Photo: Daniel Escale/Netflix
Welcome to the beginning of the end, Crown fans. Part one of the sixth and final season of the addictive royal soap opera has landed in our Netflix queues. These four episodes, as we already know from the trailer, cover Princess Diana’s final days in the summer of 1997, punctuated by her ill-fated romance with the ne’er do well Dodi Fayed, whom we first met, along with his entrepreneur father, last season.
Considering season five concluded in July 1997, it’s hardly a surprise that The Crown dedicates the season-six premiere cold open to part one’s overarching theme: Diana’s tragic death on August 31 of that same year. We follow a random Parisian taking his dog for a late-night walk when suddenly, a car races by, with several paparazzi on motorcycles in hot pursuit. Then, the sound of wheels screeching and a loud crash, and the passerby calling emergency services, explaining that there’s been an accident at Pont de l’Alma tunnel.
Post-credits, the “Eight Weeks Earlier” title card immediately reminds us just how short Diana and Dodi’s relationship was. It’s early summer, and Diana, now a divorced member of the royal family, is lonely and restless. She finds herself asking Prime Minister Tony Blair for public service opportunities, but all that gets her is a pooh-pooh from Queen Elizabeth II. During their weekly meeting, the prime minister relays Diana’s request to Her Majesty, who can’t help but blame her former daughter-in-law for her impossible situation: You can’t be “half in” when it comes to the royal family. She’s not wrong — just ask Prince Harry.
It’s not only the lack of purpose that has Diana battling the summer blues. She’s desperate to get out of the country while her ex, Prince Charles, throws a 50th birthday bash for his beloved, Camilla Parker Bowles. Fortunately, Diana’s pal Mohamed Al-Fayed, a.k.a. “Mou Mou,” has provided just the right distraction for the princess and her two sons: A holiday in the South of France dripping with nouveau riche luxury.
After devoting a full episode to his social-climbing backstory last season, The Crown is now primed to turn Mohamed Al-Fayed into part one’s calculating villain: Namely, as the man who allegedly orchestrated the relationship between his son Dodi and the globally adored Princess of Wales to improve his own social standing.
Not that Dodi is completely blameless here: As of “Persona Non Grata,” he’s still engaged to American model Kelly Fisher, whom Mohamed dismissed as a gold digger last season. And when Papa says jump, Dodi asks, “How high?” Mohamed orders his son to fly to Saint-Tropez to “help with a special guest,” and Dodi obeys, dropping lie after lie to the woman he’s supposedly marrying in three weeks. RUN, DIANA.
Back in England, Charles is also battling his own version of the blues: No one from the royal family (except for Princess Margaret, which might have been a creative liberty) plans on attending his Highgrove soirée, suggesting that his relationship with Camilla is still deemed tawdry by the Queen. Charles visits Mummy, who confirms his suspicions. She gives a laughable excuse for her “No” RSVP that the future king is not buying: A visit to a Rolls-Royce factory. Even though this topic seems ridiculously moot in 2023, the woman who is now Queen Camilla was indeed deemed unworthy of Queen Elizabeth’s public approval in 1997. Twenty-six years ago, the Queen still viewed divorce as an abomination, chastising all four parties involved — Charles, Diana, Camilla, and Camilla’s ex-husband — for, gasp, breaking up their families. Another reminder of how change comes to the royal family very, very slowly. Or not at all.
This scene is another example of The Crown’s pro-Charles streak, illustrating the Queen’s cold parenting style and how it never stops hurting her children — even when they’re pushing 50. Here Charles is trying to talk to his mother about how the best moments of the day when he was a child were the two times he got to see her, and she throws him over to give her attention to one of her corgis.
Over on the continent, it’s so much for a quiet holiday in Saint-Tropez. As Dodi arrives on his father’s yacht, the paparazzi are out in full force, and Mohamed is loving every minute of it. Dodi, realizing his dad has pimped him out to Princess Diana, is all, “WTF, Baba?” Whereas dear old dad literally uses the words, “Put her on a plate for you,” and, “This is your chance to finally make me proud of you.” EW! And, again, Diana, RUN!
