Characters like Violet, the dowager countess, were enlarged with new layers and backstories others showed clear signs of outliving their narrative usefulness. Longstanding plot lines were either resolved (Edith’s daughter) or abruptly discarded (Mary Crawley’s sort-of-not-really Longstanding relationships (the Bateses, Robert and Cora) were tested and left standing. So now that we’re all on the same plane of knowledge, what can we say for sure about this fast-receding season? (For Baron Fellowes’ thoughts, read this.) They had us in their spoiler-alert grip, Abbots, but no longer.
Viewers in the United States who were too impatient to wait for the weekly drip of revelation snapped up their DVDs and sometimes blurted out key plot developments over a few too Oh, sure, those viewers in Britain got their usual three-month head start on us (just as the Brits used to get first crack at So let us keep sorrow at bay by reminding ourselves: We’ve finally pulled abreast. It can’t be over, can it? Another season, gone as quickly as a grouse flying over Brancaster Castle.
