Apple TV+’s highly anticipated series of the month, Palm Royale, has finally arrived. The series debuted its first three episodes on the platform, featuring a star-studded cast portraying characters set in the early 1970s, a time of rapid change following Nixon’s presidency. Palm Royale episodes 1, 2 & 3 follow the journey of an ambitious woman named Maxine, who aspires to gain entry into an elite club after relocating to Palm Beach. However, gaining access to this prestigious club is not as simple as it seems; it requires wealth and influential connections, both of which Maxine lacks. Will she succeed?
The series presents a blend of Mean Girls and Desperate Housewives vibes intertwined with elements reminiscent of Big Little Lies and other feminist-themed series and films. Set against the backdrop of late 1960s fashion and style, Palm Royale, through Wiig’s character, highlights the uncomfortable realities faced by those without financial means when attempting to establish themselves in society. The show focuses on the lengths individuals will go to in pursuit of their interests, all while navigating issues of class and social hierarchy. From snobby women dismissing things they find distasteful to those genuinely interested in promoting feminist ideals, Palm Royale explores the various personas people adopt to navigate societal expectations.
Kristen Wiig’s portrayal of her character bears a resemblance to Aubrey Plaza’s role in Ingrid Goes West, delivering a refreshing performance with her unique Floridian accent and quirky persona. However, the initial episode felt overly prolonged, especially as it set the stage for subsequent developments. I am hopeful that the series will quickly gain momentum and lure audiences with its narrative as the story unfolds. Am I anticipating murder or scandalous drama? Absolutely! Thus far, none has been observed, but hope remains.
In this article, I dive into the events of the series thus far, exploring Maxine’s motives and how she plans to take matters into her own hands. Reader discretion is advised, as the article contains spoilers.
Palm Royale Episode 1 “Pilot” Recap:
The country’s atmosphere is changing rapidly as Richard Nixon gains power after being elected as the President of the USA. As things are changing, people are finding their safe bet, associating with those in power. Palm Royale Elite Club is one such place where Palm Beach women go to socialize in order to uplift the town’s social class. Maxine Simmons (Kristen Wiig) sees herself as someone belonging to this elite club, as we see her making every effort to be a part of the rich and enamored social circle. Her personality is quick, witty, diligent, and extremely determined to get things she sets her heart to. However, the people of the club are not able to see this side of her personality because the staff and the prestigious members-only acknowledge those who come with money. One particular group of the club includes four women who are basically the head turners of the club. Two in particular are always part of club discussions – Dinah (Leslie Bibb), the senator’s wife, and Evelyn (Allison Janney), the one who started the charity for cancer and is the continuous winner of the “Volunteer of the Year” award.
How does Maxine make Dinah confide in her?
Maxine is clever and has done her homework by closely following these women. She knows more about these women than anyone else could ever know. After finding her way inside the club, she positions herself sitting next to this group of women, carefully listening through their discussion. While the women discuss the upcoming ball night and other important things,she tries her luck to get into their conversation – introducing herself, hoping they would indulge her. However, they don’t and continue with their merriment. After being escorted out of the club by the manager and his war combat security/bartender, Robert (Ricky Martin), Maxine drives away to the other side of town. Soon, we come to know that she has been stealing clothes from the wardrobe of a former club member, Norma D’ellacourt, who has been in the hospice for a while. It has become a regular thing for Maxine to do such a thing to look like someone with money in order to get herself to be a part of the Palm Royale Club.
On her way to the nail appointment, Maxine meets Linda Shaw (Laura Dern), a feminist trying to recruit women for the betterment of the sisterhood in the country. However, she is more comfortable with being part of the social class (that practically diminishes the agency of being a woman) than being part of the empowering group. Linda shares a pamphlet of her upcoming meeting schedule with Maxime with the hope of seeing her soon. At the salon, while talking to her nail artist, Mitzi (Kaia Gerber), an aspiring model, Maxime notices Dinah across the street getting fiercely yelled at by her ‘allegedly’ young lover. Seeing the opportunity to get Dinah to help her get on the list of prestigious club members, she follows her car. She stages an accident, and Dinah, in guilt, takes her to the family doctor, where the two women get a formal introduction.
