THE CROWN Reviews: Season 4, Episode 9: AVALANCHE

 

Penultimate episodes of each season of The Crown tend to be some of the more emotional/dramatic ones as they feature two opposing characters in relation to one key issue:

Season 1 had Elizabeth VS Philip on their damaged marriage.
Season 2 had Philip VS Charles on self-esteem.
Season 3 had The Royal Family VS Charles on his love life.

The story and characters are framed in a way that you can be objective and see both sides & viewpoint. The same however can’t be said for Season 4’s penultimate, AVALANCHE, as we see CHARLES VS DIANA on their own damaged marriage. Regardless of how it frames a suffering Charles after a brush with death & using it as justification to end the marriage and be with CAMILLA PARKER-BOWLES, everything about this episode makes you side & sympathize with Diana. The writing, the acting, the soundtrack, it’s all done to show that Diana did her damnedest to keep the marriage going to no avail.

I’ve always praised the show for its good balance of character investment VS bias & objectivity, how the show can challenge you to think or consider on these real life figures despite how things played out in history. But when you see Diana give this grand gestures of love, be the first to speak to ELIZABETH & PHILIP when confronted, deliberately sever ties to her secret lovers, and be a good mother to WILLIAM & HARRY, you can’t help but pity her when all this is not reciprocated. You can’t blame her for falling back into temptation after all that. Charles on the other hand does absolutely nothing to gain audience sympathy, to the point that I just don’t care anymore when he rants to ANNE about a lack of kindness in the great family of Windsor.

But with all that said, this doesn’t make it a bad episode. There’s a lot more to say on the subject but I’ll save that for my Season 4 wrap-up. Objectively there’s nothing outright wrong with this one, but subjectively I don’t see myself eagerly re-watching it like most of the episodes. I’ll split the difference and put this one as middle of the road.