How Downton Abbey should have ended

[Glade]

I think Fellowes took the "serious critics" like a dagger -- and decided to write for the audience that loved him, quite possibly with a passive aggressive undercurrent. He loved success, but he had assumed he was more talented, better, smarter and more subtle (and more historically accurate) than they found him.  Titanic was not better received. His Boston project languished. I suspect that his vast success, once achieved, was humbling ... his pretensions publicly squashed. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-16609589

 

DA reflects JF's class identity, and his classes nostalgia for a fictitious, whitewashed golden age where a brutal aristocracy enslaved the lower classes for their own good, but everyone was happy anyway.  The myth of the 'benevolent master' (a historical lie created by people in JF's class) serves a tory lord well, as does the idea that servants wanted to be in service, and weren't demanding their rights and fleeing the first chance they got.  The issue here is not just historical accuracy, it's the fact that the inaccuracy comes with a very insulting agenda, and is packaged in a completely boring way at that.  Gosford Park was a very superior story/piece of fiction in my view, because of the class consciousness that Robert Altman provided, not because of JF's first hand expertise on where the napkins go. 

[DianeDobbler]

 

DA reflects JF's class identity, and his classes nostalgia for a fictitious, whitewashed golden age where a brutal aristocracy enslaved the lower classes for their own good, but everyone was happy anyway.

 

There was a rash of interviews and articles dug up with and about people who'd been in service (or whose parents had) at the time of Downton Abbey and it sounds just godawful. Maybe not enough butlers were interviewed/wrote their tales, but nobody I recall had nostalgia for their time in service, and as soon as other economic models took over they couldn't wait to get out of there. Jimmy Breslin wrote a bit about it from the US perspective - kids who worked for the so-called U.S. aristocracy (similar to Cora's mom in America) and that sounds miserable too. Of course it was a wonderful model for the actual landed gentry.

[tenativelyyours]

Anna comes into Mary's room and wakes her.  Mary stretches and intones how she had the most frightful dream.  She married some cousin and he died. Sybil married the driver who was Irish of all things.  And she died.  Edith fooled around with some man married to a woman he claimed was crazy even though no one ever seemed to verify that.  Edith had a child by the man who disappeared. And then died.   A lot of dull charmless men kept coming  and bothering her. Sadly none of them died.   A black man actually came and fooled around with young cousin Rose and Poppa even let him sing in the great hall. Then she married a Jew and Poppa just shrugged.   One of the footmen tried to get into bed with another and once again Poppa just shrugged.  He even compared it to the system of abuse in public school if you can imagine!   Most bizarre.  It wasn't nightmare.  Not quite.  I did have the most delicious moment with the most beautiful man ever. A Turk of all things.  Simply dreamy.  Though he did drop dead in the middle of the most scandalous behavior I couldn't imagine outside of a dream.....Do keep this between us Anna.  I must send off that note before the Titantic sets sail.

[Notwisconsin]

1944: V2 rocket. BOOM!!!!!

[Glade]

Since watching the finale, I've come to favor a different ending... Several months after Robert's dramatic death at the dinner table, Mary, Henry, Edith, Tom and Bertie are all sitting in the drawing room, Carson is waiting on them.  Cora is are away with the children, and all the servants have taken the night off, so they are completely alone, or so they think.  While Edith plays the piano, Mary is boring the company with a droll rendition of a song called 'Don't Dream it, Buy it.'  When suddenly Thomas and Obrien burst into the room; both are decked out in jewels and expensive clothing, and Obrien has her long flowing locks down for the first time.  Aiming her gun resolutely, she exclaims:

 

"Mary Crawley, it's all over
Your mansion is a failure
Your lifestyle's too extreme
I'm your new mistress
You now are my servant
We return to Transylvania
Prepare the carriage beam"

 

Mary tries to stop them and says she can explain, but her explanations are all full of such pompous disdain that Obrien shoots her on site.  Screaming, Carson dives forward to try and save her, Obrien kills him too.  At that moment Thomas raises his gun and fires at Henry as he tries to flee. 

