'Palm Royale' Episode 7 recap: Maxine trades a minnow for a whale

Welcome back to Shiny Sheet recaps "Palm Royale," our weekly rundown of the new 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 premiered March 20.

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.

We're on Episode 7, "Maxine Bags a Prince." After this week, we have just three more episodes of this 10-episode season.

To catch you up: Maxine (Kristen Wiig) is an eager social climber and former beauty queen who is desperate to break into Palm Beach society in 1969.

Apple's description of this episode says, "Douglas faces a looming threat. Robert navigates his increasingly serious relationship with the prince. Linda and Evelyn receive shocking news."

As with every episode of "Palm Royale," there are a lot of questions going into this: What's the deal with the Prince of Luxembourg (Ben Palacios) and his Princess Stephanie (Aqueela Zoll)? Will the prince treat our Robert (Ricky Martin) well, or will we find out that he isn’t the real deal? Now that Maxine has sent out the invitations for the Beach Ball, will Norma’s (Carol Burnett) blackmail be enough to ensure a robust RSVP list? Skeet (Bruce Dern) is dead — what does that mean for his wife, Evelyn (Allison Janney) and daughter, Linda (Laura Dern)? (And remember, Evelyn and Linda aren't related, unless you count the bad blood between them.) What will happen with Douglas’ (Josh Lucas) condo project, now that Perry’s (Jordan Bridges) misdeeds have been brought into the light?

This episode has an interesting underlying current of tension as a member of Linda and Virginia's (Amber Chardae Robinson) Women's Circle, Sylvia (Crosby Fitzgerald), prepares for her husband to leave to fight in Vietnam. The women decide that in honor of Skeet, who later in life became quite the hippie, they will help Sylvia's husband get across the border to Canada.

Season 1, Episode 7: 'Maxine Bags a Prince'

1. This show gives a lot of love to The Breakers.

The Breakers resort makes frequent appearances throughout "Palm Royale."

It's no surprise. We're talking about one of the most storied places in Palm Beach.

The Breakers was built by industrialist Henry Flagler, who is credited with bringing development to Florida's east coast and with helping to make Palm Beach synonymous with the concept of a luxury resort town.

So when Raquel (Claudia Ferri) needs a venue for her Havana Nights gala, where does she hold it? The Breakers, of course. (Although the interior shots were filmed at a resort in California.)

And when the Prince of Luxembourg needs a place to stay, where does he bed down (and bed Robert)? The Breakers.

A Breakers spokeswoman confirmed before the show premiered that the resort didn't have anything to do with the production of "Palm Royale."

An interesting note: The aerial shot of The Breakers that's used in this episode is edited. The "Palm Royale" team replaced the parking lot on the north side of the property's palm tree-lined entry road with a golf course.

The photo below provides a look at what that entry road actually looked like in 1969. That's right: It was lined with parking spaces, not palms.

This postcard shows another look at The Breakers, circa 1955.

At least in this episode, we're getting some love for a treasured Palm Beach landmark, and not a ton of hate for West Palm Beach.

2. Skeet would not be buried in Palm Beach.

Much of Episode 7 takes place at the Rollins family manse for Skeet's funeral, where, during the reading of the will, Evelyn and Linda learn that Linda inherited Skeet's entire estate.

Before heading inside for the will reading and haggis, Skeet's friends and family gather in the Rollins family's private cemetery, where he will be interred.

"Are we the only family in America that has a backyard cemetery?" Linda asks.

"Hardly," Evelyn says, matter-of-factly.

As a scion of the Palm Beach of "Palm Royale," it's more likely that Skeet would be buried across the lake in West Palm Beach's historic Woodlawn Cemetery. (Sorry, Evelyn. We know how much you hate West Palm Beach.)

That was the tradition for Palm Beach's well-heeled deceased.

There are, in fact, no places to bury the human dead on the island of Palm Beach.

So while a funeral like Skeet's — bagpipes and all — could take place at a Palm Beach estate, a burial could not.

However, there are two well-known graves on the island — though their inhabitants can't be categorized as Homo sapiens.

Both are in Via Mizner off Worth Avenue and near the former home of architect Addison Mizner, the man who brought the Mediterranean style to Palm Beach.

It's fitting, then, that one of the graves in Via Mizner is that of Johnnie Brown, Mizner's beloved pet monkey.

