Young Royals S2X01: Hillerska is BACK!

If you’re reading this, we’re absolutely sure that you’ve seen and screamed at the ending of Young Royals Season 1. Well, fam, it’s November 1st and that means Young Royals season 2 is upon us! All our favorites are back, some with vengeance on their minds, and this season wastes no time getting down to business. With only six episodes available to resolve all the issues that came to light in season 1, Young Royals S2X01 is an absolute firecracker. 

At the end of the last season, Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) enveloped Simon (Omar Rudberg) in a very public embrace and whispered into his ear that he loved him. After their even more public outing and the sex scandal that ensued, then the subsequent way that Wilhelm left Simon out to dry, this particular moment had us hollering late into the night. 

The look of utter fury and resolve that Wilhelm shot down the barrel of the camera as the last shot of season 1 came to a close left us wondering many things about his intentions for the crown and his place within it. Well, Young Royals S2X01 opens with a bang that we just weren’t ready for!

Screams were heard through the Q+ Magazine offices as the opening scene of episode 1 flooded our screens. While the future of Wilmon’s relationship seemed completely up in the air at the conclusion of season 1, S2X01 opens with the two of them butt naked and very much engaged in steamy sexy time. 

The *tudum* echoes through the room only to be replaced by the sounds of heavy breathing, hands dragging across naked skin, and lips sensually colliding with lips.

But, hot damn, it’s just a freaking dream! Wilmon are not actually in the same room doing the dance-with-no-pants at all.

Why you gotta play us like that, Netflix?

However, if this moment doesn’t set the tone for the rest of season 2, we don’t know what does. Here are our thoughts on Young Royals S2X01.

Idiots in love

It’s pretty clear that not a lot of time has passed since the end of season 1. However many weeks Christmas vacation occurs for in Sweden is all the time that has passed, so when the two boys return to school and they’re clearly still stupidly in love with each other, this is not a surprise to us. 

What is a bit of a surprise though, is how they go about showing this. Wilhelm is having raunchy dreams about their sex life and he returns to school clearly hoping that Simon will give him the time of day. Their first meeting is awkward but also not at the same time, and the chemistry that exists between these two dudes is still palpable, maybe even more than it was in season 1. They can’t even look at each other without their feelings bleeding into the space around them. 

Excuse us for a moment while we go and melt into a puddle of goo.

It’s pretty clear that Wilhelm is rolling with the punches and allowing his feelings to dictate his actions, however, it’s also clear that he hasn’t really resolved any of the issues that being Crown Prince creates for him and Simon. Wilhelm, precious baby boy that he is, is obviously still madly in love with Simon – as his words at the end of season 1 revealed – but the dude doesn’t seem to know how the hell to sort out his life issues to make it work for them. 

Simon, however, comes to school with a game plan. Simon told Wilhelm at the end of season 1 that he respected that Wilhelm needed time to work through whatever obligations and expectations the Crown was placing on him, but that he would have to do that alone – without Simon. 

Despite this, their reunion scene is explosive. It all happens very publicly (because nothing seems to happen for them in private) and Wilhelm looks at Simon with utter nervousness and expectation. You can practically hear the unspoken words coming off of him: do you love me? Please tell me you love me! Do you remember I told you that I love you? 

Boy please, your Simonsexuality is showing! (we don’t think he cares). 

Simon, however, is looking at Wilhelm with big, deer-in-headlight eyes, almost as if he doesn’t expect to see Wilhelm back at the school. Simon’s face is filled with trepidation, but the unspoken love he has for the Crown Prince is impossible to ignore. 

However, despite how whipped for Wilhlem Simon obviously still is, he is holding his ground and maintaining his line: Wilhelm will have to travel this path of self-discovery alone. 

So, for the entire duration of Young Royals S2X01 Wilmon are walking around like a couple of idiots in love, but definitely idiots who are not together. 

The angst and pain of it all!

Who the F%#k is Marcus!?

Netflix is clearly determined to make us squirm. Viewers are introduced to Marcus (Tommy Wättring) within minutes of the Young Royals S2X01 opening. When we watched this episode, Netflix had not released any promotional material at all, so our staffers were completely unaware that Marcus even existed. At the time of our viewing, Google didn’t know who Marcus was, and IMDB had not included anyone called Marcus in the character list for this show.

So when he walked into the Eriksson’s home, and consequently our lives, the shouts and cries of ‘who the F%#k is Marcus’ were yelled into the abyss. Mutterings of oh hell no, no Simon no, and, this cannot be happening also ensued with great urgency. Meltdowns were had.

