‘The Crown’ Season 6 Features the Ghosts of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, and It Sure Is a Choice

What's a show to do when so many things were left unsaid between a recently dead princess and her former husband and mother-in-law? The Crown went a tad supernatural in its final season as Princess Diana paid visits to both Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II in the days after her death. Her companion Dodi Fayed, who also died in the car accident, also appeared as a ghost to his father, Mohamed Al-Fayed. And if you thought it was fascinating to watch the imagined scenes between living people on this show, wait til you see how a conversation plays out between a living person and a ghost.

Ghost Diana Visits Charles

Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) first appears to Charles (Dominic West) on the plane from Paris to Scotland, after he identifies and collects her body from a Parisian hospital.

"It was ever thus," Charles says to the ghost. "You were always the most beloved of all of us."

"Thank you for how you were in the hospital," she says. "So raw, broken. And handsome. I'll take that with me."

Both of them weep in teary silence, and ghost Diana's mascara runs down her cheeks.

"You know, I loved you so much," she says. "So deeply. But so painfully, too. Well, it's over now. Be easier for everyone with me gone." 

"No, it won't," Charles says. 

"It will," she says. "Admit it, you've had that thought already." 

"The only thought I've had since the moment I heard is regret," he says. 

"That will pass," she tells him, and then she's gone.

Ghost Dodi Visits Mohamed

While the palace conversations are all about Diana, Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw) sits and wonders why the royal family won't acknowledge that he also has lost a son.

Ghost Dodi (Khalid Abdalla) then appears to tell his father not to take it personally and not to "look up to the West."

"But across the Arab world, in Cairo, Beirut, Baghdad, they are calling me a hero," Ghost Dodi assures his dad, who then asks if he had been unfair to his son. They apologize to each other for their failings, and Dodi asks his father to tell his truth, "because wounds will only heal with the truth."

Ghost Diana Visits Elizabeth

A few scenes later, she appears to Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) after many discussions and arguments about how the family should respond to the death. Should they grieve publicly in London, or grieve privately in Scotland? Should Diana be treated like the public figure she was when she was married to Charles, or like the private citizen she became after the divorce? 

As the queen sits alone with TV news reports, ghost Diana takes her hand. 

"I hope you're happy now," Elizabeth says to the ghost. "You've finally succeeded in turning me and this house upside down." 

"That was never my intention," Diana says. 

"Please," says the queen with a scoff, staring at news reports of mourning crowds. "Look at what you've started. It's nothing less than revolution." 

"It didn't need to be," says the ghost. "But by making an enemy of me — not of me, personally, but of what I stand for — it starts to look like one. They're trying to show you who they are, what they feel, what they need. And I know that must be terrifying, but it needn't be. For as long as anyone can remember, you've taught us what it means to be British. Maybe it's time to show you're ready to learn, too."

The queen switches off the TV and the ghost disappears, while our questions remain: Did the queen and Charles really experience a ghostly apparition after Diana died? How would they feel about such scenes? How does one summon the late princess to share worldly wisdom? 

Last month, creator Peter Morgan defended the ghostly choice after facing some backlash over a leaked scene. 

"I never imagined it as Diana's 'ghost' in the traditional sense," he told Variety. "It was her continuing to live vividly in the minds of those she has left behind. Diana was unique, and I suppose that's what inspired me to find a unique way of representing her. She deserved special treatment narratively." 

That does explain why the ghost was so complimentary of Charles and his "raw, broken, handsome" appearance at the Paris hospital. Clearly that was the performance the future king was going for. 

The Crown concludes its final season when the last six episodes drop on Dec. 14.