The other grave belongs to Rose and Morton Sachs' treasured dog, Laddie. The Sachses were the next inhabitants of Mizner's Worth Avenue villa after the architect's death.

Ask the superstitious in Palm Beach, and they might tell you that the ghosts of Laddie and Johnnie Brown are sometimes seen playing together in Via Mizner.

3. It seems Douglas and Perry's condo is sunk — and it may cause even more problems for Douglas.

So much for the West Palm Beach Prince of Luxembourg Luxury Towers.

After a bombshell newspaper article — fueled by Norma's blackmail material that Virginia provided to a reporter — the feds take Perry into custody, effectively sinking any hopes for the condo project to become reality.

We learn at the beginning of this episode that a man in a fedora showed up and took Perry away, with his wife Dinah (Leslie Bibb) telling him to "sing-sing like a canary," a reference to Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a prison in New York. This is a nice callback to an earlier episode where we learned that Pinky (Roberto Sanchez), Raquel's husband and Perry's contractor, recently was released from Sing Sing.

Douglas begins to unravel as he first reveals to Maxine that he knows more about the project than he initially let on, and then tells her that he greased some palms: "I gave checks to six city council members, an expediter, someone from the planning commission, four of Pinky’s associates," he says.

Douglas gets absolutely sloshed at Skeet's funeral, making a scene when he punches the prince for his part in the condo scheme.

Douglas also dodges questions from Ann Holiday of the Shiny Sheet, who asks Douglas for comment about Perry's "less-than-Kosher business practices."

When Maxine asks Ann not to print anything about Douglas' involvement, suggesting his childlike naiveté is to blame for his involvement, Ann becomes serious.

"Here in Palm Beach, Maxine, we're all part of the club till the worm turns," Ann says. "Then, it's every man for himself."

Because of Douglas' excessive spending and a federal freeze on their assets, Douglas and Maxine are tapped out. It seems there's one last monetary lifeline: A $75,000 cashier's check for Mary (Julia Duffy) and her beloved fibrosis of the liver — yes, cirrhosis — foundation. Mary is still after Maxine for the check to cover Maxine's winning bid from Episode 2, and even though Maxine has a cashier's check made out for the amount, she asks Mary to let her hold onto it for just a little longer.

When talking with the prince later, Maxine realizes that her name is on all of the checks that Douglas used to pay off officials. She confronts Douglas, who by this point is trashed and tells Maxine something about how she should know that he bloats up like a tick when he eats haggis. Maxine is just as disgusted and surprised to hear this as we are.

"I was greasing their palms, not you," Maxine says of the bribes, shocked as she realizes the legal implications.

Their argument continues until everyone gets a little distracted for a while by Sylvia, who suddenly goes into labor.

As the Women's Circle scrambles to find scissors and towels to help Sylvia have her baby in one of the bathtubs at the Rollins house, Virginia runs into Mary, who is sipping what looks like Champagne in the kitchen.

Mary hears that someone is giving birth and hilariously perks right up. "I chaired the gala for Palm Beach General's obstetrics wing," Mary says, standing with the self-importance of a super hero. "My time has come."

The birth happens miraculously quickly, as it usually does on TV. Sylvia is blessed with a child that seems just as eager to enter 1969 Palm Beach as Maxine was when she climbed over the Palm Royale's hedge in the first episode.

During the labor, Maxine encourages Sylvia to take out her pain on Douglas, who ends up having his hand pulverized and his hair yanked. This seems to sober him up, at least, if not serving as an emotional outlet for Maxine and the audience. We're all frustrated by how cavalier he was in getting into business with Perry, and it's just really satisfying to watch Sylvia unleash the pain of every contraction onto his body.

When Sylvia says her baby's name will be Jack, Maxine and Douglas lock eyes: That was going to be their baby's name, something we learned in the opening minutes of this episode in a scene that was so unmemorable, I actually forgot about it until this moment, right now, when I'm writing this.

The mention of the name Jack leads to a tender moment between the two, where Maxine confesses to Douglas that she miscarried before they got married, not after, as she led him to believe.

She begs him to forgive her, but he walks away, saying he will get the car.

As Douglas stands on the front steps of the Rollins' mansion, Evelyn approaches and says they need to talk.

