Downton Abbey Features Compelling Cap to Second Season

Note: This post contains spoilers.

It’s been quite the season for the Downton Abbey cast with compelling stories surrounding the war coming to a close by the year’s final episodes. The recently aired Christmas special wrapped it up with an elegance and dramatic flair that’s sure to keep fans waiting with bated breath.

Will Bates be free for Anna’s happiness to be complete, or will she walk the halls of Downton a ghost? Will Thomas learn to live with love in his life, or remain the cold, calculating brute that’s served as the catalyst for so much of the plot already? How about Daisy’s freedom, or Edith’s loneliness? Sybil seems to be taken care of with Branson, but what about Ethel and her young child Charlie? Then there’s O’Brien, who killed Lady Grantham’s child and only seemed to feel true remorse when Cora seemed to be on her deathbed with the Spanish flu. Will she grow a heart and confess, or remain silent on the subject?

These are all a matter of time, but the intricacy of each serves as a backdrop for the even larger and more compelling story: the love life of Matthew, the heir apparent, and Mary, the ruined eldest child.

With Lavinia out of the picture, and the two kissing passionately after Matthew’s wintry proposal (yes, he can walk again!), what’s to be next for the familial lovers, who’ve kept their passions a secret through war, death, scandal, and more?

This episode ended on a high note, but don’t we expect more from the brilliant work of Julian Fellowes? Certainly more than a gift perfectly wrapped up, all ends tied up neatly. That, I believe, is just what we’ll get as season three premieres in 2012.