One instance leads to another, and the next thing Dinah finds herself sobbing on the shoulders of Maxine over the news of being pregnant with a child of her lover. Maxime seizes the opportunity, offers her the help she needs, and takes her to Linda to help her with the abortion. Meanwhile, we also learn that Maxime needs $20,000 and a $500 monthly fee to be part of the club. So, she takes Norma’s diamond necklace and pawns it off, securing easy cash money. Back at the ‘secretive’ abortion center (when abortion was not considered a viable option for women), while Dinah gets her procedure done, Linda’s partner, Virginia, acquaints Maxime, calling her a ‘feminist’ for helping a sister out in need. The doctor notifies Maxime that the procedure went well and she would need to look after Dinah, further demanding $1,000 as a fee for the whole ordeal.
What does Evelyn know about Maxine?
Meanwhile, we also learn how Maxine met her husband as she tells her love story to Dinah. It turns out that she was a beauty pageant contestant who lost the crown to the final question. However, her life turned blissful when she married Douglas. Later, when she senses that Dinah is on her speedy recovery, she brings up the conversation about introducing her to the club as a gesture of everything she has done for her. Dinah denies her and fires back, stating how Maxine has been a liar about her background and using an ailing woman for her benefit. Stumped by her ‘friend’s response,’ she drops hints about Dinah being sick while picking up Dinah’s gown from Grayman – the town’s gossip monger where Evelyn was also present for her gown fitting.
Back at Maxine’s place, Dinah comes knocking at her door after getting ‘get well soon’ cupcakes by Grayman and Evelyn. She is shocked to see Maxine in her own gown. Before she could get mad at Maxine, the women are interrupted by Douglas’ entrance. Dinah cannot believe that Maxine is, in fact, telling the truth about her marriage. The following day, Dinah sponsors her to the club, and later, at the ball night, Maxine and her husband find themselves enjoying the gala night – just how she always imagined herself.
The ending of Palm Royale, episode 1, ends with Evelyn introducing herself formally to Maxine. After sending Douglas to get the women drinks, Evelyn gets closer to her, reminding her of her place – keeping a close eye on the new member. It seems Evelyn may have an idea of how Maxine has been conning Norma to become what she wants. The episode ends with a preview of what we will discover later in the series about how Douglas is close to now bedridden Norma and if Maxine has a past that may involve a murder that she is trying to hide from everyone.
Palm Royale Episode 2 “Maxine Saves A Cat” Recap:
Palm Royale Episode 2 sets the stage for more complex things. Just when Maxine thinks she’s settling quite well in the club, Robert reminds her that she will need two more sponsors to secure her position in the circle. Meanwhile, Maxine tries to convince Douglas to consider dropping “Simmons” from his name, as he is also a D’ellacourt and should start owning the name. However, Douglas points out that D’ellacourt money is not his own unless his aunt Norma dies. Simultaneously, Maxine starts to shop more with the money by pawning Norma’s royal jewelry.
Back at the club, while no one wants to sit or engage with Maxine because of her background and quirks, Mary (one of the four elite head turners of the club) invites Maxine to her FibBid night – an auction to battle fibrosis. However, Maxine needs to buy a last-minute table at the auction to help Mary raise money for the cause.
Unfortunately, this costs $10,000, so Maxine makes a deal with Mary that she will buy the table if she sponsors her at the club. Despite smug faces and rolling eyes from the other women, Mary agrees to sponsor Maxine in order to move further ahead in the competition these club women have among themselves in terms of who can raise more money for charity events.
How is Linda related to Evelyn?
Next, we see Dinah’s husband, Perry, inviting Maxine to partner with Dinah’s ex-lover, Eduardo, who also happens to be Dinah’s tennis instructor for a dual match. During the entire match, Eduardo, who was earlier dumped by Dinah, continues to make her jealous by being close to Maxine. Dinah loses her calm when Eduardo hits the tennis ball hard just to spite her. When Dinah leaves the court out of anger, Maxine tries to reason with her, explaining how Dinah could continue her affair with Eduardo while keeping her husband in the dark. Dinah thinks of it as an option, and this is when Maxine suggests she speak to Evelyn about sponsoring her. Later, at the spa, a woman advises Maxine not to let Evelyn and her group see her vulnerability when Maxine overhears them talking about how she manipulated Douglas into marrying her.
