So, I think I’ll take a quick stab at a post, as befits the Ides of March. (Please beware that this post contains multiple spoilers for the first five episodes of season three of ‘Young Royals’. It also contains my speculations about the season three finale, which are not spoilery per se since I have no connection to this show but might be perceived as such, seeing as they are about an episode that hasn’t aired yet. Keep in mind that we’re going to talk about Simon’s backstory for quite a bit, too, so proceed with caution, as this is a difficult topic.)
I know I said I would wait and post about some other stuff for a bit, but as you can see, I couldn’t resist: So, tada! Here’s my broad-strokes big-picture analysis about what season three of ‘Young Royals’ seems to be all about.
The word ‘initiation’ (and thus the whole concept of an initiation) can have several different meanings. There’s the meaning that the show ‘Young Royals’ prominently uses (i.e. the humiliating hazing rituals at a boarding school), and then there’s, of course, the one that many cultures around the world associate with the idea of an initiation: the religious or cultural practice whereby an adolescent is introduced into the world of adulthood, a rite of passage that turns you into an adult in the eyes of your culture. This second meaning can and often does have sexual undertones, which is also why losing one’s virginity is sometimes ironically described in those terms: Being ‘initiated’ into the world of sex by someone codes for losing your virginity to this person.
And ‘Young Royals’ cleverly uses this twofold meaning of the concept of an initiation, making one (the hazing ritual at the school) represent the other (the sexual initiation into the world of adulthood). And when one concept acts as a stand-in for another concept, there’s a nifty little term for that: That’s a metaphor.
Initiation is the big overarching theme of the third season, and with good reason!
It’s high time the show finally tackled this difficult topic head-on instead of just letting us, its viewers, sift through the subtext hidden underneath the surface of its script.
(We’re going to talk about the difficult topic I mentioned above now – just in case you still want to stop reading this text and leave at this point. Anyone who’s a long-time follower, reader and commenter knows what this is all about, anyway.)
As we know, Simon has been sexually abused at a young age (most likely somewhere between the ages of 13 and 14 years old); we have been dissecting the evidence pointing in this direction since last October, and the subtext isn’t exactly subtle about it. The show has been silently screaming at us about Simon’s tragic backstory ever since episode one of season one aired.
And I think some of you have already worked out that the initiation rituals we are being shown at this school are visual metaphorical representations of what happened to Simon: In other words, symbolically, the initiations have always been about the fact that he’s been raped.
Simon went through a horrific ‘initiation’ into the world of adulthood at the hands of an adult child molester, and, yes, this wasn’t just an emotional ‘initiation’; it was very much a sexual one.
Now, the first two seasons have already visualized what happened to him in symbolic terms. But the third one makes it so obvious it’s practically impossible to overlook at this point: This new and final season explicitly tells us what to think about the ‘initiations’ at that school (which serve as a metaphorical stand-in for Simon’s backstory of abuse).
We have spend a lot of time talking about the way in which ‘Young Royals’ goes about storytelling, and as you all know, this show usually operates in the following way: It shows us a miniature version (a shrunk mirror image, if you will) of the actual event it tries to hide in its subtext. Mirroring with a shrinking effect (or muting or toning-down effect), so to speak. Throughout the first two seasons, we are presented with smaller, more harmless, less serious-looking, seemingly less consequential scenes that metaphorically mirror what happened to Simon in his past. This way we can reconstruct his backstory by examining them all, and we’ve been doing just that for the past couple of months right up to the point when season three finally aired.
Now, the ‘initiation’ metaphor is actually one of those rare cases where the show doesn’t shrink something in the mirror; this is one of those cases where the actual events are enlarged by the mirror and give us one surprisingly huge mirror image.
Simon’s very own personal trauma, the private tragedy of an abused teenager, symbolically becomes this secret, massive, decade-spanning practice concerning an entire boarding school, an abusive practice that hundreds and hundreds of students had to go through in their time.
Simon’s trauma, that dark thing that’s haunting his every thought, never leaving him alone and constantly hanging over him like a cloud (even when he’s having sex with Wilhelm, as we have so clearly seen in the subtext), that dark entity in Simon’s mind metaphorically becomes the trauma haunting an entire school, a horrifying practice of abuse that many, many generations of students had to endure over many, many decades and that is now threatening everyone.
