Downton Abbey: Episode 3.5

Downton Abbey: Episode 3.5
ITV
27 January 2013
Historical Drama
DVD
B+

Oh, this was a heart-breaker!  Lady Sybil, my favorite character, so sweet and good, without being sanctimonious but instead playful and rebellious, dies after childbirth, all because a posh doctor overrules loyal Dr. Clarkson.  Everyone grieves, including Thomas, who remembers her as one of the few people to be kind to him in his life.  I cried buckets, subsiding and then being set off again by things like "Granny" trying to be strong when she feels old and helpless.

Other things happen, like good and bad for Bates, and Jimmy being wary of Thomas's "familiarities," and Edith getting an offer to be a newspaper columnist, but all that matters is Sybil is dead and I haven't mourned for a fictional character this much in a very long time.  It's painful but well done, so B+, damn them!

Jeremy Webb also directed the following episode.  Note that Sybil is 24, which makes more sense than her being 21 the previous year.