"Downton Abbey" has kicked off its final season and for its pilot episode, change is coming for the cast and in the storyline.
"Downton Abbey" season 6 opener finds everyone riding their horses. It is revealed that they have joined a hunt but most of the scenes only show them riding. According to Mashable, a mysterious lady appears to watch the hunting party and it is made obvious that she was keeping an eye on Lady Mary. Soon the hunt is over and she approaches Mary. She tells the lady that she has in her possession the registry of the hotel where Mary supposedly had pre-marital sex. It turns out the mystery lady wants to blackmail Lady Mary for £1,000 in exchange for her silence.
In the same review by Mashable, Mary tells Anna about the blackmail but she has problems of her own; she is still on bail for allegedly killing the man who raped her. Later, the blackmailer confronts Mary in her own room. Anna managed to remove the blackmail lady who then seeks out Lord Carson to spill the beans on Mary's actions. But she did not get the reaction she expected from Carson who just shrugs the scandal off. The blackmailer finally got £50 for her trouble but not before she was made to sign a confession.
In a report by Deadline, despite the excitement usually drawn from fans when a series is about to end, the first episode of "Downton Abbey" season 6 registered an all-time low viewership for the show at only 7.6 million for its U.K. premiere airing. However, compared to other shows during the same time slot, it still garnered the most number of viewer shares that peaked at 8.4 million. It beat newcomer "The Go Between" that only received 2.6 million views.
