Downton Abbey was a total emotional rollercoaster from start to finish,
with most characters seeing the heights of personal happiness as well as the depths of
failure and despair. Here's a look back at the best and worst moments of the popular series.
One thing that Downton Abbey did exceptionally well was romance. The addictive love story
between Mary and Matthew had us all on our toes ever since their first frosty encounter
in the first episode. It was a classic case of enemies who fall for each other,
and we loved every minute of it. So, when Matthew finally proposed, viewers were over the moon.
Mary and Matthew find themselves alone in the snow. Mary has decided to leave
for America to avoid a brewing scandal. When Matthew asks her to stay, Mary is hesitant.
"Oh Matthew, you don't mean that."
Finally, she says,
"You must say it properly. I won't answer unless you kneel down and everything."
And with that, we got one of the most romantic TV proposals of all time.
After going through the ups and downs of Mary and Matthew's relationship,
fans of the show finally thought everything was going to be alright. The pair married and even
had a baby on the way. However, at the very end of Season 3, viewers were dealt a very harsh blow.
Shortly after Mary gives birth to their baby,
a jubilant Matthew heads out on the road in his convertible. Everyone is thrilled. Suddenly,
another vehicle appears. Cut to an ominous clip of the Dowager Countess of Grantham saying,
"We don't always get our just desserts."
We then find out that Matthew's car has crashed and he is lying dead beneath it. It was one of
the biggest shock deaths in television history. Needless to say, Downton Abbey fans were furious.
Most deaths on Downton Abbey were pretty heart-wrenching to watch. However,
one death ended up being a pretty spectacular moment. In the third episode of the show,
a Turkish diplomat named Kemal Pemuk comes to the estate for a visit. In a shocking twist,
he and Mary end up sleeping together, which would have been an unheard of scandal at the time,
and he dies while in bed with her.
"I can't make his eyes stay shut."
What makes the moment so incredible is watching Anna,
Cora, and Mary trying to get rid of the evidence. Watching the three women scuttle
down the hallway carrying the dead body made for a juicy plot point that viewers loved.
While Kemal Pamuk's death is pretty entertaining in its own way,
other deaths on Downton Abbey are completely devastating.
One of the worst death scenes is Sybil's. Sybil is the independent, young daughter of
the Crawley family who scandalously falls for the Irish chauffeur. The pair eventually marry,
but the birth of Sybil's first child goes horribly wrong. Sybil dies after giving birth, surrounded
by her terrified family. It's a horrible moment made even more devastating by the fact that
the family doctor had originally recommended a Caesarean section, but Sybil's father refused.
In a paper in the British Journal of General Practice, medical student Adrienne Ho explained
that, based on the medical evidence in the show, Sybil really should have been
hospitalized. Nevertheless, according to Ho, there were some mistakes by the doctors, too.
It's heartbreaking to know that, had Lord Grantham sent Sybil to the hospital, she may have lived.
Let's face it, Sybil was always a super cool character. From the very beginning of the show,
she refused to follow the dated rules of society. Her independence made her a likeable and exciting
character. One of her boldest moments came in the fourth episode of Season 1,
when she stunned her family by wearing pants instead of a dress.
It was a spectacularly rebellious moment on Downton Abbey. As Town & Country put it,
"She was a fashion risk taker."
"Can it be my choice this time?"
"Of course, darling."
And it's true, because wearing pants was a pretty big risk at the time. The first
season of Downton Abbey was set in 1912, and back then, women donning
pants was pretty much unheard of. As bespoke tailoring business King and Allen explained,
"By the 1880s, women in the West finally started wearing trousers for leisure activities. [...]
Yet, despite their increasing popularity, trousers weren’t considered acceptable women’s attire until
the 1970s. In fact, in some places, it was illegal for women to wear trousers!"
Sounds like Sybil was at least 60 years ahead of her time.
In Downton Abbey, Mr. Bates was certainly one of the most hard done by characters. In the second
season, Bates is plagued by his estranged wife, Vera, who is out for revenge. When Vera dies,
Bates is accused of her murder. The jury finds him guilty, and he is sentenced to death.
It's an utterly heartbreaking moment, especially for the helpless Anna, whom he'd quickly married
before the trial, as she thinks she is about to lose her new husband. Thankfully,
his sentence was changed to life in prison, and later in the series, the charges were reversed.
Luckily, after Bates is found guilty of murder,
his clever wife Anna finds the evidence needed to set him free in Season 3.
"Because I'd rather work to get you free than dine with the king at Buckingham Palace."
Anna's joy at discovering that her husband is finally coming home is lovely to watch.
This touching moment was definitely one of the best of the whole series.
Joanne Froggatt who plays Anna, told The Mirror,
"Anna has always had 100 per cent faith in John [...] She’s completely
in love with him. From the moment they first met,
Anna has had the feeling that Bates is a really decent guy. That’s why she fell for him."
Even though viewers loved the sweet reunion,
for Brendan Coyle, who plays Mr. Bates, it was also a welcome plot point so he
could participate in more scenes with his co-stars again. He told The Mirror,
"I did feel isolated and very removed from the main show [...] Most of my
scenes were filmed in Lincoln where there's a perfectly preserved Victorian prison."
Sounds like he was happy to rejoin the cast at the much more pleasant Highclere Castle,
where most of the show is filmed.
