This week I'm featuring some of the 2021 Emmy winners.
The Premise: The season 4 finale, entitled "War" and written by show creator Peter Morgan, features the culmination of the main storylines of the season--Margaret Thatcher's Prime Ministership; Thatcher's conflict-ridden relationship with Queen Elizabeth; and Charles and Diana's marriage.
Structure: On the surface, "War" looks like what I'd call a Hand Off plot. We go back and forth between the two main wars of the ep--Thatcher's reign and the marriage. Then once Thatcher and Elizabeth have their final moment, the rest of the ep is handed off just to the marriage. Thatcher's story is like the booster rocket that propels the marriage story to its conclusion.
But that's only partially correct. In fact, once Charles and Diana have it out--in a scene that follows directly after the Elizabeth/Thatcher moment--the last 15 minutes is actually about a bigger war that's been going on the whole series, and that is everyone's humanity and happiness versus the responsibilities of the crown. Charles and Diana think they're on opposite sides, but as they interact with Elizabeth and Philip, we learn that in fact they're both dealing with the same thing: that damn crown. And while each enters into that last section thinking they've won--Charles has told Diana he's not doing this anymore and Diana has established to herself that she has autonomy and is not the crazy person he wants to be--by the end they've both been crushed in the war they forgot they were in, and that Morgan has not called attention to until the end, so that it's a twist for us, too.
At the same time, I do think the Thatcher story serves as a kind of booster rocket, insofar as she establishes a key either/or of the episode: either you act and thrive, or you do nothing and live in ignominy. Elizabeth tells Thatcher she could use a little more "do nothing" at this point, but in fact in the end Elizabeth comes around. Calling Thatcher in, awarding her the Order of Merit and having her wear it out--these are very concrete actions that she takes, and impactful ones.
In a sense Charles has been giving Diana the same advice as Elizabeth to Thatcher--do nothing. Stay home. Shut up. But here in the finale she finally refuses that take on her life, which has absolutely been killing her, and discovers a life for herself.
So again, we enter into the final sequence having been "taught" that action really is the right thing, only for Diana and Charles to be told very clearly, stop acting. It's a brilliant set up/take down on Morgan's part, and one that only gets more satisfying the more times I watch it.
Keys to the Kingdom 1: The Title
One of the things I love about THE CROWN is that it often gives episodes titles that provide a sort of lens for understanding what we're going to see. Morgan calls this episode "War", and then begins with a sort of classic pre-war sequence--Sir Geoffrey Howe getting up, dressing, considering his speech--all steps in literally preparing himself for battle. Finally he walks through the Parliament in a classic warrior coming into the amphitheater sort of shot.
Obviously Thatcher's battle to maintain her leadership will be a kind of war, and Charles vs. Diana too. (There's that great moment in their story where the two sides confront each other across a table.)
But war floats through in other ways, too: William's soccer game; Diana's struggle with her mental health; radio stories about violence in Ulster; Camilla's take on fairy tales as beginning with someone being wronged, which is exactly how wars start as well; the stag horns that surround Diana as she goes down to take a family photo at the end, evidence of the generations of victims of a whole other kind of war. And the Christmas visit as a whole has a sort of war vibe, not because of Charles but because the family is so to itself--Diana looks here and there for an entry and finds nothing.
A great title is so useful for the writer; it becomes a way of focusing everything in an episode.
Keys to the Kingdom 2: The Repeated Image
"War" begins with Sir Geoffrey--a man we do not know--waking up. As we discover who he is, the significance of beginning with him waking up becomes clear. His whole story is about calling the party to wake up to the disaster they're in with Thatcher.
That image of a person getting out of bed repeats twice more in the episode. (The rule of three--it's always happening. Elizabeth likewise gets three scenes with Thatcher.) The first time is Diana in New York; so far she's been lost in her own anxiety. But then we see her in bed in New York. She sits up, hears the sounds of the city--just as we started with Howe hearing the song of the birds. And out of this comes this great day, in which she really does good and discovers an identity of her own. So again the physical waking up bespeaks a metaphorical one.
Near the end we meet Diana in bed again. But this time she's hiding from the nightmare of Christmas with this terrible family. What rouses her out of bed is Philip's knock. And this time--in keeping with the end-reversal Morgan has going on--getting up and standing up to Philip only leads to her foundering on the rocks. The crown is so much more than any of them can withstand.
But still, the last shot of the episode is Diana, standing alone. And even as tears start to well in her eyes, she begins with what looks to be resolve. The challenge of the battle to wake up and be oneself presented so clearly in that moment.
Again, most dramas don't have this level of thought going on in the writing. But THE CROWN always does and it's well worth watching literally any episode just to see these kind of novelistic flourishes at work.
Keys to the Kingdom 3: Philip's Speech
There's so much more that I could say about this episode--particularly Elizabeth's journey with Thatcher, which is so interesting. But having written so much already, let me just end by highlighting Philip's astonishing end speech. It comes in a sequence that doesn't look like a battle, him advising Diana, but then ends up being revealed to be one when she refuses to simply accept that everything's going to be okay eventually. His demeanor completely changes after her words, and he then gives this incredible speech about how none of them are anything, the only thing that matters is the Crown.
That speech IS when Morgan makes clear what the "real" war has been and where Charles and Diana stand in it. But it's also the moment that brings the series back to its broader themes, which are all about the horror really of being a part of this family, the brutal, dehumanizing burden of self-sacrifice that is asked of everyone around the crown. Those themes obviously wind their way through this season as the others--in fact Thatcher in a sense is the mouthpiece of that way of thinking (and its absolute inhumanity). But this season doesn't cohere around that idea in quite the same degree as past seasons until that speech. And then suddenly it's like someone has pulled down a curtain and revealed um, yeah, this is still a part of the whole story Morgan and his team are telling.
The note to take being, when you're writing a season finale, you're always speaking to the themes of the season but also those of the overall story. Or at least that opportunity is there--and it's a great one.
Now You Try
There's a lot here to consider playing with. One idea might be to look through a script you've been working on and see if there isn't some kind of image that you haven't already established that could recur. Or maybe you create one--but I suggest first look and see if there isn't the seed of one already there. Often there is. (Brains are amazing.)
Another idea might be to see whether there's some way to lead your audience to believe success for your character looks like one thing, and then provide that and reveal that is not success after all. Playing with audience expectations, there's nothing like it.
