Young Royals S2X05: This is not a drill, it’s happening y’all – IT’S REALLY HAPPENING!

Episode 4 of Young Royals season 2 ended with Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) and Simon (Omar Rudberg) hiding out at the masked Valentine’s Day ball with their lips wrapped around each other – FINALLY. Much cheering and hollering ensued as this moment played out on our screens, and consequently, we now have high expectations for Young Royals S2X05. 

We’ve been going through it this season, as have Wilhelm and Simon, so we’re hesitant to get our hopes up too soon about a proper Wilmon reunion, but sheesh y’all, how glorious was that kiss!? 

However, Wilmon are nothing if not breakers of our hearts, and when we pressed play on episode 5, the juxtaposing emotions that are taking place in the first scene shattered any hope that we had for a couple of episodes of a ‘happily ever after.’

Since entering this fandom, we’ve decided we like pain so much that we eat it for breakfast now – how about you? 

As Young Royals S2X05 kicks off, Simon is sitting in his room pushing his face into Wilhelm’s jumper that he “borrowed” and there are tears in his eyes. 😩🤧😭 Simon is clearly stressed about what he and Wilhelm did and doesn’t seem to be doing too well with his conscience. After all, Simon was at the ball with another boy, and despite the fact that it’s clear that Simon still desperately loves Wilhelm, kissing said love while you’re on a date with another isn’t really great behavior. 

We also think he’s having some pretty intense emotions about Wilhelm in general. Despite his effort, he can’t move on, and the round of tonsil hockey that ensued at the ball is proof of that. In Young Royals S2X05 Simon can’t deny this to himself anymore.

Meanwhile, Wilhelm is standing in the shower clearly thinking about the kiss that transpired between himself and his love and he’s grinning happily, unable to keep the joy from his face. We’re happy for Wilhelm because that feeling is the best, but we’re also really scared that the kiss doesn’t mean what he thinks it does. Simon has definitely been calling the shots this season, and right now he doesn’t seem to be okay with their passionate exchange. We want them to be happy so badly, but we just can’t see a way through the fog!

The struggle is real

Simon takes his struggles to Sara (Frida Argento) and tells her that he kissed Wilhelm at the ball. Sara is shocked at first but when Simon tells her that he wanted the kiss so much, she tells him that he can’t help the way he feels. So far, this is the only time where we feel that Sara has behaved in a supportive manner towards her brother during this season, whether he knows that or not. We also picked up on the double meaning of her words, however, we would rather not talk about her and the butt-munch at this juncture. But we see you Sara, and we hear what you’re saying.

Despite her words, Simon’s heaviness is not alleviated at all. 

Then, because the kid wasn’t already going through it enough, Jan-Olof (Magnus Ehrner) demands that the choir sings the traditional Hillerka song, instead of the one that Simon composed (for Wilhelm). Felice (Nikita Uggla) tells him that the royal family clearly doesn’t want any more rumors about Simon and Wilhelm and this is probably why Jan-Olof pulled his song. 

Now Simon isn’t just feeling guilty and miserable over the kiss, he’s pissed that any association he has with Wilhelm will likely undercut his opportunities to shine in life. 

And just like that, in Young Royals S2X05 everything is terrible and we’re all back in hell again. 

Secrets, confessions, and mayhem

Wilhelm knows something is up with Simon so he approaches him in the music room. We call this space the ‘Music Room of Doom’ because whenever Wilhelm and Simon are together in there, they end up fighting. 

And yo, this time is no different at all. 

If you’re not sitting down, you might want to, because this one is a real doozy.

Look, we get that Simon is pissed about the fact that he can’t sing his song, but our hearts hurt a little too much when he decides to take it out on Wilhelm. Simon tells Wilhelm what happened at choir practice and Wilhelm knows immediately that Simon is pissed at him. 

Again, we’re siding with Wilhelm this time (but only a little, we do really understand Simon here too). The complicated expression that washes over his face is clear: Wilhelm doesn’t feel like he has any control, or power, to fix this situation. And when he communicates that with Simon, Simon claps back that the song is written about him. 

Mic-freaking-drop.

Wilhelm’s face here is priceless. 

Felice knew the song was about Wilhelm. Even Jan-Olof knew the song was about Wilhelm. How is it that Wilhelm didn’t know the song was about Wilhelm?

