What was it again with The Crown?
A small warning: this piece is full of spoilers. You may only read it if you have finished season 3 of The Crown. With a new season, I always feel the need to rewatch the last episode of the previous season. To save you that time, here’s a little recap, so at least we know where we stand with all those intrigues of the wild and proper royals.
Princess Margaret is shattered because her Lord Snowdon a.k.a. Tony is seeing another woman. While Tony is making love with another woman in his shed, Margaret takes public revenge on him during her birthday, but the queen mom and her family are not pleased, prompting her to flee to Glenn. Sitting by the pool in a fur coat, she spots Roddy, a young gardener who is actually the spitting image of Tony. Where necessary, a swimsuit must be bought, which leads to the most hilarious line of the episode by Princess Margaret: ‘My garden is quite neglected.’
Margaret, along with some friends and Roddy, heads to Mystique, where she has a great time at her getaway, even though Tony continues to haunt her thoughts. Meanwhile, Tony cleverly takes advantage of the fact that Margaret has a lover when he goes to an audience with Queen Elizabeth. Of course, in the meantime, there’s a paparazzo hiding in the bushes taking juicy pictures while Margaret is being generously slathered with sunscreen by Roddy, after which she is hastily brought home by the Queen Mom. So far, so embarrassing. Meanwhile, Lord Snowdon is doing more than he lets on.
Once home, Roddy gets caught up in one of the twisted arguments between Margaret and Tony, because yes, the man did make an appearance, prompting Roddy to leave. Not entirely unjustified, if you ask me. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Wilson is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Where the queen and Wilson seem to differ greatly in approach and beliefs at the beginning of the season, a special friendship eventually develops, although he must pass the baton after two terms.
Towards the end of the episode, you grow to dislike the Queen Mom even more than you possibly could have, as she dismisses Princess Margaret's serious suicide attempt as a cry for attention, but you have more sympathy for Queen Liz than you already had.
The season unfolds with Elizabeth's 25th anniversary.
In days of disillusion,
However low we’ve been,
To fire us and inspire us
God gave to us our Queen.
Fortunately, in season 4, we get more Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth, more Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip, more Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, and again Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles. After seasons 1 and 2, I thought I could never get used to new faces, but they have cast these characters so sublimely that I now think Helena Bonham Carter is truly the younger Princess Margaret. And of course, she will always be Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter. Fun fact: she once played the role of Queen Elizabeth in The King’s Speech.
Of course, the fourth season of The Crown also introduces fan favorite Lady Di for the first time. The British Emma Corrin plays the role of Diana, and you have to blink a few times, the resemblance is so striking. Is it already November 15?
Image: Netflix