The horrific crime committed against Simon when he was (ostensibly) ‘initiated’ into the world of adulthood metaphorically becomes a secret abusive initiation on a grand scale.
This is exactly what enlarging something with a narrative mirror means: You take the private horror one person went through and blow the image up to get a much larger picture in your metaphor.
And we can see it, too! In season three, the initiation practice that we had seen before and that had so far only subtextually been coded as sexual abuse, literally becomes exactly that: It’s now explicitly stated that, in the past (!), it used to be specifically a sexually abusive ritual – not just one of brutality and humiliation (even though those two aspects had clearly been present, too). And the sexually abusive aspect is put in even more concrete terms this season: It’s specifically an ‘initiation’ that makes a mockery of gay sex!
This is very important because all of those aspects were clearly present in Simon’s backstory of abuse: Simon was abused in the past (!). Simon wasn’t just manipulated in an emotional way but also sexually abused. The abuser was cruel, brutal and sadistic. Like the ‘initiations’ of the past, Simon’s abuse contained an element of pornographic imagery (more on that later). And Simon’s abuse…made a mockery of gay sex as which it masqueraded. (In this context, it’s very important to remember that, as we have seen in the subtext, Simon didn’t understand he was being abused at the time. Simon was groomed and manipulated into an abusive relationship by the man we have dubbed Person X on this blog. Simon thought this was a beautiful gay romance. And he thought that all the pain, the fear and the horror he endured during those two sexual encounters were a normal part of gay sex. Tragically, he didn’t understand that, as a child, he couldn’t have consented to any of this, and he ultimately thought that getting through it all was worth it for the sake of the romantic relationship he believed himself to be in.)
In season three, the show is basically showing us this very private trauma on a much grander scale now: The students all keep quiet about what happened at their respective initiations. They’re all suffering the trauma of what they went through, but they’re not showing their wounds to anyone. They believe that the ‘initiation’ was a normal part of being introduced to the student body of the school, that they were sworn to secrecy and have to keep quiet about what happened, that all the pain and trauma was worth it because they’re now a member of another world they were allowed to enter through that initiation.
It’s an enlarged mirror image of Simon’s abuse.
Please note in this context that the cultural and religious practice of an initiation never describes a relationship between two equals! The power imbalance is baked into the cake. An initiation can only be conducted by somebody who is either older (usually an adult) or has a higher status than the initiate. This lies in the nature of an initiation. And while that might be completely harmless as long as we’re talking religious rituals, for example, it becomes instantly creepy and even downright criminal the moment the term ‘initiation’ is used as a metaphor for a sexual rite of passage: An adult and a child should never be in a romantic and/or sexual relationship like that. A teenager shouldn’t be ‘initiated’ into the world of sex by an adult; he or she should discover this world on his or her own with people his or her own age.
‘Young Royals’ shows you the power imbalance between the ones conducting the initiation and the initiates in a subtle way: It’s the third-years who are torturing the first-years. But this metaphorically codes for a much greater age difference and power imbalance between Simon and his abuser, who were (as we have discussed before) most likely in a student-teacher relationship at Simon’s old school.
The ‘initiation’ metaphor tells us a lot more about Simon’s abuse, though: None of the students is ready to speak out about what was done to them in the past because they are under an omertà pledge not to divulge any information about the ‘initiations’ to any outsiders. The metaphor tells us how Simon feels and how enormous that internalized pressure is not to say anything about the fact that he was raped.
All of the students are victims of abuse, but they’re incapable of articulating that. They don’t understand that none of them could have ever consented to any of this. And it will take a long time for them to understand what it was that actually happened to them. Just like it took Simon a long time to understand that there’s a word for what he went through, and it isn’t ‘romantic relationship’ or ‘secret gay romance with an adult male’; it’s abuse.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that season three is making these ‘initiations’ its main theme.
‘Initiation’ is the central theme of the show’s final season because that was where the story was headed the entire time, anyway: towards a disclosure of Simon’s past trauma.
Simon’s backstory has always been there, existing solely in the shadows of the subtext for two seasons. Now it’s time for that backstory of abuse to take centre stage: And already the show is building up to that by giving us the ‘initiation’ metaphor right from the start of its final season.
You see, ‘Young Royals’ is a show that has two stories: Wilhelm’s and Simon’s.
