British critics asserted that more happened in the Christmas Special of Downton Abbey than had occurred in the whole of the eight-episode second season of the series, and in a sense, they are right! Despite the season featuring a world war, multiple deaths, various tragedies, the possible discovery of a thought deceased heir, a few engagements, a romance that crossed the class divide, and the odd moment of intentional comic relief, very little was actually established or resolved.
Plot Premises of Downton Abbey’s Christmas Special
The special, which after the removal of commercials has a running-time of an hour and a half, is set in the final days of 1919 and the first days of 1920.
The ladies of Downton Abbey are beginning to wear the shorter skirts and new styles of the soon-to-be dubbed “Roaring ‘20s,” but the traditions of the ancestral estate are also being maintained as the outside world plummets towards the unknown.
The household is under a cloud due to the earl’s trusted valet, John Bates (Brendan Coyle) standing trial for the murder of his estranged first wife, causing the heart of his second wife, the invaluable housemaid Anna (Joanne Fraggott), to be on the brink of breaking.
Meanwhile, the loves of the highborn ladies of the abbey take center stage. While Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is becoming increasingly discontented in her engagement, the romance between Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) and Sir Anthony (David Bathurst) shows some possibility of being rekindled, and some discussion is made of the marriage of Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown-Findlay) and the former chauffer, Tom Branson (Allen Leech), who are now living in Ireland and expecting their first child. Even the widowed Lady Rosamund (Samantha Bond) has hopes of re-marriage as Downton Abbey bids farewell to the 1910s.
The hardworking kitchen maid, Daisy (Sophie McShera), who still feels guilty about her half-hour marriage to the deceased good-hearted footman William (Thomas Howes), finds comfort in the paternal love of her father-in-law, which provided another subplot, but for most viewers the primary plot of concern was that involving the relationship of Mary and Matthew.
Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens)
In a somewhat miraculous concession to the long suffering audience, the Christmas Special did deign to partially conclude one drawn-out storyline by finally allowing the star-crossed characters of Mary and Matthew (Dan Stevens) to become engaged after a courtship that spanned a mere seven years from 1913 to 1920.
Of course, until the television nuptials are actually confirmed in the third season, viewers might be advised to rejoice with caution. Yet, the audience can at least be certain that the threat no longer exists of Mary and Matthew’s relationship being destroyed by Matthew’s discovery of Mary’s seduction by the abominable Turkish diplomat. Within the Christmas Special this long-kept secret was finally revealed to the acceptance of both Mathew and Mary’s father, Robert, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville).
Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and John Bates (Brendan Coyle)
The other plot attracting many viewers was that involving the innocent Mr. Bates being convicted of murder. Sentenced to death, the only course left open to the defense was to have his sentence converted to life imprisonment, so the third season is most likely to feature attempts to release an imprisoned Bates, with the support of his wife, Anna.
There is reasonable expectation that this process will be even more drawn-out than it would have been in real life since with all the popular couples having now found each other Downton Abbey must be in search of a new excuse to keep the audience tortured through tedium.
Yet, Bates will most likely eventually regain his freedom since his conviction was based on circumstantial evidence, as it will be called by characters within the series, or contrivance, as it must be called by critics in 2012.
Viewers must be asking how the prosecution could have possibly known to ask the questions that proved damning. It would seem that someone within the house provided information? With Thomas seeking Bates’ position, is it possible that he is up to his selfish and scheming pre-war behavior.
Is Downton Abbey too cluttered with villains?
In order to bring Matthew to his knees with a proposal, Mary’s basically blackmailing and certainly controlling fiancé, Sir Richard (Iain Glen) had to be discarded and the negative impact of the selfish seducer, who was even so inconsiderate as to die in Mary’s bed, had to be pushed aside.
The menacingly manipulative Vera Bates (Maria Doyle Kennedy) attempted to blackmail the husband that she had deserted into returning to her against his will by threatening to by some means expose Lady Mary’s shameful secret, but ultimately, she decided that forcing her husband to live with her was not cruel enough punishment. Instead, she sought his execution by staging her death by her own hand to appear to be a murder by his hands.
Even Thomas (Rob James-Collier) and O’Brien (Siobhan Finneran) have not yet been shown to have plotted anything as diabolically vicious, but with Thomas having kidnapped a dog and O’Brien having caused the miscarriage of a baby, neither can be considered kind nor gentle individuals.
While it is true that there are some reprehensible people in the world, it seems unlikely that so many of them would prey on a single English country house in Yorkshire, despite the gothic depiction of the county by the Brontë Sisters.
Elizabeth Fredericks - Elizabeth Fredericks is a graduate of Oxford University, and she has worked as a freelance writer since her first paid assignment as a ...
