Summary
Another dull Will-centric episode at least reinvents Carole Middleton as a Mohamad Al-Fayed-style manipulator, but it’s a depressing affair overall.
Just when I thought we were safe, Princess Diana shows up briefly in “Alma Mater”. Thankfully, it really is brief, and it’s in a different context than usual too, since she’s viewed from the perspective of Carole Middleton, who in Episode 7 of The Crown Season 6 has replaced Mohamad Al-Fayed in the role of manipulating parent with designs on having their children seduce royalty.
I’m not sure how Carole will feel about this. Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton has always seemed pretty above board, especially compared to Harry and Meghan Markle’s. The idea that the whole thing was carefully engineered since Kate’s childhood, which is what Peter Morgan essentially claims here, somewhat undermines things. Still, it’s an appropriately salacious angle for the final season of The Crown, and it at least distracts from William a bit, since this is another maudlin hour of him feeling sorry for himself.
The Crown Season 6 Episode 7 Recap
William continues to be extremely tedious. At one point Harry describes him as “uptight, repressed, responsible, and boring,” and it’s hard to argue. Harry himself continues to be more tolerable, but only just. A touch of that trademark self-loathing is creeping in at this point, and he has a whole rant about being the family f*ck-up that just feels like an abridged version of Spare or the countless television interviews he did pretending not to promote it.
William’s problems haven’t changed since Episode 5. He’s still sad about his mum being death, and he’s still fed up with all the attention he’s getting for being handsome and kingly. But he has new problems now. He has left Eton and headed off for university, where one gets the sense he’d like to live something resembling a normal life but just can’t bring himself to do so, despite Harry – 17 at this point, not looking a day older than he did when he was 13 two episodes ago – instructing him to take mushrooms and bed as many women as possible.
William Meets Kate… Thanks to Her Mother
Will would have little issue doing this since women keep throwing themselves at him, but you can tell during a tryst at a student party that he’s not built for it. Besides, this is ostensibly a love story, at least if you consider “love” to be Carole sculpting her daughter’s entire future so that she just so happens to be on the same trips and in the same classrooms as William all the time. Will falls for her from a distance, and spends so long sulking that she ends up dating someone else (Carole is less than impressed.)
“Alma Mater” has a couple of moments where it just can’t help itself. In one, Will gets chatting to Kate in the library, and nastily snaps at some girl asking for his autograph. Kate admonishes him for it and is insulted by his justification that it’s a bit annoying to be harassed all the time – imagine what it’s like being a girl! I’m sure the unwanted attention of men is annoying, but I’m also sure that it isn’t quite on the same level of public scrutiny and invasiveness that the future King of England has to endure. But what do I know?
With sledgehammer subtlety, The Crown lets us know that Will is lonely because he sits in his room watching Celebrity Big Brother and eating a Pot Noodle. Diana’s funeral was more upbeat. In his perpetual sulk, Will considers dropping out of university, but Harry won’t let him steal his thunder as the black sheep of the family. These are the lowest possible stakes for a final season.
How does The Crown Season 6 Episode 7 end?
Somehow, word of Will’s academic disinterest gets back to Carole, who chooses to share it with Kate after meeting her “quite serious” boyfriend for the first time and spending the whole evening staring at him in disappointment. It’s framed in the context of a mother wanting what’s best for her daughter, but it reads as a psycho social climber using her daughter as a leg-up for her status.
Nevertheless, Kate falls for it, and at the end of the episode she texts Will saying, simply, “Please don’t leave uni.” I guess that’s all it takes.
What did you think of The Crown Season 6 Episode 7? Let us know in the comments.
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