Recap of The Crown Season 3, episode 2

The Dull and the Dazzling

“Frustrations and resentments can build up from a life as a number two, the support act, even of someone you adore.

Princess Margaret to President Johnson

Episode Two, “Margaretology,” continues the season’s exploration of identity with a careful study of the Queen’s younger sister Margaret, who professes to be “a natural number one whose tragedy it is to be born number two.”

Beyond the apparent tension between the number ones and number twos presented in this episode lies an inner conflict within each character, straining against the confines of his/her position. Tommy Lascelles tells a young Princess Margaret, “we all have a role to play.” This episode raises the question of whether these characters take the lead or play second fiddle by nature, or whether they are simply playing the roles they have been assigned.

In a flashback to Windsor Castle, 1943, Tommy Lascelles, surrounded by other men in dark suits, lectures a young Elizabeth, now heir apparent, on the “formidable responsibilities” that come with the crown.

He later tells a young Princess Margaret, after she expresses her desire (and, in her mind, innate ability) to wear the crown instead, her role will be to “serve and support…from the wings.”

Back in present day, Margaret and Tony embark on a royal tour to the United States. After Margaret notes that, like her relationship with Tony, her relationship with Elizabeth is “complicated,” Tony assures her that she [Margaret] is the real “number one.”

Not much later, Tony is struggling with his position as a number two. His ego is bruised by Margaret’s celebrity-like reception in Los Angeles. When Tony criticizes her, she accurately calls him on his hypocrisy, saying the real problem is that he is “a competitive little narcissist” who isn’t enjoying being around people who don’t know him or his work. 

Margaret reassures Tony that when they get to New York, she will step back and play the part of supportive wife as he promotes his new book. Of course she is unable to fulfill this promise when duty calls. She gets a small taste of what Elizabeth has experienced- having to put duty before everything else, at great personal cost.

Intercut with the scenes of Margaret and Tony on tour, we get a glimpse into the Lyndon Johnson era of the White House, as Great Britain desperately tries to mend the “special relationship” with the United States. Another #1 and #2 at odds. Great Britain is in critical need of a financial bailout, but Johnson hasn’t forgotten Harold Wilson’s lack of support for the U.S. in the Vietnam War. 

In addition to this grudge, Johnson is preoccupied with comparisons to his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. He is determined to leave a legacy not as Kennedy’s number two but as a number one in his own right.

“I will not be the first American President to lose a war!” 

This frustration puts him in the perfect frame of mind to encounter and welcome a fellow number two, Princess Margaret. 

With so much at stake, tensions are high when Margaret and Tony arrive at the White House for dinner. Fortunately for Elizabeth and Great Britain, the stars align for Margaret, and everything “off the books” about her, to absolutely “dazzle” Johnson and secure the bailout as a result. 

Throughout the episiode, Elizabeth struggles with the praise and acclaim Margaret receives in the press on the tour. The jealousy seems a bit more pronounced than in seasons past, but perhaps it is believable considering the increasingly larger role the press plays in the life of the monarchy. She confesses to Philip her self-doubt, that Margaret is all the things she could never be: instinctive, spontaneous, dazzling. Philip sweetly and sincerely tells her he would take dependability every day of the week. 

Riding high from her great victory, and an airport handshake from the Prime Minister, Margaret reports to Elizabeth and requests that they share more duties. She says it is “soul destroying” for Elizabeth to bear so much and her so little. Elizabeth is completely taken aback and tells Margaret she’ll think about it. Elizabeth has often expressed her wish for a simple country life, that she may have been the younger sister, free from all the responsibility. But here she clearly struggles with the idea of sharing the load. Or perhaps she merely worries that Margaret is not truly up to the task.

Nevertheless, she considers it, but Philip is the one to put her straight. He channels Tommy Lascelles, a man he professes to detest, but in this matter believes is correct: that the House of Windsor is an eagle with two heads: the dazzling family members and the dull ones. 

Philip, who spent the first two seasons begrudging his status as a “number two,” speaks of the inequality of birth, of the two “strains” running throughout Elizabeth’s family: one dutiful, reliable, the other brilliant, individualistic, and dangerous. He lists the pairs that have come before, including Elizabeth’s father and his brother who abdicated. “For every Lillibet, you get a Margaret.”

It’s all too easy to continue Philip’s train of thought and find it still seems to follow in present day.

But this exchange reminded me of an earlier conversation between the sisters in the season 1 episode, “Pride and Joy.”

Margaret: There’s a cruel truth to it isn’t there? When two sisters so close in age, the more one becomes one thing, the more the other necessarily becomes the opposite and vice versa. it’s the way of things. if one is the Queen, must be the source of honor and all that is good, the other necessarily becomes the focus of the most creative malice. Evil sister. 

Elizabeth: No one says you’re evil.

M: Next to you I will always be evil. Feckless. Lost. Lesser thing.

Philip concludes to Elizabeth:

Let’s not delude ourselves that serious diplomacy can be achieved through drinking and dancing. Let Margaret have the glory, but let’s not rewrite the constitutional rulebook because she got lucky once.

Even though we know Philip is right, we still hurt for Margaret when we see her expectant face fall as she realizes her role will not be expanding. Is she, by nature, Elizabeth’s opposite, or has she necessarily become that by default?

By the end of the episode, the relationship between this number one and two remains complicated. Later in the season, we’re sure to see another number two under strain in the form of Queen Elizabeth’s son and heir, Prince Charles.

Odds and Ends

Most Memorable Soundtrack Moment:
“When You’re Smiling” – Billie Holiday- Princess Margaret absolutely relishing her time to shine in Los Angeles

Best Lines:

I am a queen not a saint.

Queen Elizabeth to her private secretary after she tells him to stop reading the good press Margaret is receiving on tour.

[I’m a] Natural number one whose tragedy it is to be born number two.

Princess Margaret to Tony

Recap of Season 3, episode 1:
https://maggiechism.video.blog/2019/11/02/example-post/