'Downton Abbey' Season 3 Finale: Julian Fellowes Defends Shocker And Storytelling

Note: Do not read on if you have not yet seen the Season 3 finale of "Downton Abbey," also called the "Christmas Special."

Though American television viewers may expect Christmas installments to be filled with good tidings, the "Downton Abbey" Season 3 finale rang in the holidays with tragedy: Matthew died in a car crash."Downton Abbey" creator Julian Fellowes told The New York Times that in the UK, killing off characters in Christmas episodes is tradition. "Not here [in the UK]. Most of the soap operas always use the Christmas special to kill huge quantities of their characters. So they have trams coming off their rails, or cars slamming into each other or burning buildings. It's a general clear-out," Fellowes told The Times. "The first Christmas special we did of 'Downton,' it was pretty Christmas-y. It was the proposal, which was very nice. But that isn't particularly the tradition of these Christmas shows here. In a way, they're supposed to be more dramatic than a ordinary episode of the series. So in that sense, we were fitting into the ethos."