Watching Downton Abbey often involves a game of compartmentalization. One moment is filled with intense fear and sadness, and because it is “just a television program,” the compulsion to stash those emotional responses away overpowers the desire to fully delve into the story as one would with a soap opera or Greek drama.
Then the show knocks you right out.
As we see this episode unfurl, the simple phrase “Matthew’s missing” hits us like a ton of bricks. We become one in the same with Lady Mary, wishing and waiting that the object of her affections (who has incidentally become the object of ours as well) will return safely from the front.
In the interim between the frightening pronouncement and the end of the episode, Branson and Sybil struggle with their feelings for each other as he asks her to leave her pampered life and run away with him. Meanwhile, Mrs. Patmore and Daisy contribute to a soup kitchen and a concert is organized at Downton to be performed in front of the wounded veterans staying there.
Yet through all the side plots and excess, our thoughts are constantly drawn back to Matthew and William, both of whom have not been seen since they went out on an aimless patrol, virtually unguarded from their enemy amidst the mechanized warfare of World War I.
As the hour paces on, we arrive at the concert in Downton, still anxious, but perhaps comforted by Mary and Edith’s performance of “If You Were the Only Girl in the World”. The soft and tremulous vocals set Mary with us, in a state of anxiety, but still hopeful for a happy end to the story.
And then our prayers our answered.
Very few times while watching television have I been practically reduced to tears. But as Matthew walked into the library with William, then went to Mary standing by the piano and began singing with her, my heart sank and the tears flowed without rest.
Disregarding the facts that loomed in the backs of our mind, in the form of Lavinia Swire and Sir Richard Carlisle, was this inherent belief that because of this moment in the story, everything would work out. Even with the knowledge that Mary and Matthew are not together and essentially unable to reconcile any form of romantic relationship, when they sang together for those few moments, all logic melted away.
Downton Abbey thrives in these moments of sheer bliss. While the first episode of the series winded the audience with reality as Matthew entered Downton with Lavinia, the third episode countered that with a heavenly chill down our spines watching Matthew and Mary finally having a moment together to prove once and for all that their relationship, no matter how troubled in the past, is still meant to be.
If there is anything to love about Downton, it is that compartmentalization is quickly countered by the desire to wear your heart firmly on your sleeve. By the end of every episode, we find reason to feel love again, whether it be painful or ecstatic or fulfilling. It’s a feeling certainly worth the tension.