"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Other Doctor Lives: The Crown: Season 2, Episode 3 – “Lisbon” (2017)


Another frustrating episode in which Philip displays some of his finest qualities along with some of his worst, reminding us once again that Philip can be a terrific guy but very often chooses not to be. We also get caught up to the flashforward scene that kicked off the season premiere.

As Elizabeth eagerly awaits Philip’s return from overseas, news breaks about some family drama between Philip’s private secretary Mike and his wife. With the couple’s marriage jeopardized by Mike’s bad behavior, the press start to speculate whether Philip is up to the same tricks and the royal family is once again embroiled in a media frenzy. Elizabeth and her staff take action to try and mitigate the damage.

One thing I appreciate here is the time taken to show how proximity to the crown can have wide-reaching repercussions. Mike’s long hours in Philip’s service fosters distance between his wife, which makes it all the easier for him to justify straying. While Mike’s decisions are ultimately still on him, there’s no denying that the relationship was strained already. What’s even worse is how Tommy, Elizabeth’s own former private secretary, along with Elizabeth herself immediately throw themselves into trying to prevent fallout for the royal family, going up to a woman preparing to divorce her husband and asking her to “hold off” for the sake of not stirring up scandal that will blow back on the crown. Elizabeth knows and is friendly with Mike’s wife, but she thinks nothing of what an outrageous “favor” it is to ask her to put off divorcing her unfaithful husband for appearances’ sake. Yes, it sucks that impropriety in one of their staff stands to blow up into a much bigger scandal for them personally – still, it’s unpleasant to see how much of an afterthought Mike’s wife and her legitimate grievances are in all this.

And then, yet again, there’s Philip. We’ll start with the good stuff. We begin still riding on the good will of the last episode, and we’re treated to a very sweet scene of Elizabeth and the family watching footage Philip sent home from his adventures. The videos he made and his accompanying letter remind us how much he loves his children and his wife, an unspoken continuation of Philip seeming to reflect on his priorities in the last episode. There’s also a nice quick scene of Philip reading a letter from Elizabeth to the sailors on the ship, respectfully demurring when he gets to the the private parts.

As soon as the stuff with Mike comes to light, however, things go downhill real fast. We’ll start with the fact that Philip’s retribution toward Mike is swift and sure, but it’s entirely about being indiscreet, not about having done any of it in the first place; it’s all in good fun until the newspapers get wind of it. From there, he spends most of the rest of the episode griping and/or sulking about Elizabeth’s attempts to get ahead of the scandal, almost staggeringly clueless about the fact that she’s just trying to clean up the mess they’re in and being surly about it every step of the way.

There’s another scene here along the lines of their lives not going the way either of them expected it to, so let me repeat my previous sentiments. Okay, so no one knew George VI was going to die so soon, but still, dude – she was already her father’s heir when you married her. Even if you anticipated that it wouldn’t happen until much later, it was going to happen eventually. If being the queen’s husband is such a hardship for him, he shouldn’t have gotten into this. Philip so often makes a big fuss about being emasculated, but seriously, how is he not embarrassed to have such a fragile ego, to need so much propping up just to feel secure about himself? Be a man and be there for your wife, guy.

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