Wilhelm’s story, his suffering, his backstory of abuse at the hands of the Court, is the one we see reflected directly on the plot-level of the script. It’s what casual viewers of the show immediately pick up on as they follow Wilhelm through the narrative.
Simon’s story has only existed in the subtext so far. Not as obvious, told to us through symbolism and secret little signals, which is why a lot of viewers seem to come away from those first two seasons with the wrong impression that Simon is some sort of 100 percent uncomplicated, totally open-and-out gay guy who has no issues with his sexuality whatsoever. Nothing could be further from the truth, as we have discussed recently.
That’s because Simon’s story is the one we haven’t really seen reflected on the surface of the text (i.e. in the plot) so far. We literally cannot see it. But we can hear it, so to speak, if we just open our ears, shut up for a moment instead of just projecting our preconceived notions of the perfect mature champion of openness and uncomplicated gayness onto him…and listen, really, really listen to him. (There’s a reason why the name ‘Simon’ literally translates as ‘listen’!)
I’ve told you before that this is the way piano duos operate: There’s a Primo player (playing on the ‘right handside’ of the keyboard), and there’s a Secondo player (playing on the ‘left handside’ of the keyboard). The Primo is the one the audience can see. The Secondo is always hidden behind the Primo, but you can hear what they are playing down there in the bass register if you just open your ears, shut up for a moment and listen.
In episode three of season one, Wihelm and Simon sat at the piano like that: With Wilhelm as the Primo and Simon as the Secondo player. Wilhelm was the one the audience could directly see, and Simon was the hidden player in the subtext.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that season three gives us a brief glimpse of Wilhelm and Simon taking their seats at the piano the exact other way around: with Simon as the Primo and Wilhelm as the Secondo.
This might very well be foreshadowing the fact that Simon’s storyline is growing and growing and growing in significance now, that Simon’s backstory is going to get pulled out of the subtext.
(I hope you all picked up on their seating arrangement after we talked about it recently?)
Oh, by the way, I now expect you to pick up on other stuff on a first watch, too. (Please imagine me saying this in a very strict voice as I give you a stern look over my reading glasses.) Stuff like Simon giving Wilhelm food (!) out of his backpack (!) and jokingly asking for money (!) in return, for example. That happened in those first five episodes of season three, right?
As always, the joke hides the subtext here, of course: The ‘food’ metaphor directly interacts with the ‘money’ metaphor and the ‘baggage’ metaphor. (And I don’t think I need to tell you about the fact that Wilhelm isn’t Wilhelm here, right?)
And isn’t it great that August was finally called out on his very much metaphorical ‘eating disorder’?
Or how about Felice (most certainly not representing Felice) wanting to be a cook? Yeah…that happened.
Oh, and did you love how Madison slammed Felice’s metaphorical ‘locker’ shut? I loved that shot!
But best of all: What did you think about Henry making a joke about Valter finally losing his virginity. This was almost too much for me, I have to confess. Like…seriously, Henry! Valter hasn’t been a virgin for years, and the fact that you don’t know anything about that (horrible) fact makes all the subtextual sense in the world. Oh, man…this show!
But back to the two stories ‘Young Royals’ is telling us, Wilhelm’s and Simon’s.
These two stories are in and of themselves mirror images of the show’s broader political message, as we discussed recently:
Simon is an allegorical character representing the people of Sweden: Simon was in love with his abuser and didn’t understand that what was happening to him was abuse. The abuse didn’t take the form of rape-by-stranger; it was in the context of an abusive relationship that the rape occurred, and despite the pain and the horrible trauma incurred at the time, Simon still believed to be in a romantic relationship. He only worked it all out when it was much too late.
Here again we get an enlarged/shrunk mirror image (it’s impossible to tell in this case what the ‘actual’ storyline is and what the metaphorical reflection is here): The Swedish people, we are told, aren’t abused by outside strangers. They have known their abusers; they’ve known them for a very, very long time. And they are in an abusive relationship with them. They are subjugated by their elites (an oligarchical aristocracy that coalesces around the monarchy), yet they don’t understand that they couldn’t have consented to any of this. They are in constant pain but don’t understand that this relationship between them and their abusers does constitute abuse and not love.
So far, so obvious.
