When your suitcase is your ‘baggage’ – The ‘Baggage’ Metaphor (examples: “Young Royals”, “House M.D.”)

Remember that scene in episode one of ‘Young Royals’ in which Wilhelm and August were seemingly pointlessly fighting over Wilhelm’s suitcase in front of the school? Did it feel a bit weird to you, as well? Too long perhaps? Or like there was a strange emphasis on that argument?

Well, that’s because it wasn’t a pointless fight at all. It was a metaphor.

When a show that comprises only six episodes per season, and in which every episode is just about 45 minutes long, seemingly ‘wastes’ several minutes of screentime on a stunt like that, it invariably turns out that it wasn’t a stunt after all; it was actually an important part of the metaphorical subtext of the broader narrative.

So, what’s up with that scene? And why exactly were they fighting over that suitcase?

To answer that, we will first have to look at a scene from another show (don’t worry, we will get back to ‘Young Royals’ in just a few short paragraphs):

In the final episode of season five of ‘House M.D.’ (a show you might have heard about, and don’t worry if you haven’t watched it; I’ll explain it all really quickly), so in that season finale of season five, the eponymous Dr. House commits himself to a mental institution. We see him limp towards the entrance of this psychiatric hospital, heavily leaning on his cane with one hand, his suitcase in the other, his best friend Dr. Wilson staying behind by the car, wistfully watching him go.

The question we, as viewers, instantly ask ourselves is: Why isn’t his friend helping him carry that suitcase? House has a bad leg; he can barely walk. So, why is his friend just standing there by the car, watching him haul that thing to the entrance? His friend clearly drove him to the loony bin as a favour. Is it too much to ask to have him carry that suitcase for House those last few steps from the car to the door, for Heaven’s sake?

As you can see, just as with our ‘Young Royals’ example from above, we, the audience, have an immediate reaction to something here that feels just that tiny bit ‘off’ about the literal plot (the textual, literal layer of the script). And those types of reactions are often very useful when you want to identify a metaphor: Some things just are that tiny bit ‘off’ as long as you read them literally. They only make sense once you consider their metaphorical meaning.

Why can’t Simon read sheet music? It’s not supposed to make sense on the surface; it’s a metaphor. Why does Wilhelm give Simon advice on rowing despite only having started to learn how to row himself? It’s a metaphor. Why does Simon get irrationally upset about taking a shortcut through the woods even though he’s never punished for it afterwards? It’s a metaphor. Why does Simon call it ‘cheating’? It’s a metaphor. Why does Marcus stand on the wrong side of the gym when he should be supporting Skogsbacken’s team? Well, as it turns out, that’s a metaphor, as well.

And why does House have to carry his suitcase all on his own despite having an able-bodied friend by his side? Why do Wilhelm and August fight over who gets to hold a suitcase in a photo op?

What do you think…Because those are metaphors too, of course.

Now, I’ve said a lot about suitcases being metaphors, but what exactly do they stand for?

You see, in our last metaphor-deciphering exercise (on the clementines on ‘Young Royals’), I made a big song and dance about never ever assuming the meaning of a metaphor would somehow magically turn out to be universal across different source ‘texts’ (books, plays, films, shows, etc.). I carved out just two exceptions to that rule: There are a lot of symbols that derive their meaning from their biblical or otherwise mythical underpinning (think apples as symbols for temptation, for example), and there are some metaphors which are sometimes adjacent (if not always entirely overlapping) in meaning across different source ‘texts’ due to convention.

The ‘clementine’ metaphor we talked about last time fell into neither of those two categories, but the ‘baggage’ metaphor we will discuss today is a good candidate for that second exception: a metaphor that you will find used in a similar (if not always completely identical) way due to decades and decades of storytelling and filming conventions.

Let’s consider for a moment what it is that Dr. House is actually carrying into that psychiatric hospital. Is it really a suitcase? Or isn’t it rather the sum of all those ‘heavy’ things that keep weighing him down: his drug use (and abuse), his mental health issues, his hallucinations, his cynicism, his paranoia, his fear of getting close to other people, and most importantly, the unresolved struggle with his bisexuality, which the show never addresses explicitly, but keeps telling us about in metaphor after metaphor after metaphor…

In other words, House’s suitcase is a metaphor for all that is weighing him down, for everything that’s got too heavy for him to carry (i.e. too hard to bear), for everything that has actually brought him to that mental institution in the first place. The ‘suitcase’ is his baggage, both literally and metaphorically.*

And once you consider this deeper, subtextual interpretation of the scene, it’s actually both fitting and bittersweet that his best friend isn’t carrying his suitcase for him. They’re House’s issues. It’s his baggage. He is the one who has to come to terms with the stuff that’s in his metaphorical ‘suitcase’ in therapy. His best friend can’t do that for him. 

So, what’s up with our friend Wilhelm and his foe August in that scene in episode one of ‘Young Royals’? 

Why are they fighting over Wilhelm’s suitcase? What does the ‘suitcase’ represent here? The same thing as on ‘House M.D.’? Issues, as well? Are Wilhelm and August fighting over who gets to carry Wilhelm’s issues? This doesn’t seem to make any sense, does it?

