In Palm Royale Episode 5, things have been pretty shaken up, given the fact that past secrets are spilling like crazy. Previously, we saw that Maxine found out that Douglas was engaged to be married to Penelope, who now poses as Linda. Maxine is mad, and she wants the truth, but Douglas knows his way around her. He would tell her a story with conviction and sweet-talk her out of minimizing any risk coming his way.
In the latest episode, we witness how the actors are trying their very best to play these characters, but honestly, I am just too disappointed with the writing of the show. It feels like there is no agency to these characters and that only plot points come and go without actually providing them with any kind of interesting arc.
The only respite Palm Royale has at the moment is Ricky Martin’s character Robert, whose calm and mature presence helps bring a sense of semblance to the otherwise messy craziness that has been happening lately. Anyway, this article contains spoilers as we dive into whether Maxine learns the gritty details of her husband’s past and who all were involved in it.
Palm Royale Episode 5 “Maxine Shakes the Tree” Recap:
It seems Maxine has been shaking the ‘Palm Royale’ tree for quite some time now, hoping to get something, but all she gets is more confusion about how things keep changing fast. Episode 5 begins with a flashback where Douglas declares his love for Maxine during one of his flying sprees as she shares the news of her pregnancy. Coming back to the present, while Douglas goes on about his new business plans with Perry, Maxine is trying to wrap her head around how her husband never thought to be honest with her about his ‘supposed wedding.’ When she finally bursts out on him later, he simply tells her how Penelope, aka Linda, was just a crazy woman who tried to kill her father, and he only loved Maxine.
This obviously puts a dent in Maxine’s head. So she, along with wheelchair-bound Norma, visits Linda at her bookstore for a confrontation. However, when Virginia sees Linda trying to burn the contents of Norma’s Rolodex, she orders her friend to sit tight while she handles Maxine, who is adamant about being angry with Linda. It turns out that the whole of Palm Beach is aware of Linda, Douglas, and her shooting Skeet. Maxine gets furious with every revelation (FOMO?) and demands to know why she was kept in the dark despite Linda being her only good friend. Virginia explains that a lot of things have happened in the past, and Linda was simply trying to understand Maxine, considering Douglas chose Maxine over her.
On her way out, she meets Robert, who is extremely happy to see Norma. Seeing the two old friends gleefully greet one another, Maxine becomes intrigued by their relationship. She even curiously asks about their connection and if Robert’s charm has anything to do with Norma’s ‘embolized’ phase. Back at home, Douglas tries to get even with Maxine, who is still very upset about everything. He tries to explain to her that despite what happened in the past, he is very happy that he found his way out of it since he got close to her. However, this is not enough for Maxine.
Why does Evelyn tell Maxine about Linda?
The next day, Maxine visits Ann at the Palm Beach Daily News office to dig into some old archives in order to find any news about Linda and Douglas’s wedding. It turns out that there was indeed a gunshot right before the wedding that created a lot of chaos, canceling the event entirely. She also connects the gunshot with the pistol she found in Norma’s locker, so she goes to the bank and discreetly keeps it with her.
Something makes Maxine visit the hospice where Norma was admitted, where she stumbles on Evelyn, expressing her anger about no one ever telling her anything about Douglas and Linda. It is then Maxine finds out that Linda had tried to kill Evelyn for getting close to her father, Skeet.
Linda was a possessive child, especially after she lost her mother at a young age. When she found out that things between Skeet and Evelyn were getting serious, Linda tried to shoot her, but unfortunately, Skeet got shot, injuring his lower body and completely paralyzing him. All this happened on the fateful day of Linda’s wedding, adding to the whole chaos.
How do Virginia and Linda plan to take down the rich goons of Palm Beach Town?
Meanwhile, we see Virginia convincing Linda to use the Rolodex against all the rich a-holes of Palm Beach in order to put things in order. Linda is initially hesitant, but during the routine meeting at the bookstore, she comes up with an idea to start targeting people as a test case to see if things can be handled the way they want to. To begin with, she targets Perry Donahue (Dinah’s husband) as the bait, considering that he is a big deal in Luxembourg due to his power position. His illicit affairs include bribing officers for a building project that later collapsed.
On the other hand, Perry and Douglas are getting serious about their upcoming venture while Dinah tries to convince Maxine to let off some steam, indulging in love affairs for fun sake. When Maxine is left alone to get home by herself from the golf club, Ann comes to her to verify the details of her pageant day. It turns out that the details Maxine has mentioned don’t match Ann’s research, and before she can get anything concrete out of drunk Maxine, Robert comes to save her day, driving her back to the Delacourte mansion.
Maxine is severely wasted from the punch drinks she had at the golf club earlier, and since Dinah’s silly advice was already planted, she tries to seduce Robert. So much so that she even kisses Robert, indicating a quicky, but Mitzy’s entrance interrupts everything, leaving Maxine embarrassed and Robert completely confused about everything. Mitzy had been looking after Norma the whole day while Maxine was tending to her ‘business.’ Mitzy shares that she can no longer take care of Norma as Perry has offered her a job at the club. Despite Maxine emphasizing Perry’s dubious integrity, Mitzy is fixated on the glamorous job.
Palm Royale Episode 5 “Maxine Shakes the Tree” Ending Explained:
Who was Linda trying to kill?
Later at night, Linda visits Maxine demanding her to give her one chance to explain herself. It turns out that on the wedding day, Linda wanted to shoot Douglas because he had been cheating on her for quite some time. However, the gunshot wounded Skeet badly, making him paralyzed.
What details did Norma maintain in the Rolodex?
This is when Norma comes into the picture as she has been the safeguard of all Palm Beach secrets. The Rolodex is something where Norma kept everyone’s secret affairs, which could land anyone in jail or worse. It is a transactional thing that leads Norma to secure funds for her gala events from whoever seeked her help to keep their illicit business hidden.
Like in many cases, this time, too, Norma helped Evelyn get married to Skeet, who had been fooling around with her feelings for quite some time. She also helped Linda stay away from jail demanding her to approve of her father’s wedding with Evelyn. In all of this mess, Douglas, as an opportunist, made the most of it, as he demanded $100,000 to get away from Linda and move to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he met Maxine.
What does Maxine do with the pistol?
The ending of Palm Royale Episode 5 shows Linda coming clean about the whole ordeal of her past. However, on her way out, she burns the remaining content of Norma’s Rolodex in front of Norma and Maxine to keep the secret buried deep down as they should to keep a balance in the town.
Maxine gets upset again when she realizes that Linda had the Rolodex to herself the whole time. However, Linda has her bags packed and is confident that the secrets of the town will never see the light of day again. The end sequence shows Maxine throwing the little pistol away into the seawater, suggesting that she wants all her pain and misery to go away as well.
What does Linda intend to do now? Will Maxine find the peace that she is dearly longing for? Will Ann be able to expose Maxine’s wobbly past? What is Douglas up to with Perry? All these questions are still left to answer and probably will be probed in further episodes. It seems like Palm Beach is going to experience a tsunami that everyone has been trying to keep away from for a long, long time.
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