Warning: this article contains spoilers
After five years, six series, and 47 episodes, Downton Abbey came to a dramatic end last night with a marriage, a split and a suicide attempt – but while the series finale left some fans and commentators dissatisfied, it's not over yet.
The final episode of Series 6 saw Lady Mary finally wed her on-off love interest Henry Talbot in a quickie marriage before she could change her mind again, while Lady Edith split up with her beloved Bertie after Mary cruelly revealed the identity of Edith's illegitimate daughter Marigold. Meanwhile, butler Barrow, finding out he was about to lose his job, tried, unsuccessfully, to kill himself.
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Many found the conclusion deeply unsatisfying.
In the Daily Mail, Jim Shelley complained that the series's big finale was "shamelessly shallow and calculating", while the underlying message was "just depressing". Shelley said that the moral of the story came down to one simple lesson: "In life it's better to be a Lady Mary than a Lady Edith".
Shelley explained that, inevitably, it was the beautiful, bitchy, Mary who got what she wanted, while the good-hearted, ordinary and eternally unlucky Edith lost her chance of happiness. Yet, once again writer Julian Fellowes "couldn't condemn his heroine, or resist lobbying for our sympathy", he said.
The outcome was "just too great a sorrow for us to bear", said Edwina Langley, writing in the Evening Standard. Not even the final shot of Edith watching her beloved child rushing around the graveyard gave us comfort that this was, in any way, a satisfactory outcome for her, says Langley.
Fans also expressed their anger at the fate of Lady Edith on Twitter.
Red Magazine tweeted. "Outraged that Lady Mary gets her happy ending and Lady Edith doesn't. OUTRAGED." While C0nnieB wrote: "If Lady Edith doesn't get a happy ending I'll hunt Julian Fellows down myself."
And Charlotte Campbell suggested an alternative ending. "...and then Edith killed Lady Mary. The End."
But wait, it's not over yet, said Gerard Donovan in the Daily Telegraph. When is a finale not a finale? "When there's a cracking Christmas Special due in just a few weeks' time."
Fellowes certainly packed the final episode of the final series full to the brim with drama, said Donovan, but we also got a hint that "there's at least one major surprise still left to come". Will Lady Edith seek advice from Miss Cassandra Jones, the star "agony aunt" who turns out to be the hapless butler Spratt? What will happen to Barrow now? And what news from Lady Rose in New York?
Yes, Downton Abbey has found exactly the kind of addictive rhythm it had way back in series one, said Tom Eames on Digital Spy. After weeks of plodding away with boring hospital wars and college exams, it cleverly concluded a number of story arcs but also set itself up for a grand festive finale.
But whatever happens, said Eames, "Sunday nights just won't be the same."
Downton Abbey concludes on ITV with a Christmas special later this year.
