A Guide to Each Episode in The Crown Season 5
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At long last, season five of The Crown is finally here, with all its dramatic storylines, including Prince Charles and Princess Diana's separation and eventual divorce. Here, a guide to each of the new episodes, but fair warning—spoilers ahead!
Episode 1: "Queen Victoria Syndrome"
The first episode of this season focuses on a 1991 poll featured in the Sunday Times, wherein the data indicates that Prince Charles is more popular than his mother, Queen Elizabeth, and suggests that some of her subjects would prefer she abdicate in favor of her son. The episode's title, "Queen Victoria Syndrome" refers to the fact that Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years, and was viewed as out of touch near the end of her reign. The text of the paper reads in the show, "Royal Historians might declare this phenomenon as Queen Victoria Syndrome, where the public begins to perceive a long-reigning monarch to be out of touch with her people."
Other moments in episode one focus on the Queen's annual summer vacation at Balmoral, the annual Ghillies Ball at Balmoral, and Prince Charles and Princess Diana's "second honeymoon" to Italy (that was not a honeymoon at all).
Episode 2: "The System"
The second episode of The Crown's fifth season details how the royal family is not just a family, but also an institution. It opens with the death of Penny and Norton Knatchbull's daughter, Leonora Knatchbull, and explores the burgeoning friendship between Prince Philip and Penny, Philip's love of the sport of carriage driving, and Princess Diana's collaboration with journalist Andrew Morton on his book, Diana: Her True Story. (Her friend, Dr. James Colthurst, served as an intermediary for the two of them.)
When Philip gets wind of the book, he goes to see Princess Diana, and delivers a speech, telling her, in part, "You're long past the point of thinking of us as a family—that's the mistake people make in the beginning. But you understand, I think, it's a system. And we're all in this system. You, me, the Boss, the cousins, the uncles, the aunts... For better or for worse, we're all stuck in it. And we can't just air our grievances and throw bombs in the air as in a normal family, or we end up damaging much bigger and something much more important: The system."
"The system" can be understood as a stand in for "the Firm," a term that the real Prince Philip supposedly popularized, but didn't originate; King George VI reportedly said, "We’re not a family. We’re a firm."
Episode 3: "Mou Mou"
The third episode takes viewers away from the royal family to focus on Mohamed Al Fayed, who becomes a key player in the royal drama to come. In one scene, Mohamed tells Princess Diana that all his friends call him by a nickname, "Mou Mou," and that she should call him that too. The episode serves as an introduction to Mohamed, and his son, Dodi Al Fayed. (Dodi's mother, Samira Khashoggi, also features at the start of the episode, set in Egypt.)
The main plot revolves around the Fayed father-son duo, and includes Mohamed's purchase of the Ritz Paris, Dodi making Chariots of Fire, and Mohamed's restoration of "Villa Windsor" after the death of Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, as well as a depiction of how Mohamed uses his purchase of Harrods to try and get closer to the royal family.
Episode 4: "Annus Horribilis"
The fourth episode of season five is really the crux of the season, focusing on Queen Elizabeth's so-called "annus horribilis" or horrible year. This episode's title is taken directly from a speech the Queen gave just a few days after the 1992 Windsor Castle fire, where she said, "1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an 'Annus Horribilis'. I suspect that I am not alone in thinking it so."
Elsewhere in the episode, Princess Margaret reconnects with her love, Peter Townsend after an interview on Desert Island Discs.
Episode 5: "The Way Ahead"
The fifth episode of The Crown season five centers on The Way Ahead committee, when Queen Elizabeth tried to help steer the royals out of the "horrible" year and ensure that the Firm remained modern; yet, Prince Charles pushes back against their ideas, saying they are not moving fast enough with the times—and points to his own work with The Prince's Trust as a sign of modernizing the royalty (and yes, he really did breakdance at a Prince's Trust event.)
The more dramatic parts of the episode, however, focus on the affair between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, and Charles's interview with Jonathan Dimbleby where he admits to infidelity. Their intimate phone call about Charles wanting to be a tampon is leaked to the press, and Princess Diana stepped out in her famous revenge dress.
Episode 6: "Ipatiev House"
The sixth episode's focus swings back to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, with the plot centering on two main events: Boris Yeltsin's 1992 trip to London, and the Queen and Prince Philip's 1994 visit to Russia. An undercurrent of both trips was the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family at Ipatiev House during the 1917 Russian Revolution, and the show features flashbacks to King George V and Queen Mary—and the decision on whether or not to offer asylum to the Romanovs.
The end of the episode, too, features the royal family at Sandringham for Christmas, an annual royal tradition.
Episode 7: "No Woman's Land"
The seventh episode of season five details the end of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's relationship. At the beginning of the episode, Diana tells her acupuncturist about her loneliness as Prince William is about to start at Eton. The episode title comes from this start, when Princess Diana shares, "No one prepares you for what it's like to be separate. It's a strange sort of no-man's-land—" then, she corrects herself, "no-woman's-land." She laments, she's "neither married nor single, neither royal nor normal."
Also, Diana meets Hasnat Khan in this episode, the British Pakistani surgeon who was one of the men Diana was romantically linked to in the 90s—but Khan was reportedly the only one she called the love of her life.
Episode 8: "Gunpowder"
The eighth episode of The Crown season five focuses pretty much exclusively on the explosive Panorama interview Princess Diana did with Martin Bashir in 1995. They film it on Guy Fawkes Night, November 5, which commemorates the failed Gunpowder Plot (hence the episode title).
Episode 9: "Couple 31"
The ninth episode focuses on Princess Diana and Prince Charles's divorce, which was made official in 1995. Their story is intercut with conversations with other British couples who are divorcing; in court Charles and Diana are referred to as "couple 31." The two share a nice moment at Kensington Palace after their divorce, reviewing the marriage—what Charles calls an "audit" and Diana an "autopsy"—but then it turns sour. (In a lighter moment, Charles also proclaims his love for eggs, which is very real.)
Episode 10: "Decomissioned"
The final episode of this season centers on the decomissioning of the royal yacht, which this season makes a point of using as a metaphor for the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It also features Charles's 1997 trip to Hong Kong, where he witnessed the handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China, and the return of Mohamed and Dodi Al Fayed to the storyline—Mohamed invites Diana to travel with them on their yacht in Saint Tropez.
The final moments of the episode feature Mohamed arriving on his yacht for vacation, Princess Diana packing for that same trip, Dodi Al Fayed proposing to his girlfriend Kelly Fisher, and Queen Elizabeth saying goodbye to the Britannia.
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