In “Inside the Episode,” writers and directors reflect on the making of their Emmy-winning episodes. “War,” the Season 4 finale of Netflix’s monarchy drama “The Crown,” is an icy one. And that’s not just because it’s set just before and during Christmas.
This portion of the story of Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Colman) and her ilk is about the marriage that is destroying the lives of her oldest son and heir apparent, Charles (Josh O’Connor), and his long-suffering wife, Diana (Emma Corrin). It’s also about Parliament finally bending its Iron Lady, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson). In a more relatable sense, as Jessica Hobbs’ Emmy-winning direction shows, it’s also about that icky, awkward, self-conscious feeling people get when they’re forced to be in a room where they know they’re not wanted.
In different ways, Hobbs focuses the camera on Anderson’s and Corrin’s ostracized women as they attempt to keep a stiff upper lip even though every hair on their body is at attention and they count the seconds before they can retreat to the privacy of their rooms to cry, scream and crumble on the bed. Hobbs, who has directed several episodes of the series created by Peter Morgan, tells The Times that there were a few reasons why she asked for this episode. One is she likes the completed feeling of a season finale, when all the stories come together.
Another is that this would be the final episode with this cast, as the show rotates in y.