TV Review: “The Crown: Avalanche” (S4, Ep. 9)
By: Dr. Thomas J. West Iii
Tags: The Crown, Culture, TV Series, Royalty, Television

We come at last to the penultimate episode of this season, and things are definitely not looking good for Charles and Diana. For all that she really does seem to want this marriage to work, Diana finds all of her efforts thwarted by Charles’ continuing obsession with Camilla and his subsequent disdain for her. Nothing she does goes as she intended and, despite her statement to Elizabeth and Philip that she genuinely wants the relationship to work, in the end Charles’ cruelty and neglect become too much to bear and she begins conducting yet another affair.

The opening sequence of this episode is one of the most heartbreaking that we’ve seen this season. It’s almost painful to watch the earnestness with which Diana embarks on her performance in front of those gathered in the theater, all the while hoping, desperately, that she will at last be able to do something that will make Charles love her again. Unfortunately, Charles is so broken — so resentful at being pushed into a marriage that he didn’t want, hopelessly in love with another woman, and embittered by the many years that he’s spent repressing his every feeling, emotion, and desire for the thankless Crown — that he can’t see what she’s doing as anything other than a desperate cry for attention of exactly the wrong sort, the kind that royals are not supposed to seek out.

It’s small wonder that Diana responds that she’s beginning to loath him. After all who wouldn’t, when he’s been such an absolute monster to her throughout the season? Obviously, this season of The Crown has made it clear where it falls in the great debate about who was responsible for the implosion of their marriage, with the blame falling squarely on Charles and the family that pushed him into what was clearly a terrible match. In fact, while Charles is a villain in this season, I think it’s a bit too easy to paint him as simply awful. In fact, when one looks at this season as the natural continuation of the one that preceded it, it’s easy to see how he came to be the person that he was. He’s been sculpted and brutalized by his family and by the institution of the Crown, so it’s not to be wondered at that he has no ability to act like a normal human being, though it has to be said that his sneering contempt for Diana’s video recording of her singing seems a bit much, even by Charles standards.

This is another episode where Elizabeth and Philip are largely playing second fiddle, mostly standing on the sidelines as the marriage of their eldest son disintegrates right in front of their eyes. One senses that, at this point, Elizabeth is beginning to wish that her children would just get their collective acts together, settle down, and make at least some semblance of an effort to find wedded happiness. This is certainly the impression one gets during the scene in which the elder royals, having called Charles and Diana together, press them about whether they want this to work or not. Diana, for her part, expertly says that she does and is willing to do whatever is necessary, while Charles, having prepared quite a speech about why he doesn’t, is left incredulous.

It’s a pivotal moment, in part because it’s rather unclear what Diana’s motivations are. Is she being duplicitous, or does she truly love Charles and want to make this marriage work, despite all the signs that it isn’t going to? I’m inclined to go with the latter, since we’ve been given very little reason to believe that Diana is other than what she says she is. She’s a woman who is trying her damnedest trying to carve a life out of the unforgiving expectations of being a member of the Royal Family. Even if she is being a little dishonest at this point, one can hardly blame her for doing so, especially considering all that she’s been through.

As important as Diana and Charles are, though, it has to be said that, as she always does, Anne threatens to steal the show, particularly since she seems to be able to reach Charles when no one else will. There’s a bluntness, almost a brutality, to her honesty, but the brilliance of Erin Doherty’s performance allows us to see her as something more than just a jaded royal automaton, parroting the same platitudes as her mother. She sees the world for what it is rather than what she wishes it would be, and it’s for this reason that her word carries extra weight. It’s no wonder that Elizabeth turns to her when she wants to understand what’s being said about the shattered marriage of Charles and Diana.

And, of course, it’s important to note Camilla’s role in all of this. It would have been easy for the series to paint her as a villain, but for the most part it’s done the opposite. Instead, we get to see her as thoroughly human and quite in love with Charles; as she says to him, no one needs her like he does. Like so many other players in this great tragedy, she’s subjected to the ruthlessness of the Crown, which keeps her from the man that she loves and that loves her in return.

This episode, like so many others this season, has something of the melancholy about it. We know how this saga ends and, much as we might wish it were different, much as we might wish that Diana and Charles would find some way to be happy — or that they could at least break up amicably — we know that Diana’s life is fated to end in tragedy. We mourn the future that never was, rapt in our seats as we watch their lives crumble into ruin and recrimination, as helpless as they seem to be to prevent the future that we know lies in store.

Stay tuned for my review of the season finale!