“Downton Abbey’s” Season 6 finale will see the return of one of the show’s key characters as the series winds down to its swan song.
With the final season of British period drama, “Downton Abbey,” expected to air before the end of the year, the show is bringing back one of its major characters, Lady Rose MacClare (Lily James) who will be reappearing in the series’ Christmas episode, which will also be its Season 6 finale.
Lady Rose will be joined by her Jewish husband, Atticus Aldrige (Matt Barber), as well as her father, Shrimpie (Peter Egan).
James initially joined the cast in the third season, just after the death of Lady Sybil Crawley (Jessica Brown Findlay), taking up where the notorious Lady Sybil left off. Falling in love with an African-American jazz singer and giving “Downton Abbey” audiences a taste of an interracial love story, naïve and headstrong Lady Rose would have pursued the romance if not for the musician leaving to prevent a dangerous situation of a member of the peerage falling for a person of the “wrong” color.
Her near-miss romance didn’t stop Lady Rose from falling in love again and marrying a Jewish man either and audiences thought it would be the last they would see of Lady Rose MacClare after she acquired her happily-ever-after.
Despite Lady Rose’s return for the final episode of the show, audiences will still have to deal with Lady Mary Crawley’s (Michelle Dockery) frustrated efforts to reconcile with her sister, Lady Edith (Laura Carmicheal), while the latter appears to be suffering from her secret.
Henry Talbot (Matthew Goode) and the stern butler, Carson (Jim Carter), will be dealing with several significant changes in their lives as well.
“Downton Abbey’s” Season 6 finale is expected to air its Christmas episode on December 25 in the UK and on PBS in the US on January 3, 2016.