Welcome back to the Shiny Sheet recap of “Palm Royale,” our rundown of the hit Apple TV+ series set in Palm Beach.
Each week, we look at five Palm Beach-related or key moments in that week’s episode of the series that is now in its second season.
This week is Episode Three, “Maxine Solves a Murder.” The Apple TV+ description for this episode says, “Maxine arranges a covert mission during the Dellacorte portrait ceremony. Evelyn grills the Club Ambassador, leading to an epiphany.”
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.
First, a quick update: Maxine (Kristen Wiig) worked with Dinah (Leslie Bibb) and Robert (Ricky Martin) to get Linda (Laura Dern) out of a mental hospital, where she was being held by the Secret Service, who believed she tried to assassinate President Richard Nixon. Before sending Laura off to Cuba in the cargo hold of Douglas’ (Josh Lucas) seaplane, Virginia (Amber Chardae Robinson) and Ann (Mindy Cohn) found Mary (Julia Duffy) in old bootlegger tunnels under the Rollins estate, where Evelyn (Allison Janney) and her new husband Eddie (Jason Canela) are settling. Norma (Carol Burnett) is set to begin planning the nuptials for Douglas and Mitzi (Kaia Gerber) once the divorce between Douglas and Maxine is finalized.
Let’s march in.
1. What is the deal with the portrait ritual?
Much of the action in this episode revolves around Douglas and Mitzi’s “ceremonial betrothal portrait.” Now that the divorce is finalized, Douglas and Mitzi can plan their wedding, and Norma eagerly takes over. When Douglas hesitates to explain to Maxine why Norma is throwing a big bash that requires a heck of a lot of pomp for a scandal-borne circumstance — he doesn’t want to upset the newly single but still-attached Maxine — Ann says that the ceremony happens whenever a member of a Palm Beach founding family gets married.
During the ceremony, Perry (Jordan Bridges) does some drunken moves with the Donahue scepter, followed by Dinah with a sprinkle of oil and Mary with the Davidsoul family’s orb. Mitzi glides into the room, resplendent in a cloak that Douglas whispers to Maxine was worn by Joan of Arc before she was burned at the stake. Norma presides from her throne. Douglas enters, wearing a hat straight out of “The Pirates of Penzance.” The ritual ends with Ann taking a photo of the group, minus Maxine, of course.
Was this ritual a thing in Palm Beach in the 1960s? Not with so much ceremony, chanting and clothes worn by martyrs, but engagement and wedding announcements have always been a staple of newspaper society pages. When then-Sen. John F. Kennedy became engaged to Jacqueline Bouvier, it made the society page of the June 25, 1953, edition of The Palm Beach Post. (Granted, no photo ran with the announcement.) The Shiny Sheet still runs engagement and wedding announcements.
2. We learn a little more about Norma’s backstory — and her current crimes
One of the big reveals at the end of the first season of “Palm Royale” was that Norma is not Norma. Instead, she is Agnes, who was Norma’s roommate at a Swiss boarding school.
At the beginning of this third episode of season two, viewers get another look at where Agnes came from, as the episode begins with the real Norma’s death, and nun who encouraged Agnes to take Norma’s place in the Dellacorte family.
As Maxine prepares to leave town — she plans to travel to Europe aboard the famed cruise liner the QE2, which had its maiden voyage in 1969 — she learns more about Douglas’ mother, Stella Rue Dellacorte. Douglas says she died of a broken heart, and “practically drowned in her own tears.” But Maxine suspects that Norma wanted Stella out of the way, just like she wants to get rid of Maxine.
3. Is Norma a serial killer?
It seems like she just might be.
Once Linda escaped confinement, the Secret Service seized the Rollins mansion, all of Evelyn’s possessions and the Rollins fortune. Maxine suggests that she, Evelyn, Dinah and Ann head to the bank to withdraw everything Evelyn has in cash before federal agents can take the goods. While helping Evelyn move all of the Rollins cash and valuables out of the bank, Maxine deduces that Norma is knocking off competition for the Dellacorte inheritance.
Were serial killers a thing in or before the 1960s? Let’s ask Jack the Ripper. Maybe the term “serial killer” wasn’t widely used until the 1970s, but there were definitely people who killed a lot of other folks before then. It’s also true that it was an FBI investigator who coined the phrase. So when FBI agent Virginia tells Evelyn and Maxine about this new type of killer “the boys in the basement” at Quantico are studying, Virginia wouldn’t have been too far off.
After talking with Virginia, Evelyn and Maxine are even more convinced that perhaps Norma takes trophies from the people she kills, and then keeps those trophies in a safe deposit box. Unfortunately, Norma also keeps the key to that safe deposit box on a keyring that is with her at all times. Maxine steals the keyring as Norma poses with the others for the betrothal portrait.
When Douglas and Maxine open the box, they are shocked to find only a bunch of rocks and pebbles with a note from Norma that says, “(Ahem) you, Maxine.” (Remember, this is a family publication.)
But Maxine is not deterred. She uses the keyring to get into the locked room where Norma is keeping Robert while he recovers from his gunshot wound. There, she realizes that Norma moved her trophies from her safe deposit box to her literal trophy room.
Maxine confronts Norma, lays out the evidence and calls the FBI.
But before Maxine can say anything, Norma slides a gun out of her cane and yells, “No, Maxine! No! Don’t kill me! Don’t!” Maxine drops the phone as Norma shoots a chandelier that falls between them, giving Norma the cover of darkness to slide into a hidden door in the floor.
Maxine, thinking Norma may have slid into a bootlegger tunnel that leads to the beach, runs to the ocean yelling for help from Evelyn.
But Norma is gone. A ship passes in the background — maybe the one on which Maxine was supposed to set sail.
4. Could the Palm Royale get a new owner or owners?
As Maxine prepares to confront Norma, Evelyn is at the Palm Royale confronting its manager (James Urbaniak). While Evelyn believed that the club’s manager was helping Norma murder people, it turns out that he actually mortgaged the Palm Royale “to the hilt.”
Evelyn and Maxine say they will buy the club to get it out of debt — but first, Maxine has to confront Norma.
While you know what happens next, did you notice that when the Palm Royale’s porters came to take Maxine’s bags from the “disgraced socialite suite,” they grabbed the sacks of Evelyn’s cash instead of Maxine’s luggage? That doesn’t bode well for a future ownership bid.
5. A few little Palm Beach notes
This is one of those things that makes this a truly Palm Beach recap: Did you notice that all of the action in this episode takes place on the same day? And that it takes the Palm Royale club manager and Evelyn just a short drive to get from Palm Beach to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale?
Evelyn follows the manager after she and Maxine see him carry a trunk from Norma’s house to a Palm Royale delivery van. He drives that trunk to Port Everglades, where Maxine is supposed to go later to hop on the QE2.
We’d implore you to suspend reality for the sake of the plot. Plus, who knows how fast Evelyn can drive in that gorgeous convertible Stingray of hers? Between that and the very cool Palm Royale panel van, maybe this season of the series will do for automotive design what the first season did for fashion. Let’s see a retro renaissance. Maybe it’s time to go back to whitewall tires.
Also, if that betrothal portrait ceremony was any indication, Douglas and Mitzi’s wedding — if it happens — is going to be outstanding.
Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: ‘Palm Royale’ Episode 3 recap: Is Maxine on the trail of a killer?
Reporting by Kristina Webb, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
