‘The Crown’s Diana-Focused Hour May Be the Most Devastating Episode of the Year

Over its four seasons The Crown has dissected everything from responsibility to the farce of tradition in its own quiet way. Yet never has the series quite captured the all-encompassing loneliness that defines one of the most powerful families in the world until now. “Fairytale” is a heartbreaking examination of the isolation power holds all told through the engagement of Lady Diana Spencer.

Everything about Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) and Lady Diana’s (Emma Corrin) relationship until Episode 3 lives up to the installment’s namesake; it’s been a fairytale. The Crown Season 4 chronicles Prince Charles flirty chance meeting with the shy Diana and their sweet, awkward courtship. When Diana does the seemingly impossible and enchants the ever-stuffy Royal Family at Balmoral, it’s easy to look past the red flags and believe the Queen herself. Lady Diana is the perfect match for her eldest son and the heir apparent.

It’s only after two couple’s engagement in “Fairytale” that the cracks begin to truly show. After the proposal Prince Charles immediately dashes off abroad, leaving Diana in an intimidating palace drowning in customs, protocols, and procedures she doesn’t understand. She’s completely alone, and as The Crown tells it, completely miserable.

The brilliance of director Benjamin Caron and writer Peter Morgan’s episode rests in its juxtaposition. The beginning half of “Fairytale” is packed with all the well wishes you would expect. Diana’s friends take her out on the town and hug her cheerfully, teasing her that she will be too busy to call. They see her as the world sees her, as an everyday woman who was swept off her feet and chosen to become a princess. For those brief moments that’s how Diana sees herself too. You can feel her excitement about being embraced by a family who seems to love her and her giddiness toward the media attention that comes with this adoration.

Yet it isn’t long before those blips of joy become fewer and further between. Diana’s daily life in Buckingham isn’t filled with interesting meetings with fabulous people. It’s devoted to strict lessons about royalty with her grandmother and long, endless hours alone. It’s the latter that suffocates this episode.

As Diana roller skates through Buckingham’s hallowed and invaluable halls or lounges silently before cartfuls of letters from adoring fans, it’s impossible not to ask if this was all worth it? Was the allure of the palace and the Royal Family worth leaving one’s best friends? Was it worth isolation from the world? Was the glamor and excitement of her new life worth the inexpressible pain of her new one? Does Prince Charles even recognize her sacrifice?

On that final question The Crown gives a definite answer. Over a strained lunch, Diana meets the true love of Prince Charles’ life, Camilla (Emerald Fennell). It isn’t long before she puts two and two together and realizes that the man who proposed to her wasn’t bashful or innocent at all. All of that charming bumbling was all a symptom of the Prince’s desperate attempts to reckon with the fact he will never be with Camilla. The realization of Prince Charles’ true loyalties is the final straw that triggers the young woman’s easting disorder. Diana tries to request an audience with the Queen (Olivia Colman) and call off the marriage, but it’s too late. Too much has been set in motion in this rickety system. Once the royal wheels are turning they’re hard to stop.

There is one brief glimmer of hope in the midst of so much silent pain. Toward the end of “Fairytale” Prince Charles and Diana retreat into the very corner of the same church where his parents once fled. At that time Queen Elizabeth II (Claire Foy) and Prince Phillip (Matt Davis) fought over Phillip’s need to respect his wife as his queen. Decades later another couple meets again, this time so that Prince Charles can swear his history with Camilla is over. Only this marital spat feels hollow compared to the one that came before.

According to The Crown, that’s who the People’s Princess really was. Every little girl’s dream was a lost and abandoned young woman who was picked from a comfortable, happy life and left to drown, alone, in a sea full of intimidating luxury, judgement, lies, and false love. It’s the somber horror behind this fairytale that makes this episode all the more compelling and Princess Diana’s story all the more tragic.

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