Palm Royale Episode 5 recap: Linda and Douglas and Maxine, oh my! What happened in 1949?

Welcome back to Shiny Sheet Recaps "Palm Royale," our weekly rundown of the new Apple TV+ series set in Palm Beach.

Each week, we look at five Palm Beach-related or key moments in that week's episode of the series that premiered March 20.

Watch out: There are spoilers ahead, so if you don't want to know, stop reading right now and come back after you've watched.

We're on Episode 5, "Maxine Shakes the Tree," and have reached just about the halfway mark of this season of "Palm Royale."

To catch you up: Maxine (Kristen Wiig) is an eager social climber and former beauty queen who is desperate to break into Palm Beach society in 1969.

The big questions we hope to get answered this week: What happened between Linda a.k.a. Penelope (Laura Dern) and Maxine's husband, Douglas (Josh Lucas)? What might we learn from Norma (Carol Burnett) now that she's coming out of her coma? What will Linda, Virginia (Amber Chardae Robinson) and the Women's Circle do with Norma's gold Rolodex? Whose phone number did Mitzi (Kaia Gerber) get at the Havana Nights gala?

And, perhaps most importantly: Will we get to see Douglas try to dance again?

Season 1, Episode 5: 'Maxine Shakes the Tree'

1. Douglas lies a little too easily.

Also, he's a terrible speller. But more on that in a moment.

First, let's talk about Douglas' big lie.

The episode opens in 1949. Except where the last episode started with a wedding at the Dellacorte mansion in 1949, this one features Douglas taking Maxine up in his little red airplane. (No, that isn't a euphemism.)

When they're upside-down mid-air, Maxine tells Douglas that she's pregnant. He's elated — and viewers are left wondering if this scene is from before or after Douglas and Linda broke off their engagement.

When the show moves 20 years into the future, Maxine basically throws Norma into a golf cart to go to the Palm Royale club and confront Douglas about the invitation to Douglas and Linda’s wedding.

Instead of admitting to the relationship, he first scoffs at Maxine's relationship with Linda (and remember, her real name is Penelope Rollins. She told Maxine that she now goes by Linda because she wanted to separate herself from her past).

Douglas tells Maxine that it's not that he lied about the engagement, he just didn't bring it up. OK. Seems a little like splitting hairs.

He then tells Maxine that he didn't want to talk about it because Linda shot her father that day.

This sets up one of my favorite lines from the episode, where Douglas, after describing "blood everywhere" from the shooting, says, "I just — I personally hated it." How do you think Linda's dad Skeet (played by Laura Dern's actual father, Bruce Dern) felt?

He makes it sound like he met Maxine after he broke it off with Linda/Penelope.

And of course, he uses the classic line of deflection used by men who are trying to get out of situation where they've been accused of something by a woman: "She's crazy."

Later, Maxine talks with Evelyn (Allison Janney) about the shooting. Evelyn believes that Linda shot Skeet when Linda meant to shoot Evelyn.

We learn later that wasn't the case.

At the end of the episode, Linda wakes up Maxine in the middle of the night to explain everything to her.

The truth is that she believed she shot through the door at Douglas, not Evelyn. Linda had suspected for months that Douglas was cheating on her, and he kept using that age-old line, telling her: "You're crazy."

So Linda grabbed a gun from a wall in Norma's house, where the wedding was to take place, and shot through the door, thinking it was Douglas having an affair with a bridesmaid when it was actually Evelyn giving Skeet a massage.

There's a major revelation here: Linda says that Douglas pledged to keep his mouth shut about the truth of the shooting in exchange for a one-way ticket to Chattanooga and $100,000.

Maxine puts the pieces together and realizes how much Douglas lied: He cheated on Linda with her.

2. Douglas is just — kind of a dunce.

He spells crazy C-R-A-S-E-Y when talking with Maxine about Linda. We can kick off this section with that.

After Maxine confronts Douglas on the golf course of the Palm Royale, they head home that night and he makes her a truly unimpressive dinner of a hot dog with no bun and a scoop of peas. He seems to think he’s done something really spectacular.

“Well, I know how you like it when I make your favorite things,” Douglas says. I'm sorry, what? Start over again and this time maybe at least bring a bun to the table.

It’s interesting to watch the dynamic between Douglas and Maxine evolve. As a pilot, he would have been gone for long stretches of time. Now that he quit his job, he and Maxine spend more time together, possibly like they never have before. You can tell that their wavelengths don’t quite match up.

Apparently this is his attempt to “treat his girl.”

He also offers Maxine something called monkey sauce for her hot dog. I looked this up. Apparently this is actually called monkey gland sauce, and it has its origins in South Africa. The color and consistency look correct. There’s no actual monkey in it. Instead, according to a few recipes I found, monkey sauce is usually made with sautéed onion and garlic, plus water, chopped peeled tomatoes, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, chutney, brown sugar and red wine vinegar. Sounds a heck of a lot like a dressed up barbecue sauce.

Instead of listening to Maxine, letting her talk or — anything else, Douglas starts going on and on about Perry Donahue (Jordan Bridges) and how much of a genius he is in business. In the world of "Palm Royale," Perry was appointed by President Richard Nixon to be the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, and Linda and Virginia describe him as a real estate developer and local celebrity.

