‘Downton Abbey’ season 5 finale spoilers: Aftermath for Joanne Froggatt, Brendan Coyle

Tonight’s “Downton Abbey” episode crammed in quite a bit of story, from a wedding to Anna being arrested of all people. Next week, the challenge of course is trying all of that together, and in a way that satisfies.

Luckily, the series is going to have a pretty substantial amount of time to do this very thing. After all, we’re looking at a two hour finale here! This episode aired on Christmas Day when it was in the United Kingdom, so there is a heck of a lot of story to tell as we see the show (or at least part of it) shift to a new setting. Also, you will see the aftermath of what happened to Joanne Froggatt’s character. We’re going to tease this episode more in the days ahead, but for now, we’ll say that figuring how how to free her is going to be a huge theme of the entire episode. Is Bates going to continue to be punished in some way, or will he figure out a way to fix all of this?

One other thing that we’ll share right now is that by the time the finale ends, you’ll be wondering whether or not at least one cast member is leaving the show. The funny thing here is that even months after the show aired in Britain, we still don’t know the answer. It feels like some out there have been holding back in order to share their plans after the US season airs.

Above all else, we will say that the big finale next week does not disappoint.

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