Ricky Martin, Kristen Wiig reveal this about ‘Palm Royale’ Season 2
“Palm Royale” actors Ricky Martin and Kristen Wiig chat with USA TODAY’s Erin Jensen about the twists and turns of Season 2.
- The soapy twists and turns are in full force as the ladies of “Palm Royale” prepare to leave Switzerland and return to Palm Beach.
- Linda learns who her true mother is, as Norma reveals that her intentions may be more pure than we believed.
- Maxine finds out that Douglas has a congenital heart condition – but what does this mean for the baby?
Welcome back to the Shiny Sheet’s recap of “Palm Royale,” our rundown of the hit Apple TV+ series set in Palm Beach.
Each week, we look at a few Palm Beach-related or key moments in that week’s episode of the series, which is now in its second season.
This week is Episode Nine, “Maxine Hears a Confession.” The Apple TV+ description for this episode says, “Amid a raging snowstorm in the Alps, Norma orchestrates plans to secure the fortune for herself and Robert. Maxine races to expose her.”
Watch out: There are spoilers ahead, so if you don’t want to know, stop reading right now and come back after you’ve watched.
Could Norma (Carol Burnett) have had good intentions all along?
That’s the big question being asked in this episode, as secrets we didn’t even know were being kept, are revealed.
First, a refresher on Episode Eight: The ladies of Palm Beach traveled to Switzerland. There, Maxine (Kristen Wiig) hoped to find Norma while also securing the $82 million baby trust. Two heroic Swedish air hostesses went to find Linda (Laura Dern) so she can release the money in that trust. But Norma is scheming to marry Mitzi (Kaia Gerber) and Robert (Ricky Martin) after convincing Mitzi to annul her marriage from Douglas (Josh Lucas). Douglas collapsed after drinking schnapps given to him by Lotte (Vicki Lawrence), who we learned is Norma’s ancient mother. Virginia (Amber Chardae Robinson) finally told Ann (Mindy Cohn) about the Russian mole hiding in Palm Beach. Eddie (Jason Canela) learned that his new wife Evelyn (Allison Janney) cheated on him with alligator wrangler and all-around-bad-person Jed (Ryan Dorsey). Dinah (Leslie Bibb) went to Switzerland with her husband Perry (Jordan Bridges) to find a one-of-a-kind Fabergé egg for Marjorie Merriweather Post (Patti LuPone), only, it seems to go home empty-handed. And let’s not forget: Douglas isn’t the father!
1. Linda gets to Switzerland just in time — to learn the truth
This episode opens with the brave Swedish air hostesses ferrying Linda to Switzerland during a fierce storm.
Linda, who just really doesn’t know when to stop talking, tells the women that she was born in Switzerland and returned frequently with her parents. Unfortunately, this is not the time for Linda’s trauma dump, and the pilots quickly shush her before warning her to brace herself. It’s a bumpy ride.
Back at the hotel, a doctor tells Maxine that Douglas’ heart is very weak. She believes that Lotte poisoned Douglas using Norma’s insulin. Robert arrives to check on Maxine — and take back the letters from his son. When Robert says that Norma doesn’t know about his child, Maxine jokes that if Norma did know, Norma would try to poison Robert’s son.
Robert leaves with his letters, after telling Maxine that he burned the real Norma’s letters to Axel.
Evelyn receives a letter that leads her to Norma, who tells Evelyn that Norma has to apologize to her. Evelyn thinks she’s referring to the problems paying back taxes on the Palm Royale, but Norma tells her that she owes Evelyn “a good deal more” than she thought.
As Virginia and Ann muse of who could be the Russian mole — Ann believes it may be Norma — Perry fights with Dinah, then stomps like a petulant child into the snow storm and promptly gets lost.
Evelyn runs to Maxine, Ann, Virginia and Dinah to tell them that Norma plans to have Robert and Mitzi marry at the Hall of Dellacortes that afternoon. Maxine, furious that Norma “found a way to cut us all out” of the baby trust, tells Ann and Virginia to set up a trap at the hall. Maxine assigns Dinah to sit with the still-unconscious Douglas while Maxine and Evelyn head to the bank.
There, Evelyn dons a Linda disguise and tries to pretend to be her former stepdaughter. When she can’t answer all of the bank manager’s questions, he rises and rips open his shirt to reveal a “Free Linda” tee underneath. “How dare you impersonate Fulm’s favorite rebel?” he yells at them.
