Palm Royale Recap: Promise the Moon

What is it with Apple TV+ sending its characters to space? First, there was Snoopy in Space, then Reese Witherspoon on The Morning Show, and now, seemingly, Maxine and Evelyn on Palm Royale. At least that’s what this episode’s opening moments, in which the pair are helming a NASA rocket, would lead us to believe. But rather than it being a dream sequence or colossal leap over the shark, it turns out that the duo are doing a simulation post-moon landing, which has given everybody in Palm Beach space fever.

As they look out at the vastness of faux outer space, Maxine calls it an “endless horizon full of possibilities,” while Evelyn thinks she’s going to vomit. Those juxtaposing reactions mirror their respective thoughts on the destruction of Norma’s rolodex. When an elated Maxine tells her that everybody is finally free from the shackles of their secrets, Evelyn is horrified. Sure, everybody is free, but what exactly does “freedom” mean in the world of Palm Royale? And could that cause more problems than it solves? According to Evelyn, the rolodex’s blackmail was an instrument for preventing societal collapse. It was the delicate thread tying their world together and dictating the rules of engagement, and without it? Everything crumbles and anarchy reigns.

Maxine tests that theory by gauging whether or not the women of Palm Beach would attend a “consensual” Beach Ball without the threats — but alas, no. In destroying what she perceived as the negative part of their high society, Maxine accidentally destroyed the parts that she liked as well, so now she has to try to put them back together. Luckily, she sees a glimmer of hope when the women tell her that their interest in the gala might be rekindled if a special guest of honor were to attend.

But who could that possibly be? Right on cue, Douglas tells Maxine that his and Perry’s shoddy real-estate deal landed the Prince of Luxembourg as an investor, and we can practically see the light bulb go off above Maxine’s head. But when Douglas doesn’t invite her to the business dinner, the show suddenly takes a turn into wacky sitcom territory, with Maxine trying to weasel her way into Douglas’s business to meet and invite the Prince to the Beach Ball. Harkening back to Lucy trying to get Ricky to let her perform at the Tropicana, Maxine hatches a scheme to show up to the dinner uninvited while dressed in the national colors of Luxembourg. But unfortunately, Dinah intercepts her before high jinks ensue.

Little do Douglas and Perry know that Maxine’s antics are the least of their concerns when it comes to spoiling this deal because the feminist group has already used the rolodex to send dirt on Perry’s corrupt business practices to the Miami Herald. This is just the first domino to fall in their plan to use the rolodex to topple the patriarchy, but the good times come to a screeching halt when Evelyn storms in, furious that Linda destroyed the rolodex. This is news to the whole group. By acting in her own interest, Linda managed to piss off both sides of the spectrum. She tries to defend herself from Virginia, wondering who might get hurt along the way if they follow through with their plan. “I don’t know, maybe all the people who’ve been doing all the hurting up until now,” Virginia shoots back before bringing up the fact that people assume that Linda gave her the money for the bookstore. With Virginia being the show’s only Black character, Palm Royale is finally flirting with a conversation about the role race plays in their society. It barely scratches the surface and relies on implication more than anything, but at least they’re acknowledging the role Linda’s privilege has in her decision. She’s still able to straddle the fence between the haves and have-nots, and Virginia doesn’t have that luxury.

That being said, it might not be entirely fair to say that Linda made this choice solely for herself. Technically, I think it was also made for her ailing father, who she excitedly tells about the gun being destroyed. He tells her that she’s finally free, but it seems like he’s free too now. It feels like he was painfully hanging on to protect her out of fear that the gun would one day be found and he’d have to deny that she shot him. Now, knowing that it’s really gone for good, he can die in peace without worrying about what will happen to his trigger-happy daughter. But what does this new freedom mean for Evelyn? Her entire marriage was tied together by this secret, so it makes sense that she didn’t want everybody to be free of it. Skeet assures her that he has no interest in getting a divorce, adding, “I will take care of you when the time comes.” At first, I took this to mean that she’ll be taken care of in his will, but when Evelyn responded with, “Is that a threat?” I wasn’t so sure. I think it’s entirely possible that Skeet’s statement was positive, and Evelyn’s response is just a reflection of how paranoid living under the constant threat of blackmail for 20 years has made her. It’s like when an abused dog doesn’t know how to be a pet.