But the show’s writers introduce a bit of nuance to their message here: Wilhelm’s story is there, too. It exists alongside Simon’s.
The upper classes, the abusers (the ones that Wilhelm is inevitably a part of) are suffering, too, under this arrangement. Both partners in this abusive relationship aren’t happy. It’s making everyone miserable. Suffering, pain and trauma abound.
This is pointed out explicitly in season three in the surface-level plain text when Simon tells Wilhelm that he can see what the monarchy is doing to Wilhelm.
The ones you’d think would be enjoying the deal of being on top and abusing the ones down below aren’t deriving a lot of pleasure from this arrangement: They are just as unhappy and miserable. Everyone is suffering under this system, seems to be the main takeaway from this show.
If you’re born on the abuser side of the equation, you have no choice and no freedom either. You can never break out of your role and everything about your life is decided at birth. (If you cannot act freely like a human being should, then you’re being abused, too. It might not be as obvious as the abuse of the ones suffering under your rule, but it’s abuse all the same.)
And since all three: Simon’s personal trauma of sexual abuse, the initiation rituals at the school and the broader political message of the show (i.e. the abuser-victim relationship between the Swedish people and the upper class) all mirror each other, it’s obvious that when Simon talks about wanting to have a head of state who is elected by the people in season three, he’s talking about more than just about the future constitution of the country:
Subtextually, this is also a very private and personal wish! Simon is telling us here that he wants a sexual and romantic partner who he can ‘elect’ for himself, so to speak. I.e. Simon wants somebody he chose himself, somebody who he actually consented to (unlike that horrific time when he thought he consented but actually couldn’t have, ending up in the clutches of an abuser). Simon wants to love someone he can really trust. He wants a relationship that’s built on consent (metaphorically: an election).
The private and the political are mirroring each other here.
All of these themes the show explores in season three – some of them in an on-the-nose kind of way, some of them much more subtly.
Ultimately, it’s interesting to see that these two different stories of abuse, Wilhelm’s and Simon’s, are reflective of the broader political message the show seems to be aiming at here: The abusers and the abused are all suffering; they’re all trapped within the same system.
Note the level of sophistication in the way the show tells its story. There are basically three layers to this:
Simon’s story of sexual abuse…
…is mirrored by the initiation rituals at the school…
…which are, in turn, mirrored on a third level by the abuse of the Swedish people at the hands of their abusers, i.e. their elites that are all reliant on the monarchy.
This very much reminds me of the ‘competition’ metaphor, by the way. With that one, as we have seen, we have a literal rowing competition between two rowing teams representing two houses at the boarding school which is mirrored in…
…a very funny way as a jealousy plot between Wilhelm and Marcus, which, in turn, is mirrored in…
…a horrifying way as a broader narrative competition between Wilhelm and Simon’s abuser, which, in turn, is mirrored…
…on a third layer of the subtext, as a competition between two different political outcomes, one in which the abusers win or one in which a new constitution for the whole country will be drawn up.
Juggling three layers of subtext within one metaphor is no mean feat, so I’m going to doff my hat to the show’s writers here.
But back to Simon’s backstory of sexual abuse…
Simon’s backstory, that’s been silently screaming at us in the subtext ever since episode one of season one aired, is metaphorically mirrored in the ‘initiation’ metaphor on this show – a theme the writers have now turned up to eleven in season three.
The secrecy surrounding these initiations, the will-it-come-out-or-not element that reverberates throughout the first five episodes of the final season and that’s supposed to keep us on our toes, all of it ramps up the tension enormously: Will Simon’s backstory be finally revealed to us in the finale? Will we finally be told in the plain text of the show what happened to him? Or will it be kept hidden in the subtext forever?
If it comes out that the initiations at this school really happened (and they aren’t supposed to be happening at all; nobody is supposed to know anything about them), if the lid on that secret is blown, we will also learn about Simon’s secret. If the initiations stay secret, Simon’s backstory will forever remain buried in the subtext, is the message here.
Now, let’s dive under the cut and discuss why Schrödinger’s Felice might ultimately represent the most important question this show has ever thrown at us, challenge-wise.
We will also talk about who the investigators on this show seem to represent in metaphorical terms and ponder the question of what racism on this show might metaphorically stand for.
Above all, we will ask the following question, though:
What is metatext?!