The Crown (Season 5) Review, Recap & Ending Explained: Ever since Peter Morgan’s mega-budget British Royal family drama “The Crown” waltzed into our lives, we have not been the same. The series, which made “The Royal family” much more accessible to a worldwide Netflix audience has often faced criticism over the false depiction of events and notoriously changing the “facts” to “fiction”. The Royal family itself hasn’t endorsed the series, in fact, more often than not they have stood against it; although there has never been any sort of official statement.
After covering four decades of storyline with two different sets of acting ensemble to gracefully justify the aging of the characters, The Crown is back with its newest and most definitely the riskiest season yet. Right from the start, people were waiting for the infamous, scandalous Diana Spector and Prince Charles storyline. Even though Diana was introduced last season (a brilliant Emma Corrin who received an Emmy nomination and the best actress at the Golden Globe), it is the current season where the real turbulence-filled war between Diana and Charles (and “The Crown”) is getting the main focus.
Both the characters are now played by older actors, Elizabeth Debicki and Dominic West, as per the show’s tradition of changing the acting ensemble after two seasons. Imelda Staunton has taken over the reign from Olivia Coleman while Jonathan Pryce, Lesley Manville, and Marcia Warren are playing Prince Phillip, Princess Margaret, and The Queen’s mother respectively. Acclaimed British actor Johnny Lee Miller is handed the responsibility to portray Prime Minister John Major.
The Crown (Season 5) Recap:
The Royal Yacht
Even though the Charles-Diana storyline is the main focus, the royal yacht Britannia features prominently in this season as well. In fact, the very first scene of the season shows a young queen Elizabeth II (a glorious return of Claire Foy) inaugurating the yacht Britannia and forming a personal sentiment with it. In present days, the Royal family is struggling to keep the yacht as it runs on Government funding (basically taxpayer money). The queen seeks help from newly elected prime minister John Major, who is portrayed as a rather rational, calm, level-headed gentleman.
Diana and Charles
“There were three of us in this marriage.”
As said by the Princess of Welsh in a much talked about Interview in the later half of the season. But at the beginning of the season, Diana still seems to be trying hard to save the marriage as she and Charles go on a “second honeymoon” to Italy, along with their children and some of the friend of Charles including his second cousin Norton, his wife Penny ( and their cancer-stricken daughter Leonora who would die eventually.
Diana’s attempt at saving the marriage goes in vain as Charles abruptly decides to leave in the middle of the tour sitting for a lecture at Oxford University which is unavoidable, according to him. That doesn’t seem to go well with Diana and the inevitable big fight happens between them. From there on, things keep getting only sour. Until they publicly separate and start to live as different individuals.
Prince Phillip, the Carriage rider
Jonathan Pryce’s version of Prince Phillip comes off as a caring old man standing beside his wife in thick and thin, but the stark contrast between Elizabeth and Phillip is also explored extensively as Phillip still seems to be restless enough to pick a new hobby of horse carriage riding and then winning several competitions around the world.
Another highlight of the season is his close friendship with Penny which develops after he goes to visit the family after the death of Leonora.
Mohammad and Dodi
One of “The Crown”s biggest strengths is fleshing out minor characters incredibly well by giving them proper story arcs. In this season, the show does this with Mohamed Al-Fayed, the Egyptian businessman and his son Dodi Fayed ( who later forms a romantic relationship with Diana, as per the history.
In one of the strongest episodes of the season (Episode 3, titled “Mou Mou” which is the nickname of Mohamed), the backstory of Mohamed is explored right from his days of being a young Egyptian man with an unimaginable dream, which eventually ends with him having a casual moment of fondness with Lady Diana at a horse-riding event.
Another highlight of the same episode is the friendship between Mohamed and Sydney Johnson, who used to be the valet of King Edward VII after his abdication. Thanks to Sydney, Mohamed eventually buys and restores the house of the Duke of Windsor where Sydney takes his last breath.
Margaret and an old flame
Lesley Manville’s Princess Margaret doesn’t get as much screen time as her predecessors but her storyline of reunion with old flame Peter Townsend still managed to leave a mark. Margaret’s lifelong grudge against Elizabeth for denying her the chance of happiness, which was marrying Townsend, reaches the boiling point here as she completely breaks down and lashes out at Elizabeth.
In stark contrast, Princess Ann finds herself in a new relationship post her divorce but unlike Margaret; her relationship and future proposition of marriage is accepted by Elizabeth, even though with a lot of hesitation.
