The 6th episode of Palm Royale reveals Evelyn’s true colors after a really long time, but it also leaves you quite sad. The episode turns out super entertaining despite a few slow moments that felt a bit unnecessary. The show continues to amuse with its little girl-vibe jokes and feminist delight. It’s honestly the exact kind of thing I’m happy to come back to after a long day of work. Episode 5 gave us two shocking twists: one of which is that the prince who seduced Robert and left him high and dry is back, and the second is that Maxine has a twin sister (wait, what?). Also, the whole Linda tangent is hilarious. This episode gives us double Kristen Wiig, and she’s honestly so great with the accent and the double role; it’s just too good. On the other hand, I’m not entirely sure where things will go with that mid-season shocker, when there are still a few episodes left. What more can shock us? Another alligator, perhaps? Guess we’ll have to wait to find out, but until then, let’s recap episode 6.
Spoiler Alert
What Happens Between Tom and Robert?
Episode 6 of Palm Royale begins with Linda telling us about her new adventures. The money arrived in the nick of time, but it also made her realize it’s best if she leaves Che’s cousin and moves to a different country, because her big realization is that maybe she’s meant to be a nomad, moving through men like clothes at Ceil’s. She’s now off to Russia, in love with a Russian dancer, and goes by her new name, Olga Richbitchskaya (yes, we did notice). But in the meantime, back home, Maxine’s lost everything that she ever worked for. Now it appears Virginia has a new task for Maxine, and it’s to figure out who Pinky’s working for, because J. Edgar is convinced there are Russian mobsters in Palm Beach. Now, Maxine’s club is the hotspot for this Pinky situation, so for the moment, he needs to keep doing what he’s doing so the mole will automatically reveal themselves.
But when Maxine gets home, she’s shocked to see her reflection sleeping peacefully on the couch. Robert is just as surprised, having thought it was Maxine all along, but it turns out it’s her twin sister, Mirabelle. Back at the “Palm Royale,” Evelyn makes sure that everybody knows Maxine isn’t welcome there. Back home, Maxine gets to know her sister and learns that she lived with their parents, because they could apparently handle just the one (ouch). Now, while Raquel comes over to set up her nightclub at the Dellacorte, Pinky tells Evelyn that he’s going to take a cut in cash from the Palm’s earnings.
Maxine gets a call from Evelyn and talks to her as if she’s having a seizure (Evelyn’s words) because Virginia’s got the house bugged and Maxine wants to share some little secrets with Evelyn. They decide to meet at Ceil’s to try on gloves. At the same time, Dinah’s helping Mitzi plan her “Braby” shower (bridal+baby) while receiving money and death threats thanks to her little speech at the dance. Back at the motel, Robert meets his prince again; this time he wants him to go away with him, but after sharing a passionate kiss, Robert promptly sends the guy away, only for Tom to have seen the whole thing. However, Robert does make one sloppy mistake, and that is to let it slip to Reginald that Tom is gay (oh no). Ironically, he doesn’t even realize he’s telling a conman that his boyfriend is the agent who arrested him. Later at night, Tom admits to having seen the kiss, but Robert tells him that he’s going to have his cop boyfriend “arrest him again.” Now Tom has to do some damage control.
On the other hand, in the afternoon sauna, Pinky kind of threatens Doug because he disappeared on him without a word. So, as revenge, Pinky needs to be announced as the godfather of the child. Maxine meets Evelyn in the changing rooms to try on gloves and have an important discussion. She tells her about the Pinky situation but also asks if she can be let back into the club. Now, Evelyn and Maxine both think that Norma would kill somebody in this situation (huh). Later at night, Maxine’s chilling with her sister, and they’re having a little slumber party. Her deepest secret is that she thinks she can’t love anybody other than Doug (aww). The next day, at the “Braby” shower, Mitzi finds out that Raquel and Pinky are going to be the godparents of her baby and immediately goes up in fumes. But it looks like Douglas literally cannot care and walks out of the event, straight to the Dellacorte. Meanwhile, Evelyn lets her husband know that they might be planning on killing somebody, and he opts out of the whole thing. Guess that’s okay with her.
