There’s a lot on the royal plate of the concluding season of The Crown. The Emmy Award-winning series by Peter Morgan has never packed in this much in a singular instalment before. Season 6 Part 2 had to not only close loops of all the tracks it split open across previous seasons, but also make perhaps the most difficult decision of them all – where to end.
The historical fiction show, based on the British royal family’s life across decades, is evidently a never-ending saga. The drama unfolds even now, with the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving monarch ever, and the Megxit, the relinquishment of royal titles by Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle and their relocation to Los Angeles, California.
But The Crown realises it’s not contemporary fiction. Yet with one eye on the present, it tells the tale of what it means to be a public servant, the perils and privileges of that. The fate of a family runs parallel to that of a nation, with some choosing to do what’s right for the latter and some opting to stay by the former. It underlines how inheritance is a choice, and so is moving away from it, a share of consequences attached to both.
Moving on from Diana’s death
It’s a wise decision on part of the makers to split the final season into two instalments. The first one operates at a more urgent pace, with the focus on Princess Diana‘s adventures post split with Prince Charles, leading to her eventual death in a car crash. The Page-3 pulpiness of that resurfaces in an episode in Part 2 as well, when Mohammed Al-Fayed unsuccessfully alleges conspiracy theories on the crash crash, banking on the narrative of the West’s rising anti-Muslim sentiment after 9/11.
But this happens a little deep into Part 2. By that time, one has moved on from Diana’s episode, which released a month ago, and like everyone in the British royal family, wants to close that chapter for the boys’ sake. The two-part breakup also helps in introducing Ed McVey and Luther Ford as Prince William and Harry respectively, despite the events following immediately after the climax of Part 1.
The most crucial effect of the two-part split, however, is the change in tone, pace, and mood of the show. Death looms large over Season 6 Part 2. Not only Diana’s, but others which follow in the course of what’s now recent history. The first episode sees William inherit his mother’s popularity and his father’s burden to be in line for the throne, and being torn between the two gigantic responsibilities. Ed McVey shines in the quieter moments simply through carefully crafted awkward smiles, stunted body language, and a natural twinkle in the eye.
Luther Ford as Harry is the more mischievous of the two. He has a ball playing the younger brother, till a breakout scene where he expresses the supressed frustration at being the ‘spare’. “I have to screw up so that you can look good,” he tells William. Towards the end, he assures William that unlike their medieval namesake ancestors, he wouldn’t backstab him for the throne – a promise William finds hard to believe. Little does he know that on the contrary, Harry would go on to relinquish his royal duties for good in the future.
A slight parallel is also drawn between their brotherhood to the enduring sisterhood of Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) and Princess Margaret (Lesley Manville). The two sisters share a bond across decades that stems from not only blood, but also gender. As young girls raised in the British royal family of the early 20th century, they were destined to spend more time with each other than anyone outside of palace, almost like conjoined twins. But in scenes with the two seasoned actors spending time with each other in their last days, a genuine sense of their deep friendship makes your heart believe that their relationship was chosen, not imposed by birth.
While the alluring Diana is a tough act to follow, Camilla is depicted as a green flag. From encouraging Charles to be a better father to his kids than he was before the death of their mother to waiting patiently for her to be accepted into the British royal family, Camilla ensures she is, as she promises her future husband, “the last person to worry about.” Olivia Williams lends her a demeanour filled with understated charm and a persistent kindness. Dominic West also makes you feel for Charles’ vulnerability as a man in the crossfire between his personal desire, national role, and familial responsibility.
The Queen takes the cake
Yet it’s no surprise that The Crown’s final chapter, like the rest of the seasons, is a Queen Elizabeth II show. She has the strongest arc in the concluding episodes. Facing stiff competition from new British Prime Minister Tony Blair in terms of popularity, she seeks advice from him for a post-mortem of the system. Once he comes up with suggestions, one of which is to get rid of archaic job roles like a ‘Keeper of the King’s Swans,’ the Queen asserts that while she’s ready to mull over existential questions pertaining to the Crown, she places high currency on tradition, aspiration and preservation. “Modernity is not always the answer. Sometimes, antiquity is,” she makes the PM note.
But once she goes on a journey of Operation London Bridge, that is the eventual death and funeral of the Queen of England, she begins to reassess her words. Seeing her son remarry and her grandsons enjoy college, she looks back at the life she left behind. Watching her sister and mother die in front of her, Elizabeth reawakens the woman within. She stares at the replay of her childhood on the wall, thrown from a projector, her tall shadow literally serving as the dark cloud cast over her innocent days. Watching a miniature model of her royal hearse and listening to her handpicked bagpiper funeral melody, her eyes brim with tears. But the impenetrable steely exterior of a monarch doesn’t let them out.
It takes two smashing cameos by the younger Elizabeths, essayed by Claire Foy and Olivia Colman in previous seasons, to express the queen’s inner turmoil instead. The younger Elizabeth reminds the 80-year-old one of her vow to the crown, while the middle-aged one takes her back to the sacrifice she made as a mother. We all know what Queen Elizabeth II decides, but Imelda’s heartachingly potent portrayal makes you want to take a bow. To make an inscrutable figure transparent, an impenetrable woman vulnerable, and an uptight monarch expressive is a task only an actor of first grade could manage well.
At one point in the queen’s inner dialogue, the younger Elizabeth tells the octogenarian that she’s in the prime of her life. The heyday isn’t dictated by age, but by one’s grit and resolve. The life of Queen Elizabeth II is a near-century long proof of that. And watching Imelda Staunton capture and represent that on screen in all its glory is a further validation of the supremacy of grey hair. In that way, The Crown, both the show as well as the monarchy, reiterate the abiding relevance of antiquity.
The Crown Season 6 Part 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
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