Spoilers! How ‘Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale’ brings Maggie Smith back

Spoiler alert! We’re discussing major details about the ending of “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” (in theaters now). Stop reading if you haven’t seen it and really don’t want to know.

There’s something about Mary.

In “ Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale ,” Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) is ostracized from high society after divorcing her second husband (Matthew Goode), then blackmailed by a scheming suitor (Alessandro Nivola) who is after her family fortune. But ultimately, the savvy granddaughter of Violet Crawley ( Maggie Smith ) steps into her power and takes over as head of the English household.

It’s a “really fitting” conclusion, says Dockery, who played the character for six seasons on TV as well as in three sequel films, spanning 1912 to the early 1930s.

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“I’ve always loved Mary for her resilience and stoicism,” Dockery says. At the start of the movie, “it’s quite shocking to see how a woman would have been treated at that time. For us, it was really important to lean into those stakes and make them as high as possible.” So by the end, “it feels really rewarding when the family and household come together to help bring her back into society.”

Mary is supported by her mother, Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), and sister Edith (Laura Carmichael). But for much of the film, Mary faces resistance from her father, Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), who is reluctant to pass the reins. Not only does he want to protect his daughter from the pressures of the position, but he also worries about becoming irrelevant in old age.

“This man was born into the role of being a caretaker; his one job in life is to take care of the estate,” Bonneville says. “That’s a strange thought – to know your destiny from childhood – but that’s true of the aristocrats of this era. The notion of retirement frightens him,” and is relatable to “many people who face retirement, not quite knowing what’s going to happen next.”

برای بهبود رتبه سایت، بک لینک طبیعی اهمیت زیادی دارد. این لینک‌ها به رشد واقعی و پایدار سایت شما کمک می‌کنند و از پنالتی گوگل جلوگیری می‌کنند.

How does ‘Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale’ pay tribute to Maggie Smith?

In the last scene of “The Grand Finale,” Mary stands alone in the main hall of Downton Abbey, with a portrait of her late grandmother watching over her. As she looks around, she sees the ghosts of her past dancing around her, including her late sister Sybil (Jessica Brown-Findlay), who died after childbirth; her first husband, Matthew (Dan Stevens), who was killed in a car accident; and, of course, Violet, who glances back at Mary and smiles.

Although some viewers might jump to conclusions, none of these visages were created using AI. Rather, they were all old clips pulled “from the series,” director Simon Curtis says. He was inspired by an early scene from the TV show, when the estate’s staff hosted a servant’s ball at Christmastime.

“That stayed with me,” Curtis says. “I thought that was emblematic of the whole series.” “Downton” is about everyone “living under one roof together: upstairs and downstairs, young and old, male and female. I think that’s very powerful to people.”

By showing generations of the Crawley family in this “mystical dance” together, creator Julian Fellowes wanted to illustrate how we are all “products of our pasts.” He also wanted to honor Smith, a fan favorite as the Dowager Countess, who died last year at age 89 .

“Maggie haunts the film in many ways,” Fellowes says. “Cora says to Robert, ‘We’ll be sharing it with your mother’s ghost,’ and he says, ‘She’s part of our story. It’s all part of our story.’ I wanted to make the point that we are all the result of many things that have happened; many people that have come into our lives and some of them left it. Somehow, you have to find a place for all of that.”

Could there be a ‘Downton Abbey’ and ‘Gilded Age’ crossover?

“Downton” comes to a close just as Fellowes’ other period drama, HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” reached series-high ratings for its third season this past summer. Similar to “Downton,” “ Gilded Age ” explores the clash between old and new money, only set in 1880s New York.

“When you come to the end of a very successful show, you’re always a bit nervous about what comes next,” Fellowes says. “So it’s rather nice to see people enjoying ‘The Gilded Age’ and gradually it getting more and more people talking about it. I feel very lucky in that.”

Fellowes recently teased the opportunity for a crossover: Key characters moved to England in “Gilded Age” Season 3, meaning they could potentially encounter younger versions of the “Downtown” family. But Fellowes remains cryptic when asked about possible spinoff series or films.

“I know never to say never, because in this business, you only say never in order to retract that two weeks later,” Fellowes says. “Nevertheless, I do believe this is the end of that particular incarnation of the ‘Downtown’ story. I feel we’ve taken it to a good place to set them on their way.”