The Crown (Season 5) Ending, Explained:
What happens to the Royal Yacht?
The royal yacht is ultimately decommissioned after the queen along with the royal family refuses the proposal of private funding. Queen Elizabeth finds herself in great sadness, as seen in the last episode.
What happens to Diana and Charles?
As most of us know already, the relationship between Diana and Charles became even worse after the separation thanks to continuous mud slinging at each other. The ultimate culmination of that happens in the form of divorce, as iconic as their marriage. The queen finally accepts Charles’ long wish to be free (and subsequently pursues his relationship with Camila Sand, openly and freely) with a heavy heart.
Upon the Queen’s request, Prime Minister John Major acts as a mediator in Diana and Charles’ settlement.
Ipatiev house and the further straining of Phillip and Elizabeth’s relationship
The sixth episode of the season, titled Ipatiev house juggles several storylines together. The main storyline is the harrowing incident of Romanov family murder by the Communist Soviet Government of 1917. The Romanov family, which was distant relatives of the Royal family through Elizabeth’s grandmother Mary famously seeked for help but was eventually denied, as shown in the show.
Along with this storyline, the differences between Elizabeth and Phillip become visible and reach the point of a much-needed heart-to-heart between the two. But like all past seasons, Elizabeth and Phillip manage to find a common solution and agree on that. Upon Phillip’s insistence; Elizabeth starts to socialize with Penny and even considers Penny’s theory of queen Mary sabotaging her own sister (and the Romanov family), before rubishing it (as expected).
What is the main theme of the season?
Throughout the season, one common theme has been repeatedly explored; which is the eternal debate between retiring institutions and making ways for modernity.
Whether it’s the decommissioning of Britannia to a rift in the house of British Broadcasting Company which is broadly about offering the platform to either Queen Elizabeth who stands as the “Institution” or Lady Diana who represents “Modernity”. The story behind the infamous Lady Diana interview taken by BBC’s Martin Bashir is shown in vivid detail throughout episode 8, titled Gun Powder (yes of course, referring to the infamous Guy Fawks incident).
But the biggest tussle of this season is probably the one which is shown between the mother and son, Elizabeth. While Elizabeth seems to be proud of her old world values and morals which she desperately tries to hold on to, Charles is shown as a man who keeps questioning those value. He is determined enough to change the institution and embrace modernity as the next King, which obviously can’t happen until.
The Crown (Season 5) Review:
Years ago, when many imagined a retelling of mostly known events would be hyper-dramatic and filled with pomp and splendour; Morgan took a very different route for The Crown by making Prestigious, “HBO ” level Television out of it and continued to do so over the years. Thanks to this approach, the show has always been a nuanced character portrayal of known figures which feels like a very well-researched, thoroughly engaging drama. In fact, no other show has brought the kind of award glory “The Crown” has earned for Netflix. Both Claire Foy and Olivia Coleman have won the best actress at the Emmys for playing Queen Elizabeth II, which speaks volume.
Morgan mostly sticks to the same formula of exploring character and telling the story with a grounded perspective under the usual grandeur, but the result is not as satisfactory as the previous seasons. In fact, the series suffers because of Morgan’s choice of over-dramatising some events. The ninth episode, titled Couple 31 where several couples on the verge of separation keep talking about themselves which mirrors the similar kind of relationship between Diana and Charles is extremely shallow and possibly the lowest point this show could ever reach. The last conversation between Charles and Diana also seems animated even though both Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki put their best efforts.
Another major issue is probably the casting. While Debicki does nail it when it comes to looking and talking exactly like the enigma that Diana was, her performance could not surpass Emma Corrin’s heartfelt take of Diana last season. And the same can be said for bothImelda Staunton and Dominic West, both absolutely legendary actors with illustrious bodies of work but somehow their performances felt underwhelming compared to Olivia Coleman and Josh O’Connor. However, both Jonathan Pryce and Lesley Manville were on top of their game here. But the pick from the whole lot has to be Johnny Lee Miller, who’s restrained performance as Prime Minister John Major manages to elevate the season.
Despite being the weakest season, this did have some of the very best episodes of the entire series. The Al-Fayed origin story (episode 3), Ipatiev house storyline (episode 6) and the nail-biting, political thriller-esque episode 8 where the BBC interview of Diana takes place are the three standouts. Sadly, the remaining seven episodes failed to reach the brilliance of these three. Especially the much anticipated Diana and Charles storyline fell pretty much flat.
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