As time passes, so we learn.

Anthony Blunt

The sight of corgis scampering down the halls of Buckingham Palace can mean only one thing: The Crown is back!

At the climax of this season opener, Elizabeth says to her art dealer, and recently uncovered KGB agent, that two different versions of the same person might as well be two different people….

…the idealized version of themselves they want to be seen, and the less desirable person they really are, hidden away.

Elizabeth

The word she gives for this is a “palimpsest,” which Blunt quickly counters is technically incorrect. A palimpsest applies to manuscripts. It is “pentimento” for paintings.

Why center the opening episode of season 3 around the Queen’s infamous art dealer who confessed to being a KGB spy and was, in fact, given immunity? Because he embodies this idea of a “pentimento” that, I imagine, will be a motif throughout the season as the show explores what really lies beneath the surface of these characters.

We love The Crown for many reasons, but perhaps chief of which is that it is about human beings who are part of a family, albeit under extraordinary circumstances which makes for high drama.

Just before Sir Anthony Blunt is to be taken by MI5 officials, he gives a lecture on Carracci’s Allegory of Truth and Time. As the agents literally close in around him, he details the artist’s “hidden intentions” and the work’s “multiple meanings,” ultimately quoting The Merchant of Venice with “truth will out.”  

What lies in store for our characters? Will their true selves come forward? Will they be seen? If so, by whom? And at what cost? The next 9 episodes will tell.

So, who are our characters? There are multiple offerings to this question throughout the episode. In the opening scene, the Queen’s private secretary, Michael Adeane, puts forth that the queen is a “mother of four and settled sovereign,” while Elizabeth counters with, “old bat.” Olivia Coleman is already shining in this role.

Looking at the two stamps bearing her image, one younger, one older, the Queen states matter-of-factly:

“Age is rarely kind to anyone. Nothing one can do about it.  One just has to get on with it.”

In other words, keep calm and carry on.

At the breakfast table, Prince Philip fears they [the monarchy] are on the losing side if Harold Wilson wins. They are, in Harold Wilson’s words, part of the “old order” or “the old boys’ network.”

Harold Wilson’s identity, in turn, is in shadows before even meeting the Queen as Philip plants the seeds that there are rumors Wilson may be a KGB spy. Elizabeth, who wasn’t even sure who Harold Wilson was before this conversation, brushes it off initially, but the idea clearly takes root and affects her first audience with the newly elected PM.

For his part, Wilson also is quick to make assumptions about the Queen. He assumes she is disappointed in the outcome of the election, that she surely would have preferred a prime minister with whom she could discuss horses, someone “highborn” rather than a “ruffian” like him. Elizabeth later says her chief observation was in Wilson being “ordinary,” a trait ironically often attributed to Elizabeth and one the Duchess of Kent is quick to point out is a classic prerequisite for a successful spy, comically exacerbating Elizabeth’s suspicions. Wilson is certainly portrayed as rougher around the edges, but he is confident that the country needs change and he is the one to bring it.

Later at the exhibition, after the real mole is revealed to be Sir Anthony Blunt, the Queen takes the opportunity to apologize to Wilson, not giving him any more explanation than that she had misjudged him. He tells her he is not an art man, that he is a “numbers man.” He tells her, “what you see is what you get” – in other words, the exact opposite of a man like Blunt. And with that exchange, the sovereign and the Prime Minister are off on a fresh footing.

Over at Kensington Palace, two identities Margaret and Tony are struggling with are that of husband and wife. That shot of Margaret sleeping in, worse for wear, then immediately smoking a cigarette is unquestionably her, just as Tony cancelling lunch plans and taking off on his motorbike is essentially him. You’ll recall season 2’s episode “Matrimonium” explored in depth who Margaret and Tony think they are in contrast to who they actually are. In that episode, Margaret professed to be a woman for the “modern age,” “free to break away.” But she is actually dependent on Tony for both her identity and her happiness. When he disappoints her, she distracts herself with entertaining friends and a sloppy cover of, “Just One of Those Things.” It seems Margaret and Tony’s blind spots are catching up quickly as the storyline of their marital breakdown is well underway.

In one of the sweeter scenes of the episode, Elizabeth visits her old friend and first prime minister, Winston Churchill, who has suffered yet another stroke. While Winston identifies himself as a “bully” in his time as PM, Elizabeth takes the moment to tell him who he was to her:

You were my guardian angel. The roof over my head. The spine in my back. The iron in my heart. You were the compass that steered and directed me. Not just me, all of us. Where would Great Britain be without its greatest Briton? 

Elizabeth at Churchill’s bedside

At Churchill’s grand state funeral, Elizabeth’s eyes close as his coffin passes down the aisle. With the loss of Winston, Elizabeth has lost a part of herself- the young naive Queen who could lean on this formidable man who had served her father before her. Again, time is passing and Elizabeth is acutely aware of it.

At the end of the episode, there is one final turn of the screw for Anthony Blunt. Philip cannot resist giving him his opinion of him, threatening that one wrong move and he will expose him. But instead of cowering in deference, Blunt returns with a threat of his own, reminding Philip and the viewer of Philip’s alleged involvement with Stephen Ward and the whole Profumo affair. Blunt essentially threatens to release the portraits found in Ward’s home of Philip.

Philip claims Ward must have painted them from photographs. Blunt replies,

We tell ourselves all sorts of things to make sense of the past. So much so that our fabrications, if we tell them to ourselves often enough, become the truth. in our minds and everyone else’s…I’m happy for your truth to be the truth. It would be better for everyone.

Anthony Blunt to Prince Philip

The final moments of the episode tell us that Blunt did indeed receive immunity and remain in residence at Buckingham Palace until his retirement in 1972. As the episode fades to black, Frank Sinatra croons, “it’s just one of those things.” Keep calm and carry on. 

Odds and Ends:

Best Soundtrack Moment: “It’s Just one of Those Things” Frank Sinatra- end credits

Best Lines:

“What will Great Britain do without its greatest Briton?”

Elizabeth to Churchill

“Which might as well be two different people: the idealized version of themselves they want to be seen and the less desirable person they really are, hidden away.”

Elizabeth to Anthony Blunt

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for my recap of episode 2.

If you missed my recaps of seasons 1 and 2, you can find them here:
https://maggiechism.video.blog/
https://maggiechism.video.blog/top-moments-of-the-crown-season-2/

If you want to revisit the trailer, you can read my breakdown here:
https://maggiechism.video.blog/the-crown-season-3-trailer-breakdown/
PS the band responsible for that Dylan cover of “The Times they are a-Changin'” is apparently working on a release of the full song. I’ll keep you updated!