It’s been two years since The Crown Season 4 came out. Much has happened since then, including the passing of the series' main monarch IRL. With a new cast and a new decade to explore, here is the Season 4 recap you need before heading into Season 5.

Queen Elizabeth II

The 1980s started with a fairytale wedding, but Princess Diana's innocence proved as confounding as Margaret Thatcher's political savvy. Liz II's other children’s marriages also worried her. Add a break-in and a Commonwealth calamity, and it was a rough decade.

Prince Philip

A woman prime minister unsettled Philip, but his big concern was trying and failing to coach Diana to grow into the monarchy’s forever plus-one. On the upside, he was comedy gold in his responses to Thatcher.

Princess Margaret

After her marriage ended, Margaret warned her sister that Charles and Diana wouldn’t work. After trying therapy after her first cancer surgery, she learned several family members were institutionalized and she worried she would lose her mental stability someday.

Prince Charles

After his father figure, Lord Mountbatten, was murdered by the IRA, Charles married in haste, leaving Camilla for Diana. But it didn’t take long for Camilla to become his mistress, with Diana eclipsing them both in the press.

Princess Diana

Poor 19-year-old Diana had no idea, when Charles plucked her from obscurity and married her, that it was all a sham. She internally fell apart while publicly rising to global fame and Charles lived with the mistress he loved as their marriage became a mess.

Camilla Parker-Bowles

Camilla tried to be a supportive friend to Charles when he decided he had to marry a young 19-year-old Diana, but she couldn’t control her jealousy. When the marriage began to implode, she quickly fell back in with Charles, agreeing to be his mistress.

Princess Anne

Though her marriage was not as publicly as disastrous, Anne too was miserable. At least she had Philip to shoulder her burdens while her mother failed to understand her any better than Charles.

Princes Andrew & Edward

The younger princes finally came of age. Andrew graduated and married Sarah Ferguson, while Edward was badly bullied at school. Liz also realized Andrew was her fav, even as he showed appalling judgment in his choice of friends and dinner conversations.

Margaret Thatcher

The Iron Lady was prime minister for a decade under Liz II; the two women disagreed greatly about handling the country. Thatcher wrote Liz off as a worthless, powerless woman. But Thatcher fell from power, and Liz remained, so who was really the wiser?

The Crown Season 5 debuts on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022, with 10 episodes.