Palm Royale Ending Explained: Robert’s Fate Explained

Season 1 of Palm Royale has been building up to a big finale, but then things take a surprising turn, and the ending ends up being tragic. 

There are even more accidental shootings by gunfire, along with some other shocking plot twists. After nine episodes of the Palm Royale cast trying to get their act together, they all come together at the Delacorte mansion for Norma’s Beach Ball, hosted by Maxine and Evelyn specifically for her.

1. Does Robert Die in the Palm Royale Finale?

Robert was shot in the Palm Royale Finale.

So, things got pretty intense in the season 1 finale of Palm Royale. We had been getting hints of some major chaos in the previous episodes, and boy, did it deliver! Episode 5 was a turning point that revealed all the dark secrets from Douglas and Linda’s past.

That revelation set the stage for the rest of the season, which took a much darker turn.

Now, on the big day of Douglas and Linda’s wedding, things took a serious nosedive. Linda, driven by jealousy and paranoia after being manipulated by her fiancé, accidentally shoots her father while trying to take out Douglas. Talk about a major plot twist!

Fast forward twenty years, and we find ourselves at the Beach Ball with Mary, Linda, Robert, and President Nixon. Thanks to Maxine’s impressive skills, she managed to convince the president to attend the event.

Little did anyone know; Mary had cooked up a plan to assassinate Nixon during the Palm Royale finale. She was so close to succeeding, too. She had Linda locked up, the only person who knew about her plan, and she even managed to sneak a gun into the Delacorte mansion.

But, just in time, Linda showed up to save the day. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. When Linda tried to redirect the gun, she accidentally shot Robert instead of the president. Talk about a heart-stopping moment!

The season 1 finale of Palm Royale left us hanging. We don’t know what happened to Robert, and that’s going to be the burning question if the Apple TV+ series gets renewed for season 2. I can’t wait to find out!

2. Could Linda Go To Prison In Palm Royale?

Linda has repeatedly avoided incarceration in Palm Royale due to her wealth and influential contacts. However, the unintentional shooting of Robert could potentially be the incident that lead her to imprisonment.

On the day of her wedding, Linda unintentionally harmed her father with a gunshot.

Norma persuaded everyone who witnessed the event to keep quiet about it to protect her. Despite being a widely known fact in Palm Beach, Linda never faced any consequences for her actions and was burdened with the guilt of hurting her father for the rest of her life.

Upon the demise of Linda’s father, his wife Evelyn threatened to reveal Linda’s dark secret as there were no time limits on prosecuting murder charges.

Although nothing came out of this threat, Linda was nearly apprehended when law enforcement officials stormed her feminist group on suspicion of plotting to kill the president. In the closing scene of Palm Royale’s finale, Linda was seen in possession of the firearm that Mary had used in her attempt to eliminate the president.

Even though Linda had intended to protect the president, her past involvement with her father and the feminist group could potentially be used against her in the second season of Palm Royale.

3. Who Is Agnes In Palm Royale?

The backstory of Norma in Palm Royale remained a mystery until the culmination of the first season. Norma, an heiress to a plastics and mouthwash empire, had her ascension to the throne of Palm Beach shrouded in uncertainty. 

Episode seven of Palm Royale shed light on Axel Rosenhips, Norma’s former lover to whom she was once betrothed before their partnership ended in murky circumstances. In the final episode, Robert engages in a dialogue with Axel that unfolds their shared history and reveals an unexpected revelation regarding Norma’s actual persona.

Norma came into her family’s wealth after her father’s demise during college. Concurrently, her diabetic roommate, Agnes, met an untimely death.

Norma, being diabetic herself, suffered an embolism due to Robert’s mistake in administering her insulin. With this knowledge, Robert deduced that Norma was indeed Agnes in Palm Royale, and her lethal tendencies can be traced back to her college days. 

Agnes/Norma, in reality, killed the authentic Dellacorte heiress and took on her identity, making her an absolute impostor. Nevertheless, if Robert does not leave Palm Royale, this clandestine information might perish with him.

4. Why Maxine Exposed Everyone At The Beach Ball

Maxine had developed an elaborate scheme for the Beach Ball, incorporating Astronaut Herkimer who had saved her when Norma had shoved her overboard during the finale of Palm Royale episode 8.

Herkimer was meant to be the esteemed guest, sharing the spotlight with President Nixon, while Maxine would conclude the evening with a rendition of Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is.”

However, her plan began to crumble almost instantly when Herkimer opted out of attending the Beach Ball following Maxine’s rejection of his advances. Although Maxine managed to trick everyone by dressing Robert in Herkimer’s suit, her performance led to the party’s downfall.

In the moments leading up to her grand performance, Maxine made a shocking discovery: Norma had been scheming to murder her.

Following this revelation, Mitzi admitted to Maxine that she was expecting a child. Under the mistaken belief that Perry was the father of Mitzi’s unborn baby, Maxine urged her to disclose this to him.

The truth surfaced while Maxine was onstage – Mitzi had been involved with Douglas. Consequently, Maxine turned her performance into an opportunity to unmask everyone in Palm Beach’s high society, having reached a point where she had nothing to lose.

5. Norma’s Proposal In The Palm Royale Finale Explained

Halfway through Palm Royale season 1, Norma returned to the Delacorte mansion and was left under Maxine’s conservatorship.

This conservatorship meant that as long as Norma couldn’t care for herself, Maxine was in charge of her care and finances. This gave Maxine unlimited access to Norma’s wealth, but as Norma began to recover secretly, she hatched a plan to regain her fortune and get rid of Maxine once and for all.

After multiple attempts to kill Maxine failed, Norma came up with a different way to be free of her and her conservatorship. Her closest companion in Palm Royale has been Robert, and she proposed to him, hoping he’d protect her.

However, Robert had also gotten closer to Maxine and started to see through Norma’s agenda against her. When he realized that Norma was Agnes, he denied Norma’s proposal. With Maxine confessing everything and the shooting at the Beach Ball, Norma could be free of the conservatorship, but she already lost Robert.

6. Nixon’s Role In The Palm Royale Finale Explained

The historical backdrop of Palm Royale is integral to the narrative, providing a clear understanding of the societal divide in Palm Beach and across the nation. It was 1969, America had been embroiled in the Vietnam War for nearly a decade and a half, and President Nixon was on the brink of a reelection. 

The landmark Roe vs. Wade decision was not passed by the Supreme Court for another four years, even though the second wave of feminism steadily gained momentum, as depicted by the characters Linda, Virginia, and their acquaintances.

They were emblematic of a burgeoning progressive wave, whereas Maxine and her associates at Palm Royale stood for the traditional stance.

The conflicting ideologies of these characters often led to tense situations, culminating in a dramatic climax in Palm Royale’s first season finale.

Following her interactions with Linda’s friends in the seventh episode of Palm Royale, Mary underwent a radical transformation, convinced that assassinating the president was the ideal solution to the world’s issues. 

This notion served as the trigger for the Beach Ball catastrophe. However, Nixon’s presidency and the deep-seated divisions it perpetuated had always been an underlying theme throughout Palm Royale.

7. About Palm Royale

Palm Royale is a ten-part period comedy-drama television miniseries created by Abe Sylvia, based on the 2018 novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel. The series premiered on March 20, 2024, with the first three episodes.

Set in 1969, outsider Max Simmons (Kristen Wiig) strives to attain a place in Palm Beach high society through the town’s most exclusive resort club, in the process learning what she will and won’t do to achieve this