The Crown Review: There Is Only One Queen (Season 3 Episodes 8-10)
The Crown Season 3 concludes on notes of foreboding, challenge, and loneliness.
While the last three episodes focus on the family and their dedication to the crown, it also focuses less on The Queen herself and more on the members of her family.
These three episodes deal with the past, the future, and the precarious present through the lens of The Duke of Windsor, Prince Charles, and Princess Margaret.
Let’s begin by discussing the Duke of Windsor. I discussed in the last part of my review how the abdication has played throughout the series. There is contempt for David and The Crown Season 3 Episode 5, “Coup,” toyed with the idea of what Elizabeth’s life might have been had the abdication not occurred.
Contrasting that chapter with The Queen’s decision to make a deathbed visit to her Uncle on The Crown Season 3 Episode 8, “Dangling Man,” was a nice way to close out the arc. The brief yet poignant visit closes out a chapter of history that seems doomed to repeat itself.
“Dangling Man” seamlessly flows into The Crown Season 3 Episode 9, “Imbroglio,” as The Royal Family gives the Duke of Windsor a proper sendoff and wastes no time setting up Charles and Camilla to be the new David and Wallis.
The Crown doesn’t miss a beat, expertly entwining themes of repeating history throughout the two episodes. It gives Wallis and Camilla a chance to glance at each other from a distance, and Charles a moment to realize that he has, in effect, replaced David as a pariah.
The handling of Charles and Camilla’s budding relationship does have echos of David and Wallis, but to be entirely fair, those without a cursory knowledge of history might not see that.
As The Crown reached this point in the series, I’d almost hoped for a flashback or two of David during his ten-month tenure as King.
The show does already cover a broad scope of history, and I could see wanting to keep Elizabeth at the center, but a case could be made for why this should have been done. Particularly when you consider what Charles writes to his uncle.
Charles: The crown is not a static thing resting forever on one head. It is moving. Alive. Divine. The changing face of changing times.
The idea that David would have made an amazing kind for the modern age is an interesting one, and an appropriate interlude to the final act of The Crown Season 3.
On The Crown Season 3 Episode 10, “Cri de Couer,” as The Queen approaches her jubilee she goes to see Margaret after an overdose and seeks her advice. The conversation that ensues is honest and insightful as Elizabeth laments that the second Elizabethan age has yet to materialize.
While The Royal Family might be seen as a large force in the monarchy, Margaret puts it all on Elizabeth’s shoulders, highlighting what a solitary job it is and why, perhaps, some of the views on what’s appropriate for the monarch might need to change.
Margaret: It’s only fallen apart if we say it has. That’s the thing about the monarchy. We paper over the cracks, and if what we do is loud and grand, and confident enough, no one will notice if all around us it’s fallen apart. That’s the point of us. Not us. You. You, cannot flinch. Becuase if you show a single crack. We’ll see it isn’t a crack, but a chasm, and we’ll all fall in. So you, must hold it all together.
Elizabeth: Must I do that alone?
Margaret: There is only one queen.
“Cri de Couer” is an interesting choice for a finale. Instead of focusing on The Queen and the Jubilee, it focuses primarily on Princess Margaret and her marriage.
Helena Bonham Carter does a spectacular job with the highs and lows of her scenes. Her performance picks up where Vanessa Kirby left off perfectly and displays a woman who is still searching for happiness and to find her place in her family and the world.
The scenes between Elizabeth and Margaret feel like some of the most genuine since Elizabeth ascended to the throne.
Throughout The Crown Seasons 1 and 2, Kirby and Foy’s performances always had a touch of contention. Margaret wanted to be happy and Elizabeth represented an institution that didn’t make that possible.
By contrast, Colman and Carter have the chemistry of mature women who have gone through life as happily as they can within The Royal Family.
Now, they’ve found common ground.
These two have both realized that they feel useless in different ways. Which maybe, perhaps, a symptom of the monarchy. This has been a theme with Margaret throughout the series, but came to the forefront on The Crown Season 3 Episode 2, “Margaretolgy.”
Elizabeth, in turn, is starting to realize that she has very little power as queen, and that on her watch all that’s happened are systems starting to unravel. The frank conversation she’s able to have with Margaret after her overdose feels like an olive branch, showing her sister that she’s not the only one who feels insecure, useless, and unhelpful.
Looking at the whole of The Crown Season 3 some elements feel a little rushed and as a result, some aspects of the series suffer.
One of the things that I wish we had seen more of was the Queen and her personal relationships. Moments like the final scene between Elizabeth and Margaret are what I love to see, and her relationships with her Prime Ministers would have been fantastic to stretch just a little bit.
This season might serve as a transitory season as The Crown looks ahead to the next generation. Nevertheless, The Crown Season 3 is a series full of deliciously ripe details that excite for what’s to come in Season 4.
Stray Thoughts:
- I am a dog person, and I’ve loved seeing The Queen’s corgis, Margaret’s spaniel, and David and Wallis’ pugs more this season.
- I really need to see more of Erin Doherty in the next season. I know she’s not the heir to the throne, but I love her delivery as Princess Anne. The witty comebacks she had in her scenes with Andrew Parker Bowles was delightful to watch.
- It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see the relationship between The Queen and Wilson come to an end. I feel like it wasn’t explored as much as it could have been. I do admire how he put in his notice and his frank discussion of how he felt his Alzheimer’s diagnosis would mean that he couldn’t serve her as Prime Minister.
- Ben Daniels’ Tony has very little to do this season. Despite the series ending with his separation from Princess Margaret, I do hope that he’s given more to do.
- Margaret’s words to Elizabeth also echo what Elizabeth told Philip about the astronauts: how they would spend their whole lives in fishbowls afraid to speak for fear of what might come out of their mouths.
What did you think of this season of The Crown? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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All three seasons of The Crown are now streaming on Netflix.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.