--- description: Who's alive, who's dead, who's missing, who's in love and who's got a secret title: Downton Abbey Season 5 Premieres January 4: What You Need to Know image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8a49299307411e9/69877761e53aba09884d6c26/da5_er_3.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Everything You Need to Know to Watch _Downton Abbey_'s New Season  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jan 2, 2015 2:30 PM CUT  Downton Abbey Season 5 Premieres Sunday, January 4th, 2015 on MASTERPIECE on PBS Shown from left to right: Allen Leech as Tom Branson, Tom Cullen as Lord Gillingham, and Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary (C) Nick Briggs/Carnival Films 2014 for MASTERPIECE This image may be used only in the direct promotion of MASTERPIECE CLASSIC. No other rights are granted. All rights are reserved. Editorial use only. USE ON THIRD PARTY SITES SUCH AS FACEBOOK AND TWITTER IS NOT ALLOWED. 18.72x12.48 Downton Abbey Season 5 Premieres Sunday, January 4th, 2015 on MASTERPIECE on PBS Shown from left to right: Allen Leech as Tom Branson, Tom Cullen as Lord Gillingham, and Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary (C) Nick Briggs/Carnival Films 2014 for MASTERPIECE This image may be used only in the direct promotion of MASTERPIECE CLASSIC. No other rights are granted. All rights are reserved. Editorial use only. USE ON THIRD PARTY SITES SUCH AS FACEBOOK AND TWITTER IS NOT ALLOWED. 18.72x12.48Nick Briggs—Carnival Films / PBS  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jan 2, 2015 2:30 PM CUT The fifth season of _Downton Abbey_ premieres in the U.S. on Jan. 4, nearly a full year after the most recent episode of the British hit aired stateside. For viewers who have forgotten what’s up at the estate — and who haven’t succumbed to the temptation to watch illicit British steams of the show — here’s a quick refresher on everything you need to remember going into the new series. **_Warning: Lots of spoilers for_** **Downton Abbey** **_Season 4 follow (obviously)_** **What year is it?** Last we checked it was 1923, but [the trailer for the new season](http://time.com/3239222/downton-abbey-season-5-trailer/ "undefined") makes clear that considerable time will have passed by the time we return. **Who’s still alive?** Everyone except Lady Sybil and Matthew Crawley, but that’s old news — with the possible exception of Michael Gregson, who went missing after getting into a fight with some Nazis in Germany. **Who owns Downton Abbey now?** Mary, as sole heir to her late husband’s possessions, owns the half of the estate that he had invested in; Lord Grantham is still holding onto the other half despite a run of terrible financial decisions. Lord Grantham wanted to sell off some land to pay the tax bill on Matthew’s estate, but Mary worried that doing so would mean the estate wouldn’t be big enough to support the house. Tom Branson is still the estate manager, and he and Mary decided that raising pigs will be a good way to drum up more money. **What have they been up to?** Last season, _Mary_‘s old friend _Tony Foyle, a.k.a._ _Lord Gillingham,_ showed up and ended up backing out of his engagement to another woman in order to propose to Mary. When she told him she was still grieving Matthew, he went back to his other fiancée — but only temporarily. Her former suitor _Evelyn Napier_ also showed up with his boss, the secretly-wealthy _Charles Blake,_ while doing a study of how the downfall of the landed estates could be managed by the government. All three are still potential romances for Mary. _Edith_ moved forward with her affair with _Michael Gregson_, who decided to move to Germany so that he could get a divorce from his insane wife. Before he left, she spent the night with him, and ended up getting pregnant. Then he disappeared in Munich, leaving her stranded (and as the editor of his magazine). She decided to have an abortion, with the logistical assistance of _Aunt Rosamund_, but backed out at the last minute; Rosamund’s back-up plan was that the two of them would go on an extended trip to Switzerland to work on their French and secretly find an adoptive family while they’re there. The _Dowager Countess_ guessed the secret but agreed it was the right thing to do. However, even after they returned, Edith didn’t think she did the right thing. She wanted her baby back, and decided the thing to do was to tell _Drewe_, a tenant farmer who’s now managing the estate’s pigs, that the baby belonged to a friend of hers and to ask the Drewe family