The Sybil Downton Abbey death in season 3 was shocking because it was the first on the show. The youngest daughter of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham, and Lady Cora, Sybil's death was one of Downton Abbey's most shocking twists. However, despite what some people theorized at the time, Lady Sybil's exit from the show was planned from the start. Among the Crawley family and the servants of Downton Abbey, Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) was, at the time, the most beloved person in the house.

While Sybil was born a great lady who had wealth and status, she was kind and became interested in progressive politics, and the possibility of improving the lives of others. One of the prime examples of this comes from season 1, where Sybil helps one of the family's maids leave the house to secure a job as a secretary. She falls in love and marries the family chauffeur, Tom Branson. The family came to accept her decision, but it all came undone when Sybil tragically died from complications during childbirth in 1920.

Why Lady Sybil Was Killed Off

Actress Jessica Brown-Findlay Never Planned To Be On Downton Abbey For Long

Jessica Brown-Findlay was the first leading cast member to leave Downton Abbey, but the actress made it clear from the start exactly how long she intended to remain with the series. Downton Abbey's creator Julian Fellowes said (via Vanity Fair),

"Jessica had said she was going to leave right from the beginning. She said, ‘I'm doing three years, then I'm leaving.’ So that was all worked out."

Sybil left Downton Abbey because the actress explained she was wary of spending too long in the role and then not doing anything else. Brown-Findlay was only 20 when she was cast, so it made sense she was afraid of being typecast as the aristocratic Lady Sybil of Downton Abbey and wanted to have a more diverse career. Thankfully, Brown-Findlay's exit allowed Lily James to Downton Abbey as their cousin Lady Rose.

Lady Sybil's Presence Is Felt In Downton Abbey: A New Era Via The Film Score

The Downton Abbey Movie Ensured She Wasn't Forgotten

Despite being long gone from Downton Abbey, Lady Sybil's presence remains through Tom Branson. Tom remained single since Lady Sybil's death, and his grief over her is a huge part of his character. In A New Era, Branson manages at last to find love, and this moment is enhanced by composer John Lunn's ballroom score. During the ballroom sequence, Lunn conducted the music to bring back Sybil's ghost, while simultaneously ushering in a new era for Tom Branson. When speaking about the scene, Lunn had this to say:

"At the end of the ballroom scene, there's a fantastic scene with the sun setting, where Branson meets somebody and they have a dance together alone on the balcony, in the sunset, just after the ball [...] So I had to write a piece of music which started off sounding like the Strauss, but then, metamorphosed into more Downtown Abbey type stuff, and getting that right was quite difficult because it needs to be seamless."

Tom Branson plays a significant role in Downton Abbey: A New Era. Therefore, keeping Sybil's memory going through the score is crucial to his character and adds a hint of haunting drama to the film. Since Lady Sybil had been dead for several years by the time of the setting of the Downton Abbey movie, her presence is only subtextual.

Although the film could have used flashbacks to include Lady Sybil, with only two hours to tell the movie's story, the producers opted to focus on the many characters who are still alive in Downton. Instead, her presence is felt in the music. Since her widower Tom Branson and her daughter Sybbie are in the film, fans can take heart that Lady Sybil's memory remains alive and well in the Downton Abbey movie.

How Downton Abbey Handled The Aftermath Of Lady Sybil's Death

The Death Had A Profound Impact On Many Characters

The death of Lady Sybil in Downton Abbey season 3 was a pivotal moment for the show, and the shocking development was integral to the narrative for a long time following her ing. This was most notable, of course, in her lover Tom Branson. However, Tom wasn't the only Downton Abbey character impacted by the death of Sybil Crawley. It was through how her death changed other characters on the show that her legacy lived on, and also what made the moment so narratively significant.

Lady Sybil was always the most outspoken of the three Crawley sisters, and had strong opinions on many political and social causes, such as women's rights and the fair treatment of the household staff. Following her death, there were many moments when her older sisters Lady Mary and Lady Edith would reflect on Sybil's beliefs, and often this would cause them to have an introspective change of heart.

What's more, the death of Lady Sybil also significantly changed the dynamic of the relationship between Lady Cora and Lord Grantham. Cora blamed Grantham for Sybil's death in part, as he'd chosen to ignore the warnings of the first doctor to assess her condition. This period didn't last throughout the entirety of the show, but the discord it sewed between them was impactful enough that it forever altered the couple's dynamic (to one that had them on a more even footing, where Lord Grantham took the views and opinions of Lady Cora much more seriously).

Of course, Sybbie, the daughter of Lady Sybil and Tom Branson, served as a constant reminder of Lady Sybil. It was through Sybbie that Jessica Brown-Findlay's character lived on, with many telling her of the amazing woman they felt her mother to be.

What Jessica Brown-Findlay Has Done Since Leaving Downton Abbey

After The Death Of Lady Sybil The Downton Abbey Star Has Had Many More Roles

After her Downton Abbey exit, Jessica Brown-Findlay found the diverse range of roles she was hoping for. She stars in the Black Mirror season 1 episode "Fifteen Million Merits," and plays the female lead in 2014's Winter's Tale, opposite Colin Farrell, and 2015's Victor Frankenstein, starring opposite James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe. Brown-Findlay also appears in Netflix's The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, which stars Lily James in the lead, and Downton Abbey alumna, Penelope Wilton.

Leaving Downton Abbey also allowed Brown-Findlay to head to the stage and pick up roles there. In 2015, she made her professional theater debut in The Oresteia and then moved on to play Ophelia in Hamlet. She also remains unwilling to take on long TV roles with her stint on Harlots as Charlotte Wells, a role she left after three seasons. She had a voice role in Castlevania as Lenore for three episodes and added main roles in Brave New World on Peacock in 2020 and Flatshare on Paramount in 2022.