While coming out of Norma’s hospice room, Maxine notices Linda leaving Evelyn’s husband’s room who happens to be in the same facility. It turns out that Evelyn is, in fact, Linda’s stepmother, and Linda took her mother’s maiden name to avoid any attention as she works on building a safe community for women.
Maxine realizes that she could get into Evelyn’s head if she befriends Linda, so she attends one of her circle meetings at the bookstore. During the meeting, Maxine learns that Linda and Virginia are working on empowering women to become aware of their rights. Maxine feels otherwise about all the points Linda makes. However, Linda feels that Maxine is wasting her time on things and people who don’t want her near them in the first place.
Why does Linda help Maxine?
Maxine then goes to Norma’s palace-like house to find something that she could use to auction later in the night. While walking the halls of the giant house, she stumbles upon Robert who points a gun at her. We soon learn that Robert looks after the house and Norma while she is in a coma.
Later, while everyone gears up for FibBid night and brings their creations to raise money, Maxine brings in a cat statue, not realizing its worth until the evening’s host starts auctioning it. Evelyn and Maxine get in close bidding calls, as the latter lets her ego get in the way and hammers it with $75,000, not realizing she would have to pay the sum for the auction.
Meanwhile, Linda meets Evelyn briefly where Linda tells her stepmother to knock off Maxine’s back as she is harmless. Later, while moping over the entire mess-up Maxine brought upon herself, Linda comforts her by listening. We learn that Maxine became pregnant when she met Douglas; however, soon after they got married, she lost the child. Unfortunately, the town believes that she lured Douglas into marrying her, but that’s not the truth. She always knew Douglas wanted all this glittery life of being rich and famous, so she suggested he move to Palm Beach so she could take care of Norma and the family could be together again. However, the plan didn’t work as she hoped, and now she is stuck with no money.
Episode 2 of Palm Royale ends with Linda carefully listening to Maxine and deciding to help her by signing her club registration form using her previous name. Linda knows how things have always been for people with power and money, and seeing Maxine wishing so much to be part of the Palm Royale club, if she doesn’t help, then she won’t be any different from the others.
Maxine returns the cat statue back at Norma’s villa where she meets with Robert again and finds out that Norma is able to breathe on her own and may be on a road to recovery but that could take time, maybe years. This means that both Robert and Maxine are going nowhere as they agree on common ground of letting one another do their own things. The episode ends with Maxine finding an eviction notice from the resort manager for unpaid dues.
Palm Royale Episode 3 “Maxine’s Like a Dellacorte” Recap:
In episode 3 of Palm Royale, the spotlight shines on Maxine as people become increasingly curious about her rapid rise to stardom following the extravagant events of auction night. After securing a full front-page column under her name in the daily newspaper – The Shiny Sheets, Maxine feels she has arrived at a point in her life she always dreamed of. Ever since her beauty pageant failure, Maxine waited for this moment for the longest time, and she has done quite a few stunts to come to this point. However, the road only gets more difficult as the head-turners of the club bring in more ammunition with them with every passing moment.
During a fashion viewing at the Grayman’s, Evelyn and the others prod Maxine (when she visits them to brag about her new achievement) to invite them for an evening cocktail to get to know her better so they can also help her with the upcoming gala night – aka the 50th Annual Beach Ball.
While the women think they will round up Maxine red-handed, she is cleverer (or maybe dumber) than that and knows her shit better than anyone. So, of course, she declares that she will meet everyone at the D’ellacourt. Next thing we know, without showing her fidgeting hopelessness, Maxine packs her bags and drives to the D’ellacourt mansion where Robert is as surprised as her with the decisions. While Robert is no way up to the agreement of her moving in with Norma battling to breathe while in a coma, Maxine tells Robert to leave so she can figure out how to entertain the ladies later in the evening.
Who will host the 50th Annual Beach Ball?
