The queen’s “dangerous little sister” Margaret goes on a whirlwind tour of America and has a dirty limerick contest with President Lyndon B. Johnson! Also, we get some charming flashback scenes of the two women as children.

The queen and Margaret are in highly similar brown dresses in the opening flashback sequence. They also both wear a string of pearls as children, which will end up being a recurring theme throughout the episode. Both women wear pearls in almost every single scene in the episode, which signals their enduring connection as sisters.

The queen’s blue outfit in the next scene has a brown fur collar, which appears to call back to her outfit as a child. The queen, Margaret, and Tony are all wearing blue in this scene (right as Margaret and Tony are about to board a blue commercial plane). Margaret’s blue is the brightest and most fashionable, in a gorgeous floral hat, naturally. She is also wearing an olive green coat. Tony is wearing a red tie with his blue suit. In green and red, they are literally wearing contrasting colors; they’re connected by the blue, symbolizing the work they’re doing for the crown, but are otherwise on totally different wavelengths.

When Harold Wilson is going to Buckingham palace to see the queen, he’s shot in a way that makes him look small and insignificant compared to all the grandeur. This emphasizes his non-noble background and down to earth point of view as he asks the queen to “really roll out the red carpet” to persuade the Americans to give them a loan.

In the media montage that compares Margaret to the queen by saying that it’s like “going from a black and white film to one in color,” the show literally switches from an almost technicolor bright scene of Margaret wearing a bright blue dress against a bright red airplane scene to three men in black and white suits talking to the queen in a very dim and grey palace. The queen is wearing a pink skirt suit and pearls in this scene.

When they arrive in America, Margaret wears a bright light blue dress with a pink and white scarf. Her white shoes, decorated with multi-colored bright beads, are emphasized. Margaret is later seen in two different green dresses and a bright pink dress (she also poses in very little of anything as she poses nude in a bubble bath wearing a crown, which actually happened, and may also be a call back to the Season 2 episode in which she sent out a birthday portrait of herself looking nude). She is very notably not spending much time with her husband in these scenes; he is usually in a corner smoking or signaling her to leave and she’s always surrounded by people, laughing, smoking and talking loudly, dancing, posing for pictures, etc.

During her argument scene with Tony, Margaret’s wearing a green dress in multiple tones and metallics, and bright purple/pink shoes. The metallics were very in in the sixties, but this and the purple shoes could also be a subtle reference to her princess status. The clashing shoes and dress also indicate Margaret’s individualistic style.

Throughout this episode, Margaret and Tony are almost always presented on different planes, except when they’re actively moving from one location to another. When Tony is sitting, Margaret is standing. When Margaret is lying down while sick, tony is first sitting and reading the magazines, and then standing over her to kiss her before going off to “sing for their supper.” Even when on the plane to the White House, Tony is sitting while Margaret is slightly elevated. This shooting makes it clear that this is not a couple in sync.

In contrast, every time Elizabeth and Philip are shown, they operate on the same plane. They’re both sitting comfortably in their house robes while talking about Margaret at the white house; they’re both standing while discussing Margaret’s proposal at the end. Their relationship troubles depicted in the first two seasons seem to have come to an end; they are a pair united.

Johnson is always shot in a way that makes him look like a large dark silhouette taking over whatever scene he’s in, While cursing at the ambassador, while looming over his military officials, while urinating and yelling at his press secretary. Like most American historical figures in the Crown, he’s presented more as a caricature rather than a person, as he strives to come out from beneath JFK’s shadow.

Johnson is presented here as something of an ass, but underneath his bluster and fears is a good deal of truth. His frustration with Kennedy’s legacy is real - Kennedy was really held up as a martyr and a great statesman after his death, even when we know from his appearance in season 2 that he wasn’t anything of the kind. And Johnson is right in that the prime minister and the queen really could rely on each other in diplomacy, while Johnson cannot; he is the head of state and the chief executive and has to play both roles, no matter how much he might hate it. Fun fact: The scene where Johnson is talking to his press secretary (?) while urinating is pretty accurate; Johnson was pretty famous for conducting meetings while using the restroom. All of Johnson’s blunt talk is a pretty good indication that he and Margaret will get along really well; she similarly has a habit of speaking harsh truths and saying things that may offend, but also makes one think.

Johnson specifically states that if he went hunting with the royals in Balmoral, he would likely make a fool of himself, while JFK would have known exactly what to do. This is really interesting, because in their season two episode, JFK and Jackie definitely made several very obvious protocol errors immediately upon meeting the royals and both were clearly embarrassed by it. Kennedy’s legacy has grown beyond who he really was, and Johnson feels intimidated by that.

Tony seems to blend in wherever he is – wearing a classic tux in LA and at the white house and a jeans and tan shirt in Arizona. This is in sharp contrast to Margaret, who stands out pretty obviously wherever she goes. In Arizona, she arrives in a brown fur coat (over a dress that can’t quite be seen but appears to be a green and white print) and a bright blue scarf, which may be a reference to Arizona (all that brown and turquoise). When she’s in bed sick, she’s still wearing her hair in a fabulous updo and smoking and wearing a dainty olive green slip, naturally.

Throughout the episode, the queen and Margaret are dressed in similar colors, constantly wearing pearl necklaces to illustrate their connections, but Margaret generally wears brighter and bolder colors and styles compared to the queen’s pastel blues and pinks and prim silhouettes. Occasionally though, they are dressed in more complementary styles to indicate an attempt at connection. When the queen calls Margaret to ask her to go to the dinner, she is in a yellow floral shirt which, while still very sensible, is one of the brightest and most Margaret-like things she wears in the episode. Margaret, on the other end of the line, is still in her olive slip and fancy updo, smoking a cigarette as she tells the queen she won’t do it.

Isn’t it interesting how Margaret is so often shown in bed, smoking, ignoring any royal responsibilities? The real Margaret apparently was a great lover of sleep during the day and during her American tour, she skipped out on at least one private luncheon thrown in her honor in order to go nap instead.

When Margaret agrees to go to the dinner, she boards the plane there in a white fluffy hat, a light pink dress/skirt suit with contrasting black florals on it, and light blue shoes. Basically, she’s putting on the royal uniform of light pink and light blue, but she’s going to do it her own way. This scene is interspersed with one of the queen writing the letter to Margaret; there, the queen is also wearing a floral, although it’s a more subtle pink and white collared shirt than Margaret’s outfit.

The queen has some wonderful lines in this episode:

The queen cuts off one of her private secretaries’ discussion of all the praise Margaret has been receiving in America by standing up and walking away, noting “I’m a queen, not a saint.”

When the prime minister says the white house dinner must be dealt with in the utmost delicacy, she asks incredulously, “So you want to send princess Margaret?” She also notes matter-of-factly in this conversation that LBJ’s invite to Margaret is “cunning,” which illustrates a growing ease with her role as queen.