S06.E07: Alma Mater

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Now at university, William sets his eyes on Kate Middleton. With meddling parents and other prospects in the mix, how will their connection bloom?

Dropping Thursday, December 14, 2023.

[MadyGirl1987]

Just 10 minutes in, and they’re going for the “Carole Middleton engineered William and Kate getting together” telling aren’t they?

Sigh…

[Roseanna]

35 minutes ago, MadyGirl1987 said:

Just 10 minutes in, and they’re going for the “Carole Middleton engineered William and Kate getting together” telling aren’t they

Yes, and that was really dumb. But being at the same unversity didn't guarantee anything, there were also other girls. So they added "she was the only girl who didn't swoon for him" - but it was only a ploy taught by her mum to catch him. 

I wish they would have chosen "friends to lovers"-plot.  

  

[Spartan Girl]

2 hours ago, MadyGirl1987 said:

Just 10 minutes in, and they’re going for the “Carole Middleton engineered William and Kate getting together” telling aren’t they?

Sigh…

Mohammed Al-Fayed tries to get his son to marry Diana, the show portrays him as a gold-digging asshole that got Diana killed. So Carole tries to match her child off with royalty, but since she’s a nice white lady, the show portrays her as the kind of meddling albeit loving mother from a Jane Austen novel.

[MadyGirl1987]

17 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Mohammed Al-Fayed tries to get his son to marry Diana, the show portrays him as a gold-digging asshole that got Diana killed. So Carole tries to match her child off with royalty, but since she’s a nice white lady, the show portrays her as the kind of meddling albeit loving mother from a Jane Austen novel.

Ugh, yeah I hated how al-Fayed was portrayed as well. In my opinion they made Diana seem less like the independent grown woman she was and more like some innocent ingenue who’s at the wims of others.

Edited December 14, 2023 by MadyGirl1987

[Snazzy Daisy]

What a MEH episode. 😴

No drama, no tension, no witty lines. 50 minutes of William being tedious and feeling sorry for himself. They even make Carole Middleton the new Mohamed Al-Fayed. Despite an angle of manipulating parent to seduce royalty, it’s still a boring episode for me.

William being overwhelmingly miserable and conflicted after screwing things up with Kate is a stretch. They hardly know each other. Then a late night text from Kate makes everything better. Yawn. 🙄

The only scene that captures my attention is the endearing conversation between QE and William about the affairs of the heart. 💕

And talking about perspectives…

CAROLE - A scheming commoner Middleton momager vs A caring mum who gives her daughter a fighting chance.

Prince William vs Rupert Finch.

Willy Gold Star vs Harry Black Sheep.    
Willy Saint vs Harry Sinner.     
Willy Solid vs Harry Lost.

Unwanted attention from men vs Public scrutiny of a future king.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Snazzy Daisy

[dubbel zout]

I doubt William signed cards and pictures; the BRF doesn't do autographs.

They leaned very heavily on Harry as the wild child.

Kate's parents were loaded, so why did she have a job at a restaurant?

LOL that Lola and Kate end up as temporary allies because William was being a jerk. I enjoyed that.

[peridot]

I wasn't expecting to see Princess Rhaenys in the show.  Yet another schemer has been introduced in the episode.  If Kate knew that her mom was scheming, why didn't she say no?  Based on the show, it seems like she's willingly becoming involved in the maneuvering by ensuring Will's not leaving college.

I don't get what's so bad about William snapping at the girl who asked for an autograph in the middle of a tense discussion.  Can't she read the room?  It seemed that Lola and Kate downplayed his experience in being in the spotlight all the time.  No matter how hot you are, people from around the world aren't inundating them all the time.

It's pretty sad that Harry is what, 16, and he feels he has to be the screw-up.  I guess he's taking a page out of his great-aunt's book.

[Demian]

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

Kate's parents were loaded, so why did she have a job at a restaurant?

I went to college with a bunch of richies whose parents made them take part-time jobs to pay for fraternity/sorority expenses, or books, or clothes they wanted but didn't need.  Maybe it was something like that?

[Brn2bwild]

What a boring character they turned this William into.  He is so dull and morose all the time, and all he does is react to other characters.  The real William knew how to crack a smile on occasion.

Kate had no cause to get offended at William for being rude to the girl seeking an autograph.  Yes, women have to live with unwanted attention, but not the shear volume of attention that Diana, then her sons, received.  William had a right to be able to chat with someone without another person rudely bursting in.  

I also find it hard to believe that Kate would go along with her mother's plans to have her follow William to university if she truly objected and had grown beyond her initial crush on him.

The Harry actor has the voice down at least.

Pippa and James Middleton don't appear to exist.

[Roseanna]

3 hours ago, peridot said:

I don't get what's so bad about William snapping at the girl who asked for an autograph in the middle of a tense discussion.  Can't she read the room?  It seemed that Lola and Kate downplayed his experience in being in the spotlight all the time.  No matter how hot you are, people from around the world aren't inundating them all the time.

 

2 hours ago, Brn2bwild said:

Kate had no cause to get offended at William for being rude to the girl seeking an autograph.  Yes, women have to live with unwanted attention, but not the shear volume of attention that Diana, then her sons, received.  William had a right to be able to chat with someone without another person rudely bursting in.  

Well, maybe the scene wasn't written in the best way, but its intention IMO was to show that Kate had self-worth and therefore wasn't ready to indulge William. He needed someone who challenged him - he wasn't the center of the universe.

Unfair or not, royals and celebs must always behave well towards fans, otherwise somebody tells to the papers. 

[dubbel zout]

12 hours ago, Demian said:

I went to college with a bunch of richies whose parents made them take part-time jobs to pay for fraternity/sorority expenses, or books, or clothes they wanted but didn't need.  Maybe it was something like that?

In the show Carole Middleton is presented as someone very aware of social status and signifiers, and I don't think the British aristocracy generally asked its offspring to work if they didn't have to. But it was also a way for Kate to see William flirt with Lola, so whatever, Peter Morgan. 

12 hours ago, Brn2bwild said:

Pippa and James Middleton don't appear to exist.

They're in the Christmas dinner scene, and that's enough for me. They weren't a part of the beginning of the Kate/William relationship.

[Helena Dax]

I didn't like the way they wrote Harry. It reminded me of the sidekick of the male character in every rom-com for teens; you know, the one who is always talking about girls and parties and mocking the main character for being too serious.Also, how old is he supposed to be? Fifteen? Sixteen at most? I teach kids that age and Harry didn't come across as realistic in the slightest. 

I liked Kate, although I didn't enjoy the way they depicted her mother. 

The Queen Mother is a riot and Margaret's exasperation made me chuckle. I think I prefer the characters from the older generations.

[Spartan Girl]

This episode had all the subtlety of a cheap Hallmark romcom. They even threw in Christmas at the end.

I miss the actress that played the Queen Mum in season 3 and 4. 

[Ellaria]

22 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

This episode had all the subtlety of a cheap Hallmark romcom. 

Agree. What a mess of an episode! I’m just not interested in the many different ways that William and Kate crossed paths in college. It feels like Peter Morgan and the other creatives are trying too hard to make it relatable. And William has turned into a bore.

Also, I’m not wild about the portrayal of Carole Middleton. It’s a little heavy-handed. We get it…she wants her daughters to marry well.

 

 

[Avaleigh]

50 minutes ago, Ellaria said:

Agree. What a mess of an episode! I’m just not interested in the many different ways that William and Kate crossed paths in college. It feels like Peter Morgan and the other creatives are trying too hard to make it relatable. And William has turned into a bore.

Also, I’m not wild about the portrayal of Carole Middleton. It’s a little heavy-handed. We get it…she wants her daughters to marry well.

 

 

I'm ride or die for The Crown but this episode was shit. Boring, uninspired and straight up ridiculous at points.

Very disappointing that they went with the Carole Middleton maneuvered the situation so that her daughter would have a relationship with the future king. Also, that scene where Carole talks about Party Pieces--it didn't sound like an organic conversation between a mother and daughter, it sounded like an info dump that was for the benefit of the audience.

I didn't get the line either where Harry tells William to stop being a frigid weirdo. I get that Harry was joking, but William didn't have an issue forming relationships with girls, so it didn’t make sense to me. I would have better understood Harry trying to get William to loosen up to do that pub crawl thing the other students were talking about when William was considering going to the cottage on the Balmoral estate. 

For me this was easily one of the weakest episodes in the series. 

[Johnny Dollar]

Did the family really allow the boys to have use of a cottage on the property for parties featuring so much underaged drinking that someone could die of alcohol poisoning? Don’t they have bodyguards with them at all times? Good thing cellphone cameras weren’t yet a thing back then.

it seems like Harry’s complaints about essentially being the inconsequential spare are well represented in this episode. The poor kid wasn’t even allowed to grieve for his mother.

The number of times they showed Wills running into Kate on campus were starting to get a bit much. I’m not sure what the point of this was. 

[baileythedog]

1 hour ago, Johnny Dollar said:

Did the family really allow the boys to have use of a cottage on the property for parties featuring so much underaged drinking that someone could die of alcohol poisoning? Don’t they have bodyguards with them at all times? Good thing cellphone cameras weren’t yet a thing back then.

it seems like Harry’s complaints about essentially being the inconsequential spare are well represented in this episode. The poor kid wasn’t even allowed to grieve for his mother.

The number of times they showed Wills running into Kate on campus were starting to get a bit much. I’m not sure what the point of this was. 

I'm not sure exactly how old they're supposed to be at that point---16 and 18?  If so, that isn't underaged drinking in the UK. 

[Salacious Kitty]

22 minutes ago, baileythedog said:

I'm not sure exactly how old they're supposed to be at that point---16 and 18?  If so, that isn't underaged drinking in the UK. 

Elizabeth was 19 on VE Day. Margaret was 4 years younger.

[baileythedog]

19 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Elizabeth was 19 on VE Day. Margaret was 4 years younger.

Ah yes, but I think this is about William and Harry's age at this point in the story.  Since it's Alma Mater that implies William is at least 18.  And I assume Harry is supposed to be 16 then.  (I think that's their age gap?)

[CeeBeeGee]

On 12/14/2023 at 9:21 PM, dubbel zout said:

LOL that Lola and Kate end up as temporary allies because William was being a jerk. I enjoyed that.

That was a cool moment, especially because Lola (a fictional character, I looked it up) hadn't impressed me so far.

 

On 12/14/2023 at 10:55 PM, peridot said:

I don't get what's so bad about William snapping at the girl who asked for an autograph in the middle of a tense discussion.  Can't she read the room?  It seemed that Lola and Kate downplayed his experience in being in the spotlight all the time.  No matter how hot you are, people from around the world aren't inundating them all the time.

SAME. Constantly being asked for his autograph--which, actually, I think protocol says he's not supposed to do (or pose in selfies with fans)--had to have been incredibly annoying.

Overall, kind of dull.

 

[sistermagpie]

On 12/14/2023 at 4:15 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Mohammed Al-Fayed tries to get his son to marry Diana, the show portrays him as a gold-digging asshole that got Diana killed. So Carole tries to match her child off with royalty, but since she’s a nice white lady, the show portrays her as the kind of meddling albeit loving mother from a Jane Austen novel.

If so, it didn't work on me, because it made the whole thing totally creepy. Kate included.

 

On 12/14/2023 at 9:21 PM, dubbel zout said:

Kate's parents were loaded, so why did she have a job at a restaurant?

That was so annoying. Oh, poor Kate the little waitress who can't have the prince because only the rich girls get that. Kate is just stuck with being totally rich and beautiful so William actually much prefers her to the easy, not that pretty posh girl who threw herself at him. He literally started pining for her the second he got to school but has to get in line behind everyone else. So disadvantaged, that Kate!

They're a boring couple IRL and on the show, imo. Not a great well to draw from here.

On 12/14/2023 at 10:55 PM, peridot said:

I don't get what's so bad about William snapping at the girl who asked for an autograph in the middle of a tense discussion.  Can't she read the room?  It seemed that Lola and Kate downplayed his experience in being in the spotlight all the time.  No matter how hot you are, people from around the world aren't inundating them all the time.

Exactly. And don't tell me that Lola character wouldn't have loved snapping at girls like that on his behalf just to show she was in the inner circle. The way she was written she would have totally done that. And no, being a woman is not the same as being Diana or even her son at this point in his life. Especially weird coming from a woman whose mother has apparently engineered most of her life to make her a more successful version of that autograph girl.

7 hours ago, baileythedog said:

Ah yes, but I think this is about William and Harry's age at this point in the story.  Since it's Alma Mater that implies William is at least 18.  And I assume Harry is supposed to be 16 then.  (I think that's their age gap?)

He took a gap year and he's been at school for a semester so at most 20/18 but maybe 19/17?

[Marley]

Season 6 is just so boring. This show was so good in the beginning.

I feel like nothing is happening. They couldn’t have done any better with the Will and Kate story? Seems like all William does is sulk.

Kate’s mom is just meh. 

Harry is annoying as hell. They aren’t doing any better with his character. His and William’s interactions are annoying to me. He comes off so cliche I guess.

This episode kind of felt like it was 5 hours long it was so boring.

Dominic West is still a failure as Charles for me too.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Marley

[Soapy Goddess]

On 12/15/2023 at 7:04 PM, Avaleigh said:

I didn't get the line either where Harry tells William to stop being a frigid weirdo. I get that Harry was joking, but William didn't have an issue forming relationships with girls, so it didn’t make sense to me.

I took it to mean 'stop sulking and get laid' (with anyone...relationships aside).

[benteen]

One of the worst episodes of The Crown. We have Carole "DANCE, PUPPETS, DANCE!" Middleton as the manipulative scheming parent in a portrayal that did no one any favors. We have a truly bizarre scene of Kate and Pretend Lola getting upset at William snapping at an autograph seeker and guilting him about it when he clearly wasn't wrong to do so. To me, the real low point was the show outright making up a scene where Kate actually MEETS Diana. I can defend the "Ghost Diana" fantasy scenes in Episode 4 and could have actually seen them do a scene of Kate seeing Diana from a distance on the streets of London. But this was an absolutely embarrassing scene from a show that does not have to rely on making up such crap.

This episode is right up there with the JFK episode in terms of crap, an episode where they portray JFK, a confident man whose father was the Ambassador to the Court of St. James and who lived in England for a time and had actually met Elizabeth once, as bumbling and completely out of his depth socially when visiting the palace as president. 

Edited December 17, 2023 by benteen

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 hours ago, benteen said:

To me, the real low point was the show outright making up a scene where Kate actually MEETS Diana. I can defend the "Ghost Diana" fantasy scenes in Episode 4 and could have actually seen them do a scene of Kate seeing Diana from a distance on the streets of London. But this was an absolutely embarrassing scene from a show that does not have to rely on making up such crap.

This episode is right up there with the JFK episode in terms of crap, an episode where they portray JFK, a confident man whose father was the Ambassador to the Court of St. James and who lived in England for a time and had actually met Elizabeth once, as bumbling and completely out of his depth socially when visiting the palace as president. 

 

 

And I couldn’t see the actress playing Kate without seeing Katie Holmes-someone I can’t stand.

And the actor playing Harry looks like a serial killer.

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

And I couldn’t see the actress playing Kate without seeing Katie Holmes-someone I can’t stand.

THANK YOU!!!

 

[CAM]

All I could think of while watching this episode was Lifetime did it better in regards to Will and Kate.  Not something I ever thought I would say in relation to The Crown.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

I loved all the exteriors of St. Andrews.  'Tis a magical place.  It is literally, "The Home of Golf."

[kittykat]

I miss the Crown that had the palace vs current events like we got in the last episode.  That was when the show was always the strongest.  I don't need boring, mopey William. 

And spare me the machinations of Carole Middleton.  Really!  Yeah I was incredibly annoyed with this episode.  Tons of shit was going down at the turn of the millennium let's see how it unfolds through the eyes of the queen please.

[Roseanna]

On 12/17/2023 at 9:06 AM, benteen said:

We have a truly bizarre scene of Kate and Pretend Lola getting upset at William snapping at an autograph seeker and guilting him about it when he clearly wasn't wrong to do so. 

William was IMO wrong to snap although it was human. Royals and celebs must always behave well even towards impolite people because if they don't, it can be told to tabloids.  

Continueing:

Actually, Kate and William's current girlfriend's comparision with what girls have to endure not so long ago wasn't so bad. I mean, what if they behaved like William when some man interrupts their speech, invades their company, makes intimate comments about their body, makes a pass uninvited? They would always behave so they don't hurt that poor man's feelings - if they snapped, they would be called worse names than being rude.  

[Macbeth1966]

Is the episode over?

Oh good it's over.  Took a nice nap.

[RunningMarket]

This episode was a fan-fic CW teen drama. What an absolute waste. The less said about the aging up of Harry, the better.

[shafted]

This was one of the worst hours of TV I've watched in awhile, not just of The Crown but of TV. The start of Kate and William's relationship probably was pretty dull in reality and doesn't lend itself well to an entire episode of a drama without a lot of dramatic license. But how PM chose to exercise his dramatic license to make it seem more interesting and eventful was embarrassing.

 

 

 

[Bcharmer]

On 12/17/2023 at 9:53 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

And I couldn’t see the actress playing Kate without seeing Katie Holmes-someone I can’t stand.

Ditto! 

16 hours ago, kittykat said:

 

And spare me the machinations of Carole Middleton.  

Agree about the character... but I do love Eve Best, so I'm always happy to see her. I became a fan because of Nurse Jackie.

[Blakeston]

I still can't get over how weird the library scene was. It has to be the worst-written scene in the entire series. Maybe they wanted to show William making an ass of himself, but they couldn't bring themselves to actually depict him that way? Instead they ended up making the women look bad.

I guess that Lola's behavior could be explained by her being angry about him flirting, and looking for any excuse to lash out. But Kate being so bent out of shape was just odd.

And no, being a woman in modern society is not the same as being stalked by paparazzi and trashed in the press, and being forced to walk two miles behind your mother's coffin as a chilid in front of crowds of thousands. There was a point that could have been made about societal expectations of women, but that was not the way to make it.

Another odd aspect of the epsode - are we supposed to believe that Kate never talked to her mother before about being sent to all of the places William was going? She just switched from Edinburgh to St. Andrews, took a gap year, went to Chile and Italy, and never made any comments to her mother (such as "why are you pushing me to stalk Prince William?") until she was well into her first year of college?

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 12/14/2023 at 9:21 PM, dubbel zout said:

LOL that Lola and Kate end up as temporary allies because William was being a jerk. I enjoyed that.

Lola was played by Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton's daughter.

On 12/14/2023 at 11:25 PM, Brn2bwild said:

Pippa and James Middleton don't appear to exist.

Kate hugged them when she came in the door with Rupert, and they were shown playing games after dinner.  James was quite young.

[PRgal]

Whoa, that dorm drop-off scene was awkward.  But Charles probably IS awkward in real life, so I didn't have trouble believing it.

