The first season of The Forsytes on Masterpiece on PBS leaves many of the show’s core couples in absolute shatters. Irene (Millie Gibson) no longer has any hope of finding happiness with the controlling Soames (Joshua Orpin), while Young Jolyon (Danny Griffin) finally makes a devastating — but necessary — choice between long-time wife Frances (Tuppence Middleton) and first love Louisa (Eleanor Tomlinson).

**Spoilers for The Forsytes Episode 6 on Masterpiece on PBS, now streaming on PBS Passport**

The Forsytes Season 1 finale is supposed to end with a party to fete the future of the financial clan. Jolyon is supposed to finally ascend as leader of the family with a public speech at a grand ball. Instead, he essentially tells Frances that he doesn’t want to be a Forsyte anymore. He doesn’t want to work at the firm, nor does he want to remain married to her. In fact, he has decided he would rather live with Louisa and their two children and once more pursue art.

Meanwhile, Philip Bosinney (Jamie Flatters) knows that accepting Soames’s commission to design a country house at Robin Hill will allow him finally to marry June (Justine Moore), but it will also further isolate and destroy Irene from within. He decides to concoct a plan to quote the miserly Soames an insane fee, in a plot to save Irene (even if it will disappoint June!).

So do these passionate gestures matter? Or do the rules of high society prevail in The Forsytes? Here’s everything you need to know about the end of The Forsytes Season 1.

The Forsytes Season 1 Ending Explained: Does Jolyon Divorce Frances? Is Soames Going Ahead With Building Robin Hill?

The Forsytes Season 1 ends with Jolyon explaining to Frances that he not only wants to leave the firm, but their family. He has chosen Louisa and his twin children. However, Frances tells him that she refuses to divorce him. This means that she will maintain her position in high society, albeit she will be the subject of scandal. Jolyon, on the other hand, will be the subject of scandal and scorn.

By refusing a divorce, Frances has made it impossible for Jolyon to marry Louisa or legitimize Jos (Dexter Seaton) and Holly (Tilly Walker). He will have to live in sin, cut off from the family’s funds, and unable to offer his biological children an inheritance.

However, that’s not the only frigid choice made by a Forsyte this episode. When Soames decides to commission the Robin Hill house anyway, Irene confronts him in the middle of the party about the promise he made all the way back in Episode 2 to let her go if he can’t make her happy. Soames pretends he never said this, shattering everything for Irene.

“Pretty cold, isn’t it?” Joshua Orpin told DECIDER.

“Honestly, when he was doing it, I was like, ‘Oh, this is horrible,” Gibson said. “It was like a room full of people, but you feel so lonely. We just felt like the tension was just… It was horrible.”

“Yeah, really tense,” Orpin said.

However, the most explosive moment in The Forsytes Season 1 finale came from matriarch Ann Forsyte (Francesca Annis)…

Who is Harry Faulkner on The Forsytes?

In recent episodes, Ann Forsyte has told her sons that they need to look out for a client named Harry Faulkner. Apparently, they’ve mismanaged his funds and she thought they ought to pay him back. When the Older Jolyon (Stephen Moyer) and James (Jack Davenport) receive thanks for this from Faulkner even though they never paid him off, something doesn’t add up.

At the very end of The Forsytes Season 1, Jolyon Sr. pulls his mother aside and tells her that she must have paid him off. She doesn’t want to talk about it.

“But Mama, who is he?” Jolyon presses.

“He’s my grandson,” she says.

And, it appears, a new mystery to unravel in The Forsytes Season 2…

Will There Be a Season 2 of The Forsytes?

Yes, there will be a second season of The Forsytes on Masterpiece on PBS. In fact, Masterpiece has renewed the period drama for two more seasons. Meaning, we’ll get at least three seasons of the show.

When Joshua Orpin and Millie Gibson visited DECIDER HQ, we asked if they could tease The Forsytes Season 2.

“Well, fans of the books will know that we are loosely following the book, so there may be some of those plot threads that come in in future seasons,” Orpin said. “We might see Robin Hill.”

“We might,” Gibson said. “We might not.”

” Yeah, I think we’ll see. You know, we’re putting the wheels in motion in Season 1, and then we’re going to feel a bit more of the fallout in Season 2,” Orpin said.

The Forsytes Season 1 is now streaming on PBS Passport.