Sybil – Why?
**Spoiler Alert** If you aren’t up to date on Season 3 of Downton Abbey this will talk about important developments you might not want to read yet.
My husband and I are Downton Abbey fans. We started late and have just gotten up to speed. We watched Season 2 on DVD and then have been watching Season 3 on pbs.com because we didn’t get Season 2 finished before Season 3 came on “live”.
Last night we got caught up and are now ready to go “live” this Sunday night, oh no, wait, I JUST REMEMBERED THE SUPER BOWL!!!! Oh no! Well, I guess it’s one more week online.
Anyway, last night we watched another tragic death on Downton Abbey (by the way, have you noticed that except for the suicide of Vera Bates – all the deaths have happened in bed? Turkish guy in Mary’s bed, William, Lavinia, and now Sybil?) which I admit wasn’t a total surprise because I had seen hints on Facebook.
I can’t help but wonder why they had Sybil die. She was the sweetest of the girls, the one you couldn’t help but like. It seems that character is needed as a foil for all the complications of Mary and Edith. Who will take her place upstairs? She always looked for the good in people. Is there another character (upstairs) who does that? In real life we call those people naive, and there is a tendency to undervalue them I think. We say things like, “they need to get their head out of the clouds” or “they need to toughen up for the real world”. But if we take the time to think about it, I think everyone needs someone like that in their life. They provide hope for a better society, their belief in people keeps alive that little part of us that still believes in people.
Sybil wasn’t weak or stupid. She was headstrong, obstinate and determined to have her own way. But she cared about people and looked beyond her own world to see the value of all classes (even Thomas knew her kindness). She was willing to take people at face value and looked to see the good inside (remember Mary said she was the only one who thought Mary and Edith were nice people and Thomas acknowledged she was one of the few who would notice and care if he died).
Sybil, we’ll miss you.
I've heard of it but have yet to watch any episodes. We're more of a reality TV couple. I enjoy Survivor, my wife The Amazon Race. Sadly, neither is available over here in the Middle East.