[tennisgurl]

And enter Kate! I am not loving this whole "Carole Middleton was the puppet master behind their whole relationship" plot, it feels like a really lame way to add drama to what seems like it was a pretty normal "we met in college and hit it off" love story. Why is this show so in love with pushy manipulative parents pimping their kids out to royalty? This isn't the 11th century anymore! The episode overall was pretty dull, the shows version of William is so boring, which is to too bad because I liked the kid version of him a lot. He just seems to react to everything and be a pawn to other peoples machinations when he isn't smiling to crowds or being sad in private, a lot like how they portrayed his mom. 

Carole's whole plan seems like a real leap if it was all to put Kate and William together, apparently assuming that Kate would inevitably stand out in a college with tons of women, and did Kate never think to bring up "hey mom, why are you insisting that I stalk Prince William?" at any point as she kept changing her daughters plans left and right? I was expecting to see a bit more Pippa to be honest and not just a quick glimpse. 

The scenes between Harry and William were probably the best parts, even if a lot of them still felt pretty off, Harry's dialogue felt really weird at times. I feel bad that he feels like he's been slotted as the "bad kid" who's being scared straight at a rehab at the ripe old age of sixteen.

If they wanted to set up a scene where William is a jerk and needs to ask for Kate's forgiveness, they really should have staged that better. Make it so the two of them had already been hanging out for awhile, giving William more of a reason to be so upset about looking rude in front of her, and have him be more unjustifiably rude to someone. I know that famous people pretty much always have to be nice to everyone they meet so they don't get a bad reputation, but I thought that William snapping at the girl was pretty understandable considering she was interrupting him in the middle of what is clearly an intense conversation. And yes, being a super famous public figure since birth who's movements are natural news is quite different than being a normal woman walking down the street.

[chediavolo]

On 12/14/2023 at 11:24 PM, Demian said:

I went to college with a bunch of richies whose parents made them take part-time jobs to pay for fraternity/sorority expenses, or books, or clothes they wanted but didn't need.  Maybe it was something like that?

A lot of these richies  think this one excursion into acting like people who have to work at menial jobs for a living, will make up for a lifetime of privilege & inherited wealth. 😡

[Sweet-tea]

On 12/18/2023 at 11:15 AM, shafted said:

This was one of the worst hours of TV I've watched in awhile, not just of The Crown but of TV. The start of Kate and William's relationship probably was pretty dull in reality and doesn't lend itself well to an entire episode of a drama without a lot of dramatic license. But how PM chose to exercise his dramatic license to make it seem more interesting and eventful was embarrassing.

 

 

 

I've watched every season of this show. This episode is one of the dullest I've seen. I had to work to focus on it. I failed and was on my PC throughout. 

I don't like the actor playing Harry. He looks much older than the teenager (16 or 17?) he is supposed to replaying, and his bad haircut drives me crazy. 

I also don't like the storyline that Kate went after William due to pressure from her mother. 

[MamaMax]

On 12/18/2023 at 11:40 AM, RunningMarket said:

This episode was a fan-fic CW teen drama. What an absolute waste. The less said about the aging up of Harry, the better.

He looks more like Scut Farkus from a Christmas Story than realHarry. 

 

Or, alternately, the Evil, Unmentioned Weasley sibling 

[Quickbeam]

I know she’s a peripheral character at best but the actor playing the queen mum is so completely wrong for the role. Too tall, too thin. Every time she appears I have to work hard to remember who she’s playing. Overall, I found this episode boring and trite. 

[jschoolgirl]

On 3/6/2024 at 11:47 AM, Quickbeam said:

I know she’s a peripheral character at best but the actor playing the queen mum is so completely wrong for the role. Too tall, too thin. Every time she appears I have to work hard to remember who she’s playing. Overall, I found this episode boring and trite. 

It would have been better to have aged Marion Davies.