‘Downton Abbey’ season 6, episode 7 reaction (PBS): Lady Mary, Henry Talbot’s racetrack heartbreak

Unfortunately for Lady Mary on “Downton Abbey,” she is rather familiar with the concept of having her heart broken when it comes to automobile accidents. We saw one of these come in the past for her courtesy of what happened with Matthew, and on Sunday night’s new episode, an incident involving Henry Talbot may have damaged them for good.

Warning: There are some spoilers ahead from tonight’s episode!

Still with us? Then let’s talk about what was in some ways a cruel but also brilliant parallel to make Talbot a racer. this forces Mary to confront her demons head-on, and it certainly did not help her that there was a great tragedy at the race. While Henry came out of it unharmed, we cannot say the same about everyone else taking part … and that is rather problematic when you think about her mental psyche going into the event as-is. This was enough to cause her to back away slightly, and by the end of this she was ready to bail on the relationship entirely. It makes some sense for her to recoil in this episode given how she felt after Matthew died, and also her recognition that Henry loved driving. She didn’t want to take it from him, but at the same time she knew that she could not handle it in her life anymore.

The good news is that the season is not over. You better believe this will remain a subject of conversation moving forward into the next two episodes! We just hope that if Mary does decide to get with him once more, it comes as the result of natural character evolution.

Note: This article is meant as a snapshot of one key event for tonight’s episode on PBS.