This post (The Crown season 6 episode 3 recap) contains spoilers.
The third episode of this final series is almost entirely devoted to Diana and Dodi, as we follow them from a jewelry shop in Monte Carlo to Paris, and get a vivid taste of the media spotlight they were under.
Yet it's Mohamed Al-Fayed who's the real villain of this final tale and the pressure he puts on his son Dodi is not only suffocating but eventually the reason the couple took their doomed detour to Paris.
Here's our recap of what happened in The Crown season 6 episode 2...
'Is this really taking care of yourself?'
Diana is on the phone to her therapist, telling her about the never-ending stream of over-the-top romantic gestures Dodi is flinging her way, just hours after returning from LA where he’s been dealing with the break-up of his engagement. Her therapist wonders if her whirlwind romance is healthy for Diana and mentions how they’d been trying to address her “addiction to drama”. The call ends with Diana saying she’ll return to the UK as soon as possible.
Elsewhere Mohamed Al-Fayed is browbeating his son and pressuring him to tie the knot with his new beau, promising to make him a partner in his company if he does — an offer he’s never extended before. He's being wildly optimistic though, after all it’s only been a few weeks. Love takes time Moo Moo!
Later on, Dodi persuades Diana to come to Monte Carlo for shopping and ice cream, but as soon as they arrive on the mainland it’s clear that even in the millionaire’s playground of Monaco, the pair can still start a media storm.
Meanwhile, up at Balmoral Princess Anne suggests that Prince William be taken out hunting as he’s looking “a little forlorn” and that shooting a stag might cheer him up a bit. After all, his father killed his first sentient being at the age of 14, so 15-year-old William is “long overdue”. He manages to bag one and as it’s his first, he’s "blooded — a ritual in which the dead animal’s blood is smeared on his face. Nice!
'Take her to Paris...'
As Diana settles down with her ice cream, Dodi apologizes for the situation with his former fiancé, Kelly Fisher, who’s now suing him. It turns out Dodi told her to quit work and then ditched her — which would be quite annoying — although we’re sure she’ll make a few quid on a book deal.
They also discuss the prejudice and lies printed by the British press and discuss getting away from it all and starting a new life in California, or somewhere they can “actually be free”. It’s something her son Harry actually went through with over two decades later of course!
However it’s not long before they’re spotted by tourists and scarper to a jewelry store (we bet they’re everywhere in Monte Carlo) where Diana mentions that she likes a gold ring from a range called ‘Dis-Moi Oui’ — or “Say yes to me”, before the pair escape from a rear exit.
Back on Jonikal, Diana reveals that she’s flying home to London tomorrow on a “BA Flight”, as the boys will also be coming home soon. Dodi says he won’t hear of it and tells her to take their jet, although he says he needs to stop off in Paris as there’s something he needs to do. Later that night, he tells his delighted father that he’s buying Diana a ring. Mohammed says he’s never been prouder of his son.
'A perfect little house, waiting for the perfect couple'
When they arrive in Paris the paparazzi are out in force, but things get even worse when their plans to head to Dodi’s apartment are overridden by his father’s orders to take Diana to Villa Windsor.
The estate, which was previously the home of Edward VIII — who became the Duke of Windsor after he abdicated the throne in 1936 — and Wallis Simpson, now belongs to Mohamed Al-Fayed. It's yet another sign of how much he craves a place at the top table of the British establishment. Yet this detour (which is a detour within a detour) is simply irritating Diana and not laying good foundations for Dodi's planned proposal later on. Eeeek!
Diana politely takes Mohamed's call at Villa Windsor, where he says he’d love to see her living with his son, yet it’s clear all she really cares about is talking to her two boys and that Moo Moo needs to butt out. That detour looks even more foolish when their car runs into traffic in Paris, they’re surrounded by photographers and Diana misses her call with her sons, who’ve presumably gone out shooting.
‘Are you going to marry Dodi?’
When Diana finally gets to chat to her boys, Prince William asks his mum if she’s going to marry Dodi, to which she replies that she “emphatically” won’t be... Yet Dodi clearly has other ideas and asks his butler to bring roses to his apartment, as everything needs to be perfect later on.
The couple then head to dinner at a restaurant, before changing their plans to eat at The Ritz restaurant and then eventually deciding to eat in privacy upstairs. It’s a sequence that certainly gives us a flavour of the kind of attention Diana and Dodi had to deal with in their final days.
When they finally get away from the crowds, Dodi puts on an Enrique Iglesias CD, gets the ring from Monte Carlo out and goes down on one knee. But Diana stops him before he can actually pop the question, begs him to get up and says they need to talk urgently.
She tells him how much fun she’s had this summer, but that neither of them are in the right place to get married. “I can’t make your father love you any more by becoming your wife,” says Diana. Dodi thinks she can, but that’s neither here nor there.
After dinner they start discussing Moo Moo and how he rules Dodi’s life, when he calls to ask how his son’s big night went. Dodi says he did propose, before launching into a rant about how his father needs to stay out of his life. It’s merely for show however, as he put the phone down a few seconds into the conversation.
Imagine his embarrassment if his old man had called him back and the phone had started ringing during his pretend speech. That would have been awks!
'Where do you want to stay tonight?'
The couple then decide to stay the night at Dodi's apartment, before hatching a plan to send a decoy car from the front to distract the paparazzi, while they leave from a back exit. Meanwhile, their driver Henri Paul is at the bar knocking back cocktails when a member of staff tells him he’ll need to drive the couple across Paris.
As they wait in the staff corridor before leaving, Dodi confesses the truth about the phone call with his father, with Diana admitting that she already knew that was the case and that she has faith he’ll find the courage to tell him soon.
But we know he’ll never get that chance and that his father will always believe his son and the Princess were engaged to be married...
