(gentle music) - For Ivy, I think it's her biggest arc and her biggest journey of all the seasons.

We see Ivy in a really unhappy place at the beginning of this season.

I think her world is closing in on her.

She's unhappy with her lot in life.

Everybody around her, to her, feels like they're all moving on.

Mr. Potts has got a promotion.

Lizzie is getting on with her business and her life.

- So I came by to inform you I will not be partaking in breakfast.

- [Cathy] Ivy feels undervalued, undermined-- - Tear in the sleeve.

- and in a bit of a rut.

Again, what have you been doing?

- Well if I told you, you'd worry.

- Mr. Potts?

- Miss Scarlet, I really do not have time to eat with you.

- Very well, off you go then.

- Ladies-- - Sit down, have some breakfast.

- I don't have time either.

Must go.

- Well, will you be home for dinner?

Lizzie!

(people chattering) It's been an absolute pleasure to be on this really special show for five seasons.

And it is rare for an actor to get consistently brilliant writing, and I think Rachael New and Ben Edwards have done an extraordinary job by keeping a level up.

- What can I do to cheer you up?

- Ivy, in particular, I would say, has had a really strong story arc.

And seeing her move from a housemate who can't read or write to learning, to Eliza, teaching her how to read and write, and her to sort of glimpse that maybe there is a different life for her.

- Whatever happened to in my day, found a nice man and settled down?

- I'm allowed to change my mind.

There's two big contradictions in Ivy, her love of Eliza and her love of Potts.

- You don't seem yourself lately.

(gentle music) It's all well.

- There's a lot of beautiful, heartbreaking questions for this woman in how she should proceed in her life, what she should give up for love.

I don't know.

Her love of the independent career woman and her love of the woman that she was reared to be, would she settle down and be happy and stay at home.

And those two things come to a really, really heartbreaking boil on this season.

Can a woman have it all, even in the 19th century?

Can she have a career and can she settle down?

(gentle music)