The Crown: Dear Mrs. Kennedy

December 18, 2017 8:09 PM - Season 2, Episode 8

Inspired by Jackie Kennedy and against her government's wishes, Elizabeth takes an unconventional approach to resolving an issue with Ghana.
posted by Cash4Lead (12 comments total)

I had a hard time with this episode. It felt very all over the place, in terms of tone, and while I appreciate seeing Elizabeth with her dander up (I think the temperature of the room dropped about 10 degrees when she observed "Well, we must have her again") the whole thing with Mrs. Kennedy felt kind of forced and weird.

Anyways, here's to the Queen being out in her wellies helping to pull a downed tree.
posted by nubs at 8:36 AM on December 19, 2017 [5 favorites]

Windsor Castle (location, fixed): +5 to any social-based dominance display rolls, +10 if you took the time to line the hallways with armed guards.
posted by Mogur at 10:17 AM on December 19, 2017 [8 favorites]

I watched the dance scene like 5 times, it was very delightful, esp. the appalled reactions of all the grumpy old white men contrasted with the surprised glee of everyone else.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:54 PM on December 19, 2017

What, precisely, made the Queen decide to ring the bells? It seemed to be the realization that Jackie was wearing the blood spattered dress deliberately... But I don't quite get the connection.
posted by meese at 8:38 PM on December 19, 2017

Yeah, I read that as her being shocked that no one was taking the kind of personal care of Jackie that she herself would receive in a similar situation - getting her cleaned up and presentable, maybe getting her to eat something, whatever. Instead of just herding her around covered in her husband's brains. Idk how that led to bells though.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:31 PM on December 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, I see... I assumed she took Jackie to be the source of the deliberate choice. But now I get it: Jackie is clearly in shock, and someone else has deliberately decided to use her as a prop. So, she does what she can to offer sincere condolences, recognizing the need Jackie must have for it.
posted by meese at 11:03 PM on December 19, 2017 [5 favorites]

I mean idk really? Your perception of it seems just as logical. I was looking at it from what I assume to be the life experiences thus far of Elizabeth and how the royal family handles tragedy, death, etc, where appearances are paramount and there are many people dedicated solely to keeping up those appearances.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:09 AM on December 20, 2017

According to the wikipedia article on the pink chanel suit, Mrs. Kennedy was asked if she wished to remove it and said "Oh, no. I want them to see what they have done to Jack."

So it was her choice and Elizabeth apparently recognized that.
posted by nubs at 9:22 AM on December 20, 2017 [7 favorites]

Nope. There is no way anyone can convince me that Jackie Kennedy would have ever told the Queen about the drug use/abuse, even by way of an apology. Nor about the president reacting abusively to Jackie's success. In fact, even confessing to having postnatal depression seems unlikely in the early 60s; it was then still largely unknown and very stigmatized. Anyway, all of the above would've also been closely kept state secrets.

Despite the plentiful corgis and muddy Jeeps, I hated this episode. It just seemed the kind of inane gossipy highschool drama that uninspired male writers tend to go for when they're asked to come up with something that could happen between women characters. Lilibet thought Jackie was her friend, but then Margaret told her that Patrick had said that Jackie had said ... So then she went to Ghana just to prove her wrong!

No. Facepalm. I'm going to delete this from my memory.
posted by sively at 2:57 PM on December 20, 2017 [12 favorites]

What a bizarre episode. Ever since the erroneous Peter Townsend storyline, I've watched this with a skeptical eye. I couldn't find anything online about President and Mrs. Kennedy greeting the Queen and Prince Philip with the wrong titles. Was it supposed to be some writerly attempt at conveying uncouth/careless/drug-crazed Americans? Because the president's father was the US ambassador to England ffs. They didn't need to read protocol briefings to know the proper address.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:49 PM on December 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

it was very weird. a lot of individual scenes were very well done, but the tone was weird and I kept thinking "did that really happen like that?" the interaction between Jackie and Liz just seemed contrived and unbelievable from both ends. esp. Jackie. it was weird and off-putting despite some strong performance. also, sorry Dexter but yr Bahhston accent sucked.
posted by supermedusa at 11:13 AM on December 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

and yeah, what TWinbrookB says, no way they weren't prepped to the gills for a royal audience. please...
posted by supermedusa at 11:14 AM on December 30, 2017 [1 favorite]