‘Downton Abbey’ Finale Recap: Crawleys Live Happily Ever After, Mary & Edith Make Up

A couple of months after Downton Abbey ended in its native United Kingdom, the Crawleys said good-bye to America on last Sunday's finale episode of the Crawley family's saga. On the somewhat rushed final episode, the longest-running family conflict is finally resolved, as Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) settle their differences -- and the servants find bliss, too.

Mary, realizing she has been horrible to her sister for her entire life, makes amends to Edith after having driven away her fiancé, Bertie Pelham (Harry Hadden-Paton) because she was jealous Edith would end up out-ranking her in nobility by marrying the Marquis. This time around, Mary sees the error in her ways and, months later, arranges for Bertie and Edith to meet for dinner.

It turns out Bertie is still crazy about Edith, and she about him, so they decide to marry anyway. They even get Bertie's overbearing mother, Mrs. Pelham (Patricia Hodge) on board: the very strict woman is impressed with Edith when she tells her about Marigold herself.

After a lifetime of suffering including being left at the altar and the love of her life being killed by Nazis while she was carrying his illegitimate child, Edith gets married. She's happy, and it's about time, too. In one last act of kindness towards her sister, Mary, now pregnant with her second husband's child, decides to postpone the announcement until after the wedding.

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While Mary's doing good deeds for her sister throughout the episode, her new husband, Henry Talbot (Matthew Goode) decides he wants to quit racing, which she's madly happy about. However, the driver realizes he now has to find a new job, so he teams up with Tom Branson (Allen Leech), who has turned into his ultimate bro, and the two of them secretly create a car dealership; when Mary finds out about it, she couldn't be prouder.

As far as the rest of the Crawleys who live upstairs in Downton, everyone's just excited over Edith finally leaving her misery behind. Lord Robert Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) sees how well his wife, Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), handles her new job at the hospital ... and he finally realizes she's doing something important that she's good at, so he leaves her at peace.

Cousin Isobel (Penelope Wilton) finds out her former suitor, Lord Merton (Douglas Reith), is dying from pernicious anemia. This discovery leads his awful daughter-in-law Amelia (Phoebe Sparrow) to keep him away from seeing Isobel or anyone else, locking him up so he dies in her care so she and her new husband inherit everything.

After Isobel and the Dowager (Maggie Smith) realize this situation, the two plot to have Lord Merton removed from his home so he'll die doing the things he loves, and Isobel agrees to marry him, finally. As it turns out, he just has regular anemia and won't die any time soon, so it's marital bliss for the fiery Cousin Isobel after all!

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Downstairs, things are also looking bright for the servants. Long suffering couple Anna and John Bates (Joanne Froggatt and Brendan Coyle), who suffered about as much as Edith, finally have a baby. Their little son is born on New Year's Eve, the same night Edith gets married.

Anna gives birth in Mary's bed, and Robert and Cora brings them champagne to toast: they're family too, after all.

The other couple downstairs, Mr. Carson and his new wife, Mrs. Hughes (Jim Carter and Phyllis Logan), are facing tougher times: the butler seems to be suffering from Parkinson's or Lou Gehrig's disease. Unable to fulfill his duties and concerned over his future at the place he loves, Lord Grantham tells Carson he has a secure spot in Downton for the rest of his life -- and hires the newly-redeemed Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier) as the new Downton Abbey butler.

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As for the rest of the servants, things continued to look bright. Daisy (Sophie McShera) realizes she actually likes Andy (Michael Fox) after being mean to him, but eventually they make up and become the latest Downstairs Downton couple. Daisy also agrees to move to the farm of her father-in-law Mr. Mason (Paul Copley), who, by the way, tells Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol) he'd love to see her more often, so awe.

Mr. Molesley (Kevin Doyle), one of the nicest characters in the whole show, finds a new opportunity away from Downton: he's a teacher now! The sweet valet-butler-footman is offered a teaching job at the town's school and moves away from the estate to a cottage in the village, though he still comes back occasionally to help out during big events, including Edith's wedding.

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As far as his relationship with Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) goes, it's still all innuendo, but they continue to look adorable together.

Now that Downton Abbey is over, fans will have to find a new primetime period soap opera to fill that void. One person who isn't sad the show is leaving? Oscar winner Maggie Smith, who recently told Graham Norton she was sick of the show.