This article contains spoilers.
Well, what a Christmas present. The Downton Abbey Christmas special was a treat for us all.
We’ve watched and waited for the moment when blue-eyed hero Matthew (Dan Stevens) dropped to one knee and popped the question to Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery). Finally, that wish has come true.
The truth about Mary’s little indiscretion, (she slept with a Turkish diplomat who then died in her bed), is out. Now Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) knows the facts, he tells Mary to give smarmy Sir Richard Carlisle, tabloid tycoon, (Iain Glen) the boot.
Having decided to jilt Carlisle, Mary finally comes clean to Matthew.
In a moment we have begged for, Matthew tells her that there is nothing to forgive.
As the snow floated down around them, he asks her to marry him. In typical-Mary fashion, she tells him to “do it properly” and he gets down on one knee. She accepts. Feel free to breathe a sigh of relief.
But how long will this reprieve last?
Firstly, Mary’s reckless night is bound to hit the papers now Carlisle isn’t going be the one next to her at the alter. Her engagement to him was, after all, a deal with the devil.
Secondly, elsewhere, Anna (Joanne Froggatt) watches her husband, Bates (Brendan Coyle), get convicted for murder. They manage to prevent him hanging and get his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. The noose is empty, and he lives to fight for his freedom another day.
Daisy (Sophie McShera) comes to terms with being a widow, thanks to Mr Mason (Paul Copley), all she needed to be told was that she was “special”.
The cinematography never disappoints. The framing, in particular, is fantastic; Carlisle leaves through the open door as the morning sunlight streams in, Anna and Bates hold hands across a prison table in a dingy cell, and Downton faces the frosty winter ground. There are some stunning scenes.
This Christmas episode was wrapped in festive warmth and at its heart was a couple that have taken the advice we shouted from our living rooms. Maybe there is a happy-ever-after for them. Surely they deserve one. War, death, illness and blackmail have stood in their way, what more can be thrown at them?
Related posts: