Cheezwiz

Agreed. He's absolutely perfect in that role.

This was a very sad episode. Had no idea that Phillip had a large portion of his family wiped out in a plane crash. Clearly Phillip did not understand that what worked for him as a youngster, might not necessarily work for his offspring. I remember seeing news footage of Gordonstoun, and it was a really grim looking place in the middle of nowhere. Apparently when Charles went, they were still forcing students to take cold showers every morning. A shame the Queen didn't overrule Phillip when Charles began having difficulties at school.

Oh, there's a treasure trove of horrifying quotes out there. Phillip has had foot-in-mouth disease during his whole time as consort. He definitely tosses wildly inappropriate (unfortunately often racist) comments out with abandon. Admittedly, sometimes he will let something hilarious slip about a fellow aristo.

Agree with everyone else on the unfortunate casting this episode. It really took me out of the story every time Michael C. Hall appeared. Normally a great actor, but woefully miscast this time around. The actress playing Jackie did a good job of recreating her voice, but her look wasn't quite right - they didn't quite nail her hair - too curly or something. In fact, I actually thought she looked MUCH more like Jackie's sister Lee Radziwill. Had they shown her this episode, she would have been ideal for that role. Claire Foy knocked it out of the park again. The looks of insecurity flitting across her face while she tried to maintain her composure were poignant. I've seen a photo of the Kennedys on their state visit, and the contrast between how the two women dressed was striking: a sleek and chic Jackie, and the Queen in a fusty tulle number stuck in the early 50's.

So sorry for the loss of your pet! I've never met any deerhounds, but I've petted and played with some Irish Wolfhounds, and found them irresistible, despite their enormous pony-like stature. Unfortunately the life-span of these gentle giants is heartbreaking - only about 7 or 8 years. I guess the rule of thumb is the larger the dog, the shorter the lifespan. Very sad. But perhaps people who have them treasure them all the more.

Ah, I mis-identified! They look very similar to Wolfhounds (a breed I adore, and would have if I could, but alas I dwell in an apartment and not on a country estate). I'm sure Deerhounds are cool too! I loved the perplexed looks on all of their faces as they sat on the couch and watched telly.

The Crown/Downton crossovers are quite funny.

When Margaret finally married and moved away, the household staff were THRILLED. I recently read a quote, and I can't seem to locate it - but apparently as her car pulled away for the last time, one of the head butlers was overheard saying "Goodbye Princess Margaret, forever, one hopes".

Yep, they nailed it. Glad they did such a good job recreating it - one of my favourite wedding gowns of all time.

Yes, I'm finding that the episodes this season are almost stand-alone stories that happen to feature the Royals. I've been having a great time disappearing into Wikipedia research rabbit-holes to learn more about the secondary historical figures featured in each episode. #historynerd

The story seems to be that he was bisexual - numerous affairs with both women and men. He also had a couple of children with side-flings during his marriage -later confirmed with DNA testing. A couple of prominent men have come forward since his death and claimed to have had affairs with him. It wasn't public knowledge during their marriage, but Armstrong's sexuality was something Margaret frequently goaded him about.

WOW. Fantastic episode. I think one of my favourites so far. I knew Edward & Wallis were big-time Nazi sympathizers (I think I can recall seeing that photo of Wallis shaking Hitler's hand), but I had no idea how deep the betrayal went. I didn't know Edward was colluding with them to have himself re-installed on the throne, and I also didn't know Wallis had banged Ribbentrop. Good grief. And those of you above who were speculating on what the fate of the two princesses would have been had the Nazis been allowed to run amok, are probably correct. It would have been the Romanovs all over again. Britain certainly dodged a bullet when Edward abdicated. I must say the actors they cast to play Edward & Wallis are brilliant choices. The actor playing Edward bears an uncanny resemblance in both in looks and sound. There are lots of old interviews of Edward floating around, and he is absolutely a dead-ringer. I also believe that the letters that were used in this episode were real - I think a big cache of them were unearthed & published a few years ago, causing much titillation. They paint a clear picture of what a useless self-pitying twat he was. I am STILL squeeeing with delight at seeing Tommy Lascelles playing with toy soldiers! Was hoping to see his dogs again, but you can't have everything. Like everyone else, I'm also bereft that we didn't get to see him, the QM & Phillip get stinking drunk together. The historical photos shown on the close-out made my jaw drop. Such a powerful and chilling conclusion.

Wow! Fab story @MarysWetBar! Not to mention you have a subject-appropriate user-name! Thanks for sharing!

I find it interesting that the QM has been portrayed in wildly differing ways in movies and tv series. In "The King's Speech" she was clever and determined. In this series, she's depicted as a snobbish entitled air-head. I think she was a bit of a cipher in real life. Because she was always smiling in public, liked her sherry, and loved going to the races, my impression is that the British public projected fond memories of their own grannies onto her. Her image was that of e a sweet fun-loving little old lady, but in reality, who knows? I think the great age she reached (102), also added extra "wow factor" to her persona. Elizabeth II is now 91 - curious to see if she can tie her Mom's record!

I found this episode slightly tedious (from my modern vantage point it's hard to imagine an entire nation thrown into an uproar - even a near constitutional crisis (!) over inflammatory remarks by a journalist), but it was punctuated by bits of hilarity, and I thought the post-script about the real-life outcome was interesting. I was full-on giggle-snorting at Phillip's critique of Elizabeth's new immovable hairdo. He did indeed make this remark in real life apparently. And it appears not a hair on Her Majesty's head has changed since! Bonus giggle: Vidal Baboon! Martin is my favourite Royal flunky. A good chap as they say. Glad to see his worries were warranted. I still can't help loving Tommy Lascelles despite his stuffed-shirtedness. How awesome is it that he has two giant Irish wolfhounds as pets? LOVE!

Agree! In contemporary clothes, I would probably never see a resemblance, but in costume, she is totally convincing as the young Queen. She has the same clear blue eyes. What I find especially uncanny is how well she's managed to imitate the Queen's speaking voice. She's not just doing a generic upper-crust accent - she's totally managed to modulate her voice to sound like the Queen's. I understand this is Claire Foy's final season - she totally knocked it out of the park. I understand Olivia Colman (who I LOVE) will be taking over as the middle-aged Queen. Olivia has big brown eyes, so I'm wondering if they are going to give her blue contacts? One thing I associate with the Queen's look is her blue eyes. Anyhow, I'm burning through the episodes, and am going to be bummed that I'll probably have to wait another year to watch more! Even I managed to get thoroughly sucked into a soap-operized show about stuffy royals!

Interesting episode - it's hard for me to have much sympathy with Margaret as I've read too much about her real life personality. She was actually quite a horrid woman in real life - forget the fairy tale about her being an interesting bohemian with a wild streak - although capable at times of charm and wit, she was a mean drunk, and apparently LOVED lording her royal status over others. I have a feeling that if she HAD married Captain Townsend, she would have eventually gotten bored with him and dropped him like a hot potato. Yep, THIS. They were both dissolute and feckless. However, damn, Vanessa Kirby is doing a bang-up job playing her! I looked up the story of Prime Minister McMillan, and the menage-a-trois with his wife and a rival politician. Very sad story. Sets and costumes this episode were gorgeous. Loved the close-out song "I Only Have Eyes For You". Eye candy bonus! I didn't know Matthew Goode had been cast as the future Lord Snowden. SWOON. Although I much prefer him with dark hair as it sets off his blue eyes. I've only gotten as far as this episode, so I'm curious to see if they'll depict Margaret's wedding. She had one of the most beautiful wedding gowns ever.

Great article @bilgistic. Really glad to hear that she's made short work hours and taking care of herself a priority while the show is in production. Also loved that she wanted hire as many friends & family as possible and have lots of animals! So adorable. Her real-life husband plays the space lothario in the future sequences. I also really like the actor who plays her "faux" husband on the show - he's like a big Icelandic teddy bear. I wonder why they cast him (apart from him being likeable), as he's also supposed to be Icelandic on the show, yet they kept his character name as "Scott Marvel Cassidy". Maybe it's just additional oddball humour they decided to leave in.

I'm not sure why they cast a younger actor to play Maria's 80's Dad, when they kept her Mom the same in both eras. At first I thought it was because it would be more challenging to make Ed Begley look younger, but Mary Kay Place looks the same. Not sure what the logic was behind that. Maybe that her Mom was more omnipresent? I have no idea. Tink rules!

I love Maria Bamford. This show is like no other - the way she's managed to weave surreal absurdity and wicked show-biz satire with the story of her mental illness is quite amazing. Season 2 has been even wackier than the first, and I didn't think that was possible. I had a hard time keeping up with the hilarious dialogue this season - I felt like it whizzed past me like bullets. One of my favourites was when she was sprinting down the gleaming sci-fi hallway in the final episode and exclaimed "I feel like I'm in Gwyneth Paltrow's colon!" Other stuff I love: The 80's flashbacks: as someone who graduated high-in 1988, these are priceless. MVP Fred Melamed as her sad-sack manager Bruce Ben Bacharach. The inclusion of some weird random animal in almost every episode. I wish these forums were more active - I feel like this show isn't getting the love it deserves. I may re-watch both seasons just to try and catch minute funny stuff I missed the first time around.

Same thing happened to me - I genuinely thought there were 10 episodes to the series, and didn't realize that this was the finale until they got to the Snow Ball. I was lukewarm on Season 1, but I thought Season 2 was a vast improvement. The issue I had with Season One, was that I was really only interested in the kids. I couldn't have cared less about the teenage love-triangles, and wished much less time was spent on them. I didn't find the supernatural elements all that frightening, and Winona's one-note shriek-a-thon drove me up the wall. This season everything moved at a fast pace - characters were no longer segregated by age. The pairing of Steve and Dustin was an unexpected delight, and the creature/supernatural elements were much scarier. Winona's performance was much more modulated this time around, and I thought she paired nicely with Sean Astin ('sniff). We also saw Nancy (who irritated me to no end Season 1) get fleshed out more. Her drunk scene at the Halloween party was really well done. I also didn't mind Eleven's separation from the rest of the group for most of the episodes. Her character experienced some growth, and her reunion with her friends was all the more satisfying. Not to mention the hilarity mixed through all the episodes. There was humour in Season 1, but it was much more noticable this season. Still not sure what the point of Billy was, but I did not mind the addition of Max as a character. I kind of hope they don't belabour the romantic pairings. Yes, attraction happens at that age, but I guess I kind of want them to remain adorable kids a bit longer. I didn't expect to get so attached to Sean Astin's character - I thought they were just going to make him a stock bumbling dork (or possibly an evil plant). Instead we wound up being a courageous hero. The little superhero drawing of him on the fridge in the Byers' kitchen made me tear up - much the same way the games he left behind for the kids did last episode. Man I hope poor Will gets a break from medical torment and exorcisms next season. Good grief, enough already! There seems to be some polarization on Dustin's character, but I adore him! I think he might be my favourite. His HAIR this ep! LMAO! I'm was almost the exact age these kids were back in the eighties so I remember the awkwardness of those junior high dances. Felt bad when Dustin kept striking out, and was glad Nancy asked him to dance. I have to admit, I also felt just the teeniest tiniest twinge of sadness when we saw dead Dart splayed out next to a Three Muskateers candy wrapper. Was also happy to see Dustin's Mom had acquired an adorable new kitten. I thought it was a very satisfying finale, but of course, trouble still lurks!

Awww... RIP Bob. You were a good one and a hero. It turns out Dr. Owens is a good guy too. Hope he makes it out of the lab. The whole time I was watching this I kept thinking about how exhausted and wrung out Noah Schnapp must've been after shooting all of his scenes. Just non-stop super intense stuff for such a little guy. The whole episode was entertaining (on par with episode 6). Yes, THIS. Some abusers are clever enough to look relatively normal or even charming until they've totally wormed their way into someone else's life. Then they work on isolating them. Now we know where Billy gets his assholish behavior from. Poor Max & Max's Mom - I hope Stepdad is not going to start directing his abuse at them now that he's got them moved away from their home. Only two more episodes to go!

I didn't mind the detour at all. I thought Kali was an intriguing character, and I'm wondering if she'll come into play later on in the series. I didn't care for her fellow gang-members (except maybe the big care bear guy), but I thought the moral/ethical things that eleven suddenly found herself wrestling with were interesting. The side-trip made eleven realize some of her powers and that she needed to return to people who genuinely cared for her. Loved the close-out on "whisper to a scream" blast from the past! Have not heard that song in ages!

I feel like there still has to be a reveal or some point to Billy coming up (apart from him being a villainous ass), otherwise, I'm just as baffled as everyone else.

I think the multiple beasties were a plot twist! In other words, it wound up being kind of irrelevant that Dustin kept one as a pet, since "SURPRISE!" there were actually a ton more of them running around all over the place the whole time. If Dustin's cat had ventured outside, it still might have wound up as a tasty appetizer regardless! It was a great twist that I didn't see coming. Also didn't clue in to the the trap that Will had set. I gotta say, this season just gets more wildly entertaining with each episode. Season 1 felt kinda draggy to me, but this season is a gripping nail-biter and often hilarious. As others have mentioned, Winona is infinitely more tolerable this time around. LOVED the Steve and Dustin pairing, and the school bus scene was pretty thrilling (reminiscent of the original Jurassic Park movie). I am with you on that one!