Recap / The Crown S 2 E 8 Dear Mrs Kennedy

• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • JFK realises they messed up the proper protocol when meeting the Queen and jokes about it with Philip.
  • Philip and Elizabeth find it amusing when the Ghanian press call the Queen a socialist after her dance.
• Age Insecurity: Elizabeth grumbles to her mother about how she's getting middle-aged. The Queen Mother tells her not to worry, then comments on how Jackie looks younger than Elizabeth even though they're roughly the same age, which doesn't make her feel any better.
• Allegiance Affirmation: President Nkrumah gives a fiery anti-colonialist speech to his fellow African delegates while Queen Elizabeth II's portrait is replaced with one of Lenin.
• And Some Other Stuff: The 'vitamin shots' the President and First Lady are taking are suggested to contain more than vitamins.
• Break the Haughty: After the Queen is made aware of Jackie's bitchy comments about both her dress sense and Buckingham Palace itself (a "2nd rate country hotel"), she decides to bring out the big guns and contrives a luncheon à deux at the monumentally splendid Windsor Castle. Jackie, feeling suitably sheepish and overawed by the setting, apologises for her rudeness.
• Beneath the Mask: The Queen describes Jackie as a Broken Bird beneath her charming facade.
• Cat Fight: JFK gleefully notes that his wife's unguarded comments will lead to trouble at their next Fancy Dinner with the Queen. "Catfight. I look forward to a full report."
• The Charmer: As per real life, JFK is depicted as a charming, slightly roguish character with a winning smile and easy confidence — in public anyway.
• Commonality Connection: Elizabeth is surprised to find that Jackie is an introvert who hates the spot that her duties thrust upon her, and has a glamourous sister who would be more suited to the role. She also has a husband with a wandering eye for women who resents playing second fiddle to her.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Elizabeth feels bothered by Jackie's apology because she never admitted her own faults. Philip is unconcerned, pointing out that Jackie had been rude to them and needed to be put in place. "There's ice in those veins when there needs to be."
• Dancing Is Serious Business: The Queen dances with Nkrumah — the foxtrot, specifically — as part of a high-stakes political gamble that could decide the balance of Soviet power in Africa, which in the early 1960s was fast emerging as a Cold War battleground. To everyone's relief, the dance is a success. The implication is that, in exchange for his photo op dancing with the queen, Nkrumah will "come back to the fold" and squash Soviet hopes for Africa.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The Queen dancing with an African, to the shock of her Royal minders who ring the Prime Minister, who's equally shocked.
• Drugs Are Bad: The Kennedys are depicted as habitual drug users, who take uppers and downers to help them get through the rigours of public life and dealing with the media. The reason for Jackie's In Vino Veritas moment was she was feeling depressed and asked for a 'vitamin shot' from her private Dr. Feelgood (Max Jacobson, who would later lose his license due to using excessive amounts of amphetamines in his treatments).
• Gilligan Cut: The Prime Minister and the Queen's private secretary are firmly against the Queen visiting Ghana. We then cut to her flying there.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Queen Elizabeth envies the educated and urbane Jackie Kennedy who's even managed to charm the notoriously anti-American Charles de Gaulle. Jackie privately admits that her husband got jealous of his wife stealing his limelight in Paris and took it out on her in private.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Everyone at the Palace, from the staff to the guests, gushes over the glamorous Jackie Kennedy to the Queen's bemusement. Then during her apology, Jackie reveals that she admires the Queen who has a sense of poise and duty that she lacks.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Before meeting the Kennedys Prince Philip jokes that it's like meeting royalty, earning himself a "Very funny!" snark from his wife.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After she finds out that Elizabeth has been made aware of her bitchy remarks, Jackie behaves far more sheepishly during a luncheon with the Queen at Windsor Castle and apologizes for her behavior. The Queen in turn regrets the cold shoulder she gave her after JFK is assassinated, and the episode ends with her writing Jackie a letter of condolence.
• Playing Both Sides: Nkrumah is suggested to be playing the Soviet Union and United States off against each other to get the Volta Dam project financed.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Queen is shown managing her estate, even using her Land Rover to haul off a fallen tree. She also makes a personal visit to Ghana to influence events there even though everyone points out it's not her job.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Played for comedy with her Majesty furiously buttering a scone while claiming to Jackie that her comments didn't bother her at all.
• Women Prefer Strong Men: Lampshaded by Jackie as to why an introverted woman would be drawn to a strong man like her husband who can protect her, but who by his nature is drawn to fame and fortune, dragging her into the limelight as well.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: JFK congratulates his wife on the catty remarks that caused Queen Elizabeth to defy her Cabinet and fly to Ghana. Throughout the conversation Jackies sits on the bed with a stunned look on her face.
• Your Cheating Heart: Elizabeth isn't happy about how her husband insists on getting the seat next to Jackie Kennedy, and takes over the job of showing her around Buckingham Palace when she asks Philip to do so. Jackie in turn catches sight of John Kennedy touching up some of the woman at an embassy reception.