to raise her. He agreed to go along with the plan. _Tom_ was seduced by evil Edna, the housemaid who came back to Downton when Miss O’Brien (Cora’s lady’s maid) quit to move to India, but Mrs. Hughes saved the day and fired Edna. Edna’s replacement, _Miss Baxter_, somehow knew _Thomas_ from before, and was recruited by him to get gossip from the Granthams; she has some sort of mysterious secret, so he’s able to blackmail her. Later, Tom considered running for a seat on the local council, and while at a political meeting hit it off with _Sarah Bunting_, a teacher at the local school. Cousin _Rose_ fell for _Jack Ross_, a black American band leader she met at a club in London, and decided to marry him — but he refused to, knowing it would ruin her life. _Dr. Clarkson_ made moves on _Isobel_, and the Dowager also tried to set her up with _Lord Merton,_ perhaps more successfully. _Lord and Lady Grantham_ debated the management of the estate and how they should deal with her rascally family, but they didn’t do too much else. _Anna_ was raped by Lord Gillingham’s valet, Green, and tried to keep it a secret, thinking that _Mr. Bates_ would kill Green if he found out. It nearly destroyed their marriage, and even though Mrs. Hughes told Bates that it was a stranger, he swore — as predicted — to find and kill the man who committed the crime. Mary finds out and asks Gillingham to fire Green, at which point it’s revealed that Green died mysteriously. Even though it was pretty clear that Bates did it (by pushing him in front of a truck), he seems to be in the clear. _Mr. Molesley_ went into debt but the Downton staff helped him out; he developed a crush on Baxter, who also started to feel bad about gossiping with Thomas. _Mrs. Hughes_ and _Mr. Carson_ sorta-kinda seemed to be flirting. _Mrs. Patmore_ was really nice. _Daisy_ and _Ivy_ both liked _Jimmy,_ but he wasn’t interested in a real relationship. _Alfred_ left the estate to go work for a chef in London. _Ivy_ ended up leaving Downton to go work for Harold Levinson, Cora’s brother, in the United States. **What exactly happened in the most recent episode?** That was [the one where Cousin Rose met the Prince of Wales](http://time.com/9568/downton-abbey-season-finale-recap/ "undefined"), and almost caused a royal scandal by allowing a letter he sent to his mistress to be stolen. Shirley MacLaine and Paul Giamatti guest-starred as Cora’s mother and brother. Edith decided to go to Switzerland for her baby, and to give her to a tenant-farming family to raise. **What are some of the big questions this season may answer?** Which suitor will Mary choose? What happened to Michael Gregson? Will Edith succeed with her plan to keep her baby nearby but secret? Will Tom Branson find love and political radicalism again? Will Bates’ crime come back to haunt him? What is Baxter’s secret? What new and fascinating twist of British inheritance law will we learn this time? **Is time still marching forward, bringing an unavoidable tide of modernity that threatens the old way of life at Downton?** Duh. **Where can I get more detail?** [Catch up with TIME’s recaps of Season 4.](http://time.com/9568/downton-abbey-season-finale-recap/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3648476/downton-abbey-season-five-reminders/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3648476/downton-abbey-season-five-reminders/"},"headline":"Everything You Need to Know to Watch Downton Abbey's New Season","datePublished":"2015-01-02T14:30:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:09:41.133Z","description":"Who's alive, who's dead, who's missing, who's in love and who's got a secret","url":"https://time.com/3648476/downton-abbey-season-five-reminders/","keywords":["Television","downton abbey","pbs"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8a49299307411e9/69877761e53aba09884d6c26/da5_er_3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8a49299307411e9/69877761e53aba09884d6c26/da5_er_3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Downton Abbey Season 5","caption":"Downton Abbey Season 5Premieres Sunday, January 4th, 2015 on MASTERPIECE on PBSShown from left to right: Allen Leech as Tom Branson, Tom Cullen as Lord Gillingham, and Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary(C) Nick Briggs/Carnival Films 2014 for MASTERPIECEThis i","creditText":"Nick Briggs—Carnival Films / PBS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3648476/downton-abbey-season-five-reminders/","name":"Everything You Need to Know to Watch Downton Abbey's New Season"}}]}] ```