“Marionettes”, Episode 5 of Season 2 of The Crown on Netflix, is where it all comes to a head! The conservative backward nature of the queen and the court get called out and she is faced with having to get more involved in her public persona, with the job itself, and make decisions about her role in Britian’s every day life.
I knew, as soon as we saw the older gentleman punch the younger man who had written negative things about the Queen, that when the storyline arched back to this moment, that we would agree with what he had written. But it left me very curious as it’s the most engaging story so far in a season of excellent episodes, as I am fully committed to the Queen as my gal: calm, measured, reasonable, progressive possibly, kind and thoughtful in everything she does.
The old farts in her cabinet are sabotaging her public persona by holding back from the people all of her awesome “cool girl” qualities like hunting and driving trucks.
She’s actually a fantastic individual, and charming, but the public doesn’t know this, because the traditional way of the monarchy is to paint her as stuffy and boring, and all the old white men managing her are just the same story as in the US government, behind the times.
(Let me just say this right here and now: fuck tradition!!!)
You can’t blame the Queen for not wanting to be in the lime light and meet 100 people in a night, if never being in it enough to be comfortable with it. It would be terrifying, stressful, pure hell, being under that kind of scrutiny, even if you get to sleep in a princess bed and live in a mansion, it’s not worth it. That being said, she was a little stuck up about it.
A fair amount of this is fiction of course, since we can’t know exactly how Elizabeth II acted in those situations. I do know she was a mechanic in the war, and other interesting facts that made me like her, and I want to know more.
In particular, I’m hoping The Crown will answer the one big question I have: What role did Elizabeth II have in dismantling the British Empire? A lot, I hope, but I don’t know. (Feel free to share any links if you have the answer.)
I love this show!
saywhateveriwant 