"Why did you kill him?" Obrien asks.  "I thought you liked him, he liked you..."  "He didn't like me!  He never liked me!" Thomas exclaims.  But recovering, he explains how on their home planet everything will be different, the two embrace, giddy at the thought of their triumphant return. 

 

Tom, Edith, and Bertie are left huddling together in the fog of morning as they watch Downton Abbey lift off the ground and propel upward into space.  When dawn finally breaks through, the cursed house is gone, and all the townspeople breath a sigh of relief, for now their village can grow and develop into something more then a playground for landed gentry.

Edited January 1, 2016 by Glade

[Roseanna]

Having thought  it through and accepting most of JF's storylines, I think that S6 could have made much better by simply adding two episodes or, if that was impossible, simply transferring Mary and Edith's romances to begin earlier and also make their confrontation to happen earlier (f.ex. in ep 5 or 6) in order to have enough time resolve both romances and the sister's relationship in a manner one would find (at least remotely) likely.

 

It seems that JF know full well how to do characters make things which annoy the audience (and thereby keep them watching the show) and build confrontations, but he is far less good to resolve the problems and show that the character has indeed changed and "deserve" happiness. Did he really expect that the audience would forget and forgive all in an instant only because he gave almost everybody a "happy end" or a hint of it?

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

[SusanSunflower]

@ Glade -- Very Romanoffs meet Dr. Who!    Only, wait, does Edith actually play the piano?  

[Glade]

@ Glade -- Very Romanoffs meet Dr. Who!    Only, wait, does Edith actually play the piano?  

 

Probably not, it never happened on the show, though Mary did sing that one time in S2.  Anyway, the subversive ending to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (where the servants kill their master for being too decadent/out of jealousy and blast the great old house off into space) just struck me as too appropriate for DA.

[skyways]

Eith played while Mary sang.

[SusanSunflower]

If Mary can be an accomplished and competitive rider, Edith can be a near-concert-level pianist .... seriously ... Cora when last seen was doing embroidery (finally) ... Edith was once seen reading a book ... or maybe just carrying it ... 

[Roseanna]

Probably not, it never happened on the show, though Mary did sing that one time in S2

 

And it was Edith who then played piano ("Crawley sisters"). 

 

The sisters did the same in Christmas Eve in CS5.

[lonestar]

My dream ending:  Cora dies, Robert remarries and has a son.  That is all I care about.

[Andorra]

I think the show should have ended with Robert dying and Mary running the estate with Tom's help. Personally I would have liked them to be a couple, but it would have been okay with them just being the close friends they are, too. I would have loved a scene between Robert and Tom, where Robert tells Tom that he sees him as a son after all and that he trusts him and knows the estate in good hands with him and Mary. It would have closed the circle for Mary, starting series 1 with not being able to inherit,  her expectation to never be able to be Mistress of Downton and her anger about the lack of power for women in her society. 

 

Talbot should have never appeared or just been sent on his way at some point. He was utterly pointless IMO.

 

The confrontation between Mary and Edith should have happened much earlier and it should have been spent time on the resolution. Not "you're a bitch" and "I'm back for your wedding" in 2 minutes. Mary should have made a real effort and Edith should have admitted to her own jealousy. The toxic nature of their relationship should have been talked over and they should have found a common ground together. 

 

Edith/Bertie should be married of course.

 

I also would have liked to see real changes. Tom and Mary making plans how to save Downton, by opening the house on a regular basis, by maybe selling some of the art and family heirlooms to pay the death duties, even thinking about living regularly only in a small part of the house and closing some of the rooms. Much less servants. Maybe a cook, a few run in maids and maybe Thomas to keep an eye on things, some gardeners for the park surrounding the house and that should be it. Certainly no valets or ladie's maids any more, nor chauffeurs, footmen or hallboys. 

