Young Royals S2X03: Everything is terrible and we are in hell

When episode 2 of Young Royals season 2 ended, viewers were treated to a complicated alliance between the Crown Prince (Edvin Ryding) and Simon (Omar Rudberg). Wilhelm attempted to help Simon qualify for a sporting team so that Simon’s grades wouldn’t drop, and therefore his scholarship that allows him to attend Hillerska isn’t in jeopardy. When Young Royals S2X03 picks up, Simon is having some pretty big feelings about the fact that they cheated their way through this task. 

And just like that, we’re right back in the thick of this complicated war that is playing out between them. The differences between these two young men become more and more evident as the pressures of their very different social classes close in on them. It’s not looking good for the future of Wilhelm and Simon. Nor is our emotional state fairing much better.

In Young Royals S2X03 Simon is attempting his quest to compartmentalize his feelings for Wilhelm and move on with Marcus (Tommy Wättring), but much to Simon’s utter dismay, that isn’t going so well either. Everything is terrible and we are in hell!

F%#king Marcus and Simon

Our television is taking quite a beating this season and many projectiles have been thrown in frustration in its general direction. Young Royals S2X03 is no exception. 

Simon’s friends from Bjärstad clearly want Simon to move forward and leave Wilhelm behind. Both of them are overly vocal about the fact that they think Simon should pursue Marcus more aggressively and use him to move on from the Crown Prince – their words, not ours. It’s not particularly sound advice to encourage someone to use another, but we understand the sentiment behind their intentions.

However, If we didn’t already love Simon to pieces, we sure as hell did after this scene. Simon shares that he is struggling with his ability to do this because he feels like Marcus likes him “for real”, ergo implying that Simon doesn’t share the same feelings, and to capitalize on that would be wrong. 

“I don’t get why I can’t fall in love with him,” exasperates Simon. 

It’s pretty obvious that Simon knows that he can’t fall for Marcus because he still loves Wilhelm with his entire soul, but the kid is nothing if not an expert at running from his feelings, and fam, right now Simon is definitely in flight mode.

There is a very profound moment that transpires between Simon and Marcus in this episode. Simon attempts to tell Marcus that he isn’t ready for a relationship. Marcus responds with… wait for it… that he CAN WAIT for Simon for as long as Simon needs. Simon’s reaction is coded, but fam, we saw it. His eyes freeze because, y’all, we recall a certain sexy Latino Swede telling Wilhelm that it was all kinds of preposterous of Wilhelm to expect Simon to wait for him. 

Like a dagger to the heart, this moment clearly impacts Simon. If Marcus, a dude that just met Simon, is willing to wait for Simon’s situation to catch up and sort itself out, surely, SURELY Simon can wait a bit for the boy that his heart so desperately loves? The full-circle rotation of this for Simon is epic. But be careful! If you blink, you just might miss it, so make sure you’re zero’d in and paying all the attention.

We’re raising red flags in relation to Marcus here as well. Simon is explicit and clear in his intentions: He doesn’t want a relationship with Marcus and he doesn’t think he ever will. But Marcus uses people and situations from Simon’s life that are sensitive to him to manipulate the dude into ‘coming around’. Simon is clearly vulnerable right now and Marcus capitalizes on the poor fool’s pain for his own gain. Marcus’ inability to take no for an answer here is no bueno *insert barf noises here*. From here forth, we shall refer to him as F%#king Marcus unless he manages to redeem himself in some way. 

Prominent points of conflict

One of the major conflicts that occurs in Young Royals S2X03, which definitely moves the plot towards a place of eruption, is a moment that occurs between Wilhelm and Simon at school. They are assigned to work on a group project together and before the rest of their group arrives, Wilhelm and Simon have a moment alone. Wilhelm manages to get Simon to admit that he and f%#king Marcus are hanging out. Despite the fact that it’s the truth, speaking these words out loud seems to cause Simon pain, but it does something even more visceral to Wilhelm.

It’s these moments, however, that keep us as viewers sane and invested. It’s bloody obvious from the way that these two fools look at each other that they’re still madly and desperately in love. We don’t care what their words are at this point, because damn, how can these two not be endgame? 

The second thing that happens, which is clearly going to burn the house down, is that the Queen (Pernilla August) officially appoints August (Malte Gårdinger) as next in line to the throne. If Wilhelm refuses to step up and assume his royal responsibilities, that role will go to August. 

OH HELL NO.

You know it, we know it, and the bloody manipulative Queen knows it: Wilhelm will never let August take his place, no matter how much he wants to relinquish himself of all royal obligations. Even if he is thinking about it, even if he wants to just hand it over so he can be with Simon, we refuse to believe that Wilhelm would just give everything to the butt-munch, because it’s what would make August happiest (and Wilhelm is not in the business of making August happy right now).

For our two boys though, we expect this is going to do nothing but further impede anything from solidifying between them.

Shout-outs

In Young Royals S2X03, Simon writes a love song for Wilhelm and gets permission to disguise it as an anniversary song for Hillerska so he can play it in front of all the important people in public. This is, hands-down, a ballsy move, and we stan a man that wears his heart on his sleeve. 

Also please, more of this: Every time Simon sings, angels swoop down from heaven and the world stops spinning on its axis for a moment. It’s all very lovely.

This whole thing is so stupidly romantic and vulnerable that we had to sit down and take a minute. We’re not sure if Wilhelm realizes that this is a song written for him, but nevertheless, the romance of the gesture is sickeningly beautiful. Simon, tell us you’re desperately in love with someone without telling us you’re desperately in love with someone!

Is Simon’s angelic voice powerful enough to end the cold war between them? Please god, say it’s so!

We feel really bad for Wilhelm during this episode. The confines of his life, and his destiny as a monarch, feel stronger than ever. He is so despairingly alone and it’s clear he feels pretty broken. His pain over losing Simon and his desperation to be with him permeates through the screen and is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes. We understand Wilhelm in ways that Simon just can’t right now and we want to wrap him in a blanket and send him an army of puppies to cuddle or something. We’d like to tell him that time heals all wounds, but with Simon up in his face “moving on” everywhere Wilhelm goes, this is pretty heartless information at this point. 

Trash can moments

Today we’ve decided that Simon needs a timeout in the bin because he kisses Marcus in front of Wilhelm. YES FAM, Simon did that. Or rather, Marcus leans in and kisses Simon, but Simon does not shy away from the public display of affection that he knows Wilhelm is watching. We know, okay, we know that Simon did nothing wrong here. He and Wilhelm are not together by any stretch of the imagination. We know that Simon is well within his rights to move on (even if it’s super clear that he doesn’t want to), and we know that Wilhelm, nor us, has any legitimate reason to be upset with the boy, BUT WE ARE.

How could the writers do that to us? How could they do that to Wilhelm? Redemption! We need redemption now!

We’re also throwing Wilhelm into the bin for a moment today because y’all, he put the moves on Felice (Nikita Uggla)! The way our eyes burned as his very-in-love-with-Simon soul attempted to smash lips with his friend brought shivers down our spine. We get it, we understand why he did it. He is trying to convince himself that he can live the life his destiny expects him to (which means finding a female spouse that is very much NOT Simon), but YEESH. Why you gotta do that to us, Netflix?

The Q+ Magazine offices will be billing Netflix for a new television today because y’all, it didn’t survive this episode. 

Bad Wille, bad!

We’re going to wash our mouths and eyes out with soap now and hope that everyone has returned to their senses when we resume our watch party. 

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Young Royals S2X03 is now available to stream on Netflix globally. Stay tuned for episode 4 in a couple of hours! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!