Marcus comes home with Sara (Frida Argento) from the stables, but fam, he doesn’t play for her team. Marcus is gay as the day is long, and he is lured into Simon’s bedroom by the sultry tones of his beautiful singing voice. Sparks fly between the two young men immediately. 

Well okay, we’re not exactly sure that it’s fair to say that sparks are flying on Simon’s end, but he definitely enjoys the attention. And he definitely understands that Marcus is hitting on him.

We spy with our queer eyes a messy love triangle that will leave us all screaming WHY OH WHY!

Wilhelm and August

Apart from coming back to school to see Simon (which he doesn’t seem to have any idea of how to navigate), Wilhelm returns to Hillerska with a very clear agenda that centers on taking down August (Malte Gårdinger). August tries to get Wilhelm back on his side the minute he returns to school, but Wilhelm just isn’t having it. 

We mean bruh, you released a sex tape of your cousin doing the dance with no pants for the first time ever and the whole world saw. Forgiveness is not really on the table right now. Or in the foreseeable future. Or maybe ever.

Wilhelm shares his feelings about August with Felice (Nikita Uggla) who doesn’t exactly try to dissuade Wilhelm (or at least not very successfully) from his attempts at ruining the young man’s life. 

As far as the Q+ Magazine staffers are concerned, August is a butt and deserves everything that comes his way. We stan a thing called karma in this house and we hope she is in a spirited mood when she visits August at Hillerska. Every single time that kid crosses our screen, someone in the office throws something at the television and hopes like hell it knocks him off his hoity-toity semi-royal throne. 

Boy, bye!

Shout-outs

In all of our reaction reviews, we’ll be shouting out some memorable moments that occurred throughout the episode. In S2x01, we were pretty happy to see Simon’s friends encouraging Simon to put himself first in his relationship with Wilhelm. Even though Simon puts on a brave face for Wilhelm, he does express his weaknesses and desires that are lingering for Wilhelm to Ayub (Inti Zamora Sobrado) and Rosh (Beri Gerwise). Because he is able to talk with his friends and sort out his feelings, Simon winds up voicing clearly to Wilhelm how much he, the Crown Prince, hurt Simon, and that he really just needs time and space to process everything that has happened to him. 

For characters that are so young, this was such an important moment (and such a healthy one). Often teen dramas allow their characters to get so caught up in the lovey-dovey moments that they end up making choices that sacrifice themselves and portray unhealthy and unrealistic representations of what young relationships should look like. 

Shout-out to the Young Royals crew for ensuring that Simon takes care of himself first, even when he wants nothing more than to give into Wilhelm’s emotionally unhealthy, albeit instantly gratifying requests. 

Trash can moments

Likewise, as with shout-outs, we’ll also be sending characters, or moments, for a visit to the bin in our reaction reviews, because there is just so much that happens in this season. Our first visitor to the trash for a short stay in S2x01 is Sara. The fool is in love with August and is still prioritizing her relationship with him over doing the right thing by her brother. There is no space for folks like that in our wheelhouse, so we’re putting her in the bin! 

We would like to take a moment to say that we understand that Sara’s disability sometimes interferes with her actions and interactions with others. However, she has demonstrated many times that she does understand right from wrong, and she does understand nuance. We also understand that many folks are going to have a lot of feelings about Sara’s behavior in S2 and there is space for all opinions to coexist (and we might even be able to learn something from each other through our discourse). It’s very clear that Sara knows that choosing August over Simon is wrong – and folks, that’s exactly what she is doing here.

Along with Sara, we’re sending Kristina (Pernilla August) to the bin. The queen is still being the queen *rolls eyes*. In a moment of insane jealousy after seeing Simon on Instagram singing live with Marcus, Wilhelm calls the queen and tells her that he doesn’t want to be Crown Prince anymore. He demands he be put on speaker so he can voice this request himself and threatens to go live on Instagram if she won’t. Instead of trying to support her son through his difficult time, she tells him that he is being hysterical. Not one time during this whole ordeal since his brother died, has this woman stepped up and acted like Wilhelm’s mother. 

Not one single time. 

We do not stan parents that put their work (even if they are royalty) before their kids. Therefore, the queen also goes into the bin in this episode.  

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Young Royals S2X01 is now available to stream on Netflix globally. Stay tuned for episode 2 in a couple of hours! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!