 

I would have also liked to see Tom becoming involved with Edith's newspaper. Since he was a journalist once and Edith would not be able to run it all the time from Brancaster, I would have liked it, if she asked Tom to help her there, too. That way it would have been a closing circle for him, too. 

 

I would like to see the Bates go and open a little hotel.

 

Cora should go and travel. 

 

Baxter and Molesley should get married and live on his teacher salary. Baxter could sew to add to the family income.

 

Mrs Patmore would stay as the cook of the house, but she would have more regular hours and might even live outside the house. Maybe on the Mason's farm with Mr. Mason, Daisy and Andy. 

 

The Carson's would just enjoy their retirement. 

 

The Dowager would die soon after Robert, peacefully in her sleep. 

 

Isobel and Merton would enjoy some good years together.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Andorra

[Roseanna]

I think the show should have ended with Robert dying and Mary running the estate with Tom's help. Personally I would have liked them to be a couple, but it would have been okay with them just being the close friends they are, too. I would have loved a scene between Robert and Tom, where Robert tells Tom that he sees him as a son after all and that he trusts him and knows the estate in good hands with him and Mary. It would have closed the circle for Mary, starting series 1 with not being able to inherit,  her expectation to never be able to be Mistress of Downton and her anger about the lack of power for women in her society. 

 

Talbot should have never appeared or just been sent on his way at some point. He was utterly pointless IMO.

 

The confrontation between Mary and Edith should have happened much earlier and it should have been spent time on the resolution. Not "you're a bitch" and "I'm back for your wedding" in 2 minutes. Mary should have made a real effort and Edith should have admitted to her own jealousy. The toxic nature of their relationship should have been talked over and they should have found a common ground together. 

 

Edith/Bertie should be married of course.

 

I also would have liked to see real changes. Tom and Mary making plans how to save Downton, by opening the house on a regular basis, by maybe selling some of the art and family heirlooms to pay the death duties, even thinking about living regularly only in a small part of the house and closing some of the rooms. Much less servants. Maybe a cook, a few run in maids and maybe Thomas to keep an eye on things, some gardeners for the park surrounding the house and that should be it. Certainly no valets or ladie's maids any more, nor chauffeurs, footmen or hallboys. 

 

I would have also liked to see Tom becoming involved with Edith's newspaper. Since he was a journalist once and Edith would not be able to run it all the time from Brancaster, I would have liked it, if she asked Tom to help her there, too. That way it would have been a closing circle for him, too. 

 

Good ideas, in fact much better than those of Fellowes :)

[PRgal]

Ending:  Scene closes, panning away from Downton and fades.  But that's not the end.  We then open in the 21st century and we see a woman who looks remarkably like Mary typing on a computer.  Because the REAL Mary Crawley is actually a writer and the entire series was really a novel she's working on.  She shuts down her computer, walks away and texts someone named Anna, her assistant. 

[PRgal]

Actually, I take back the texting part.  She walks away from her desk, passes a blonde woman with meh hair who reminds her of her meeting later that day.  The name plate on her desk?  Anna Bates. 

[tenativelyyours]

My dream ending:  Cora dies, Robert remarries and has a son.  That is all I care about.

 

Sorry to piggy back but for me it would better if it turns out the Titantic'd cousin did survive, had a kid in Canada then died.  Fellowes odd and mostly wrong idea of an entail means Matthew's invested fortune stays with the estate.  Which falls to a little boy with a mother who is not up to Crawley standards. And Mary has to go hat in hand to Mrs. Patmore and becomes a maid at her B&B.  Only to find the place filled with cheeky men who ask her what her current rate is in between trying to give her bum a good squeeze.   Making her rue the day she ever laughed at the scandal of it being seen as a house of ill repute.  In fact the tabloids pick up on it and headline the story as "Turkish Delight To Die For"

[PRgal]

