This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Nobody died.
If you were worried that not all of the characters would make it to the end of "Downton Abbey," your concern was misplaced. Creator/writer Julian Fellowes did not add to the death toll Sunday night for the series finale on PBS.
Instead, he gave fans a finale that was a gift-wrapped present — a farewell that was positively filled with happy endings.
And — SPOILER ALERT! — the rest of this story is — SPOILER ALERT!— completely filled with SPOILERS about what happened in the finale of "Downton Abbey."
If you don't want to know — if you haven't watched it yet — STOP READING NOW!
Love was pretty much all around. Lady Edith Crawley finally found happiness, marrying Herbert "Bertie" Pelham, the Marquess of Hexham. Isobel Crawley married Lord Merton, Richard Grey (and he turned out to be far less ill than they believed).
Daisy and Andy got together. And there are hints that Mrs. Patmore and Mr. Mason, and Molesley and Baxter, will become couples.
Plus, Tom Branson seemed rather taken with Laura Edmunds, the editor of Lady Edith's magazine.
And the marriages of Lord Grantham, Robert Crawley and Lady Cora, Lady Mary and Henry Talbot, and Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes all seem to be in great shape.
"It's good to be in love, whatever age," said the Dowager Countess, Lady Violet.
There was humor, as when Thomas Barrow (who's gay) left for a new job and Daisy mused, "Strange, to think that I was soft on him once."
"Well, you were never much of a judge in that department," said Mrs. Patmore.
Or when Molesley, who's now a full-time teacher, offered to return to help out when needed at Downton Abbey.
"Mr. Carson will be extremely grateful, when he's in his right mind," said Mrs. Hughes.
It was just delicious when Lady Violet forced her way past Lord Merton's evil daughter-in-law, bringing him and Isobel together. And when Lady Violet burst out laughing when she learned that her butler, Spratt (Jeremy Swift), was writing an advice column for Lady Edith's magazine, dashing Miss Denker's hopes of getting him fired.
"In the future, I shall come to you for advice about my clothes. And my entertaining," Violet told Spratt. "Who knew we had an expert in the basement?"
And there were things that were just downright fun, including:
• The visit to Brancaster — Bertie's castle — which sort of made Downton Abbey look like a starter home. (It's actually Alnwick Castle, the second-largest inhabited castle in England; only Windsor Castle is larger.)
• Lady Mary setting up the meeting between Bertie and Edith, which led to their marriage and a thaw between Mary and Edith.
• Sir Robert telling Bertie's judgmental mother to just get over her disapproval of Lady Edith's out-of-wedlock daughter.
• Robert discovering and acknowledging that Cora is doing a great job running the hospital. And Violet praising the work Cora is doing at the hospital.
• Henry Talbot and Tom Branson going into business together — selling used cars.
• Anna Bates giving birth to a son — in Lady Mary's bed.
• Lady Mary telling her husband, Henry, that she's pregnant.
• And you could see it coming, but when Mr. Carson's palsy caused his hands to shake so much he couldn't do his job, Barrow returned to be the butler while Mr. Carson assumed an advisory role — one of many happy endings.
Pretty much everybody but Miss Denker got a happy ending. Or a pretty happy ending.
As Lady Violet put it, she believed her granddaughter Lady Edith would be "happy enough" married to Bertie. "Which is the English version of a happy ending."
"What do you think makes the English the way we are?" asked Lady Rosamund.
"Opinions differ. Some say our history. But I blame the weather," Lady Violet replied.
It was a fine episode, full of closure for the fans after six seasons. But — happy enough endings or not — there was still a touch of sadness because it was the end of this show we'd come to love.
"I hate goodbyes," said Tom Branson.
"There seem to be so many of them these days," Lady Mary replied.
We've said goodbye to all these characters, which left us sad enough.
Twitter: @ScottDPierce