End of a era, twice

Tomorrow is, alas, the last of the Downton Abbey series on PBS, and it will be missed:

You didn’t stay the course. Oh, you enjoyed the Crawleys of Downton Abbey when they were the hot new thing. You hung on when the menfolk went off to fight the Great War. You saw Matthew miraculously walk again; you blessed his marriage to Lady Mary; you shed a tear for dear Sybil. But then you drifted.
Maybe, from time to time, some of the doings filtered back to you. A downstairs rape. An upstairs blood barf. Bateses in and out of jail. And what about that evil servant who ended a dynasty with a bar of soap? Is she still there? If you’re honest, all that filters back to you now is a swirl of headbands and cloche hats and drop-waist tea dresses and evening jackets and Maggie Smith, sailing in at some pregnant juncture to crack wise.
Downton Abbey, which begins its sixth and final season on PBS on Sunday, weaves a surprising amount of authentic historical context into its plots.
Truth is, you’re no longer down with Downton. But now, with the end approaching, you’re thinking you want to be there when Lord Grantham takes one last stroll across the sward (even if it’s not the same yellow lab trailing in his wake). And you don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of the hard-core Abbots who’ve been watching the whole time.
Elizabeth McGovern as Cora, Countess of Grantham. She’s the nice one.
Maggie Smith as Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham. Lord Grantham’s bullheaded but lovable Gorgon-mom. Traffics in ripostes. Most famous for asking: “What is a weekend?” Enjoyed a wintry flirtation with an old Russian beau who never washed his hair.
Carson, the butler, has been working at Downton for something like a half-century, and is now further to the right than Ted Cruz. Rules the downstairs with a basso profundo and a scowl of iron. Capable of softening for Lady Mary and his new bride, but has spent most of the past season being a prat. Last seen harassing his underbutler to the brink of suicide.
Mrs. Hughes, the housekeeper. The eminently practical Scottish housekeeper who, perhaps unwisely, has embarked on a late-in-life marriage to the rigid Carson.
Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Crawley, eldest daughter of Lord and Lady Grantham.
A beautiful ice cube that melts every two or three years. Love history boasts two key fatalities: 1) the hot young Turk whose coitus was interrupted in the most permanent way; 2) the beloved first husband (and sorta cousin) who met his demise in a car crash, which made things a little ticklish when Mary fell for another race car driver. She got over her squeamishness and tied the knot in what felt like minutes. Mary has been a total bitch to her sister.
Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith Crawley, second daughter of the Granthams. The “ugly duckling” of the Crawley sisters was a) abandoned at the altar, and then b) abandoned by her married lover, who c) thoughtlessly (and, in a weird way, presciently) got himself killed by Nazi thugs, but d) left her with the love child Marigold, who has e) shown few signs of animate life. A more recent romance with Bertie, now Marquess of Someplace, was torpedoed by Evil Mary. Will Bertie come back, or will Edith resign herself to a life of being “fearfully modern”?
Penelope Wilton as Isobel Crawley, mother of Matthew. Every bit as high-minded as when the show began, she remains Violet’s best foil and frenemy, even as she devotes herself to a relentless succession of Good Works. Her marriage plans with the sweet but dim Dickie (Lord Merton) were scotched by Dickie’s truly vile son Larry, but may be revived by the machinations of Larry’s scheming fiancée.
Brendan Coyle as John Bates, Valet, and Joanne Froggatt as Anna, lady’s maid. The most luckless pair of domestic servants ever, they have both, at various times, been charged with murder, and have spent more combined time in jail than Al Capone, but nevertheless enjoy ironclad job security. Have conceived a baby Bates, whose life can only go up from here. Bates got his limp in the Boer War, serving as Lord Grantham’s batman.
Thomas Barrow, the underbutler, a gay outlier-servant, formerly evil and conniving, now engaged in a protracted martyrdom, which recently culminated in slashing his wrists. A seether, but surprisingly good with kids. Once kidnapped Lord Grantham’s dog, so he could be rewarded for “finding” it.
Mrs. Patmore, the cook, and the salty, bossy, eternally pink-cheeked Empress of the Kitchen, who may be Downton Abbey’s only remaining virgin, but seems to be getting her groove on with a local pig farmer. Her nephew was a war deserter.
Characters who may be safely ignored: Tom, Daisy, Baxter, Molesley, Andy, any child.
Characters you’re allowed to be wistful for: Matthew, Sybil, O’Brien.
What life will look like without Downton Abbey: Anybody’s guess.

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