Sorry to piggy back but for me it would better if it turns out the Titantic'd cousin did survive, had a kid in Canada then died.  Fellowes odd and mostly wrong idea of an entail means Matthew's invested fortune stays with the estate.  Which falls to a little boy with a mother who is not up to Crawley standards. And Mary has to go hat in hand to Mrs. Patmore and becomes a maid at her B&B.  Only to find the place filled with cheeky men who ask her what her current rate is in between trying to give her bum a good squeeze.   Making her rue the day she ever laughed at the scandal of it being seen as a house of ill repute.  In fact the tabloids pick up on it and headline the story as "Turkish Delight To Die For"

 

Oh, and the mother is half French, half First Nations (Native Canadian).  Now THAT would freak out the Crawleys. :P

[Mrsjumbo]

I'd have liked Tom to stay in the US. There was no point in bringing him back.

After THE breakfast when Bertie takes off, a car rolls up the drive & it's Gregson. He was a POW & developed amnesia after he was released & has been living in Germany all of this time, but his memory is slowly returning. He marries Edith, they live in London & both work at the paper/magazine. Marigold goes to boarding school.

Mary turns down Henry's creepy stalker romance & decides she does not need a man to be happy. Robert dies & Mary competently runs the estate herself.

Mr Carson dies, and mrs Hughes & Mrs Pattmore run the b & b together.

Mr Mason is happy enough with Daisy & Andy living with him.

Mr Mosely meets a nice teacher & settles down. (Can you tell I don't like when everyone is paired off together at the end?)

Thomas is butlering for Mary at the castle & also guides tours during the day.

[Misstify]

Not strictly an ending for Downton, but...

I'd like to see an alternate version of the story from the point of view of the first Mrs. Gregson.  Kind of like how Wide Sargasso Sea gives a story of the first Mrs. Rochester...

[Camera One]

During Edith's wedding reception, Baxter gets a giant needle and injects Henry, Andrew and Laura the Newspaper Editor.  It turns out that Henry is actually Matthew, Andrew is actually William, and Laura is actually Sybil.  Baxter works for MI6, and had to fake-kill, kidnap, mindwipe and change the appearance of Matthew, William, and Sybil due to secrets of national security they learned during the War.  Now, they can able to reclaim their own memories.

O'Brien comes to Downton and notices that everyone looks the same as they did 10 years ago.  She threatens to expose Downton and their secret Fountain of Youth to the press, but everyone helps to neutralize her and imprison her in the dungeons where we see Edna, Mrs. Bunting, Mrs. Bates, Mr. Green, and a variety of familiar faces.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Camera One

[caligirl50]

20 hours ago, Camera One said:

During Edith's wedding reception, Baxter gets a giant needle and injects Henry, Andrew and Laura the Newspaper Editor.  It turns out that Henry is actually Matthew, Andrew is actually William, and Laura is actually Sybil.  Baxter works for MI6, and had to fake-kill, kidnap, mindwipe and change the appearance of Matthew, William, and Sybil due to secrets of national security they learned during the War.  Now, they can able to reclaim their own memories.

O'Brien comes to Downton and notices that everyone looks the same as they did 10 years ago.  She threatens to expose Downton and their secret Fountain of Youth to the press, but everyone helps to neutralize her and imprison her in the dungeons where we see Edna, Mrs. Bunting, Mrs. Bates, Mr. Green, and a variety of familiar faces.

Amazing.

[Driad]

The house has become a hotel.  Mary and the rest of the family work there, getting ordered around by nouveau riche guests whose parents were servants.  

[PRgal]

On 2016-05-24 at 5:28 PM, Driad said:

The house has become a hotel.  Mary and the rest of the family work there, getting ordered around by nouveau riche guests whose parents were servants.  

Speaking of hotels, I just saw this article in the Wall Street Journal about some country houses becoming condos.  

[caligirl50]

Wouldn’t you rather just have a private house for $1.4 million rather than rent a room at an estate? I would...but not really the point of your post.