“Ohh,” breathes the daft fool, as the news settles into his soul. 

Meanwhile, as the Crown Prince takes his time digesting this new information in Young Royals S2X05, the Q+ Magazine staffers were rolling on the floor cackling at Wilhelm’s sheer dumbassery (we are really sorry for laughing at your pain Wilhelm, but the little ooohhh you expelled was so adorable). Our tears of laughter were quickly replaced by tears of agony though because Simon goes for the jugular and picks a fight about who has suffered more from the release of their sex tape. 

It becomes very clear to Wilhelm (and us) during this fight that he’s losing Simon, that too much has happened, too much hurt has transpired between them and too much damage has been done to salvage what they have. But Wilhelm is nothing if not impulsive this season, and in a last-ditched effort to salvage what is left of them, he drops the bomb that August (Malte Gårdinger) is the one who leaked the video. 

And Simon loses his freaking mind. 

Wilhelm’s mental health

By Young Royals S2X05 it’s pretty clear that Wilhelm is experiencing some intense mental health issues. By this episode, he’s already started seeing the Sandal-Wearing-Socialist as a countermeasure, but the way he responds to emotional situations sits in stark juxtaposition to how Simon deals with the same issues.

We want to protect, protect, protect. 

When Simon walks off after their fight, he gets on the bus with the fury of a thousand suns vibrating off of him. However, Simon pulls out his phone and texts Ayub (Inti Zamora Sobrado). This is something he does frequently when he is presented with overwhelming or challenging situations: he reaches out to those he loves and leans into his support system. 

Wilhelm doesn’t do that. Wilhelm can’t do that because he’s all alone in this mess. In this particular scene, he calls exactly no one, because who is he going to call? Instead, he chooses to kick over one of the drums in the music room as his anger at what just transpired erupts from within. He can’t control this situation, he can’t get what he wants, and he doesn’t know how to harness his emotions. 

Erik (Ivar Forsling) was his go-to person for everything, and with him gone, Wilhelm has no one he can lean on for support. Although he has befriended Felice, it’s clear that they’re not close enough for Wilhelm to turn to for this, and there isn’t anyone in his family that actually supports him as Wilhelm – the human – instead of Wilhelm, the Crown Prince.

Wilhelm doesn’t talk about his feelings with anyone except the Sandal-Wearing-Socialist and all the negative emotions he has been collecting since the release of the sex video are sitting inside of him, churning around like lava swishing around in a volcano. The Crown Prince is officially an anxious mess and we fear that unless he gets some reprieve soon, he might just blow. 

He has no real friends he can rely on, his family treats him like a political pawn, and the one person who should be his safe space – the boy he loves – has pushed him so far away they may as well live on different planets. Wilhelm’s harrowing loneliness is heartbreaking to watch unfold in Young Royals S2X05.

In Young Royals S2X05 Wilhelm’s anxiety is clearly getting the better of him at the end of this scene, and it kicks into overdrive later in the episode. With his head over the sink, he vomits up all the tensions swirling around inside of him before he surrenders himself to his bed, paralyzed by it all. 

See? Must protect, protect, protect.

Abdication, what now?

Perhaps one of our most favorite lines from the entire show is delivered in the middle of this episode by Ayub (Inti Zamora Sobrado). Armed with the new information about August being responsible for releasing the sex tape, Simon decides that he wants to give that information over to the police. Around the same time that Simon makes this choice, Wilhelm learns that the Queen (Pernilla August) is preparing for August to take over Wilhelm’s role as Crown Prince if Wilhelm can’t get his disaster-gay shit together. Wilhelm does something that we could not have predicted.

He goes to Simon’s place and shows up unannounced as Simon is getting home with his friends. He shares with Simon that August is next in line of succession and if August is arrested, then that opportunity for Wilhelm to step down – for them – goes away.

Ayub and Rosh (Beri Gerwise) are watching this very emotional monologue from Wilhelm and as the Prince turns and walks away, Ayub delivers a serve.

“Did he just say he’d renounce the throne for you?”

Ayub is flabbergasted, Simon is flabbergasted, and yo, we were flabbergasted too.