Speaking of the threat of being exposed, Ann from the Shiny Sheet was finally able to confront Maxine about the discrepancies she discovered about her supposed pageant wins. I thought Maxine’s days of being an unreliable narrator were behind us, now there’s new revelations? Apparently, when Ann looked up those records, Maxine wasn’t listed as the winner at all. Instead, all of the names belonged to long-dead Palm Beach socialites … but the photos were Maxine. She tells Ann that she grew up a nobody in an orphanage, and all she had were the glamorous ladies of the Shiny Sheet. Much like Monica Garcia on the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Maxine watched and studied these fancy women from afar, using that information to scratch and claw her way into their orbit. And like the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, the women of the Palm Royale weren’t fooled so easily.

But the way this pageant inconsistency was being drawn out sounded like it was going to be something juicy. This is just anticlimactic, and even Ann agrees. “That’s it?” she says. Maxine thought this was some big bombshell that Ann was going to publish in an exposé, but instead, she just stands up and tells Maxine to give her a hug. The one positive thing to come from this otherwise pointless digression is the budding friendship between Maxine and Ann, one of the few genuine, non-transactional ones she has in this town.

In fact, this is a great episode for Maxine making friends. Just look at her new GBF, Robert! Taking solace in the fact that he rejected her advances because he’s gay (that’s at least one reason), Maxine is able to come to peace with her former nemesis-turned-crush. So much so that during the episode’s big space party, he sees that she’s demoralized by failing to get the Prince of Luxembourg to come to the Beach Ball, so he brings her home and has a surprise for her. The invitations to the Beach Ball have already been sorted, and already include the blackmail that had been destroyed in the fire. This is just like when that Pixar animator saved Toy Story 2 by having a backup file saved on her home computer. Does this seem a little convenient? Yes, but that’s Palm Royale’s way. In any case, the Beach Ball is saved, and she didn’t even get the Prince to come — but somebody else did.

Robert kicks Maxine out to entertain a gentleman caller, who is none other than the Prince himself, whom he connected with at the space party. (Alexa, play “Gay or European” from the Legally Blonde: The Musical cast recording.) I’m glad his royal highness is able to do some good in Palm Beach, because thus far he’s come across like a scam artist. He refuses to take photos, won’t come to the Beach Ball, and is collecting a fat check from Perry and Douglas for them to use his name on their death-trap condo. It seems to me like he’s just some guy pretending to be a prince, and you’d think that Maxine, who pulled a very similar stunt but not nearly as well, would be able to see through his ruse. Then again, real princes can scam, too, so who am I to doubt his royal title?

At the very end of the episode, as Linda does LSD with her dying father and a rocket gets launched into space, we find out what exactly Norma has been struggling to say for quite some time now. “Ro, ro, ro,” it sounds like, making Robert think it was her calling for him, while I suspected she was crying out for her beloved rolodex. But alas, as she stumbles over to the guns displayed on the wall and pulls one down, we find out she was saying, “Revolver.” Now Norma’s packing heat, but who the hell is the gun for? Her relatives-turned-captors? Linda, who destroyed her blackmail collection? Or, god forbid, herself? I’ve spent this whole show praying for more Carol Burnet airtime, even citing her presence as the key ingredient that makes its tone make sense, so we better not be losing Norma just as she’s finally entering the fold.

Shiny Sheet Headlines

• It’s incredible timing for this space-themed episode to air during the week of the total solar eclipse. What other show is doing synergy with the moon?

• Unless they’re playing the long game, it feels like they don’t know what to do with Kaia Gerber anymore, so they just have her pop up with a plate of hors d’oeuvres at all these galas to say hi.

• At the end of the episode, we find out that one of the women from the feminist group’s husband’s number was called in the draft, reminding us that there’s a whole war going on. It feels fitting how little that comes up when we’re hanging out with the rich people, but now this new storyline will hopefully further underscore the divide between these two worlds.