Pills & Hotdogs
Episode 2 of Young Royals Season 1 begins with contrasting breakfasts after the evening’s events. While Nils rates his experience with a girl 9/10, her feelings are much more apathetic. It’s an amusing juxtaposition, one that’s eventually broken up by the hired help showing and snapping the group out of their chanting. As the kids head off to class, Felice seizes her opportunity to get closer to Wilhelm. Only, she’s interrupted by Simon who blocks her off. When they head into class, Simon realizes his grades aren’t up to scratch when he gets his papers back. He meets his teacher, Mr Englund, afterwards and they agree to do extra lessons. At the stables, Sara encourages Felice to get nearer to the horses. Sara gives her some advice over how to handle the animals, allowing her to soften and actually see Sara in a friendlier light. One person who isn’t seeing things in a better light is Wilhelm. He sleeps in but finds himself interrupted by August, who convinces him to get up and attend practice. He’s pretty intense, and his constant berating of Simon wins him no favours with Wilhelm. After buying all the booze for the party, August still hasn’t paid Simon back. He’s starting to get angsty about this too, especially as he needs that money. After nonchalantly brushing him off and claiming he’ll transfer it later, August runs into trouble. After the tragedy in his past – with his Father killing himself – it’s clearly taken its toll on him. August shows up to see the doctor, desperate to get a prescription of pills. Instead he’s told an assessment will take weeks and he’ll have to wait. That evening, Wilhelm shows up at football practice with Simon. They watch and cheer from the wings as they eat hotdogs and have a great time. The smile on Wilhelm’s face is telling, as he finally feels like he’s found his place. What he doesn’t realize however, is that this whole event has been filmed. When Wilhelm heads home, August and Nils inevitably confront him. They place him on dinner duty for the whole week. He’s not happy that Wilhelm has left and claims he needs to be careful what company he keeps. Wilhelm is desperate to keep this perfect image of himself, and he messages Simon, asking him to delete it. Later that day, August is questioned about unpaid tuition fees. He claims his parents are off traveling, making up an excuse. Although the teachers let him off, it’s clear this is going to come back to haunt him. August is also running low on pills too. He still hasn’t paid Simon back either, but he does agree to pay double if he can get him some pills. So this inevitably sees Simon head back home and raiding his Father’s stash once more. When Simon hands the pills over later that day, August speaks up in front of everyone and lavishes praise on the kid. It seems to be a turning point for him but that night, during a movie, Simon and Wilhelm end up touching hands. It’s something that rattles Wilhelm, especially when he realizes what this means. He heads off to get some air, with Simon following. Alone together, the pair share a tentative kiss.
The Episode Review
Young Royals returns for a really solid episode, one that deepens the tie between Simon and Wilhelm. It’s clear the pair have a great connection and do like each other, but Wilhelm is definitely conflicted over his feelings. It’s a good dynamic the pair have too, one that’s helped by a deeper understanding of August, Sara and Felice’s motivations. August in particular is a really fascinating character and there’s clearly more going on with him than we first thought. Dealing with loss and grief, he’s clearly projecting himself into this alpha male position. This need for control and dominance is understandably linked to the pain he’s feeling but it also looks set to explode in a messy way with Wilhelm – given what we’ve seen so far. Either way, Young Royals has been a really solid teen drama and the ending laves the door wide open for more.
