Other Doctor Lives: The Crown: Season 2, Episode 4 – “Beryl” (2017)

I appreciate that The Crown can spread things around a little bit and occasionally feature supporting characters in more of a main role for an episode. I really enjoyed the episode last season that had a major plot for Elizabeth’s mother, and today, Margaret gets to take center stage (a few Margaret-related spoilers from past episodes.)

As Elizabeth and Philip prepare for the grand affair of their tenth anniversary, Margaret is feeling rudderless. She hasn’t recovered from her forced separation from Peter, and she begins to despair at the thought of ever finding the kind of love/happiness she wants. Desperate for something different, she goes to a party where no one will bow to her or kiss her hand, and while there, she meets a young man who gets her thinking about what she wants and who she wants to be.

Poor Little Rich Girl storylines are nothing new, and neither are storylines about royalty slumming it with commoners to get their groove back. As such, the ground here is well trod, but it’s still told effectively. Margaret is taken through a roller coaster in this episode, and Vanessa Kirby’s performance veers appropriately with each new curve that gets thrown Margaret’s way. I like that, while a lot of the storyline is understandably focused on her recent heartbreak and her devastation about that, it’s not purely a story about longing for love. It’s also about Margaret herself – the perceptions of her at court, how the British public see her, who she considers herself to be, and who she really is.

The storyline also features Matthew Goode as Tony, the man who takes part in this journey Margaret is going on. Goode first caught my eye back when he played Jim in A Single Man, and now he’s an actor who always makes me sit up and take notice, even if the roles I see him in aren’t always as strong as that one. Here, he performs admirably in a part that, like the storyline as a whole, is a little well-worn but still crafted nicely. The interplay between him and Kirby is very good.

Philip isn’t too bothersome in this episode, but that might be because he’s not in it all that much (neither is Elizabeth, for that matter.) He manages to acquit himself well enough at the anniversary celebration, and there’s a nice scene of him delivering some remarks reflecting on his marriage. The speech seems to suggest some self-awareness, but at this point, I’m not going to get hopeful that it portends better things ahead, because I’ve seen how these things go with Philip, and I realize that saying sweet things about Elizabeth one day won’t stop him from whining about how hard her reign is on him the next. If he wants me to take him at his word when he’s being a good guy, he needs to back that up.