Season 5 of The Crown ends on a bittersweet note. Directed by Alex Gabassi, Episode 10, aptly titled “Decommissioned,” caps a season that sees the British public grappling with the continued relevance of the monarchy.  

The finale kicks off with Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) watching a TV special asking viewers to vote on the question: “Do you want a monarchy?” Though it turns out the majority of respondents appear to lean toward “yes,” the very fact that the question is being asked at all marks a shift in the relationship between the royal family and the British people. 

“From the beginning [of the season], we start with the concept of relevancy, specifically through the relevancy of the queen,” executive producer and director Jessica Hobbs tells Tudum. “By the end of the season, we are questioning the relevancy of the institution itself. That is really the arc.” 

You see the theme weaved in throughout the entire episode. Newly divorced Prince Charles (Dominic West) is asked to attend the handover of Hong Kong back to the Chinese government, marking the end of British rule over the territory. It’s an emotional moment but also a symbolic one: The power of the British crown is waning. Likewise, Queen Elizabeth’s (Imelda Staunton) fight to restore the royal yacht Britannia comes to a tragic halt when Prime Minister Tony Blair (Bertie Carvel) presents her with a choice: either the royal family pays for the repairs or the vessel will be decommissioned. One of the final scenes shows Elizabeth walking through the Britannia’s state rooms one last time, bidding farewell to something that has meant so much to her reign, but also to her and Philip (Jonathan Pryce) personally. 

But the finale also sets up a narrative that will unfold when The Crown returns for its sixth and final season: the relationship between Dodi al-Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) and Princess Diana, which will end with their deaths after a high-speed car crash in Paris’ Pont de l’Alma tunnel in August 1997. For Dodi, Episode 10 is about trying to establish himself professionally and personally, and getting out from under his father’s shadow. But Mohamed al-Fayed (Salim Daw) isn’t easily deterred from his dreams of handing over his empire to his son, and Dodi’s relationship with American model Kelly Fisher (Erin Richards) isn’t quite what he had in mind. 

Meanwhile, Diana is trying to figure out what her life looks like out of the royal spotlight. Though divorced from Charles, she’s still bound to the system through her sons, and something as trivial as finding a vacation spot for the three of them turns into an administrative maze as royal advisors grapple with security concerns, paparazzi, etc. Enter Mohamed, who offers his hospitality in Saint-Tropez — and his highly trained bodyguards — as a holiday solution. After some coaxing, Diana accepts and her last scene of the season shows her smiling as she packs for the trip. For viewers, the moment pulls at the heartstrings. You know the tragic fate in store for Diana in just a few short weeks. But for the character, that scene is “a really hopeful beat,” Debicki tells Tudum. 

She and Gabassi talked through the scene as a way to illustrate how far Diana has come. She’s a woman beginning a new chapter in her life, looking towards the future. “Often there are moments where Peter [Morgan] will write a scene where he leaves a lot of space for the actor and the director to decide exactly how it lands,” says Debicki. “[In this case] I just think it said, ‘Diana is packing.’”

The actor brings that minimal direction to life with a turn toward the mirror, ending Diana’s Season 5 journey with a smile. 

“Just like in real life, two things are true at the same time,” Debicki says. “There’s a huge amount of sadness, but also this sense of making a choice to move through something and create a new chapter, a new experience. And then, on a really practical level, [to get to] be with your children and go on vacation and have a nice time — that’s precious when you can do that with the people you love. For me it was about packing [her] kids’ clothes to go on vacation. It’s very simple, but moving. Sometimes the simplest things are the things that get us the hardest.”

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