The crown revisits Princess Margaret’s first love

[Editor’s note: The A.V. Club will publish episode recaps of The Crown’s fifth season every weekday at 1 a.m. Eastern through November 22. The following details episode four.]

Okay, I’m running out of patience here. You’d think an episode called “Annus Horribilis,” after the Queen’s own admission in a 1992 speech that she’d had a terrible year, would get into the good stuff. But instead we’re treated to another hour of diving into the past – except this time it’s material we’ve already spent plenty of time with. Did we have to rehash the Peter Townsend stuff? Again?

We start with Elizabeth’s (Imelda Staunton) famous November 1992 speech — in voiceover, the commentary tells us that she made a “strong admission of failure after a terrible year for the royal family” — before jumping back to earlier in the year and detail how they got to this point. Is Elizabeth the focus of this episode? Or one of their three children, whose marriage would finally break up in 1992? No, it’s Princess Margaret!

The crown has consistently found Margaret (Lesley Manville) feeling useless and always wanting more responsibility or attention in her role. “Annus Horribilis” is more of that. We see her drawn-out, indulgent morning routine cut with a radio interview in which she explains songs she’s chosen to be played over the air. This interview is a mixture of bullshit (“Faith always drives every decision I’ve ever made”), wistfulness (“One always has memories”) and bitterness (“My sister has constitutional history classes and I had piano”) . The conversation turns to first love, and of course one listens to Peter Townsend (Timothy Dalton), Margaret’s first love.

Although they have not seen each other since 1955, he writes her a letter asking to see her at an upcoming reception for the crew of HMS Vanguard. She shares this development with Elizabeth, and there is a bit of tension as Elizabeth emphasizes his marital status both then and now. Margaret pushes back and says she will accept his offer. “Why, what’s it to you?”

Throughout the episode, we’re treated to conversations between Elizabeth and each of her divorced or separated children. First up: Prince Andrew (James Murray), who, having split from his wife Sarah earlier this year, is here to tell his mother that a tabloid is about to publish pictures of her getting her toes sucked by another man becomes. Watching Elizabeth’s face as she processes this news is well worth the ticket price for the entire episode.

Andrew brings up the topic of divorce – not what Elizabeth wants to hear – and the conversation turns to whose fault it is in the whole thing. Blaming the family, Andrew always loves the idea of ​​misfits (“You’ll be our salvation. Our secret weapon. Let’s look more modern and normal”) before crushing them into conformity. In 2022, it’s hard not to read this as a meta comment that applies to Meghan Markle, but it does The crown did a good job of establishing this story. As Margaret said in Season 4’s Fairy Tale, “How many times can this family make the same mistake?”

Margaret herself attends the HMS Vanguard’s reception and sees the newly divorced Anne (Claudia Harrison) happily dancing with her new boyfriend. After giving her niece some advice on how to pursue her fortune, Margaret is about to leave early, but Peter is there to convince her to stay a while longer. They have a good time, and as he leads her out, he tells her that he has kept all of her letters and, as he gets older, wants to return them (‘not as a rejection’) so they don’t fall into wrong hands as soon as he is gone Margaret is touched by this and the two plan to see each other the next time he is in London.

Next in line for a tough chat with the Queen: Anne, who takes Margaret’s advice and asks permission to marry Tim Laurence (the man she asked her mother about in the season premiere), whom she has been with for three years together, although she only divorced her husband a few months ago. Apart from the fact that “the ink has hardly dried [her] Divorcing Mark,” the Queen points out that the Church of England prohibits remarriage if the first husband is alive. (Seems random when you’re going through a divorce, but ok!) Anne complains about how much she gives for the family (five engagements a day, 300 days a year – I’m not a royalist, but yeah that sounds exhausting) and says she’s going to marry Tim before storming out. Elizabeth beats zero for two.

We’re treated to a scene where Margaret rereads her old letters from Peter and is cut to some flashbacks from the season one affair between the two, which ends in Margaret’s total devastation. If you forgot all that, you’re in the loop now, but this is a literal repeat. The crown uses Margaret’s tragic romantic history to provide context for the current failed marriages, but it feels like a missed opportunity to spend more time exploring Andrew, Anne, or Charles (Dominic West) relationships rather than one retelling old stories.

But here comes Charles to ask for his own divorce, according to Diana’s (Elizabeth Debicki) book. He’s out of shape that they call him “Prince Harming” in the press, but Elizabeth is unmoved. Charles will be king and will be entrusted with upholding the laws of God, and God’s law is that marriage is for life. Charles counters that she’s supposed to protect the crown, and Diana “won’t stop until she blows this whole thing up.” He points out that the monarchy should be more modern, but it only does so by becoming a dysfunctional family, and gets into a nasty argument with Elizabeth’s parenthood before leaving.

It doesn’t get any better from there. To round off the horrific year, there is a massive fire at Windsor Castle, where Elizabeth and Margaret grew up. Elizabeth is devastated by the loss and feeling like a failure as a parent, and Margaret – fresh from Peter kissing her and asking if their love lasted – comes in to kick her as she lies on the ground . Margaret is outraged that Anne is allowed to marry Tim, who bears many resemblances to Peter (an equerry who marries above his station). “After 40 years you can’t bring yourself to acknowledge what happened to me and the part you played in it!” she yells at Elizabeth and I actually feel like I’ve been hearing this story for 40 years.

It is in this headspace that Elizabeth finds herself before delivering the famous speech framing the episode. Her mother (Marcia Warren) tries to push her out of vulnerability, but Elizabeth needs release and Philip (Jonathan Pryce) supports her.

if The crown tries to inspire empathy by making us feel like royalty, mission accomplished. I am exhausted.

Crazy observations

• Lesley Manville doesn’t have the same vibe as Helena Bonham Carter, who played Margaret with more villainess, but she has the same icy disdain and elegance as Vanessa Kirby that we see in season one’s flashbacks.
• As she struggles with her children, we get plenty of shots of Elizabeth with her dogs and horses, her more straightforward babies. And it’s really amazing that she and Margaret have dogs named Rum, Brandy and Sherry.
• Margaret usually gets some of the funniest lines The crown: “The great metaphor. I mean fire.”
• The Queen Mother’s three questions to ask before you say anything: “Does it need to be said? Does it need to be said now? Do I have to say it?” Many netizens could take this lesson to heart.
• After Elizabeth and Margaret say they love each other: “God, that was middle class. Promise me we’ll never do that again.”