‘The Crown’ Season 4 Ending Explained: Did Prince Philip really threaten Diana against divorce from Charles?
Like a piece of broken glass, cracks in relationships can't be mended. ‘The Crown’ stealthily steals a glance at the crushed love life of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Aptly titled ‘War’, the final episode ends with the battle that can neither be won nor lost. Struggling with her psychological health and eating disorders, Diana transforms into the People’s Princess after a visit to New York City.
Showering her with “We love you, Diana” posters and bouquet of flowers, the Americans dub her as “beautiful, warm, perfect” after a solo visit to the children’s hospital with Prince Charles. Watching news channels telecast her visit, Camilla Parker-Bowles seethes with jealousy and realizes she can never match up to her. The media says, “Prince Charles is a lucky man,” as her followers thank Princess Diana for the love and vitality.
Camilla then meets Charles and tells him to let go of the ideas of breaking off with Diana. Knowing that she will be classified as the witch in the fairytale, she tells him that she doesn’t want to be pitted against Diana and be embarrassed.
“I want to be humiliated and attacked even less,” she confesses, adding, “That's what will happen if you put me in a popularity contest against her. I will lose. I'm an old woman. I'm a married woman. Nowhere near as pretty, nowhere near as radiant. Someone who looks like me has no place in a fairytale.”
Charles argues, “If they knew the truth about our feelings for one another they'd have their fairytale...” But Camilla denies it. "To be the protagonist of a fairy tale, you must first be wronged. A victim. Which, if we become public, we would make her. She will always defeat me in the court of public opinions.”
But Charles is not ready to go. Calling her his “one true love”, he slams Diana for her self-delusion, selfishness, and even calls her photo with the children in the hospital opportunistic.
Exploding with rage, he claims he only cares about Camilla and accuses Diana of hurting her. He even confesses that his priorities lie with Camilla and she is who he wants. When Diana asks, “And not the mother of your children or the woman he married?”, he screams in her face that he refuses to be part of the “grotesque misalliance”.
Both Diana and Charles try to talk to the Queen in private, but she brushes them off. To Charles, she says, “We are all suffering to put up with this.”
She points out how the two of them are two young privileged people who have ended up with everything one could dream of. She also accuses him of betraying his wife and making no attempt to hide it. Calling him a “spoiled, immature man endlessly complaining unnecessarily,” she blames him for Diana's psychological problems too. She then makes it very clear, “You will not separate or divorce or let the side down in any way.”
Quite unexpectedly, in the end, Prince Philip goes to Diana's room. Appearing sympathetic and friendly, he tells her that Charles will come around eventually and that the whole family thinks he’s mad. Losing all hope, Diana confesses that if the family does not show her the love she deserves, she will be breaking away officially and finding it herself.
Philip tries to explain to Diana how everyone is a “lonely, lost, and irrelevant outsider” apart from the one person that matters — the Queen. Advising against breaking off, he says, “Let's just say I can't see it ending well for you...” Diana boldly responds, “I hope that isn't a threat, sir.”
Did Prince Philip really threaten Princess Diana in real life? An updated version of Andrew Morton’s book, ‘Diana: Her True Story’ disclosed that the Duke of Edinburgh really did threaten his daughter-in-law telling her to either “fit in or get out”. In the letter, Philip demanded that Diana “help maintain the dignity of the Crown.” The letter had left her devastated after which she had reportedly told a friend, “That’s it, I’m out.”
Catch all 10 episodes of ‘The Crown’ Season 4 once they drop on November 15, 2020, on Netflix.