Knowing that in 20 minutes the trust will belong to Swiss authorities, Maxine and Evelyn head outside — which of course is when Linda arrives. Maxine declares it “a Swedish miracle.” The plane didn’t crash, and the lovely, hilarious and heroic air hostesses (played so delightfully by Angie Schworer and Cady Huffman) pulled off the feat of getting the feminist to the bank on time.
Evelyn and Maxine don’t stay to talk with Linda. Evelyn jots down a quick note that she passes to Linda as Maxine whisks Evelyn back to the hotel. Later, Maxine returns to the bank to meet with Linda, who completed the process of removing her name from the trust.
Linda tells Maxine that she feels “untethered,” and that when she thought the plane was going to crash, Linda wished it would so that she could see her parents again.
Maxine heads to the Hall of Dellacortes, while Linda follows the advice on Evelyn’s note: “Go to church.” When Linda arrives, the church is empty. Soon, Norma arrives, expecting Robert and Mitzi for their wedding.
When Norma sees Linda, Norma is joyful and surprised. She and Linda sit in a pew, and Norma says that she was in love and had an affair with Linda’s father.
Here we have one of the big reveals in this week’s episode: Penelope/Linda is really the daughter of Agnes/Norma.
Perry has just returned from a hallucinatory experience in the snow storm where he believed a stag led him back to the hotel. He spotted “the fugitive Linda Shaw” and called the Secret Service. While we don’t know what the agents told Perry to do, he tells them that he “won’t fail America again.”
No surprise: He does.
Perry bursts into the church and yells at Linda, only to be bashed over the head by Lotte. Linda escapes with Norma, who apologizes that she “never was the person that you needed me to be.”
2. Evelyn makes more bad decisions
It seems like Evelyn needs a little conscious parenting here. Someone needs to pull her aside and say, “Evelyn, you are making a lot of unsafe choices. Let’s talk about how that makes you feel.”
While Evelyn just keeps finding her way into tricky spots, she does prove to be the key to revealing that Linda is Norma’s daughter.
At the Hall of Dellacortes, Evelyn tells Maxine that Norma promised to give her some of the money from the baby trust, and in exchange, Evelyn had to distract Maxine for the afternoon. Evelyn also tells Maxine, along with Ann and Virginia, that Norma is Linda’s mother. Norma and Skeet’s affair went on for years, and Norma went to Switzerland to have their baby, Evelyn says. It prevented a scandal, and Skeet and his wife adopted Linda, she adds.
This gives Linda and Norma the time they need to escape.
Maxine berates Evelyn. “You lying, cheating, faithless friend,” Maxine says. “No wonder no one loves you, ’cause there’s nothing to love. You are dead to me, Evelyn Rollins.” (Remember that for later.)
Maxine returns to the hotel and tells Douglas that they need to return to Palm Beach, find Mitzi and get the pair of them married so they can get the money.
For his role in Norma’s disappearance, Perry gets a disappointed dressing-down from Dinah. She explains that if Linda gets arrest, then so will Dinah, Maxine and “your stag pal” Douglas, who flew Linda to Cuba.
Virginia and Ann are disappointed that they didn’t catch a serial killer, but Virginia tells Ann to go ahead and publish her article in the Shiny Sheet. (We’re back in the game!)
3. Meanwhile, back in Palm Beach …
Mary (Julia Duffy) has been entertaining her bootlegger, who, it turns out, is just Jed in a robe and what appear to be some Stubbs & Wootton-style slippers. (She certainly keeps her “ghost” well-dressed.)
In Switzerland, Mitzi talks to Jed on the phone. He tells her to return to Palm Beach. Eddie overhears Mitzi talking to a hotel clerk, and they plan to head back to the Sunshine State together.
The next time we see Mary, Jed tells her that she must add him to her will. To which Mary replies that she was concerned their relationship was transactional. She asks Jed, “Are you not happy? Do you not enjoy me stroking your glass noodles?” It’s rare to hear such a sentiment that is both so chilling and so confusing.
Jed says he loves spending time with her, and says that if she doesn’t call her lawyer to add him to the will, “I’m afraid something real bad’s gonna happen.” Mary just gazes toward the Davidsoul orb.