Douglas tells Maxine that Perry wants him to invest Norma’s money into real estate, while Maxine is Norma’s conservator and controls Norma's money, and before either Norma dies and her money goes to a cat sanctuary or she recovers and reclaims her estate. By the end of the episode, Douglas and Perry are in business.

But Maxine won't let the engagement go. She continues to ask Douglas questions.

As he pleads with her to forget he ever mentioned that Linda shot her father, there’s a silver platter with the rest of the hot dogs on it. No real presentation, just hot dogs on a silver platter.

Boy, does that say a lot about Maxine and Douglas.

Maxine tells Douglas that she doesn’t want to play pretend anymore, and he asks her to pretend he never said anything. Yet, they’re sitting in that giant mansion basically playing dress-up.

It all feels like a nod toward Maxine’s desperation to really belong in Palm Beach, to have everything she wants come to fruition.

And let's keep in mind, Virginia, Linda and the Women's Circle of Our Bodies, Our Shelves is about to take down Perry, using information from Norma's Rolodex.

3. The Shiny Sheet newsroom is in Hawai'i.

Wait! No, it's not.

But the location used for the exterior shot of our 1969 newsroom, is.

It’s great to see our good friend Ann Holiday — the society editor for the Shiny Sheet, the Shannon Donnelly of “Palm Royale” — return in this episode. And it’s interesting to see how they portray a journalist of that era, nonetheless a journalist from our own publication.

(By the way, I feel like I need to say, just to clarify: Ann is fictional. No one by her name worked at the Palm Beach Daily News.)

When Maxine goes to the Shiny Sheet to see the archives, that’s not the Shiny Sheet.

So far, “Palm Royale” has used a mix of Palm Beach and Los Angeles-area exterior shots. Most of the Palm Beach shots have been aerials, although a few have been from ground level, including my beloved Ghost of the President of Palm Beach.

But the tan building with the large Royal Poinciana tree shown as Ann begins to tell Maxine about the Shiny Sheet archives is, according to a quick Google image search, the Kekuanaoa Building in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. As with the President of Palm Beach condominium, it looks like the “Palm Royale” folks have edited the building to make it look just a little more — vintage.

Inside, Maxine tears — literally — through the paper archives of the newspaper under a sign bearing our publication’s name, Palm Beach Daily News.

When Maxine finds an article about the 1949 near-wedding of Douglas and Linda, the headline says, “Wedding of the season ends with a bang.” The article says that a gunshot rang out, but no one knows where it came from, and Maxine realizes that the gun she found in Norma's safety deposit box must be the one Linda used to shoot her father. She immediately goes to the bank to get it.

Before finding the article and as Maxine begins leafing through the archives, Ann asks about Maxine’s pageant titles: Miss Junior Ocoee in 1943, Miss Mineral Bluffs in 1946, Miss Chattanooga in 1949. This is relevant later, when Ann asks a drunk Maxine why the recorded names of the women who won those titles are different than Maxine's.

Maxine channels Douglas and asks Ann to just pretend it never happened.

4. Maxine and Robert will definitely never be a thing.

As Maxine's frustration with Douglas comes to a head, Dinah (Leslie Bibb), Perry's wife, encourages Maxine to have an affair with Robert (Ricky Martin).

The thing is, and we know this but Maxine doesn't, Robert is gay.

So Maxine really barks up the wrong tree when she takes Dinah's suggestion.

As Ann asks Maxine about her pageant titles outside of the Palm Royale club, Robert arrives at just the right moment to step in and protect Maxine from herself.

Robert drives Maxine back to Norma's mansion, and Maxine sloppily comes onto him. He's amused at first, and then horrified. They get into the house, and Maxine kisses Robert. His eyes wide with shock, things start to get weird.

Earlier in the episode, Maxine accused Robert of giving Norma an embolism by playing his trumpet into Norma's "down south." It's such a weird accusation that you'd be forgiven for thinking that Maxine is joking or making fun of Robert and Norma's relationship.

But apparently that wasn't the case. Maxine meant it literally.

We realize this when Maxine drops to the floor and yells, “Take me right here! Take me right here on this ethnic rug!”

Robert tries not to laugh as Maxine rolls onto her stomach and says, “Robert, go get your trumpet. I want you to play ‘Edelweiss’ in me real slow.”

Something about this interaction screams improv, for which Wiig is known and Martin is not, so it would be a pretty safe bet that his reaction of horror and amusement is genuine.

Thankfully for Robert, Mitzi (Kaia Gerber) walks into the room and tells Maxine she's been alone with Norma for 14 hours. Robert uses the opportunity to escape from Maxine, and Maxine declares the moment to be "the perfect ending to a raccoon penis of a day."

Mitzi says she can't work for Maxine — because Perry Donahue just got her a job at the Palm Royale.

Maxine implores her to be careful with Perry, as Mitzi runs from the room to go home.

(Quick aside: Robert hilariously spits in Perry's drink at Palm Royale's golf course as Perry and Douglas discuss a real estate project in West Palm Beach.)

5. The secrets of the gold Rolodex are no more.

After Linda's confession to Maxine about the shooting, Maxine steps away to take a phone call. When she returns, Linda is next to Norma — throwing the cards from the enormously valuable gold Rolodex into the fireplace next to Norma.

The flames eating the Rolodex cards inspires Maxine, who goes outside to the beach and throws the gun into the ocean — yes, the last piece of leverage left.

"I wanted the pain to stop. I wanted everyone to be free," Maxine says.

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.