'Downton Abbey' Series Finale: 'Overwhelmingly We Supply a Pretty Happy Ending'
Downton Abbey‘s penultimate episode was one full of drama, from Edith and Mary’s blowup six seasons in the making to Barrow’s attempted suicide, but fans should expect to shed a different kind of tear when the series finale airs Sunday on Masterpiece on PBS. “I think there’s always been lots of twist and turns in Downton, and lots of people have very tragic news and sad news — that their estranged from their children, or illness, or death. And yet, the overall direction of travel of the show is a positive one,” executive producer Gareth Neame tells Yahoo TV. “I think it felt right, even though you got some sad stories, like Carson’s health declining, that overwhelmingly we supply a pretty happy ending.”
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Does that mean Poor Edith will get one, even after Mary forced her to tell Bertie that Marigold was hers — an omission that made Bertie call off their engagement because he felt he couldn’t trust Edith? Can viewers forgive Mary?
“We did debate it for a while,” Neame says of Mary’s reveal, “because we thought it was really such an unbelievably bitchy thing for Mary to do. We just thought, ‘Would this be a step too far for the character?’ I thought very strongly no, that Mary’s a robust enough character and we quite like it when she is very, very tough. She’s a snob, and she’s selfish and opinionated. She’s been pretty bad towards her sister. To [reveal that] final massive bombshell, it really makes the characters in the scene just all stop and there’s silence in the room. Every time we watched it — when we were making it and editing it — there was silence in the room. It had the same effect on us as viewers.”
Then, of course, it leads to their huge fight. “Finally, Edith just goes bat–t crazy with her and loses it,” Neame says. “Then I love the way Edith then comes back for Mary’s wedding and that there is a nice atmosphere between them by the end.”
Mary overcoming her fear of loving — and potentially losing — car-racing Henry was another situation producers thought carefully about. “We’ve always explored how much more complicated a second marriage is, particularity for a mature person as opposed to a young woman. How did she reconcile loving Matthew for the rest of her life with being able to love somebody else? That’s why we have the scene where she goes to his grave and talks to him, which I felt the fans would really love that moment,” Neame says. “They would want the respect because they so loved Mary and Matthew. Matthew really has to be respected in the way that she moves on in her life. I thought that was all beautifully done.”
We can thank the Dowager, who believes in rules and regulations but also love, for getting through to Mary in their heart-to-heart. “That was Julian [Fellowes] at his best,” Neame says. “This woman, who’s just so tough, and we’ve never seen a chink in the amour… for her to say something that’s so sensitive and thoughtful — that what really matters in life is love — was just perfection, I think.”
Will Edith reunite with Bertie? Let’s put it to a vote below.
Read more behind-the-scenes stories from the final season:
'Downton Abbey’ Director Talks Robert’s Dinner Scene Shocker
'Downton Abbey’ Director Talks Mary and Henry’s Romantic Moment in the Rain
'Downton Abbey’ Star Allen Leech Shares the Stories Behind 9 Photos
The Downton Abbey series finale airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on Masterpiece on PBS.