Dodi gets to work, losing himself in the sunshine, Smash Mouth soundtrack, and unbridled joy that comes with a playful vacation with Princess Diana and Princes William and Harry. But he’s super-distracted when Kelly — who somehow ascertained that he’s hanging out with the most photographed woman in the world — calls, telling her, “I’m just doing what my father tells me to do.” Look, I get that money is an aphrodisiac, but ugh, Dodi is the worst.
Meanwhile, Camilla’s birthday party is a rousing success, especially in Princess Margaret’s eyes. She observes how happy and in love Charles and Camilla are, and after being denied her own true love, she, once again, goes to bat for her nephew. Margaret advises her sister that it’s time to start showing her support for her son’s relationship. As is usually the case in this family, or at least The Crown’s interpretation of it, the problem doesn’t lie with Elizabeth Mountbatten-Windsor, but the people who surround her. Over dinner, it’s Prince Philip who continues to voice outdated disgust over Charles’s chosen partner, calling Camilla “inappropriate.” At this point, even Elizabeth is like, “Really? Still? Surely not.” Woke Lilibet keeps going, talking about ending the Camilla “discrimination.” Eventually, this conversation leads to the Queen phoning Charles to say she’s happy that he’s happy. Hey, it’s a start.
But Charles doesn’t care that he and Camilla had a blast at the party, or that his mother is inching closer to accepting their relationship because Diana stole their headline thunder yet again. After noticing William hiding from the paparazzi (who could blame him?), Diana decided to use her special set of skills to work the press to her advantage. She rolls out on a speedboat, resplendent in a leopard-print bathing suit, and strikes a deal with the photographers: Leave her and her sons alone, in exchange for a few coquettish poses. It doesn’t matter how “dignified” Camilla was at her party, or that she’s the one who became Queen. She will never be able to eclipse Diana in the public-relations department. Not even a quarter-century after Diana’s death.
In Saint-Tropez, the drama goes into overdrive: Dodi’s fiancée Kelly, another persona non grata, arrives, only to be denied entry onto Mohamed’s yacht, the Jonikal. Instead, she’s hidden away on a smaller boat, forced into waiting for Dodi until the evening. Girl, swim away now. Kelly and Dodi spend an angry night together, and she leaves the next morning. This sets us up for Dodi and Diana’s big bonding scene onboard the Jonikal. I love how this scene is shot, with Dodi pouring himself a whiskey in the foreground and Diana adorably peeking her head out from behind the piano in the background. They chat about their respective terrible fathers: Diana’s was neglectful, Dodi’s is controlling. It’s certainly enough to drive them into each other’s arms — and permanent therapy if they had lived.
Later, as Diana and the boys prepare to leave — the princes are about to join the royal family for their annual summer trip to Scotland — the red flags are flying all over the place. Diana reveals to Dodi that, as the divorced Princess of Wales, she’s “persona non grata” at Balmoral Castle and looking at a very lonely summer. Dodi, meanwhile, can barely acknowledge that he’s supposed to get married in less than a month. While his son forlornly waves good-bye to his royal friends, Mohamed watches from the house, a smug smile slowly forming.
He has every reason to smirk in triumph: Upon Diana’s return to Kensington Palace, the apartment is decked out with numerous bouquets of red and pink roses, a gold and diamond watch, and a note from Dodi inviting Diana on a (non-doomed) trip to Paris next week. It does not matter in the slightest that we all know the conclusion to this story. The more context — and creative license — The Crown provides, the harder it is to not scream at Diana for enmeshing herself with such dubious characters.
• You cannot get more late-’90s Britain than Diana and William singing along to “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba. That was my theme song back when I lived in London in 1998.
• Fifteen-year-old Prince William seems to be poised as the audience surrogate, at least for these four episodes. He is not impressed with Dodi, and knows, even at this early stage, that his mother is making another poor life choice by hanging around with the shady Fayed family. Though I wouldn’t put it past William to have other unspoken opinions on the matter, as well.