We then see Maxine calling her husband to tell him about the latest development taking place at Palm Beach, and let’s just take a beat here and understand that ‘he is very understanding towards his wife’s shenanigans’. Next, while Maxine gets interviewed by the newest editor of The Shiny Sheets, she gets questioned about the real Maxine that people really want to know about. She skips the gritty details and just shares that she is a regular ‘gal’ with regular dreams who will, of course, take over the 50th gala night to honor Norma, and the event will be held at the D’ellacourt mansion as it has always been.
As Maxine prepares for the cocktail evening, Robert tells her that rich people never do anything on their own and would rather order catered food to entertain people. This reminds Maxine that no one does it better than Linda when it comes to putting up a decent-looking tabletop with food and drinks. She visits Linda at the bookstore while she is busy conducting yet another one of her ‘feminist’ meetings. Virginia is not too pleased with Maxine’s presence and demands her to at least respect the room by participating.
Will women like Maxine ever understand the concept of feminism?
This is where I feel we need to address something before we dive further into what takes place in Episode 3. Palm Royale, at this point, shows us two types of women: One who are aspirational, wanting to achieve more things than society expects them to – the ‘good’ feminist. The others are just happy as they are with regular things, like being a good wife to their husband, minding their own business while taking care of the house, and being silently happy with their husband’s accomplishments.
Here, Linda and her group members are people who are fighting for the good cause of educating women that they have agency and the right to their own bodies and will. They understand how the world is more of a male-dominated cage where women are nothing but mere mediums to reproduce the next clan. Educated and rich people are the key reason for the country’s downfall because of their selfish agendas of becoming richer.
Maxine is focused on building a life that her husband would approve of. She may not realize that she, like many women, has been conditioned to prioritize obedience to their husbands so that their lives revolve around their spouse’s successes. She might not be aware that she’s blending into a showbiz-centric community, where everything might end up meaningless. Being oblivious is more dangerous and makes you no different from the ones with money. Women like her are intelligent and have their own minds, but the idea of seeking validation from the wrong set of people often paralyzes them from understanding their existence.
I wish the series could have explored this part of Maxine’s character a bit more (I am still hopeful!), giving her character much-needed depth, but instead, it chose to keep it shallow and only show the ‘want more and more to keep afloat’ part.
Palm Royale Episode 3 “Maxine’s Like a Dellacorte” Ending Explained:
Anyhow, coming back to episode 3 of Palm Royale, Linda eventually helps Maxine set up the cocktail table as requested. This is when Linda also warns Maxine that she should be careful around these women as they are only moneymakers and will never be her friends.
This basically means that Palm Royale’s fundraising balls practically churn out huge amounts of money that never actually get utilized for the cause it is raised for. As Linda heads out, when the ladies of the hour start coming one at a time, she meets Robert by his poolside house. The two get high and we come to know that Linda grew very close to Norma when her father’s health started to slip. The two hug one another after getting emotionally vulnerable and Linda notices Norma’s Rolodex on Robert’s shelf.
During the cocktail hour, as the women demand their regular drinks as they settle down, they immediately start to criticize Maxine. While she is smart to answer, things get really weird when Mary points out that she never received the auction money – the $75,000 that Maxine promised for the cause. Maxine tries to avoid the confrontation but Mary pushes it making Maxine write a check of the same amount.
What does Evelyn reveal about the D’ellacourt inheritance?
While the others leave, Evelyn stays back a bit longer with Maxine and, without hesitating, asks if Maxine has any money at all. Maxine’s bubble soon bursts when she learns that Norma had earlier confided in Evelyn about arranging her estate under the Palm Beach Pedigree Feline Society Trust rather than letting Douglas take over.
Right before leaving, Maxine makes a deal with Evelyn, considering she, too, is slipping hard monetarily and position-wise from the club hierarchy. She tells her that if Evelyn helps her out by partnering with her for the annual beach ball, she will have her back all the time. Evelyn initially refuses, but seeing conviction in Maxine’s eyes, she tells her to find the keys to Norma’s safe box and the Rolodex so they can figure out how to approach things in the future.
The ending of Episode 3 of Palm Royale shows Maxine frantically looking for the keys in the entire place. Later, Douglas finds his wife lying on the couch of the big hall – disappointed and tired of not getting her hands on anything. She demands her husband to take her upstairs and make love to her. The episode ends with Linda walking back to the house, but hearing the couple having sex loudly makes her cringe and head out of the property.
