Claire Foy and Olivia Colman Surprise Return in ‘The Crown’ Finale to Haunt and Bully Imelda Staunton’s Queen Elizabeth

The threat was always there. Because Netflix‘s The Crown had very purposefully recast Queen Elizabeth II and her contemporaries every two seasons, there was always a chance that creator Peter Morgan would yoke past Lilibets Claire Foy and Olivia Colman into the finale. Imelda Staunton’s aging version of QEII could very well be harangued by visions of her younger selves. You know, just to tie the whole series up with a neat, tidy bow. Well, the cat is out of the bag. Netflix has spoiled the surprise with the release of an official hi-res still. The Crown Season 6 Episode 10 “Sleep, Dearie, Sleep” ends with all three Elizabeths gathered in the same frame Spiderman: No Way Home-style. The evil they’ve united to face down? The monarchy’s own inevitable downfall.

Viral photo aside, the return of Claire Foy’s young Queen Elizabeth II and Olivia Colman’s middle-aged monarch to The Crown lends an air of tragedy to the show’s final episode. Before this showy final sequence, the ghosts of Elizabeths past visit Staunton’s queen to basically bully her, badger her, and give her some much-needed tough love. Foy and Colman’s scenes also underscore how the character of Elizabeth II has evolved over the course of The Crown‘s six year run from bright young thing to a tired public servant embracing her own twilight. Claire Foy and Olivia Colman’s final Crown appearances are way more than just a marketing moment…

**Spoilers for The Crown Season 6 Part 2, now streaming on Netflix**

The Crown Season 6 Episode 10 is titled “Sleep, Dearie, Sleep,” a reference to a Scottish bagpipe lament the Queen chooses for her own funeral. Indeed, the entire episode is devoted to Elizabeth II grappling with what comes after she dies. There’s the logistics of a royal funeral to plan, but also the realization that, yeah, it probably would be tidier to let her son and heir, Prince Charles (Dominic West), marry his long-time mistress Camilla Parker-Bowles (Olivia Williams) as opposed to making a monarch live in sin. There’s also tensions brewing amongst younger heirs Prince William (Ed McVery), who is easily acquiescing to his role within the institution, and Prince Harry (Luther Ford), who stupidly dons a Nazi costume to a party in a futile, childish act of rebellion.

After giving Charles and Camilla permission to marry, Queen Elizabeth II is visited by one of the only people in her life who will speak to truth out loud: herself. Olivia Colman’s version of the monarch appears mucking out the royal stables, telling her now nearly 80-year-old self that maybe it’s time to retire. “You coward,” Colman’s no-nonsense Lizzie says. “Why didn’t you tell [Philip]?”

“How tired…no, not just tired, exhausted you are by it all…How ready for a rest. And how, at the same time, how ready he suddenly looks.”

Colman’s Queen Elizabeth II suggests to Staunton’s that the obvious move is to retire from the monarchy, handing the reins over to the fifty-something Charles. It’s a logical move. After all, if the Queen were a private citizen, she’d be long in her retirement years. However, there’s also something dramatically wonderful about this coming from Olivia Colman’s iteration of the monarch. Fans of The Crown will remember that her Elizabeth II often pined for a normal life where she could just breed horses and enjoy the countryside. This is the part of Elizabeth II yearning for a private life… Of course, as Peter Morgan’s script reminds us, this is not the totality of The Crown‘s Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen Elizabeth II remains mum on her plans, but does tease that she will be giving a self-penned speech at Charles’s wedding reception. Tongues wag amongst royal circles that she is giving Charles his dream wedding gift: the titular crown. The Crown even shows us glimpses of the speech to confirm this. However, then Staunton’s Elizabeth II is visited by the show’s first major star: Claire Foy’s young, poised, and resolved Queen.

The youngest version of Elizabeth II is the one who had to deny those closest what they wanted for the sake of the monarchy. She had to separate Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby) from her beloved Peter Townsend (Ben Miles) and forced her proud Prince Philip (Matt Smith) to bow before her in front of the world. She is the one who took her grandmother Queen Mary’s (Eileen Atkins) words to heart and she is the one reminding her older self of the sanctity of the office.

When that’s not enough, the younger version of Queen Elizabeth II voices her elder self’s secret doubts about her heirs. “You sometimes think there’s a difference between you and the rest of the family.”

After a pregnant pause, Staunton’s queen admits, “Yes.”

“It comes naturally to you,” Foy says. “They all seem to make such a mess of it.”

“I didn’t say that,” Staunton protests.

“No, but you’ve thought it, privately,” the young queen says, articulating the sentiment that will keep Elizabeth II on the throne and that will end The Crown‘s six year run: the success of the monarchy rests in her special ability to be a natural ruler. Anyone else on the throne is a danger to its longevity.

Staunton’s Elizabeth expresses one last pang of regret for the woman she had to leave behind to embody the bulletproof monarch. Foy’s version corrects this assumption by saying for years now there’s only been one Elizabeth — Queen Elizabeth. “If you went looking for Elizabeth Windsor,” Foy says, referring to the blushing princess we met in The Crown‘s earliest episodes, “you wouldn’t find her.”

With that, the 2005 version of Queen Elizabeth II crosses out a few choice lines from her speech. She will stay on the throne until her death, which we know will come in 2022. The Crown doesn’t depict this, but hints at it strongly with an otherworldly farewell to Elizabeth II and the whole series.

The final sequence of The Crown starts with Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce) confronting his wife with the same sentiments as Foy’s young queen.

“Those that come after you are not remotely ready to take over…You were born ready. You are one of a kind. By contrast, this lot…Mmm?” he says, looking back at their children and grandchildren partying in the reception hall.

After a few more choice words, Philip leaves his wife to pray a bit longer. That’s when Colman and Foy’s Elizabeths return, dressed in black mourning. Even the teenaged Elizabeth (Viola Prettejohn) appears to salute her future self. As the music swells, light baths the monarch as she takes the long walk out of the church and towards the inevitable: the end.

So, sure, Colman and Foy look a little silly flanking Staunton out of context. Actually, in context, it’s still a bit over the top. It’s a melodramatic send off to not just a television show, but an historic figure who defined the last century. One who kept a rickety old institution together against the violently shifting sands of modernity.

By looking backwards, The Crown series finale emphasizes the challenges facing the British monarchy going forwards. Namely, how can royal tradition survive without its strongest representative? Queen Elizabeth II