But in all seriousness, this is Wilhelm telling Simon that the Crown Prince has a choice to make. He can choose a life free of the monarchy and let August take over, which involves Simon, or he has to take on the responsibilities of the monarchy, and we all know that means no Simon.

Imagine having to make that decision – this very huge, life-altering decision – at sixteen years old. As the realities of this new situation, the sacrifice that Wilhelm is willing to make, settle into Simon’s bones, we can’t help but wonder how the pressures of such a burden would impact a relationship in the long term.

Learning from lesbians

There is a really cute and important scene that takes place in this episode between Simon and Wilhelm that allows them to communicate cryptically about their feelings. They’re in class – because that’s where all really important, deeply emotional gay conversations should take place – and they’re working on their class project. They chose a book by a queer Swedish author about the breakdown of a lesbian relationship that seems strangled by the confines of an antiquated institution that is preventing them from being together.

Seems on brand.

As they discuss the characters in the book, it’s pretty clear that Simon and Wilhelm are actually talking in code about their own situation. There has been no conceding from either of them throughout this season about who should compromise for the other (until Wilhelm showed up at Simon’s with the abdication bomb), but here, in this conversation, they’re finally able to acknowledge that they’re probably both a little wrong.

Simon says that, in the book, the character was brought up in a religious institution that restricted many things about the way she had to live. He says it’s not her fault that things are so terrible for her and her partner. Wilhelm interjects that the character in the book probably wishes she could just ignore all the rules she is governed by and just live her life.

Now call us crazy but we know of this young royal dude that is also being held hostage by the confines of an antiquated institution that is preventing him from being with the one he loves. And we also know that the institution in question is literally the only thing that is keeping them apart at this point in time.

What are the odds that Wilmon chose a book that mirrored their own freaking situation? It was the last book left that no one else had selected? How gay– err convenient, we mean convenient.

Fellas is it gay to compare yourselves to two lesbians and surreptitiously talk out your feelings for each other in public? Cus that feels pretty gay to us.

For real though, this moment is so important because it’s the first time that Simon shows Wilhelm that he is trying to understand Wilhelm’s predicament. Doing this is something that Simon has struggled with a lot this season and we didn’t see a way forward for these two unless Simon allowed himself to step into that space.

For the love of all things royal, CLOSE THE DAMN CURTAINS!

Oh god, it’s happening, isn’t it? It’s REALLY HAPPENING. Simon is in Wilhelm’s room and they’re talking, and now they’re touching, and yikes, they are hugging. And now they’re definitely going to do that thing that we shouldn’t be watching them do, AREN’T THEY?

But oh god, what is wrong with them? Don’t these boys learn ANYTHING?

THE CURTAINS ARE STILL OPEN FAM, WHY HAVEN’T THEY CLOSED THE DAMN CURTAINS?

But thank god for the 18th-century lesbians y’all. If it wasn´t for them, Wilmon would never have been able to have that ridiculously coded, but super important conversation, and they wouldn’t have been in the right place for this magical moment to occur. Therapy? Really expensive. 18th-century real-life lesbian drama they could learn from? Free babies, free!

This time, it’s Wilhelm who breaks the spell between them and goes in for the kiss. Once he does this, it’s on like Donkey Kong. Their clothes are coming off and their mouths are all over each other, and we’re covering our eyes and peaking through our fingers because y’all this seems private and we don’t think we should be watching, but we can’t stop, ya know? HELP!

But they’re moving to the bed and the CURTAINS ARE STILL OPEN, and yo if August is outside again, we’re going to scream bloody murder. 

Fortunately for us, Wilhelm finally notices that the curtains are still open and moves to close them. As he scuttles back to Simon on the bed, the episode finishes, and metaphorical fireworks were released into the Q+ Magazine offices. 

Wilhelm and Simon are reunited, and we might be just a tad bit overwhelmed by all the excitement. 

While there were plenty of opportunities to send certain characters for a trip to the bin in Young Royals S2X05, we’re going to end the reaction here and hold off on our criticisms and shout-outs right now in celebration of the fact that Wilmon are finally reunited and together. We understand that engaging in sex does not always a relationship make, but we’re going to take this one for ourselves fam, and roll with it.

#WilmonForever, peace out! ✌️

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Young Royals S2X05 is now available to stream on Netflix globally. Stay tuned for the review of the last episode in a couple of hours! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!