The Royals – Together with Remembrance of Ourselves

By: Luke Joseph

Attention, attention Loyals it felt like forever, but “The Royals” are finally here! Fans have been reunited with the characters they love and love to hate. Fans had been left on quite the cliffhanger as Ted Pryce (Oliver Milburn) got busted for being King Simon’s (Vincent Regan) murderer. Pryce had attended the King’s Cup with the intention to show the rest of the world what happened behind closed doors of the Royal family including who killed Domino. All of the Henstridge’s dirty little secrets would have been revealed causing the family to be seen in an entirely different light. Thankfully, they had gotten wind of this causing them to hatch a backup plan of their own. Just as the video begins to play on the screen it cuts to an entirely darker scene revealing the night that King Simon was murdered. Zooming in on the killer, only for the cameras to capture Pryce standing on the field as the video continues to roll and the second that the people realize the killer is in the stadium, pandemonium strikes and justice is served.

Two weeks might not seem like much, but as we open up to the season three premiere we see how the Henstridge family is dealing with the after result of Pryce being killed. With all the doom and gloom of the truth coming out it seems the people need a little pick me up which results in Prince Liam and Princess Eleanor (William Moseley and Alexandra Park) appearing on a talk show. They draw a couple of laughs as they both claim to have slept with everyone in the audience (teasing of course). It seems like a normal and light interview so far as the host inquires if anyone has caught the Princess’ attention as she subtly states, “There might be a pretty young thing (yeah we see you Bodyguard). The Prince gets to see an example of his adoring fans that are sporting t-shirts they designed pledging their loyalty and support to #KingLiam. Who can we thank for that? Liam’s good friend Wilhelmina (Genevieve Gaunt) who was the trend-setter of the hashtag after leaving a comment on the video. The hashtag alone starts a movement. Back on track everyone seems to be having a good time until the host drops the light act and goes into something darker, inquiring about why they didn’t let the court decide Pryce’s fate immediately causing Liam to tense in his seat as he fumbles with an answer. “In that moment,” he begins. “The people decided,” he continues. Eleanor, sensing how uncomfortable her brother is, steps in and says, “and justice was served.”

Meanwhile, at what seems to be in the middle of nowhere at an abandoned beach, we see a tent pitched up and a helmet inscribed with the initials HRH R. Henstridge. The camera pans to a man standing alone on the beach revealing that it’s the elder and much alive son Robert (Max Brown) as we come face to face and beard with him. It seems that he is battling between wanting to be saved when he grabs his flare gun at the sight of a boat only to a second later extinguish the camp the fire and stay in hiding until the boat is gone. Robert, don’t you want to be saved? Go back home to your family or is the pressures of being a royal to difficult that you rather remain stranded?

Back at the palace, Queen Helena (Elizabeth Hurley) sits down with her children during mealtime wanting to get a quick rundown on what is happening in their lives. It seems that Liam is fulfilling his royal duties, but Eleanor not so much which results in Helena telling Eleanor she has already set a series of meetings for her with merchandisers and manufacturers to endorse a product of her choosing. Not having a choice in the matter, Eleanor is thrown into product meetings making her immediately think “FML” as she sits through a series of useless presentations. That is until James Hill (Rocky Marshall) announces that this next one will be to her liking. Enter Jasper (Tom Austen), or rather Jasper 2.0. He’s different from the first model because this one is more reliable, a little less stubborn and this version is sorry for the last one – promising to never take her endorsement for granted. It’s nice to see that Jasper is owning up to his mistakes and wanting to prove his worth to her. The sales pitch must work because Eleanor agrees to consider taking on Jasper 2.0. Seems like it’s Jasper’s lucky day because after convincing her to take on a product (to which she chose eyeliner) she also finally gives Jasper what he’s been waiting for, forgiveness. Yes! Jaspenor fans rejoice because we’re one step closer to them becoming official and Jasper takes that next step when Eleanor suggests he ask her out tonight. It seems fans aren’t the only ones celebrating as Jasper (down in the tunnels) pulls a John Bender from Breakfast Club practically raising his fist in the air. Since cameras are everywhere, Hill looks on at the screens with a smile and later proceeds to show Eleanor after telling her he’s considering accepting to take the position as King’s security.

Queen Helena is in for a pleasurable yet rude awakening after having Rachel (Victoria Ekanoye) discreetly bring in a gigolo who is being used to help the Queen scratch that itch. Said itch is scratched in a dominating manner and all is more than well until it is revealed that she had actually had sex with the new Lord Chamberlain. Uh oh! Rachel you’re in trouble. So, it seems that Helena had confused the two by believing Huge Grant to be her new Lord Chamberlain while Spencer was the gigolo. Well, that’s definitely not a formal hello but an exhilarating one at that. after an awkward conversation, Helena decides to give her new Lord Chamberlain a chance.

