‘The Crown’ Season 4 Episode 2 Recap: ‘The Balmoral Test’

Find out how Princess Diana died, who was chased by the paparazzi while trying to escape from them, the final shot of the second episode of the crown Feeling dark and tragic as Diana walks the sidewalk of her London neighborhood, paparazzi catches her for the first time after discovering the winds of her budding relationship with Prince Charles. Smiling (always shyly, Emma Corinne mastered Diana’s shyness, shunning eye expressions), unable to tell that the taste of first attention would be the beginning and the end for her.

Diana just returned from a weekend hunting trip in Balmoral, the royal estate in Scotland, where she impressed all members of the Prince Charles family not only with her intelligence and beauty, but her hunting prowess, helping Prince Philip kill the imperial stag. The stag was later installed like a trophy inside the castle walls, another symbol of Diana’s path; The once majestic creature, admired for its beauty and stature, was hunted down, staring at it, killed for sport. During the research, we came to appreciate not only Diana’s ability to determine which direction the wind was blowing in, but the safe wig glue that kept her feathers from flying.

Diana’s time at Balmoral was a test on a grand scale. Many families hit on their new son’s girlfriend, and start her quirks and routines, but the Royal Family goes better, inviting everyone who dares to become a part of their life into their Scottish home for the kind of emotional flirtation even the toughest sibling can learn from. For Diana, this test not only indicated whether she was compatible with Prince Charles, but whether she would be a good candidate for his wife. As Charles tells his true love, now married Camilla Parker-Bowles, over the phone after visiting Diana, “In the history of Balmoral, no one has passed a test with such flying colors.” Like Camila …

Do you know who has not passed the Balmoral test? Margaret Thatcher. The Queen anxiously waits for Thatcher and her husband Denise to arrive at Balmoral, again as a test, but also, it’s a bank holiday, sure the head of state will have some fun? Unfortunately, no one ever told Thatcher that the royal fun involved chasing a stag through fields of mud, and here she is without Wellies. Thatcher excuses herself from hunting, and then indulging in some Highland Games because watching men in skirts throwing tree trunks is not her cup of PG advice. “I struggle to find any compensating advantages these people have at all,” she tells Dennis realizing that royals come to represent the thing she hates the most: upper-class entitlement.

When Princess Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter, who finally got a moment to speak this season) noticed Thatcher in the castle, sitting in Queen Victoria’s chair to catch up to work instead of joining the family on the hunt, she felt uncomfortable asking the Prime Minister to, you know. -Enjoy and join her, which is nothing short of brutal. “One learns, when one benefits from the experience, that vacation is sometimes the most logical course of action,” the princess told Thatcher.

“I’m not the perfect vacation,” Thatcher told her. “It just doesn’t give me any fun.”

“It might give you something more important than that: perspective,” replied the princess. When we consider that most of Margaret’s life is a vacation, I think you can eat that with a grain of salt, but even so, it’s a solid burn.

As Thatcher packs and leaves, Diana arrives, and the tone in the castle changes dramatically. To paint a metaphor inspired by Aqua Net, Diana allows herself to accept what is going on in Balmoral and let that wind blow her hair on her stag hunt. Thatcher is unable to let one thing derail, one hair out of place, even while on vacation.

Thatcher may have failed miserably for the royals, but the weekend away was a moment of serenity for her. After her aggressive new financial policies were publicly scorned by members of her cabinet, she returned to London to wipe out anyone who came from that old, heavy-handed era, that is, “tyrannical bullies” who stood in her way.

She continued to sack the three cabinet members who were most critical of her agenda, and clearly told the Queen at their weekly meeting that she had replaced these men because, as a result of their privilege, they were lacking in audacity. I understood this was a live commentary on the weekend in Balmoral, the Queen told her, “It’s always wrong to assume just because people are privileged who lack guts.” Just when we thought the Queen’s actions were colder than on January in Shropshire did Thatcher make the Queen feel warm as a vacation in Mallorca.

When Thatcher secured her political position as an uncompromising and, at times, ruthless leader, Diana also secured her place with the rise of the beloved English, ready to blossom into an icon. Diana, full of street wit and a proper disciple of the world around her, she passed the Balmoral exam, ready to sign up for Royal U. Thatcher on the other hand, while smart in her own way, she seemed to be one of those students who just doesn’t test well. However, despite their different styles, both of them, without realizing it, were competing to become the most famous woman in the world.

Liz Cocan is a Brooklyn-based pop culture writer. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won the game show Chain Reaction.

Watch the crown Season 4 Episode 2 (“The Balmoral Test”) on Netflix