'The Royals' Season Finale Recap: King Simon Dies And Cyrus Becomes King

The first season of the new E! scripted drama series “The Royals” has reached its finale. Most of the main characters find themselves hitting rock bottom at the end of the season. However, with the death of King Simon, Cyrus is finally basking in the glory that he has been seeking all his life.

Prince Liam's Change Of Heart

After getting drunk and completely wasted in the previous episode, Prince Liam finds himself back in the palace. Ophelia says she found him passed out and brought him back. Liam is grateful and apologizes to Ophelia for disappearing. He tells her that he feels free for the first time and asks her to run away with him.

Liam asks Ophelia to pick a place and they decide on Rio. Ophelia decides to give up her audition in New York to join Liam. She lies to her dad and says that she is finally leaving for New York.

Liam asks Princess Eleanor to join them but she says she still has something to sort out. She promises to join them later and heads out. Gemma and Liam’s bodyguard Marcus watch them leave. Gemma reveals that she knows Marcus is in love with Ophelia. Gemma believes Liam will eventually come back to her anyway and tells Marcus that he should not have let Opelia throw her dreams away because of Liam.

On the plane, Liam finds out that his pendant has been changed. He realizes that someone else picked him up off the street before Ophelia found him. His new pendant shows a logo composed of a row of dominoes and he seems to understand what it is. He remains secretive about it but has a sudden change of heart.

He asks the plane to take Ophelia to New York. He tells her to pursue her dreams while he goes back to avenge his father. Ophelia is broken hearted but Liam assures her that there will be a future for them someday.

Ophelia heads to her audition and Gemma makes sure that she’s hired. This keeps her in New York while Liam heads back to London.

Eleanor Finds Out What Really Happened To Prince Robert

After meeting Brandon Boone in the previous episode, Eleanor decides to go ahead and meet with the man who claims to have murdered her brother. However, she knows it’s a dangerous situation and she can’t trust anybody.

She decides to get Jasper out of jail so that she can have a bodyguard. Jasper wonders why she got him out and she tells him everything that’s been happening. She continues to rub it in that she hasn’t forgiven him for sleeping with the queen.

Jasper apologizes and explains that the queen threatened to ruin him if he didn’t do as she pleased. Eleanor is still angry but they have bigger issues on their hands. Jasper sends Eleanor off to get the guns he has hidden in the palace and they both head off to meet Brandon.

At the agreed location, Brandon appears and warns Eleanor about the danger to her life. He tells her that he was also in the military and he usually controls drones or unmanned aerial vehicles. He explains that he was ordered to mess up a manned aircraft one day and was paid a sum of money for it. He later found out that the pilot was Prince Robert.

Brandon confessed that he had no idea it was Robert who was on the plane and he would never have done it if he knew. He also told Eleanor and Jasper that he is warning them because he could not believe that the people who ordered the murder even pretended that Robert committed suicide.

He also says that someone from the palace has been in constant contact with his commanding officer in the military. He tells them to look into that in order to find answers.

Queen Helena Loses Out

Back at the palace, Queen Helena needs to do some damage control. Her reputation has been tarnished after admitting that Prince Liam and Prince Eleanor are illegitimate. Although it is unclear if they really are King Simon’s children or not Cyrus has made sure that the real test results are never released.

Helena has agreed to the plan in order to keep Liam off the throne and to prevent him from abolishing the monarchy just as King Simon wanted. The queen then decides to give a tell-all interview to reach out to the people. She decides to speak about her affair and tug at the people’s heartstrings to get them to sympathize with her and forgive her transgression.

The big glitch in the plan is that she really does have a lover, Captain Alister Lacey. She decides to leave him out of the story and pretend that her lover is another soldier who has died in the war. He is clearly disappointed when she lies on national TV but he knows there is nothing he can do.

The queen sends him a letter to apologize and explain that she has a bigger plan. Lucius delivers it but he delivers another message as well. His men shoot Lacey under orders from Cyrus because he knows that the queen has a tendency to lose proper judgement when her lover is involved. Cyrus decides to get him out of the way in order to keep her on track.

Meanwhile, Queen Helena receives an envelope with the same domino logo on Prnce Liam's pendant. She sees the logo and appears disturbed but the letters contents are not revealed.

King Simon Dies; Cyrus Takes The Throne

Upon returning to London, Prince Liam is determined to find out what’s really going on. Eleanor tells him about Robert’s murder and Liam is convinced that their uncle Cyrus is behind all of the attacks. He confronts Cyrus and beats him up.

He forces Cyrus to confess to the murder of Robert and the attack on the king. Cyrus denies the allegations but implies his guilt when he calls Liam an idiot for believing him. Liam nearly kills him with his bare hands but Marcus comes in and tells them that King Simon has died.

Cyrus becomes king and finally sits on the throne that he’s been coveting all his life. Prince Liam and Princess Eleanor are left devastated and unable to do anything about Cyrus’ ascension to the throne.

Before the episode ends, it appears as though Cyrus has won and everyone else has received the short end of the bargain. However, the servant girl Prudence is shown to be very pregnant. She tells her growing child not to worry.“Daddy has just become king,” she says.

The season finale sets up season 2 with even more intrigue and drama. Liam and Eleanor will no doubt seek revenge and justice. It also remains to be seen how the queen will react when she learns about her lover’s death.

“The Royals” is the first scripted drama series produced by E! Entertainment Network Television. It stars Elizabeth Hurley as Queen Helena, William Moseley as Prince Liam and Alexandra Park as Princess Eleanor. Season 2 is expected to air in November on E!

For questions/comments regarding the article, please contact the writer at: c.caparras@ibtimes.com.au.