'Young Royals' Ending Explained: Prince Wilhelm and Simon's sex tape is dangerous for monarchy
Spoilers Ahead for 'Young Royals'
‘Young Royals’ deals with the challenges that young Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) faces as he tries to grapple with his sexuality, his lover, and his sense of duty. Prince Wilhelm had his apprehensions about continuing his romance with Simon (Omar Rudberg), especially after the shocking death of his older brother Prince Erik (Ivar Forsling) led to Wilhelm being named the Crown Prince.
However, Wilhelm after a drunken, drug-filled night out with his second cousin August (Malte Gårdinger), finds his inhibitions lowered. He ends up reaching out to Simon once again. The two end up sleeping together and the next morning, when August goes to check on his cousin, he finds them in bed together. Wilhelm and Simon however don’t know that August has seen them. August has a video of the two together, which he starts recording as a prank when he thinks that Wilhelm was sleeping with a girl. When he realizes that Wilhelm was sleeping with Simon, he stops filming. But will August who is beset with financial difficulties use the video to blackmail Wilhelm? If the premise of 'Young Royals', which has its fair share of teen drama and betrayal sounds interesting, you will also like shows like 'Elite'.
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One of August's group of friends Alexander (Xiao-Long Rathje Zhao) however gets caught with drugs at the party Wilhelm was at the previous night. Prince Wilhelm then discovers that it was Simon who supplied the drugs to August and his friends. August wants Simon to take the rap for the entire group so that the monarchy doesn't get affected or so he claims.
In reality, August is out to save himself. Wilhelm confronts Simon who tells him that he was providing drugs to August, but August was not paying him for them because August and his family are broke. This is news to Prince Wilhelm.
From Simon's perspective, it seems like Prince Wilhelm also wants him to become the fall guy to protect the royal family's reputation. Not surprisingly, he walks out on Prince Wilhelm. August and his group of friends continue to try and figure out a way to get Simon to take the fall for the drugs that were discovered, while Prince Wilhelm half-heartedly tries to support Simon and says that it should be Alexander who takes the fall instead because Alexander will be fine since he is rich and privileged, unlike Simon.
August tries to be aggressive with the prince and the prince then retaliates saying that August doesn't even have the money to still be in this school. The prince then exerts his power saying that if this group is as loyal to the monarchy as they say they are, then they will let Alexander take the fall. The group follows Wilhelm's orders and lets Alexander take the blame.
Simon has little respect for the fact that Wilhelm and his friends have let Alexander take the fall. However, he forgives Wilhelm when the prince apologizes and shares how Simon is the only person in his life who truly understands him. While it seems that one crisis has been resolved, another one is about to rear its head. August enraged at the way Wilhelm spoke to him, posts the video of Wilhelm and Simon having sex online. This is before he realizes that Prince Wilhelm has actually got his mother, the Queen (Pernilla August) to pay off August's school fees so that he can in fact remain at the prestigious boarding school.
While Simon contemplates quitting the Hillerska boarding school, his old friends convince him otherwise. In the meantime Wilhelm's mother, the Queen says that they will handle the issue by pretending that it is not Wilhelm in the video. Wilhelm is at a total loss of how to handle the situation especially since his older brother is no longer there to guide him. Ironically it is August who tells Wilhelm that his brother would have wanted him to be true to himself. Wilhelm's true breakthrough however happens when he and Simon finally talk and Simon tells him that they haven't done anything wrong by being together. But while Simon and Wilhelm are in this together, what they don't realize is that they are being betrayed by someone else who is close to them. Simon's sister (Frida Argento) knows that August was behind the sex tape leak, but makes a deal with August to not tell anyone in exchange for housing at Hillerska. She also ends up kissing August who promises her that he will help her with a housing grant for Hillerska.
Ultimately the deepest betrayal however comes when Prince Wilhelm ultimately in an interview with the media, buckles to the pressure put on him by his mother and says that it is not him in the video. Wilhelm goes to see Simon after his interview and apologizes saying that he had no other choice. He tells Simon that their relationship doesn't need to change, but they just can't be seen together. Simon doesn't want to be a hidden part of Wilhelm's life and tells him that he needs to figure out what he wants and take all the time he needs to do so.
Simon emphasizes that he will not be anyone's shameful secret. Just as Wilhelm is grappling with this, his old friend Felice (Nikita Uggla) comes to see him and says she knows who posted the sex tape, because she has done a lot of investigating into the tape because she wanted to help her old friend. A furious Wilhelm confronts August and says that August was the one Wilhlem was supposed to be able to trust. Wilhelm tells August that he is no longer a part of his family. He then tells his mother that it was August who posted the video, his mother says that she already knew and she didn't tell him because she wanted to protect the royal family and its legacy.
How will Wilhelm deal with all these betrayals he has encountered and will he ever be brave enough to be true to his love for Simon? To see how and if the relationship between Wilhelm and Simon goes ahead, fans of the new royal show will have to wait for a second season.
'Young Royals' premiered on Netflix on July 1.