This season has been one episode more excellent than the last, but I dreaded this particular episode. Knowing what it was about, I expected endless scenes of bullying and child abuse. Leave it to The Crown, however, to craft something as un-melodramatic as it gets, something not only original, but beautiful, moving, and tragic. It avoids absolutely all cliches, and the cinematography, exquisite so far in the series, is simply out of this world in this episode.
All of this serves to give a clear understanding of how the Scottish boarding school Gordonstoun represented something totally different to Prince Phillip than to Prince Charles. It's hard to understand why Phillip insisted on such a brutal school for his son - while not excusing it, this goes some way to explain it.
The scenes with Teen Philip are especially good, but I found the most poignant one to be one of the few featuring the Queen herself.
It's the closing scene, but doesn't really contain spoilers: Elizabeth watches Charles arrive home from Gordonstoun on holiday - from a window. She sees him being greeted and hugged (by a nanny, presumably) but stays away herself. Even when he comes inside, she doesn't go to meet him, but walks in a different direction.
You expect the episode to be about Charles' relationship with his father, and it is, but this one wordless scene spoke volumes about the relationship with his mother. It's been puzzling that the children have played such small parts in the series so far, and that almost every time we've actually seen them, the Queen is shown viewing them from a distance. Now I realize this hasn't been a coincidence. It hasn't been because of bad child actors or because other stories have been preferred. It's reflected the kids' actual relative part in Elizabeth's life. And who knows what's more damaging for children - bullying, a harsh father, or a cold, distant mother?
Review of Paterfamilias
