‘Downton Abbey’ season 5, episode 7 review (PBS): Michelle Dockery’s Mary and a choice

Tonight, “Downton Abbey” aired an episode that was not necessarily the most surprising of the season. Rather than really resolving a whole lot of anything, they instead chose to take their time building towards something larger that will happen in the final two episodes.

With that being said, we do feel like there is one particular story that is worth highlighting this week, mostly because it provides a reasonable sort of closure for now: The latest update in the love life of Lady Mary. What we learned tonight was that she managed to completely send away Tony Gillingham, but at the same time, she found out that Charles Blake was also going to be gone from her life. He is going to be departing, which is a shame since we actually really liked the intellectual challenge he presented to Michelle Dockery’s character.

We feel like this story is meant in a way to represent that Mary does not need to tie herself to a relationship in order to be happy, but it took a heck of a long time to get here with two different men. This story felt almost like it could have taken place over a few episodes rather than nearly two seasons.

Is this the end of the road for Mary’s love life? Probably not; as a matter of fact, we can confirm that it will become a subject of conversation at least one more time before the end of this season. We mostly just came out of this episode when we first watched it last fall (read our review of the British airing here) feeling somewhat bummed out, since we want to see Dockery get the greatest material possible at every moment.

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