Later, Mitzi calls Mary and asks to speak to “the bootlegger.” Mary says he can’t come to the phone. We see the broken orb on the floor next to an out-cold Jed in a pool of blood. Mitzi asks if Mary is OK, and Mary turns back around to look for her “bootlegger” — but Jed is gone.
Mary searches for Jed, gun in tow, through the old bootlegger tunnels. She yells to him that she’s sorry they fought, and she just wants him to come back.
But Jed won’t be back to Mary.
After returning to Palm Beach, Maxine finds Mitzi at the Dellacorte mansion. After first checking to make sure Mitzi and her baby are OK — oh that Maxine, isn’t she swell? — Mitzi tells Maxine that Jed was behind everything, including Mirabelle’s death. Mitzi admits to Maxine that Jed is the father of her baby.
“He was mad you were going to take half the baby money,” Mitzi tells Maxine. “That’s why he killed your sister. He thought it was you.” Jed plans to kill anyone who stands between him and the $82 million, Mitzi says.
Important to note: Maxine still insists that Mitzi needs to marry Douglas. The wedding has to happen, so they can receive the trust.
Evelyn has also returned to Palm Beach, and there is a knock on the door of her suite at the Palm Royale. She opens the door, expecting to see Eddie — but instead, she finds Jed. He shoots at her and threatens her, telling her that everyone in Palm Beach is greedy. “Gators is less greedy than you,” he snarls. Evelyn manages to disarm him, but he overpowers her and begins to strangle her.
As Evelyn fights, she hears a gunshot. It’s not Mary.
Maxine has shot Jed from behind. He collapses on the bed next to Evelyn as Maxine stares, horrified.
4. Robert grapples with his future, and past
“No boy wants to know his father is like me,” Robert tells Maxine early in this episode.
He really seems to be struggling with his new role as Norma’s son. As Norma prepares for Robert and and Mitzi to get married, she sits with Robert and tells him that he’s a “good boy.”
“Men like you are always so decent about these things,” she says. While Norma doesn’t say it in so many words, she essentially tells Robert that her expectation for gay men is that they were put on Earth to help good girls “stay out of trouble.” You can see Robert’s heart break as she calls him “a regular Eliza Doolittle.”
Robert heads to the Hall of Dellacortes. Ann, Virginia and Maxine are hiding, waiting for Norma to arrive so they can trap her. Instead, Robert arrives alone and smashes his painting.
When Maxine moves to comfort him, he asks her, “Who am I, Maxine? Norma’s dress-up doll? Mr. Mitzi?”
That’s when Ann, Virginia and Maxine learn that Norma didn’t plan the wedding at the Hall of Dellacortes. Instead, she’s at the church, waiting for Robert and Mitzi to arrive.
Robert tells Maxine he is going home and wants to find “his real family.” He returns to Palm Beach, where Maxine and Douglas move back into the Dellacorte mansion. Robert answers a knock on the mansion’s door to find his son.
“Hi, Rafael,” Robert says. “I’m so happy you’re here.”
5. What did Douglas know?
While the reveal of Norma’s relationship to Linda is a big one, there’s another whopper in this episode: Douglas’ diagnosis.
The doctor who comes to check on Douglas tells Maxine that Douglas was not poisoned. Instead, he has a congenital heart defect, and it’s one that would prevent him from being able to father children. In fact, the doctor says, “Most people with his condition don’t make it to 50.”
Maxine is torn. After her miscarriage, she blamed herself. But now she knows it wasn’t her fault.
Maxine tells Linda that she doesn’t so much feel relief as concern that the news that the baby isn’t his, will kill Douglas.
“Maybe, for once, Douglas gets to figure this one out on his own,” Linda advises.
Maxine also learns that Douglas’ condition is hereditary. While in the Hall of Dellacortes waiting for Norma, Ann mentioned to Maxine and Virginia that all of the Dellacortes die young. Maxine examines the dates and ages on the paintings and realizes that all of the Dellacortes die before or at age 50.
While this doesn’t bode well for Douglas, it does help the investigation: Norma’s age proves that she isn’t a Dellacorte, Maxine says.
A big question heading into the season finale will be, what did Douglas know? Was he aware of his condition? If so, why did he let Maxine live with the guilt of a miscarriage?
Also, what will happen when Dinah returns to Palm Beach without Madge’s egg?
At least we’re back in Palm Beach for the season finale!
Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at [email protected]. Subscribe today to support our journalism.
