Re-engaging with Apple TV+'s Palm Royale after a brief hiatus often requires a bit of detective work, but my reacclimation this time was longer than usual. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, the first season operated at an exhilarating level of operatic high camp, creating a gaudy fever dream that felt best consigned to the half-full dustbin of media memory for the sake of sanity. Secondly, Season 2 opens with a ridiculous, imagined song-and-dance number that collapses the events of the Beach Ball into the gyrations of Ricky Martin's hips. Episode 1 isn't interested in easing you in; it assumes you recall the events of the first season finale and are intimately familiar with all the attendant shenanigans. If you're not, allow me to refresh your memory.
The plot was kicked off by Maxine Dellacorte-Simons' efforts to ingratiate herself into Palm Beach high society, floating in and out of a country club clique that included Evelyn Rollins, Dinah Donahue, and Mary Davidsoul. Maxine is married to Douglas, the nephew of Norma Dellacorte, the former queen bee of the titular country club who spent most of the first season in a coma. However, Douglas impregnated Maxine's manicurist, Mitzi, behind her back, and it turned out that Norma, who eventually awakened from that coma, wasn't actually Norma but an imposter named Agnes who had stolen her identity.
In the finale, all of this came together in a ridiculous way when Mary tried to shoot Nixon – yes, that Nixon – at the Beach Ball but was thwarted by Linda, the radical feminist secret stepdaughter of Evelyn. The shot ended up accidentally hitting Norma's secretly gay caretaker Robert instead (who was dressed as an astronaut for color). Maxine had a very public breakdown, and Linda was arrested on suspicion of pulling the trigger. Fin.
Palm Royale Season 2, Episode 1 picks up in the midst of this chaos, with Maxine dreaming up the song-and-dance opener as one of her delusions as she's shuffled off to a ritzier portion of the same facility where Linda has been housed in lieu of rotting in jail thanks to some string-pulling by Virginia, who reveals herself to be an FBI agent whose bookstore was a front to entrap radicals. Robert is alive but in a coma, which is a problem for Norma since he knows about the whole Agnes thing. She's trying to lock Maxine out of the family by pushing pregnant Mitzi into the spotlight. Oh, and Mary is hiding out in some eerie bootlegger tunnels underneath Palm Beach.
Thanks to these circumstances, much of this premiere takes the form of Maxine's daydreams, which tend to involve cocktails – martinis, not her usual grasshoppers – and hodgepodge versions of previous events and betrayals. It's Linda, locked up nearby, who's able to snap her out of her straightjacketed daydreaming, leading to a stretch of very funny physical comedy where Maxine escapes, takes a pratfall into a hedge, and sneaks into the ICU where Robert is only to have to hide under a bed when Norma turns up to visit and promises to take revenge on her.
Maxine, with a level of deftness, manages to reach out to Douglas, informing him of the latest turn of events. Upon his arrival, the scene unfolds like a masterful comic vignette, as she turns around, a metaphorical Hannibal Lecter in her own right, having bitten an orderly on the ankle. This absurdity at its finest is Palm Royale at its most exhilarating best, and I'm delighted to report that it hasn't lost any of its witty charm. The dialogue is brimming with zingers, with one-liners that are sure to elicit guffaws from members of the all-star ensemble, almost effortlessly.
Yet, amidst the humorous hijinks, there's no shortage of dramatic plot twists that serve as a kick-starter for the new season. For instance, just as Mitzi is being hailed as the newest addition to the Dellacorte family, Dinah discovers Axel's untimely demise – and the last time we saw him alive, he was with Norma, who appears unphased by the news. Meanwhile, Robert awakens from his coma, and the first word out of his mouth is "Agnes". And Maxine, finally released from her confines, is picked up by her new, albeit reluctant ally, Evelyn, both with designs on securing Palm Beach for themselves.
It's a whirlwind of events presented in the most ridiculous of ways, and it's mostly just a joy to have Palm Royale back, as if it never left in the first place.
