There are fairy tale marriages, and then there is what Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip have in “The Crown.”
The couple at the center of the Emmy award-winning Netflix drama, portrayed by Claire Foy and Matt Smith, are of course based on the real-life head of the British monarchy and her husband of 70 years. And if the way these two treat each other is in any indication of how the real royals’ romance has played out, man, are we in store for even more drama when Season 2 drops on Dec. 8.
But first let’s recap how we left this whole mess at the end of Season 1.
As fans of “The Crown,” will remember (or may have forgotten, since it’s been over a year since we checked in with the Mountbatten-Windsor family) Elizabeth and her partner may have started the season with a gorgeous wedding, but they weren’t on the same page in the closing moments of the finale, “Gloriana.”
With 10 episodes’ worth of tension between them, Elizabeth and Philip part ways on horrible terms. Her Majesty asks Philip to go to Australia for the Olympics in her name (and Philip sees that she is obviously hoping he’ll get his act together and finally accept palace life when he gets back).
At the episode’s end, he comes to her to say the “time out” trip has been extended to five months and then walks straight out of their royal abode without so much as a goodbye. Seconds later, Elizabeth has to put on a brave face and get her portrait taken. Ever the stoic leader, she attempts a smile and tries to pretend like everything is going to be fine.
But based on the trailer we’ve seen for Season 2, that’s far from the truth.
“The Crown” Season 2 launches on Netflix on Dec. 8.