Eone Films

By Randi Bergman and Paige Dzenis

How did that happen? It seemed like season two of Downton Abbey just started—but last night PBS surprised us with a two-hour finale. (Which, for the record, we’ve filed into our “worst” category—you shouldn’t be tricked into galloping through the final moments of a series! We thought there were still two episodes left to savour!) In the finale, emotions run almost as high as fevers, everyone becomes privy to a few upstairs/downstairs trysts, and Matthew returns to his emo ways.

We explore the best and worst moments of the finale and wonder what’s to come »
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Breathiest voice: Sir Richard didn’t even have time to use his seductive secret voice to turn us on. Instead, he’s gone straight into creepy territory by offering to pay Anna to spy on Mary. And we see him eying Thomas: can a scheme between those two be far away?

Best “I know I’m a Crawley” comment: Well this is a tie, but we love how nonchalant the ladies are about how rich, beautiful, and desirable they are.

Exhibit A: When Sybil finally agrees to run away with Branson, the reason she gives is because he’s her “ticket out.” How sweet! If we’d waited years for our love to be requited, that’s certainly how we’d like to hear it! (Not.)

Exhibit B: When Sir Richard asks Mary if she is still in love with Matthew, her reason for answering no, is “As if I could love anyone who preferred someone else over me.” Well, glad that’s settled…

Best life goal: Boy, the servants are really taught to aim low. (Gwen and Edith were right!) Carson’s real reason for being upset over leaving Downton Abbey? “I thought I’d die here and haunt it afterwards.”

Best quip: “I think Lady Mary is an uppity minx who is the author of her own misfortune,” snaps Mrs. Hughes when she hears of Sir Richard’s schemes. Tell us how you really feel!

Worst diss: If you think any trace of Mary’s old ways have disappeared, think again. She’s still quite capable of doling out a cutting remark, even to Carson! “Butlers will be two a penny after the war is over”? As if!

Best sister reunion: Nothing like an impending elopement to get Mary and Edith on the same team. That flash of the two ladies side by side in their car on the way to rescue Sybil from her own naiveté was so exciting! (It also kind of reminded us of Bored to Death. And Edith is Zach Galifianakas, obviously).

Worst visual: Ugh, no, no, no. We did not need to see Bates and Anna saying sweet nothings to each other while in a post-coital glow. Once you see it you can’t unsee!

Best visual: We wouldn’t be surprised if Cora’s flu was self-inflicted—her reaction to Sybil announcing a romance with Branson was positively comical. Well, for us at least—Cora looked like she was witnessing Sybil give birth to kittens.

Worst era to become injured or get the flu: What’s up with this decade? First there was William vs. Matthew: the former was wide-awake, engaged in full conversations, and had a wedding in the moments before dying, the latter writhed in a coma, bruised and battered, yet somehow made a full recovery. Now the Spanish flu strikes and everyone’s worried sweaty Cora is going to die, but nope: dear, sweet Lavina gets a case of the insta-flu and is gone in a matter of minutes. Oh, and let’s not forget the doctor informing everyone that he was just totally incorrect in saying Matthew would never walk again. Isobel, forget your refugees: Downton needs you to find a new doctor, stat!

Most honest freak-out: It’s rare that we get to see Thomas actually be himself: so when he discovers his black market plans are ruined and he’s lost all his money, it’s rather nice to watch him go on a rampage. (Also, how’dya like them apples, Thomas?) But will we be once again tricked into believing he’s changed, only to have Nasty Thomas come back in full force for season three?

Worst Gone With The Wind moment to date: Yes, we could write a small essay comparing the plots of Margaret Mitchell’s classic to Downton Abbey. But ~~Miss Melly’s~~ Lavinia’s death takes the cake. Oh, poor ~~Ashley~~ Matthew! Suddenly he realizes he was only lusting after ~~Scarlett~~ Mary, and sweet ~~Melanie~~ Lavinia, who would do anything for him, was really the one. When ~~Ashley~~ Matthew kissed ~~Scarlett~~ Mary it meant nothing! He’s simply lost in the world without ~~Melanie~~ Lavinia and can’t go on. Though we will give Ashley Wilkes some credit: his self pity and too-late realizations were only half as emo as Matthew’s.

Best/worst “jumping-the-shark” moment: We feared this would happen—those who had already watched ahead had even warned us! Did Downton cross over from “graceful period piece” into “fourth-season-of-The-OC” territory last night? There are almost too many moments contending for top shark-jumping honors!

1. The Earl and the maid. Ugh, really Earl? Did the war really take away that many of your “responsibilities” that you had to turn to the maid for comfort? We look forward to more clichés in season three, including “The maid is having my secret heir baby!”

2. Bates in handcuffs. While we had to smirk while thinking about how pleased-as-punch O’Brien must have been to see Bates get carried off by the police, it’s just a little too much. We like the battles between upstairs and downstairs in Downton. There’s no need to extend that to a prison cell.

3. Sir Richard’s decent into pure evil. We know he’s bad news—what with his un-gentlemanly newspaper empire and the Lavinia-seduction scandal. But at least in the early days he seemed to actually like Mary. Now he just seems to want to hurt-slash-control her.

4. Lavinia’s sudden death. We’ve touched on this already, but sheesh. It’s just a little too convenient, isn’t it? Also, we hope Cora eventually realizes that it was her scheming that killed Lavinia—she shouldn’t have invited her back to Chateau Quarantine.

Next Sunday the much-talked-about Christmas special airs—thankfully—so some of our concerns may be all for naught. At the very least, will it hint that Matthew and Mary eventually do hook up? We can always forgive a shark jump if it comes with a promise to resolve unrequited love. Stay tuned for our recap next week! You can catch new episodes of Downton Abbey Sunday nights at 9 p.m on PBS

In the meantime, tell us what you thought of the episode and you could win a DVD prize pack of Season One and Season Two, courtesy of eOne Films. And be sure to come back because we’ll be selecting a new winner each week!