Now, Maxine leaves Mirabelle alone at home to wash the car so that she can go through the tunnels to find Evelyn at the club. Mirabelle is a distraction for Virginia (and boy does she distract; get it, girl!). She’s then interrupted by Douglas, who promptly talks about how she looks like she’s done something different with her hair. Douglas tells Mirabelle (whom he thinks is Maxine) that he wants out of this whole dangerous situation and that he can’t believe he left the love of his life because of some Cuban mobster and greed. Mirabelle says she’s got a plan but can’t tell him because they’re now exes (still as Max). She implies that she’d happily take him back once he’s got the money. But Raquel hears the whole thing. Robert goes to find Tom at the agency and tells him that he really didn’t mean to make this blunder, but Tom tells him that Reginald’s been caught and Tom is meant to interrogate him, which means he’ll either blackmail him or tell the other agents he’s gay. Either way, Tom loses. But before they part ways, Tom hands Robert a file on Mirabelle, who is a con artist of a sort herself, along with other illegal things.
What Happens to Mirabelle?
Back at Ceil’s, Maxine tells Evelyn that the way to get to Pinky is through tax evasion (thanks to her conversation with Mirabelle about their parents). Now, to make sure this happens, the thing they need to do is get their hands on Pinky’s ledger, and this is easy, because he goes to the sauna at 2 every afternoon, the only time he doesn’t have anything on him. At the same time, Raquel reveals herself to be Russian mafia, I think? She speaks in Russian, and Mirabelle and she get into a full-on, full-house fight. What I mean by this is they go through the whole house while fighting. Eventually, Mirabelle wins, leaving Raquelle tied up on the bed as she escapes through the trapdoor herself, wearing a yellow dress very similar to the one Maxine was wearing earlier.
At the Palm, Evelyn and Maxine send Douglas to distract Pinky while they look for the ledger, but they don’t find it, because it was never with him, all while Pinky tells Douglas he fumbled with Maxine by letting her go. Back at home, Robert’s looking for Maxine and gets a call from Norma, who claims she’s going to take revenge because her home is being turned into a club. Robert tells Virginia what’s happening and even hands her the file on the twin. Meanwhile, Mirabelle shows up at the Palm, and since Evelyn’s told them to now treat her like a queen (Maxine), she gets asked if she wants caviar or cake. She says yes to both and gets snacking while Douglas shows up, surprised to see her chilling again. Anyway, the conversation leads to Mirabelle and Douglas getting together romantically (Douglas still believing she’s Maxine). But we don’t really see anything, I guess, because it’s meant to be something she’s kind of ashamed of.
Finally, Maxine shows up, and Robert has told her that Mirabelle isn’t who she thinks she is. But the sisters get along just fine, and Mirabelle tells her that a handsome gay conman told her that she has a twin sister and he wanted her to go see her. He was meant to give her instructions, but the instructions never came, so Mirabelle decided to meet her sister anyway, because who wouldn’t? It’s a sweet moment, and you can tell it’s genuine. But then she also tells Maxine that Douglas really loves her because they ended up sleeping together. Maxine leaves Mirabelle, because she needs to marinate in her thoughts, while Mirabelle says she’ll wait by the pool to have a longer conversation about this whole thing. But not before she’s given Maxine the ledger, which she probably got from Raquel.
In Palm Royale episode 6’s ending, Maxine gives Evelyn the ledger, and everything seems to be falling into place, but is it? Virginia and Robert know that Maxine needs to be kept safe, because Norma is after her. Robert also worries that Mirabelle might hurt her, too, but Maxine is certain she won’t do anything. However, the shocking ending of the episode sees Mirabelle shot, lying face down in the pool with Evelyn standing over her, while Maxine, Robert, and Virginia look on from behind. Now, either Evelyn shot Mirabelle, thinking she’s Maxine, or Norma did, but in this situation, it clearly looks like Evelyn was the one responsible, because she wants everything for herself, of course.
