Summary
The Crown’s series finale is a worse episode for its focus on the Queen’s own death, but it has just enough powerful moments to qualify as a decent conclusion.
“Sleep, Dearie Sleep” is a messy, overlong ending for Part 2 of The Crown Season 6, and perhaps the most galling thing about it is that it didn’t need to be. Episode 10 was reportedly reworked by Peter Morgan to acknowledge Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022, and while the sentiment was coming from the right place, the leaden morbidity makes for a much worse episode overall. Then again, the primary focus otherwise is Prince Charles’s overdue wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles, so it probably wouldn’t have been a barrel of laughs in any form.
This and the fact it tries to tie off every possible subplot it can, glossing over events like Harry dressing as a Nazi and the ensuing media fallout, give it the distinct impression of a rote checklist rather than an organic piece of drama. There are a couple of striking moments and images, though, and I was very partial to the final climactic shots, but it’s a hell of a trudge to get to that point.
The Crown Season 6 Episode 10 Recap
It certainly doesn’t help that nobody cares – or has ever cared – about Charles and Camilla. It’s almost as if Morgan knew this, which is why he devotes a good chunk of the episode to an underlying subplot of the Queen debating stepping down so that her son and his new missus can ascend to the throne. Since we know this didn’t happen, it feels like a waste of time designed to manufacture cheap drama just for the sake of this being a finale.
What is Operation London Bridge?
It’s probably in everyone’s best interests that I gloss over the particulars of Operation London Bridge, which really was the cheery codename given to the Queen’s death and the meticulously planned celebration of her life that followed it. There’s nothing especially wrong with how any of it is executed, but its feels so cheap and deliberately manipulative that I have nothing positive – or indeed worthwhile – to say about it. Just know that at one point the Queen stares all meaningfully at a miniature model of how the service will look.
Why did Charles and Camilla have a civil ceremony?
More interesting are the precise circumstances behind Charles and Camilla getting wed in a civil ceremony. The Queen, as head of the Church of England, can’t really be seen giving her blessing to the matrimony of two people who have already been divorced, so the Archbishop of Canterbury tactfully suggests getting hitched in a registry office and then following that with a church service that is mostly about Charles and Camilla saying sorry for being adulterers.
Imelda Staunton’s face when the registry office is suggested is a real picture. But I’m not sure the episode does a great job of explaining why she came around to approving the union after spending thirty years lecturing Charles about how much of a stain it is on the family’s image. The implication, given all her pondering about death, is that she’s worried Charles will ascend the throne “in sin” if the two aren’t married sooner rather than later. Perhaps, though, she simply took what Charles said on board and realized that he has loved this woman for three decades and that their official union might be good for him (as Elizabeth’s marriage to Philip has been for her.)
“Sleep, Dearie Sleep”
“Sleep, Dearie Sleep” is the title of both this episode and the lament that was indeed played at the Queen’s funeral, so here we see how she chose it. However, Morgan can’t help himself, so Liz has the royal piper play the tune in the palace. The music carries through the building, the Queen cries, and one of the cleaning staff stops working to wistfully sing along. Complete nonsense.
As it did in the Part 1 finale, The Crown deploys another questionable storytelling device here by having Olivia Colman and Claire Foy reappear as younger versions of the Queen trying to talk Imelda Staunton into stepping down and not stepping down, respectively. And while it’s much less crass than that whole business with Diana’s ghost, it’s still a bit on the nose for my tastes. Still, the same idea is wheeled out again later to legitimately powerful effect, though admittedly in a slightly different context.
Alarm bells are sounded when the Queen insists on writing her own speech for Charles and Camilla’s wedding reception. It’s intended as a dramatic device, a will-she-won’t-she thing, but it doesn’t work as one since we already know what happens. So, predictably, Elizabeth’s speech contains a few jokes about divorce and the results of the Grand National, but not an abdication. Phew.
How does The Crown Season 6 Part 2 end?
As always seems to be the case, it’s Philip who gets through to Elizabeth. One day, the pair of them will be dead, and the monarchy will cease to be their problem. In the meantime, though, Elizabeth has a responsibility to keep going, if only because the rest of her family are useless.
People will be mixed on the final shots of the season and indeed the series. There’s altogether too much focus on manipulative funereal imagery foreshadowing the Queen’s doom, which didn’t happen until 17 years after this. But as Elizabeth decides to stand firm in her position, she’s joined by all the past versions of herself, who all watch her walk out of the chapel alone, and this, I thought, was quite the final shot.
So, a mixed bag overall, but after a season that has been reliably terrible almost throughout, that’s probably more than we could have hoped for.
What did you think of The Crown Season 6 Episode 10 and the ending? Let us know in the comments.
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