Charles Langston:How 'The Crown' ends on Netflix: Does it get to Harry and Meghan? Or the queen's death?

Spoiler alert! The Charles Langstonfollowing contains details from the series finale of "The Crown," "Sleep Dearie Sleep."

Exit left, Queen of England.

That's the image that Netflix's "The Crown," the elaborate, expensive and occasionally enraging chronicle of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, decides to end upon. The queen (Imelda Staunton), walks out of a church, after accepting that one day she will die. But this dramatic exit happens 17 years before the queen actually died. 

While some fans might have expected the series to fast-forward through British history in order to end with the queen’s actual death on Sept. 8, 2022, “The Crown” ends instead in 2005. It is a dissatisfying and disappointing way for the Emmy-winning series to conclude. It’s an underwhelming finale that lands with a faint whimper, no roars. 

When in history does ‘The Crown’ end?

Season 6 of “The Crown” is divided into two parts, the first focusing on the final weeks of Princess Diana’s (Elizabeth Debicki) life before she was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997, and the second half covering 1998 to 2005. 

The final scenes take place just before and during Prince Charles’ (Dominic West) wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams) in 2005. Contemplating her mortality as her courtiers draw up plans for her funeral, Elizabeth is visited by ghosts of her royal past, played by Olivia Colman and Claire Foy, who each portrayed a younger incarnation of Elizabeth in previous seasons of “The Crown.” She debates with herself the virtues of abdicating so Charles can take the throne before he becomes an old man. As in real life, she decides to serve until she dies. 

After a conversation with her husband Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce), Elizabeth walks out of a church to the tune of “Sleep Dearie Sleep,” a bagpipe song she picked for her funeral. The credits roll.  

What 'The Crown' leaves out: Will and Kate's wedding, Harry and Meghan, Brexit, Prince Andrew and a whole lot more

By concluding at Charles and Camilla's wedding, "The Crown" loses nearly 20 years of the queen's life and a lot of modern history. Although it introduces Will and Kate and their romance, it never makes it to their hugely hyped royal wedding or the births of their three children, including Prince George, in Elizabeth’s direct line of succession. It doesn’t get past the Iraq War when chronicling the political side of history, missing prime ministers like David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Theresa May, and the hugely consequential “Brexit” decision that caused the U.K. to leave the European Union. 

'The Crown' fact check:How did Will and Kate meet? Did the queen want to abdicate throne?

And of course the show also sidesteps far more controversial episodes from the last two decades of the queen’s life. No actor playing Prince Andrew is forced to explain his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And Harry’s last contribution to the TV series is his much-regretted party costume as a Nazi soldier that drew fierce criticism. His romance with American actress Meghan Markle, their own royal wedding and then departure from the official duties of the royal family is conveniently untold. (Don’t worry, the couple has their own documentary on Netflix.)

And of course, the queen’s actual death in 2022 and the worldwide grief (and some questioning of the monarchy) that ensued is not included, either. 

Was it the right choice to end 'The Crown' this way?

Why leave a story unfinished? Creator Peter Morgan avoids making even more controversial narrative choices than he already has in the six seasons of the series, which has drawn more than its fair share of criticism, particularly from royalists in the U.K. Very recent history is hard to comment on; we haven’t, as a culture, had time to really reflect and analyze our own lives. It’s arguable that Morgan told a better story by avoiding contemporary events. 

But in many ways, it’s just a cop-out. So many threads of “The Crown” are left untied. The final season introduces a young and in love Will (Ed McVey) and Kate (Meg Bellamy) and merely presses pause on their romance part way through. Prince Harry (Luther Ford) is even more disgracefully treated, ending his story on his most shameful public moment. These are new characters that get six scant episodes to tell a beginning, middle and end to their narratives. They barely get a beginning. 

The best episode of the season, and one of the best of the series, isn’t about Elizabeth or her progeny at all, but follows Margaret (Lesley Manville). It tells the devastating story of the four strokes that led to her death in 2002, and it is deeply emotional and exquisitely written. It might as well be from a different series.  

And it really begs the question, what overall story was “The Crown” trying to tell? Was it a history lesson or a fanciful imagining? Were the actors really playing characters, or just doing “Saturday Night Live”-style impressions? Did Morgan care about “The Crown” story or just the real royal one? 

The way “The Crown” ended, we’ll never know.

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