Many shows see characters come and go. Death is a part of life. That doesn’t make the death of a fan-favorite character easy. The death of Lady Sybil Crawley in Downton Abbey was a heartbreaking one.
Lady Sybil was by far the most intriguing sister. She wanted to figure out life, without being stuck to the gender or social norms of the time. It’s why she and Tom Branson got along so well as he realized that she wasn’t stuck up like the rest of them.
They ended up with a love story that we could all get behind. The bad news came in Downton Abbey Season 3, Episode 5.
Jessica Brown Findlay wanted to leave Downton Abbey
It turns out that this wasn’t a creative decision just to leave the Crawley family devastated and Tom a grieving widower. This storyline was written in because Jessica Brown Findlay wanted to leave the series for other projects.
She made it clear to Julian Fellowes that she would be there after three years on the series. Woman and Home shares that Findlay was terrified of being trapped in a comfort zone as an actress, and she wanted to try other things. The fear of being encouraged to sign on for another season meant that she had to leave there and then.
Like Dan Stevens, she wasn’t in this until the very end. It’s important to respect actors for their decisions. After all, this is a job to them!
There was only one way to write out Lady Sybil
With the way the storyline had gone for Sybil and Tom, there was only one option to write out the character. There is no way that Sybil would just up and leave Tom and her family, especially not after having her and Tom’s first (and only) child.
The series had the chance to develop a heartbreaking storyline that brought up something very important when it comes to childbirth. History has told us all about the women who died of childbed fever, but there’s another illness that is devastating too. It’s called eclampsia.
Now, doctors will look out for signs of pre-eclampsia. It usually leads to doctors delivering the baby early to protect the health of the mother. However, it can go undiagnosed, and it does usually lead to the death of the mother afterward. There was no way to save Sybil in Downton Abbey.