Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale 3 Thoughts
(since i’ve seen it twice since opening day but not really voiced any of my opinions)
Overall thoughts: I think it was my favorite of all the Downton films we’ve gotten, mostly just because it felt most like the show. I know a lot of fans here have had problems with the movies (and while I don’t disagree with the issues the raise), I just simply have accepted the movies as excuses for the cast to get back together so that they can portray the characters we love for roughly 2 hours and wrap up whatever plot they have come up with for the film neatly in a bow— along with higher budgets and more jokes. This one, however, felt the most like Downton to me— as in the Downton the show that I fell in love with. I feel like the last two movies had focused more on being a period piece and less on being a period drama, but I loved that the stakes felt higher in this film (Mary’s divorce, her sleeping with Sambrook and the lingering threat of blackmail over head again, the Levinson fortune being stolen away, having to sell Grantham House) and that there were actual tensions between the characters (Mary and Robert, Andy and Carson, Cora and Harold, Isobel (and Daisy and Carson!) and Sir Hector). The county fair also seemed like such a quintessentially Downton event to culminate on as well. I’m glad that the new characters introduced didn’t draw the attention away from the characters we love so much and that the focus remained on the ones we knew from the show.
As sad as I was that we didn’t get more Thomas, I am happy that what we did get was just of him being happy with someone who clearly loves and respects him 💕 And it was so fun to see him come upstairs and be treated like one of the guests up there. (Sidenote: I loved the little interaction between him and Tom and was so glad that Tom welcomed him up there! It was so sweet.)
The one thing I am sad about is that Molesley fell victim to the Fellowes’ curse/trope of “Men Becoming Jerks to Their Wives as Soon as They Get Married”— but I am glad he pulled his head out of his butt by the end of the movie. Since Baxter had loved Noël Coward’s play so much (the music especially!), I was hoping their plot line would revolve around the two of them writing musical films together… but I suppose it was not to be.
I was so glad we got some angry Robert outbursts in this film— I did not realize how much I had missed seeing Hugh Bonneville dramatically explode into a rage at his fictional family for not clinging to the past and then storming off angrily, followed by an adorable dog.
While I’m very happy Mary was not paired off with Random Man #7 by the end of the movie, I actually enjoyed her chemistry and seeing her interactions with Sambrook. While he absolutely sucked as a person, I think she did just need a bit of a fling and a night of passion after all the misery she went through with Henry and the subsequent awfulness the divorce put her through. It was so fun to see her let loose and get tipsy, as well as seeing her giggling in bed with a partner… It just made me wish we could have seen more of that uninhibited, sillier, softer sides of Mary when she was with Matthew 🥺 And of course, I wish that her fling could have been with someone who was a better person than Sambrook so she didn’t have to go through anymore pain.
The callback to Mrs. Patmore’s awkward talk with Carson absolutely killed me, as did Mrs. Hughes’s response 😂
Daisy! She has come so far! I was so glad for Sophie McShera that she got to wear more than just the servant’s uniform in this film and got to have some cute outfits (her costumes were some of my favorites, after Mary’s and Edith’s), but more importantly, it was so great to see how far she has come in terms of confidence. I think she’s grown a great deal even since S6.
Mary and Edith! Ugh, I have loved how their relationship has gotten better over the course of the movies, but this… You could see how much they love one another in this one, especially how much Edith loves Mary and won’t let anybody fuck with her big sister. And the fact that she was the first person Mary willingly confided in about Sambrook speaks volumes about how much their relationship has evolved! (Tbh I do think that, had Anna not caught Sambrook leaving Mary’s room, Mary would have told her first, just because Anna has been the first person Mary has gone to every time she has dealt with a scandal of that nature, but that notwithstanding, it still means so much that she spoke to Edith first instead of say Tom, who she told about Tony.) Mary teasing her initially about how much they used to fight was a fun callback, but I loved the sincerity behind their interactions and how much they have finally come to love each other… as sisters should. 💕 (I’m not crying you’re crying.)
Speaking of Edith, I loved watching her come into her own and find her place in the family. I loved seeing her taking charge as the family problem solver and, even better yet, being recognized and thanked for it! Her takedown of Sambrook and the way she threatened him was just *chef’s kiss*. And even though it was such a small moment, I loved how she put her hand over Robert’s at the family dinner when everyone basically told him that they loved him but he needed to step down and let Mary take over fully so he wouldn’t run the estate into the ground.
My only other small quibble with the film is an ongoing one I’ve had with Fellowes’s writing for a while, which is that I’m becoming ever increasingly convinced that Tom was replaced by a pod person at some point… because what do you mean that he calls being a capitalist “being sensible”??? While I fully accept that Tom would become slightly progressive over time through his association with the Crawleys, it makes no sense to me that he would become more conservative than Isobel.
It’s probably no surprise to anyone that Mary’s plot line was my favorite overall, given that she was my favorite character, especially since this movie had so many of the things I’ve wanted for her. I’ve been rooting for a Mary Crawley divorce arc for years now, pretty much ever since I jumped on the Brary train— and I mostly jumped onto the Brary train because I was so dissatisfied with her ending in S6, because the idea of Mary ending up married to some Random Man #6 who she (and we!) barely know, apart from the fact that he loves driving cars at fast speeds (something which killed her first husband who she loved very much!) after being bullied into it by the rest of her family… and then to watch her spend two movies virtually alone because he was off flitting about with his one true love, Cars, really left an even worse taste in my mouth. I am a sucker for romance, hence why Tom is (and always will be) my favorite post-Matthew romantic interest for Mary… but my #1, ideal ending for Mary was always for her to end up single, no longer having to be ordered to marry the man sitting next to her at the dinner table, and mistress of the home she has always loved. To me, it seemed the most poetic, fitting end to her story: going from the eldest daughter who was constantly being passed over by her male relations for succession of her family home and mother’s fortune to the one in charge of everything.
That said… Seeing as I am less satisfied with Tom’s overall arc in the grand scheme of things (not that I dislike Lucy! There was just not enough time devoted to their romance/relationship for me to be truly invested in them as a couple), I am and forever will be #TeamBraryforLife.
The ending with the flashbacks… God, it killed me. I bawled in the theater both times, as soon as I saw Matthew and the tears never really stopped. I think it was a perfect way to remember the characters who’d passed (though I wish we could have seen William!) and the early days of the show as the Downton franchise finally came to a close. The other big tearjerker moment for me was seeing Violet’s empty chair at the Dower House 😭 I know that it would have hurt and made me cry to begin with, but I just lost my grandma last month, and something about it just hit differently.
I loved that we got the cute little post-credit scenes with sweet, domestic moments from (almost) everybody! I thought it was interesting (and actually very nice!) that it was very Downstairs focused as well 💕 My favorite ones were seeing the new Baby Bates and seeing it all close out on Mary with her children 💕 I thought it was a sweet moment and it was nice to see her so engaged and involved with her kids (especially with teaching Caroline how to read! I think it’s actually the first/only time we’ve actually heard her speak!), but in so many ways, while Downton was always an ensemble show, Julian Fellowes stated multiple times that Mary was the heart of it, and the fact that she was always such a focus of the series and the films really shows that, so it seemed beyond fitting for her and her children, who will be her legacy and the ones who will keep Downton running in the future, were the last character that we got to see on the screen.
