The right thing to do is to go in now and to go in hard.
Elizabeth and Philip discuss the state of their marriage onboard the royal yacht Britannia off the Portuguese coast; both acknowledge that divorce is not an option. We then go back to five months earlier. As Philip prepares to embark on his solo tour, Elizabeth becomes convinced he is having an affair after finding a photograph of the ballerina Galina Ulanova in his luggage. Over at Downing Street, Chancellor Harold Macmillan backs Prime Minister Anthony Eden's solution to Egypt's takeover of the Suez Canal. Having learned about what Eden intends to do from a Cabinet minister who's unhappy with the plan, Mountbatten tells Elizabeth about it; after learning that Israel has invaded Sinai, she confronts Eden about it. Eden reveals the Israeli invasion was not only planned but part of a secret agreement between the Israeli, French and British governments to reclaim the Suez Canal without approval from Parliament or the United Nations. Elizabeth reluctantly gives her support, and British forces begin moving into Egypt.
This episodes contains examples of:
- Affair Letters: Well, jewellery. Elizabeth first becomes suspicious that Philip is having an affair when she discovers a locket containing a photograph of Galina in Philip's travel bag.
- Ambiguous Situation: The question of whether Philip was unfaithful to the Queen, which will be something of a running plotline for the series (and beyond). In this episode, Elizabeth becomes suspicious that he's been carrying on with Galina Ulanova.
- And Another Thing...: The Queen pulls this on the Prime Minister, waiting till he's about to leave after informing her that Israel has invaded Egypt and an Anglo-French peacekeeping force will be sent in. She points out that the intelligence reports she has read say that Israel would not declare war without outside support, for fear of being isolated by the rest of the world. Eden is then forced to admit that Britain, Israel and France have cooked up a Pretext for War beforehand.
- At the Opera Tonight: Well, ballet. Elizabeth goes to check out Galina. Mountbatten, who's not aware of the undertones, is rather jealous when he finds out that she's going, as Galina is internationally admired note .
- Awful Wedded Life. Hoo boy...
- The Mountbattens' marriage is shown as a particularly terrible one; they live completely separate lives, openly enjoy the company of other lovers, and snipe at each other as they briefly cross over in the vast entrance hall of their London residence.
- The Parkers' marriage is in a very bad way due to Mike spending so much time with Philip. Him going off on a five-month royal tour does not help.
- Elizabeth and Philip's marriage isn't looking too good either.
- Being Personal Isn't Professional: Even the suggestion that Eden is rushing to war to win glory for himself outside of Churchill's shadow isn't as bad to the establishment as the suggestion that he's acting purely out of a personal hatred for Nassar.
- The Cameo: Edwina Mountbatten was a complicated woman with both an enormous fortune and a very hectic life, but she's only in this series for about a minute, quite literally. She died in 1960, which explains her absence from later episodes which focus on her husband.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Whoever's the cook at the palace, according to Mountbatten.Lord Mountbatten: The food.Queen Elizabeth II: What's wrong with it?Lord Mountbatten: It belongs in a nursery. Everything that should've been hot was cold. Everything that should've been soft was hard.
- Descent into Addiction: Eden, whose reliance on painkillers and other medications is seriously affecting both his judgement and his health. Very much Truth in Television, as it's now commonly agreed to have been a part of the reason for his bad judgement during the Suez Crisis. Benzedrine, which was regarded as a harmless stimulant and as such used in a very casual way in the 1950s, actually has serious side effects such as insomnia, restlessness and mood swings, all of which Eden suffered from at that time.
- Did Not Think This Through: By withdrawing British and French pilots from the Suez Canal, Eden hopes that this will prevent any ships from travelling along it, thus forcing Nasser to negotiate. He completely fails to take into account that Nasser could just do a deal with the Soviet Union to provide pilots who can't just do the job, but also train Egyptians to do it in the future. Eden then compounds this by rushing to war without gathering support in the United Nations or demonstrating that he's tried diplomatic solutions. He hasn't even got Parliamentary support because he's done a deal with France and Israel that he has to keep secret.
- Disappeared Dad: Mike Parker, who is away on royal duties a lot and forgets to phone home on his daughter's birthday, despite having promised to do so.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Elizabeth wakes up a still hungover Margaret in the middle of the day. She makes it perfectly clear that her late night partying is because she's still unhappy over being forced to break up with Townsend.
- Fiery Cover-Up: The Sèvres Protocol is shown being burned presumably for secrecy, though that would defeat the purpose of drawing up such a document in the first place.
- Foreshadowing: Margaret mentions Stephen Ward as a creepy guy who arranges introductions to 'actresses'.
- How We Got Here: The Cold Opening is set in February 1957, after Philip's tour and in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis. The rest of the episode shows what happened five months earlier in the build-up to those events.
- I Know You Know I Know: Following her discovery of the photograph Elizabeth attends one of Galina's performances. The ballerina can't help but stare up at Elizabeth in a manner that implies acknowledgement of her awareness of the implicit affair with Philip.
- It's Personal: It's a sign of Eden's (drug-induced) poor judgement that he's come to see his struggles with Nasser as this.Anthony Eden: I was right about Mussolini, I was right about Hitler, and I am right about this fella!
- Mr. Exposition: After Eden withdraws the British and French pilots from the Suez Canal, Philip — with the help of some cutlery and cruets — explains why specially-trained pilots are needed on the Suez Canal.
- Really Gets Around: Lady Mountbatten, who doesn't even bother to hide from her husband the fact that she's heading out for a rendezvous with her lover.
- Riddle for the Ages: A couple:
- Philip and the ballerina ... did they, or didn't they?
- The Sèvres Protocol between Britain, France, and Israel — which planned for Israel to attack Egypt and for France and Britain to then intervene to "keep the peace" — indeed existed. However, whether the Queen (reluctantly) approved it, as seen in this episode, is not proven.
- Sensual Slavs: Galina Ulanova, the Russian ballerina. Breathtakingly beautiful? Check. Slavic origins? Check. Sexy enough to entice the Queen's husband to commit adultery? Perhaps.
- Tank Goodness: As Eden promised, British forces do indeed go in hard. From a purely military point of view, the Anglo-French invasion of the canal zone was a success ... but the political fall-out was immense.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Mike Parker, hitherto seen as a friendly enough drinking-buddy of Philip's, comes across as this once the very poor state of his own marriage, and his attitude towards it, is revealed.Mike Parker: I tell you, the idiot that came up with the idea of marriage has a lot to answer for. Well, you know what they say, "Marriage is a wonderful institution". But let's face it, who wants to live in an institution?
