Palm Royale's Season 2 has undeniably hit its peak of absurdity, and it doesn't seem like it's about to slow down anytime soon. Episode 7, titled "Maxine Plays Dead," is arguably the episode that moves the overarching plot forward the least, but it also boasts perhaps the highest concentration of one-liners of any other episode thus far. Another silly premise—a bit more restrained than Maxine suddenly having a twin sister, but only just—serves as an excuse for heaps of very funny comedy and a teeny bit of genuine drama. I loved it, even if I can't quite pinpoint where it would rank overall in the season.
Mirabelle is dead, and there can be no doubt about it. But it was Norma who killed her, not Evelyn, even though the composition of the final scene in the previous episode sort of implied it a bit. The hook here is that nobody knew about Mirabelle, so everyone thinks Maxine's dead. Virginia's bright idea is that her presumed death could be used to bait out the serial killer (Norma), but that means Maxine keeping herself to herself for a while, which she's pathologically incapable of doing. There's also a funny bit where Ann, Dinah, and Evelyn all have to identify Maxine's body and immediately intuit that it's not her, even though she and Mirabelle were literally identical. I don't know why that tickled me so much, but here we are.
Anyway, Maxine is restless, and in roaming around the motel she's supposed to be hiding out in, she makes an immediate best friend of Bruce. Having a non-judgmental (of her; wildly judgmental of everyone else) gay best friend unlocks a new level of giddy troublemaking for Maxine. It's amazing how much mileage "Maxine Plays Dead" gets out of this. These two are a superb double act, especially since Robert is uncharacteristically furious with Maxine about the deception and Douglas is over-the-top devastated, both of which give Maxine and Bruce much more to riff on.
It also helps that Dinah, Evelyn, and Ann all end up locked up in the same motel. Close, unwanted proximity is always funny. All the emotions intensify, especially Maxine's determination to make Mitzi suffer, since Douglas's grief—seemingly earnest—has made her feel much less like she has been replaced by a newer, younger model than she did before. The only downside of this whole dynamic is that it short-changes Robert's search for Tom, who has been quietly shuffled on professionally. He even has a candid conversation with Tom's wife in which she refuses to even pass on a simple goodbye.
Naturally, Maxine doesn't just ignore the instruction to remain in hiding; she attends a party with Bruce's friends—there's an absurd density of great one-liners here—and snoops around her own funeral, which she has been specifically instructed to stay away from (for obvious reasons). Bruce provides constant endorsements of her terrible plans, which include going to visit Mirabelle—who, lest we forget, she knew for all of about five minutes—in her coffin. She isn't there, however, since Douglas, with help from Perry, got her cremated, believing her to be Maxine.
You can sense the direction this is heading, and Palm Royale Season 2, Episode 7 delves into it with glee. As Maxine's about to get caught, she hides in the casket, effectively attending her own funeral. And her funeral is a riot. Evelyn hosts the whole thing with a distinct air of someone who'd rather be anywhere else, Douglas is beside himself with anxiety, Mary tries to deliver messages from beyond the grave, and Bruce is there in disguise, trying to give his ex a romantic message. It's all silly, but incredibly funny, culminating in the kind of theatricality you'd expect from such a show.
But we're heading to Switzerland in the next episode, for various reasons. Dinah is on a mission to retrieve a Fabergé egg for Miss Post, who turns out to be the one who was sending her threatening letters as revenge for Dinah ruining things between her and Richard Nixon (she threatens to out Dinah as Nixon's mistress if she doesn't comply). Douglas needs to take Maxine there for some legal reasons pertaining to the divorce. And Norma and Robert – who is Norma's son – seem to be absconding there. So, all roads must converge, leaving Palm Beach at the mercy of the mysterious Jed, who has his hooks in Evelyn and seems to be conspiring with Mitzi to defraud the wealthy denizens. That leaves the remaining episodes with plenty to do. Hopefully, they're all as funny as this one.
