Downton Abbey is one of the most beloved period dramas around the world, spanning six seasons from 2010 to 2015, as well as a movie that premiered in September 2019. Audiences found the ups and downs of the Crawley family captivating and tuned in every Sunday night to see what would happen to Lord Grantham, Lady Mary, and the rest of the ensemble cast.
Perhaps the most pivotal moments in the history of the show are Sybil and Matthew Crawley’s unexpected deaths in Season 3, which changed the trajectory of almost every other character left behind. While the show went on, some fans felt it was so different that Julian Fellowes should have called it quits after Dan Stevens left. That said, below are ten things about Season 3 that would have made it the perfect final season.
Isobel Crawley
Though Cousin Isobel’s verbal sparring matches with Violet were always a pleasure to watch, she became somewhat superfluous after Matthew’s tragic car accident at the end of Season 3. She went on to successfully lobby for the merger of Downton Cottage Hospital with a larger hospital in York and eventually got her happy ending when she married Lord Merton in Season 6.
Still, her storylines felt much less central to the story than when she was mother to the heir of Downton Abbey. Ending the show on the heels of her son’s wedding and her successful management of Downton as a convalescent home would have been a better choice.
Tom Branson
Branson began the show as the Crawley’s chauffeur with socialist leanings. He fell in love with the family’s youngest daughter and moved to Dublin to start a new life with her, returning to Downton periodically for his sisters-in-law’s weddings and finding safe harbor from the Irish police.
After Sybil’s untimely death, Branson begins to lose some of his revolutionary fervor, becoming an agent of the estate and wearing white tie to dinner. It was jarring to see him become a part of the class system he once despised. Season 3 is the last we see of Branson as his character was initially conceived, wearing his ill-fitting suit and feeling like a fish out of water among aristocrats.
Anna and Bates
After spending the entirety of Season 3 lobbying for Mr. Bates’s innocence in the murder of his ex-wife, Vera, Anna’s patience finally pays off when she finds evidence that clears her husband of all charges. The two move into a cottage on the Downton grounds that they begin painting, dreaming of their new home and their new life together. They eventually welcomed a son in 1925, but that doesn’t happen for another couple of seasons yet.
Many fans were thrilled that Bates was released from prison and reunited with Anna. The storyline was not very popular, and besides, these two couldn’t get a break!
Edith’s Career
Poor Edith got jilted at the altar in Season 3, and it was probably for the best as she could (and did!) do much better. While still struggling to find her place in the family, she started to branch out and explore activities other than entertaining guests and waiting for a husband. After all, her experience as a Land Girl during the war taught her that she needed a purpose.
With her wedding canceled, Edith tried her hand at writing. Her letter advocating for a woman’s right to vote made the front page of the paper, leading to a column in a magazine and a dalliance with her married editor. By the time the Christmas Special rolled around, it was clear that she was already on the upswing – go Edith!
The Pamuk Scandal
Kemal Pamuk was a Turkish emissary who visited Downton with his friend and colleague, Evelyn Napier, in Season 1. He immediately took an interest in Mary after a day of hunting and sneaked over to her room that evening, where he suffered a heart attack and died in her bed. The gruesome task of moving his body fell to Cora, Anna, and especially Mary, who suffered massively for her indiscretion after Edith publicized it to the Turkish embassy.
The untimely death of Mr. Pamuk was one of the major storylines in the earliest seasons of Downton Abbey that only concluded with the Season 2 Christmas Special. It was also one of the more memorable storylines, and its resolution could have been a sign that the show was nearing its end.
The Entail
The other major storyline driving the early seasons of the show was the entail, a law of inheritance ensuring that only a male descendant could inherit the entirety of a family’s property. In Downton Abbey, it was the entail that prevented Mary from inheriting Downton and brought Matthew and Isobel to the estate.
Although Downton encountered financial troubles in Season 3 due to Robert’s bad investments, they are mostly resolved when Matthew accepts a large sum of money from his deceased ex- fiancee’s family. Mary and Matthew’s marriage also made the entail irrelevant, as it resolved the central narrative conflict of Mary wanting the estate to secure her future. Like the Pamuk scandal, it was perhaps a sign that the show could have ended long before six seasons.
Sybil and Mary
The oldest and youngest Crawley sisters were complete opposites in many ways. While Mary indulged in the trappings of her family’s luxurious lifestyle and defended the status quo, Sybil was more interested in politics, attending political rallies, and advocating for women’s rights much to her family’s annoyance.
Although Sybil and Mary did not overlap much ideologically, they enjoyed a much warmer relationship than Mary ever had with Edith. Sybil never stopped believing that Mary had a heart beneath her cold exterior, and Mary kept watch over her baby sister, defending her right to an opinion before their grandmother. We would have loved to have seen more of their relationship before Sybil’s tragic death in Season 3.
Mary’s Storyline
Mary’s affection for her baby sister was one of the softer parts of her personality, the other being the great love she shared with Matthew Crawley. That she loses two of the most influential people in her life by the end of Season 3 was a massive blow to her emotionally. It also dramatically altered her storyline. Matthew’s death, in particular, precipitated a personality change where she reverted to the ice princess of Season 1, seemingly losing all the softness Matthew brought out in her overnight.
Though she eventually recovered and took the reins from her father in managing the estate, we can only imagine what Fellowes had in store for her character before Matthew’s departure.
Sybil and Branson
One of the great romances that spanned the first three seasons of Downton Abbey, Sybil and Branson was a breath of fresh air on a show that may have glamorized the class inequality on which the Crawleys built their lives.
They were the only characters to put themselves in danger for what they believed in, with Sybil renouncing her family’s wealth and lifestyle and Branson risking arrest and prosecution for his revolutionary activities. After Sybil’s death in childbirth and Branson’s assimilation into the Crawley’s world, the show became much less critical of the aristocracy and, in the eyes of many a viewer, turned into a parade of gorgeous 1920’s gowns.
Mary and Matthew
The other great romance of the show, Mary and Matthew were the heart of Downton Abbey’s first three seasons. Taking a less radical approach to change than Sybil and Branson, Matthew and Mary nonetheless represented progress and tradition respectively, and the merger of those two perspectives would have made them a formidable Earl and Countess of Grantham.
If only Matthew had been a more careful driver, audiences could have seen a different version of Downton Abbey, one that was a little less celebratory of aristocratic pomp and circumstance and dived more in-depth into the politics of this bygone era.
