The episode opens with the Queen Mother (played by Victoria Hamilton) staring in her bedroom mirror as she prepares for the funeral of her husband, King George VI. Everyone at the funeral is wearing somber black clothes. Before they attend the funeral, Princess Margaret argues that she was her father’s favorite, not Elizabeth, but Elizabeth asserts she was his favorite even though the mom says he didn’t choose favorites when it came to both of them. They are at the funeral and Elizabeth reads about the unveiling of the statue of the king and the Queen Mother, overcome by emotion, walks over quietly to the car and drives away, quietly sobbing. Queen Elizabeth is preparing to travel to newly independent countries that are part of the British Commonwealth, but officials think Elizabeth should cancel them due to the independence demonstrations people have been holding. Meanwhile, the Queen Mother travels to Scotland to stay with the Vyners, some family friends of hers. Before she goes, she tells Elizabeth to back off of Margaret and to stop giving her such a hard time. It has been two years since Peter, Margaret’s husband, got sent to Brussels and was separated from Princess Margaret (their engagement created scandal since Peter divorced his wife after she found out he was having an affair with Margaret). Margaret is still angry with Elizabeth for arranging for Peter to be sent to Brussels. The Queen Mother is sad and nostalgic because her daughters are grown up and they seem to not need her. However, she finds she is much needed later on in the episode.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill, on the plane ride to Bermuda, tells Elizabeth to show herself as Queen Elizabeth, not Elizabeth Windsor. She cannot show people the ups and downs of being queen, she cannot complain about her job, she needs to pretty much be perfect at what she does and make it seem like the monarchy is the ideal everyone needs to strive for. There is also this idea of “preserving” the British Empire because Britain is worried that by becoming independent these countries will have their own autonomy and won’t need to depend on Britain. Britain believes if that were to happen, they would lose their control over these countries and how they are run. There is a beautiful scene where the Queen Mother and the Vyners are riding the horses on the beach in Scotland, and then at dinner the Queen Mother mourns the loss of her husband and in a way she is losing her daughters, too, because they are older and are no longer little kids anymore. Elizabeth lands in Bermuda and makes a speech there. Meanwhile, Martin gives Princess Margaret a speech to read at the ambassador’s reception in London. Margaret tells Martin she wants to change some words of the speech around and make it sound more fun, but because she is deputizing for the Queen, she is supposed to just read what they wrote for her to read. However, Margaret refuses to listen and goes so far as to put Elizabeth’s tiara on her head because she wants to be in Elizabeth’s shoes and have the spotlight on her just for once. She is supposed to be deputizing for her sister but instead she goes completely off script and pokes jokes at her sister’s trip and then calls out some of the ambassadors, making jokes about them. Martin is just standing in the back of the room, freaking out, like “Girl what the fuck.” She honestly should have done a standup bit with Mrs. Maisel because I felt like in that moment she channeled Mrs. Maisel energy (Miriam Maisel is a female comedian on the show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel).
However, that shit lands Margaret in the papers. Elizabeth sees it and thinks of course, Oh no she didn’t, she is stealing my spotlight. Elizabeth, after traveling to the Caribbean, must go to 57 Australian towns in just 58 days. Philip opposes it because he knows it will be a lot of travel and they will get exhausted. But Elizabeth refuses to call off the trip.
Meanwhile, back in Scotland, the Vyners convince the Queen Mother to acquire property there and so they take her to the Castle of Mey, where Captain Imbert-Terry lives. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has a doctor’s appointment because she has a spasm in her face muscles. The doctor thinks she might be smiling too much so she lets him inject some liquid in her cheek to cure the spasm (honestly, the needle freaked me out a bit because needles today are smaller compared to back then.) Peter sees a movie and then sees Margaret talking to people working in a coal mine and sharing her honest opinions on the working conditions there. Martin is standing right next to her, looking at her like, Girl, watch yourself, but then one of the reporters asks Margaret if she misses Peter and she says of course, but then when asked if she misses her sister Elizabeth, she says not really. Peter later tells her she needs to check herself and not say shit like that on air because it could jeopardize their relationship. Back in their hotel room, Philip is smoking and Elizabeth takes away his cigarettes because her father smoked and she doesn’t want her family to start smoking. Elizabeth and Philip have a row because Elizabeth is spending all this time traveling and Philip thinks it’s all a joke and they can’t just spend one moment together as husband and wife. When Philip insults her further, Elizabeth attacks him and chases him around the room, breaking her shot glass.
Unfortunately paparazzi catch them fighting and at first Philip goes out to investigate but Elizabeth says she will go out and do it. She talks briefly with the men filming her and the guy filming takes out the film out of the camera and gives it to her to keep rather than deciding to broadcast it for everyone to see. He did the right thing. Elizabeth soon gives Margaret a talking-to and basically tells her that people came to hear the Crown, not Princess Margaret cracking jokes. Finally, the guy who sells the Queen Mother the house finds out she is the Queen Mother, but she didn’t tell him earlier because everyone who meets her starts treating her like a god and not as a human being. Unfortunately her vacation is interrupted and she has to go back to London to sort stuff out with Margaret after Margaret’s fiasco at the ambassador’s meeting. Meanwhile, there are still security concerns with Elizabeth going to Gibraltar, including death threats. Philip opposes her going but Elizabeth refuses to give in. She says she knows there are better leaders there but she is the Queen so therefore she has to go on the trip to see the people of Gibraltar. Elizabeth finally has Margaret meet her in her study room and when they met up I thought, Oh it’s on, because obviously Princess Margaret is pissed her sister is stealing back her brief moment of spotlight. Elizabeth tells Margaret that the monarchy, not the monarch, should shine. Margaret confesses she feels overshadowed by her sister and wonders why Elizabeth has to be the perfect sister while she, Margaret, stands in her shadow. Finally the Queen Mother gets to return to Scotland after things are settled with Margaret.
It’s only the first season and already I am starting to see similarities between Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret’s relationship and Mary and Edith’s sister relationship in Downton Abbey. Like Elizabeth, Mary is the older sister and thus she becomes responsible for keeping the family together, and like Princess Margaret, Edith just wants to feel valued and not overshadowed by her older sister. Mary has all this pressure on her to find a husband because she is the oldest of the three Grantham sisters, and when Edith can’t find anyone Mary constantly pokes fun at that. Edith also pokes fun at Mary when the Duke of Crowborough, who is supposed to be engaged to Mary, ends up leaving Downton. Mary digs at her by telling her that at least she’s not a fish with no bait like Edith. Edith and Mary continue to have this intense sibling rivalry with one another, but it becomes clearer that Edith really just wants to be happy herself and seeing Mary get all this attention to find someone makes her feel like she has no direction or purpose in life. Even when Edith does find love, it is challenging because the first guy calls off their marriage at the altar and the second guy goes missing and is killed, leaving her pregnant and then having to raise his child on her own. In The Crown, now that Elizabeth is Queen, she and Margaret don’t have the same relationship they did before, and everything they do they have to make careful decisions about so that they don’t cause scandal for the monarchy. When Margaret wants to do what she wants, Elizabeth tells her she either cannot or must ask for permission to do so. This makes Margaret feel constrained and she is left feeling like her sister doesn’t trust her to live her own life and make her own decisions.
Discover more from The Arts Are Life
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The Arts Are Life 