Poor Edith. Throughout Downton Abbey, she was frequently portrayed as the family's
ugly duckling. Without the beauty of older sister Mary or the confidence of younger sister Sybil,
Lady Edith often felt a little left out. When she finally received a proposal from Anthony Strallan,
a man she actually kind of liked, it seemed like things might end up okay for her, and even Mary
wished her well. However, it was not to be. In a shocking twist, Strallan left Edith embarrassed
and heartbroken at the altar. Whether you're an Edith fan or not, the moment was incredibly sad.
"Don't stop him doing the only sensible thing he's come up with in months."
In an opinion piece about the episode,
writers at Slate all expressed their fury over the incident. One writer explained,
"This episode left me fuming.
Mary's happiness seems to be the only thing that matters in this household."
This was one incredibly sad moment on Downton Abbey, but we have to list it
as one of our favorite moments because of Daisy. For most of this episode,
viewers are left staring at the screen as Daisy resists tying the knot with the lovely William.
The young kitchen servant had promised to marry the footman but never intended to go
through with it. However, when William is on his deathbed after getting injured in the war,
she refuses to wed him because she doesn't want to lie to a dying man.
Finally, she agrees to the marriage, and the pair marry surrounded by family and
servants with William's bed decked out in flowers. It's a lovely moment, though sad,
of course. Actor Thomas Howes, who plays William, told the Daily Mail,
"Daisy probably does love him but doesn't realize it yet."
One of the most unforgettable moments of Downton Abbey was also one of the worst. When Anna,
one of the show's best-loved characters, was raped, many fans were horrified.
"Now let me by, please."
As Time put it,
"It felt as out of place in the normally placid series as Mr.
Pamuk's death-by-seduction in the first season."
As The Mirror reported, many fans were shocked by the scene.
Despite the pushback against the episode, Julian Fellowes, the show's creator,
defended his choice to include the scene. During an appearance on the radio show LBC, he explained,
"It's handled in the Downton way, if you like. That what we're interested in
is the emotional impact of these events."
And Joanne Froggatt, who plays Anna, explained to HuffPost,
"And if I decide a scene is a raw, emotional scene,
it is nerve-racking doing those. For me, I just sort of go for it on the take. I try to
prepare myself mentally and emotionally, but I don’t like to rehearse those scenes too much."
Froggatt certainly did an amazing job,
and she even won a Golden Globe for her work in this season.
Of all of Downton Abbey's love stories, the romance between Mr. Carson and Mrs.
Hughes is certainly one of the most touching. Unlike some of the younger couples on the show,
Carson and Mrs. Hughes go through a long, slow,
almost imperceptible courtship. And the tender, super sweet proposal scene does not disappoint.
The adorable moment came in the Christmas special after the fifth season. In the scene,
Carson asks Mrs. Hughes to marry him after telling her he bought them a cottage.
"I do want to be stuck with you."
He sweetly tells her,
"One thing I do know, I'm not marrying anyone else."
She adorably replies,
"Of course I'll marry you [...] I thought you'd never ask."
While this scene might not be quite as exciting as others, fans were still overjoyed.
Back in Season 1 of Downton Abbey, Cora's lady's maid O'Brien was one of our favorite villains.
When O'Brien fears she might be fired, she leaves a slippery bar of soap on the floor
by the bath in which the pregnant Cora is bathing. Getting out of the bath,
Cora falls, and tragically loses her baby. It's a sad and infuriating scene. In fact,
The Telegraph called it one of the show's most shocking scenes ever, and joked,
"To be fair to O'Brien, she was stricken with remorse for at least a couple of episodes."
Not all Downton Abbey fans enjoyed the addition of Lily James' Rose to the show.
However, it was hard not to enjoy her sweet romance with the adorable Atticus.
The couple's meeting is definitely one of the show's greatest scenes, especially as
they meet in the middle of a rainstorm. Rose is carrying one too many wicker cake baskets
when Atticus appears to gallantly hold her umbrella for her. Their meeting is beyond cute,
and Atticus' introduction to the show is a very welcome one. As Canadian magazine MacLean's noted,
"Atticus Aldridge is the character Downton has been waiting for. Something about him reminds
me of Prince William at his peak dreaminess circa 2002: the jaunty, slightly offset nose,
the sweet, earnest manner and adorable shyness toward Rose, the impeccable manners."
The writer even said the actor might be the Colin Firth of his generation,
which is high praise indeed. No wonder fans were thrilled with his first appearance.
As most Downton Abbey fans will know, the show is filled with its fair share of medical mishaps.
From miscarriages to war injuries, the show can sometimes feel like a historical documentary on
how far the healthcare system has come in the last century. One of the most shocking health
scares at Downton came when Lord Grantham's stomach ulcer burst at the dinner table
in a horrifyingly bloody scene that looked like something out of the Alien movies. Vanity Fair
spoke to the show's producer Liz Trubridge about the infamous scene, and she explained,
"Our medical consultant had done quite a bit of historical research [...] And when
we realized there was going to have to be a lot of blood, we started planning meticulously so
that we could cover it [on camera] and then decide in the edit room how much was enough.”
Apparently, they really did want the scene to be as gruesome as possible.
While the scene definitely wasn't fun to watch, at least it sounds like it was super fun to make.
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