Downton Abbey Season 3 Episode 4 recap

Spoiler. (This is the one where someone dies).

Any time that a character is killed off a "good show" (I realize that reasonable people might disagree about what a good show is) it has a tendency to bring things back into focus. My primary complain with the recent ups and downs at the abbey has been the speed at which they've been carried out. No sooner is Lady Edith not talking to Sir Anthony, then she is talking to him, then she is married, only she isn't married. (I'll leave off for now the sub plot of her development as a writer. While I'm intrigued by the idea I mentioned after the previous episode that I was concerned with the speed that they'd try and carry it off. Count me still worried). Well, one moment that has to linger is the death of a major character. You cannot pass over it in future shows or pretend like it never happened. For every episode of Downton Abbey in the future there will be no Lady Sybil.

It's interesting because I was just writing about how killing off Branson might make Sybil free again and give the show some new avenues that seemed to be closing. Obviously Mr. Fellowes disagreed. (I'm still counting as a great tragedy that they didn't capitalize on the scene where Matthew comes to Sybil's rescue with a good old fashioned love triangle, or square if we're including Branson. I think the term is quadrangle, but we'll go with square). I'll be interested to see how many seasons the show will last and what role time will play in the development of these characters lives. It seems to me that the introduction of a new generation also presents the opportunity of a jump ahead in time. That said, it seems to me that the memorable characters that have been created during the first few seasons should probably have their journey finished on screen.

I found the death scene to be touching. (Of course, being a parent now myself, my heart strings do get tugged a bit more when a parent is mourning the death of a child). It was made more so by the fact that Sybil was the brightest light amongst the family members, the one most willing to take a risk and to forgive. Thus, her death could believably bring a person like Thomas to tears. I don't know if any other upstairs character could have legitimately engendered the emotion that Sybil did. She was probably the closest thing that the show had to a true heroine, regardless of the excitement with which we watched Matthew and Mary's courtship.

Her death serves two important functions for he possibility of an interesting Downton Abbey. First, as I said before, it is an event that will be a part of every episode that follows. It will force the show to linger a bit longer, which has been sorely needed. It also opens up new vistas for the viewing public, and though we may not be sure that we like them, they are still there to be seen. Once a show has discarded the presentiment that everything will always be fine for a select few characters, all of the actions that follow come with an increased meaning. If Sybil isn't safe, who is? To me, the really strange thing is that our own lives are curiously similar. We are constantly trying to remind ourselves to keep our days inflected with meaning. A common religious belief for many major religions is that of learning to live in the moment, as if anything can happen, but we don't live that way. Instead, we wait for the tragedies in our own life, loss of loved one, job, house etc. to remind ourselves that there is no promise of tomorrow. And yet, tomorrow has always been there, so it would seem to be logically inconsistent to believe that it wouldn't be so again. I suppose that's why I'm calling DA a good television show, because its given me a good honest on screen death that makes me reflect on life. (I could probably spend an even longer amount of time analyzing why we care so much about characters on a television show and so little about people in the actual world. I'll speculate that it has something to do with tribalism, family etc. that we feel that we get to know these people on television, we let them inhabit our thoughts in the way of real people, and so, even knowing it's a show we begin to care about them. They are also broadcast to us through our televisions where we are free to watch them or not. The relationship is not as dynamic nor as difficult as loving an actual human being who will require much more effort to actively love).

The other items of note in the episode seem hardly worth noting, but I suppose it wasn't a fifty minute episode of death throes. The battle between the doctors was suitably awkward, though it seemed an odd, annoying? choice to have both of them stand at the foot of the bed wringing their hands while Sybil kicked off. Is it believable that neither of them would make any effort to comfort a dying woman? The more interesting part that Fellowes got out of the scene is the disagreement between wife and husband over her care, and now we can expect some marital strife in future episodes, which actually seems credible. The countess did prove the voice of reason letting Robert know that no one was to blame, and yet he does seem to blame himself, which, yay! This is primarily because the Earl of Grantham was quickly devolving from an admirable patriarch into an outright snobbish fool during the course of this season, and I found it at odds with the nobler character that existed in season one. I'd be delighted to see him take a turn for the reasonable as it is his gentle hand that made the upstairs so appealing at first.

The other minor subplot is Matthew Crawley beginning plans to wrest control of Downton from Robert, albeit on the morning after Sybil's death. The fact that his wife only chased the lawyer out of the room seemed like a win for Matthew, who, like Lord Grantham, is slowly transforming into a bit less likeable of a character. Perhaps we're to see his transition into the aristocracy as a journey that will imperil his middle class upbringing. It is too early to tell.

The other sub plot involves Matthew's mother bringing on a prostitute to replace Mrs. Bird. Mrs. Crawley, who delighted us in season one by going toe to toe with the dowager countess had devolved into a shrewish woman by the end of season two, and it was a nice turn to have her return to her former ways in giving Mrs. Bird the heave ho in order to hire the former prostitute. The look of shock on Mrs. Bird's face was gift enough. And, though it provides an interesting subplot, it also seems entirely consistent with the original character of Mrs. Crawley, which pleases me immensely. The only thing I like more than a character undergoing meaningful change is a character doing something interesting that also manages to be entirely in character.

Anyhow, I think it was the best episode of the season so far. And it probably better be if you're going to kill off one of your main characters. It did seem as though avenues for Sybil's growth had been foreclosed by the plot lines, but it did not mean that her death did not come as a surprise, nor did it take away from the obvious meaning it had for the characters on the show and the show itself.