So, what has the dastardly Cyrus (Jake Maskall) been up to? Same ole Cyrus being diabolical as ever and amusingly so like how he had swiped the King’s body to prevent Helena from threatening his crown. Rather than being miffed about this, Helena was fine knowing she could simply take from Cyrus’s DNA, only he wasn’t going to make it easy. Barricading himself in his room, using his doppelganger and well living in a bubble was just many of the examples he did in order to not give Helena what she needed. Though the DNA was a concern, it wasn’t his main priority seeing as Jeffrey Stewart (Matthew Wolf) was still threatening to release the video of the royal family’s dirty little secrets. It results in Cyrus reaching out to Stewart. Cyrus not only offers him a drink, but also a large sum of money to keep his part out (Cyrus taking care of Cyrus, shocking). Looks like money isn’t enough though and just as he’s about to deny the deal he begins to react to the poison that Cyrus had slipped in his drink. Did he offer him an antidote? Yes, but it turns out it was only more poison resulting in Stewart dying. Oh isn’t it ironic? Carrying years and years of hate towards the royals only to be killed by one?

On the outside Liam seems like he’s dealing with the turn of events just fine, but on the inside he’s an absolute mess. The guilt of Pryce’s death and Ophelia’s (Merritt Patterson) pain (who is nowhere to be found) is enough to cause him to go down a reckless path to an underground fight club where for the time he stops fighting his inner demons and instead focuses on fighting the opponent in front of him who he seems to have no problem going up against. Every punch delivered symbolizes everything that is haunting him including the memory of his brother Robert. Battered and bruised after the fight Liam makes his way into a bar striking u a conversation with some unidentified blonde.

It’s the moment Jaspenor fans everywhere have been waiting for as we see Eleanor in her room dressed up for her and Jasper’s date (granted he still needs to ask her out like she said). From the looks of it she’s starting to have cold feet, but before she has the chance to second guess this she hears Jasper announce his presence as he knocks against her door. Wow, he’s really trying to impress her. How many times has he pulled those double doors open and stepped inside without getting told to come in? It seems that Jasper 2.0 has put aside the dominate role and instead is being a gentleman tonight. Getting the okay, the doors open revealing Jasper who is not sporting his usual black but instead a gray blazer. Finally, we’re getting somewhere – only we’re not because doing as directed Jasper asks Eleanor out only for her to tell him she already has plans. What plans you ask? Painting her room. Overalls? So yesterday. Now the way to go is wear a dress and hope you don’t stain it. It’s clear as day that Eleanor is past cold feet (not to mention she doesn’t even have paint), but rather than hang his head down in defeat he instead opts to remove his jacket and join her. Though he’s frustrated, he’s determined and as he’s about to exit the room when her words stop him, “Don’t give up on me,” to which he replies without hesitation, “I won’t ever.”

We’re reached that time that we all dread when the episode is wrapping up and all we want is to remain wrapped up in the episode. We find Cyrus sneaky as ever disposing of Stuart’s body dumping him into the Channel and telling him to say hello to his dead brother Simon. Back in Eleanor’s bedroom, the painting date seems to be running smoothly (I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jasper Frost smile this much, the Bodyguard is smitten) especially when Jasper informs Eleanor that the makeup company wants to meet with her. Apparently, he went above and beyond by not just calling them but paying them a visit. Even with this new bit of info it looks like Eleanor is still hesitant about it having trouble processing why they’d want to meet with her. “People like you Princess, people like you and so do I,” he confesses to her taking the pad of his thumb and sweeping off the paint that had been on her cheek. The way that Eleanor is looking at Jasper is as if she’s seeing him in an entirely different light. Just like the way she had looked at him at the end of Season Two, Episode 10 when Jasper had wrapped his arm around her, drawing her near and providing the safety she sought after the world had come crashing down around her.

It seems that Liam went for more than a drink now finding himself at the still unidentified blonde’s apartment who is tending to his wounds. This seems to go beyond the point of giving the best service to the customer until we end up finding out she’s not a random stranger. She says, “I thought about you a lot. I should have done more for you.” So who is this mystery woman? They certainly seem to have a past. Might that past lead to Robert? All will hopefully be revealed during this upcoming season. What should fans expect? One hell of a season that only The Royals can serve.