"It just seems a shame that a girl who murdered her own father ends up with all his money," she says, referring to Linda, who shot Skeet by accident.

While Douglas says they both know this wasn't some crime committed in cold blood, Evelyn points out that the bullet fired by Linda did eventually kill Skeet. It just took 20 years to happen.

She suggests that she and Douglas might somehow work together, and against Linda. And while Evelyn doesn't come out and say it, the implication is that there would be a cut of money for Douglas, who definitely needs it.

And talk about bad timing: A man in a fedora arrives to speak with Maxine.

When Maxine finally comes outside to meet Douglas and go home, she finds him gone, and only Evelyn standing on the stairs.

"Have you seen Douglas?" Maxine asks.

"A man in a fedora just took him away," Evelyn replies, smirking. She then says, "I heard him say, 'It's all my fault. Take me, not her.'"

Maxine goes home to find Robert and see if he can help her. She learns from Mitzi (Kaia Gerber) that Robert went to The Breakers to be with the prince.

Which leads to our next point ...

4. The prince is not a prince. And this is not a big surprise.

I think quite a few people called this one last week: The Prince of Luxembourg is not the Prince of Luxembourg.

Let's back up a little.

The first time we see the prince in this episode, he's in bed at The Breakers, begging Robert to run away with him. The prince invites himself to join Robert at Skeet's funeral, where the prince enters with a flourish and Princess Stephanie by his side.

Ann Holiday, doing her journalistic duty, quickly snaps a photo of the supposedly royal couple, to which the princess stomps her foot and says, "No photo!"

During all of this, Maxine is trying to figure out a way to get Douglas out of trouble. She hasn't yet realized that with her name on the checks, she will be implicated.

Knowing that Raquel's husband has some experience in sticky situations, Maxine pulls her aside and asks her how she would deal with it.

Raquel's advice: "You pay up" — as in, bribe officials to get out of the charges — "or you trade up."

"If the police have a little fish, you throw them a whale," Raquel advises Maxine.

After talking with Raquel, Maxine meets up with Linda and Robert in Linda's childhood bedroom, where Robert confesses to them that he's met someone. While he doesn't tell them who it is, he does tell them that the person is at the funeral. The two women are happy for him, with Linda saying she wants Robert to be able to shout his love from the rooftops.

But Robert is realistic: "You know I can't," he says.

Linda, ever the warrior for justice, tells Robert that the world might catch up to him if he starts "being his truth."

"Maybe he doesn't want to be a movement," Maxine says, with some of the warmth and kindness of her character that's been a bit lost in the past few episodes, where she's seemed more scatterbrained and driven by greed and ambition.

"I just want to be a person," Robert says.

It's a nice moment before the day is jarred by the sound of bagpipes. They seem to trigger a harried rash of action throughout the Rollins mansion, including the aforementioned birth.

First, the princess sees Ann through the door, yells, "No photo!" and chases the journalist down to the garden. There, she sneaks up behind Ann and abandons her faux-Luxembourg accent for a moment to declare, "I said no (expletive) photo," in a purely New Jersey accent before absolutely trouncing poor Ann.

After a brief wrestling match, with hair and hat flying, Stephanie absconds with Ann's camera. Ann later appears, disheveled, and asks Maxine, "Have you seen a tall bitch from New Jersey? She stole my camera." Not understanding that Ann means Stephanie, Maxine says no.

While the princess assaults Ann, the prince again begs Robert to run away with him — and Robert agrees.

That's just before Norma and Maxine walk in on Robert and the prince getting hot and heavy in Linda's old bedroom. Norma is aghast, and Robert rushes to take her home.

Once back at the Dellacorte mansion, Robert asks Norma for her blessing to go away for awhile with the prince, and it seems that although she doesn't say it, she does give him whatever he needs — maybe it's a certain sigh? He gets her OK.

Robert starts to make his plans, which he shares with Maxine the morning after the funeral. He's delighted, and basically skips to the pool house to pack, telling Maxine, "I love you!" as he leaves. That part is a big "oof" moment.

But Maxine already started putting the pieces together about the prince's true identity when Mitzi told her that she recognized Stephanie at the lunar launch party at the Palm Royale, which we saw in the last episode. That's where Maxine first met the prince and princess, and he declined her invitation to the Beach Ball.