Edited June 10, 2016 by caligirl50

[PRgal]

On 2016-06-10 at 5:49 PM, caligirl50 said:

Wouldn’t you rather just have a private house for $1.4 million rather than rent a room at an estate? I would...but not really the point of your post.

You're not renting when it's a condo - but you DO have to pay maintenance/HOA fees.  And where I come from, single family homes are pretty close to that price point (okay, it's really more like over $780K US, since I live in Canada.  A single family home in Toronto is around $1.2M Canadian.  It's even pricier in Vancouver). 

Edited June 12, 2016 by PRgal

[JudyObscure]

Bertie doesn't exist. Edith has been working and mothering Marigold in London for the past year.

Meanwhile Mary has been falling hopelessly,  passionately in love with Talbot ... but he has yet to propose.

 Edith and Marigold come home for a visit.  Talbot sees Edith and thunderbolts, he has always dreamed of a strawberry blonde.  He also recognizes her resemblance to Marigold and instantly figures out the situation.  This makes him love Edith even more because he himself was born on the wrong side of the blanket, his father being the real copper bottom Marquis.  The next evening Edith and Talbot announce their engagement plus the good news that someone has died and Talbot is now the new Marquis.  The camera lingers on the shocked faces of Lord and Lady Grantham, Violet, Carson and Mary.

----------------

The recent marathon made me realize that I disliked Mary from the first episode when she didn't have the noblesse oblige to allow her plainer sister to enjoy the attention of even one old man at the party, and she made poor Matthew feel every bit of his social inferiority.  From that moment on I looked forward to her comeuppance, but it never came.  I believe Fellowes wrongly considers snobbery and casual unkindness marks of the true aristocrat.  As much as I like his beautiful productions, I think his writing is inconsistent and his characters too unlikeable.  He should stick to producing other writers' works.

[SusanSunflower]

I was startled at how "inconsistent" the writing was in the early (3rd?) episode I watched. While the characters (and actors) were much fresher and alive, -- my lord -- the amount of deadly pontificating and exposition (gross editorializing) Fellowes put in so many mouths ... almost drowned out by the incessant clanging of anvils dropping 

[MadTom]

Just throwing my two cents in from the about-to-be-defunct IMDb board, and two somewhat "established" outcomes in that forum:

A) John and Anna Bates name their son Norman, move to Southern California and open a motel. 'Nuff said.

B) Thomas Barrow moves to Texas to join his American cousins Clyde and Buck, Buck's wife Blanche and Clyde's mistress Bonnie in a multi-state armed bank robbery spree, using his skills as a veteran British Army medic to help patch up the gang after their multiple shootouts. After Buck is killed and Blanche is wounded and captured, he stashes all of the gang's loot. Then he phones in an anonymous tip to the Texas Rangers setting up Clyde and his mistress for an ambush. Then he exchanges the loot for Pounds Sterling, returns to Downton and buys out the estate from the Crawleys who have been wiped out by the Great Depression.

[TheView]

On 5/23/2016 at 7:14 PM, Camera One said:

During Edith's wedding reception, Baxter gets a giant needle and injects Henry, Andrew and Laura the Newspaper Editor.  It turns out that Henry is actually Matthew, Andrew is actually William, and Laura is actually Sybil.  Baxter works for MI6, and had to fake-kill, kidnap, mindwipe and change the appearance of Matthew, William, and Sybil due to secrets of national security they learned during the War.  Now, they can able to reclaim their own memories.

O'Brien comes to Downton and notices that everyone looks the same as they did 10 years ago.  She threatens to expose Downton and their secret Fountain of Youth to the press, but everyone helps to neutralize her and imprison her in the dungeons where we see Edna, Mrs. Bunting, Mrs. Bates, Mr. Green, and a variety of familiar faces.

That is hilarious and brilliant 

[buttersister]

After some re-re-watching, I’ll go for Bertie not forgiving Edith, as not only did she lie to him by omission, not trust him with her not-so secret, let’s say he learns how she treated Mrs. Drue.