‘Downton Abbey’ season 6 Christmas Special (series finale) preview: Jim Carter’s tease

We are now just two days away from the “Downton Abbey” Christmas Special coming on the air, and it feels as though there is one thought about it that is pretty universal: This is going to be an event that has you pretty choked up. It’s the series finale, a longer episode than usual, a chance to see whether or not these characters can have the happy ending that we want for them.

One thing that could make you a little concerned that maybe not everyone sees their story conclude in the happiest of ways? The following comment from Jim Carter to “Good Morning Britain” probably will have a few people out there concerned over what’s coming next:

“Not only are we saying goodbye to each other as actors, we’re saying goodbye to the characters … Have a box of Kleenex handy is all I can say. It’s going to be a tearjerker.”

Then again, there’s another possible reading of this quote beyond just “something terrible happens to someone”: It could also be a reference to the notion that we’ve just spent so much time living with these characters, and therefore it is sad to see them go. In the end, our hopes are that the show won’t let anyone go to bed on Christmas Day feeling like they’ve wasted all of their time watching this over the years, so our guess is that these are the sort of tears viewers will have. We think the tone of this show is hopeful enough that a depressing end is not in the cards.