As Maxine reels from learning that Douglas was taken into custody, Mitzi tells Maxine that Stephanie was Mitzi's classmate at Barbizon, a modeling school.

The next morning, Maxine goes to the bank to cash all of the RSVP checks for the Beach Ball, presumably to bail out Douglas.

Instead, she spots a wanted poster on the wall, and who does she see there? Our prince.

Except he isn't a prince: He's Reginald Baggins, and he's wanted for identity theft, forgery and wire fraud.

This is the whale Maxine needs to get her minnow, Douglas, out of trouble.

She goes to the police and trades them information about the fake prince, including his location, for Douglas' freedom, no charges and the Dellacorte assets to be released.

While she comes out on top, she understands the entire time that she is taking away Robert's chance at love, even if it would have been with a con man.

Maxine and Douglas, fresh out of lockup, arrive back at the Dellacorte mansion, where Robert still waits in the driveway for his prince.

"That was quick," Robert tells Maxine, eyeing Douglas as he walks into the house. "You must have worked a miracle."

This would be the perfect time for Maxine to be honest with Robert, but she doesn't tell him. Instead, she goes into the house, hanging her head.

5. Norma REALLY hates Maxine.

As in, she hates Maxine so much, she wants to kill her. Really.

Before leaving for Skeet's funeral, Norma packs a pretty large revolver in her purse, which she menacingly strokes as Douglas and Maxine argue before they leave for the Rollins house.

Once at the funeral, those who received the blackmail-filled invitations to the Beach Ball begin to return their RSVPs to Norma, with envelopes that are filled with cash — all part of Maxine's plan to keep the Dellacorte estate, and the Beach Ball, afloat, so to speak.

Evelyn is delighted to see Norma at the funeral, and invites her to receive guests with her. Evelyn realizes that Norma has something up her sleeve — or in this case, in her purse — and knowingly tells Norma, "Women like us have to stay one step ahead, am I right?"

Later, when the bagpipes start up during the will reading, Norma uses the chaos to ask Maxine to take her to the bathroom. Just as Norma begins to take the gun out of her purse, Maxine opens the door to Linda's bedroom, where they run into Robert and the prince.

Norma is clearly overwhelmed, but I think this is more because the discovery of Robert and the prince threw a wrench in Norma's plans to use that gun squirreled away in her purse to shoot Maxine.

After Robert gets Norma home and asks for her blessing to be with the prince, he finds the gun in her purse. He thinks Norma was trying to protect herself. Norma sighs, frustrated that Robert found the gun but seemingly relieved that he didn't catch her true intentions.

"It must be so horrible to have people move into your house, push you around," Robert says.

He goes on to tell Norma that he didn't trust Maxine, but he does now. Before he leaves, he packs the guns away, then playfully tells Norma that if he didn't know her better, he would think she was going to get Maxine alone, shoot and kill her in cold blood — and all while the bagpipes play.

I think Robert knows Norma better than she knows herself.

Bonus: The aliases of a prince.

The wanted poster that lists the alleged crimes of Reginald Baggins also lists his aliases, which the "Palm Royale" folks cleverly based on very real people. Many of them are gay, gay icons, or involved in the film industry:

• Brock Peters: The actor known for playing Tom Robinson in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” In 1962, he played a gay trumpet player in "The L-Shaped Room."
• John Francis Dillon: A silent film actor and director. He directed "Call Her Savage," released in 1932, noted as being one of the first films with openly gay characters.
• Karl Heinrich: A German lawyer and writer who, according to the New York Times, “helped forge the concept of sexual identity as an innate human characteristic.”
• Mark Segal: A gay activist and journalist who participated in the Stonewall riots and continues to report on gay culture.
• William Dickson: An inventor credited with creating an early version of the motion picture camera.
• George Cukor: A director and producer who won an Oscar for best director for “My Fair Lady,” and who was gay.
• James Whale: An actor and director who was gay, and known for his work in horror films.
• Don Murray: An actor with a laundry list of prominent roles in films including “Bus Stop” and “Advise & Consent.” In the latter, he played a U.S. Senator whose past gay relationship is used to blackmail him.
• Michael Dillo: Appears to be a specialist in conflict resolution and nonviolent communication. I wonder if this was supposed to be Michael Dillon, who was a trans man and the first person to transition from female to male with a combination of surgery and hormones.

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.