Well, no, not until you take into consideration what I said earlier about some convention-based metaphors having adjacent, yet not completely overlapping meanings across different source ‘texts’.

What Wilhelm has to carry (his metaphorical ‘suitcase’, so to speak) is also heavy. It’s a very heavy burden, one could say, and issues are certainly a part of it, as well. But what this scene in episode one is foreshadowing here (and what neither Wilhelm nor we, the audience, know at this point in the story) is that Wilhelm will very soon become the Crown Prince: In short, the heavy burden that Wilhelm will have to bear one day is the Crown. His metaphorical ‘suitcase’ is that Crown Prince role that fate has reserved for him, which at this point in the story he doesn’t know about yet and which will be the heaviest thing he’s ever had to carry.

The ‘suitcase’ is the Crown and the Crown Prince role (and all the expectations and problems associated with it).

So, now that we have established the meaning of the metaphor, let’s take a quick look at how the show actually fits it into the scene itself. This show is so remarkable and well-written because it doesn’t just throw around a few disconnected metaphors here and there but manages to write entire scenes around them in which every single detail makes sense and is metaphorically relevant, which is what makes watching it such an incredibly pleasing experience.

It’s not difficult to write metaphors into a story, and a lot of shows and movies do just that. But arguably a lot of them do it very badly, i.e. the metaphors they use aren’t plugged into a broader metaphorical subtext; none of it is connected to the rest of the message the ‘text’ is trying to convey. This show is so good because it connects all of it, without fail, with each other and with the rest of the subtext. To pull something like this off is very difficult and the sign of a writer really knowing what they’re doing, so we should try to appreciate each and every detail about those scenes, seeing as how they all teach us something about the show.

So, here are these details, that all together form one coherent and well-thought-out metaphorical picture:

1) Wilhelm and August are fighting over that suitcase.

Seeing as the metaphorical ‘suitcase’ represents the Crown, this clearly foreshadows the fact that, as of the end of season two, Wilhelm and August will increasingly be engaged in open competition for the Crown Prince role. Note that a suitcase is something heavy; it’s hard to lift. So, it’s not as though Wilhelm likes it to begin with (it’s a pain to carry something heavy, that’s for sure), but that doesn’t mean he’ll just let August have it either. It’s Wilhelm’s ‘suitcase’, not August’s. And no matter how hard it is to shoulder a burden like that, it doesn’t mean that August should just get his grubby mitts on it, without Wilhelm putting up a fight first.

2) August only got his hands on that suitcase because of Alexander.

This detail I like in particular: In that scene in front of the school in episode one, August only managed to get to the suitcase in the first place because he manoeuvred Alexander into a position where the poor boy could get it for him. This clearly foreshadows August’s whole stay-out-of-jail plot in the season finale of season two, whereby August will be trying to keep himself in the running for the Crown by manipulating Alexander to do his bidding. (This cooperative/manipulative dynamic of the August-Alexander arrangement will probably be further explored in season three once it comes out.)

Sidenote: What we can see here is that side characters don’t just get introduced for nothing; the reason why Alexander was presented to Erik and Wilhelm, got a name and some background info attached to his person in that ‘suitcase’ fight scene in episode one wasn’t just so we would be introduced to another face at the school. It was specifically so we would pay attention to Alexander because he is the one getting the metaphorical ‘suitcase’ out of the car and instead of handing it over to Wilhelm (who’s, after all, asking Alexander to give him his suitcase) bringing it to August. In other words, Alexander isn’t just in that scene as pretty eye candy; he’s there because he has a function in the broader narrative. His involvement with the metaphorical ‘suitcase’ foreshadows his role at the end of season two (and presumably in season three once the final season comes out; let’s wait and see how that goes).

3) The suitcase is heavy.

As August lifts the suitcase off the ground, he makes an involuntary, “Oof,” type of sound. Yes, that metaphorical ‘suitcase’ is heavy, August. The prospect of the Crown is a heavy burden to bear, that’s for sure. Nobody said this would be easy. It’s heavy for Wilhelm. It’s heavy for you. It would be heavy for any of us to suffer a ‘pain’ like this throughout our entire life.

4) It’s all happening in front of the press.

This detail I like a lot, as well: The entire metaphorical ‘fight’ for the metaphorical ‘suitcase’ is happening out in the open, right in front of the press. This foreshadows the fact that the competition for the Crown between Wilhelm and August will most likely be carried out in a very public mudslinging type of way. So, let’s wait and see what happens in season three, but if I were to guess, based on this ‘suitcase’ fight scene in episode one, it’s going to get really nasty. They (i.e. August and the Royal Court) will use every dirty trick in the book to get to that metaphorical ‘suitcase’, and they will most likely use the press for that.

In fact, look at the way the ‘suitcase’ fight scene was shot: 

It’s an over-the-shoulder shot. In cinematography, the person over whose shoulder a scene is shot is usually the one whose point of view we, the audience, are supposed to take at that particular moment. And since we’re seeing this ‘suitcase’ fight scene over the shoulder of the photographer taking pictures of Wilhelm, August and Erik with the suitcases, this clearly foreshadows the fact that we will get to see a lot of the struggle for the Crown in season three through the lens of the media.

In general, the whole fight between August and Wilhelm will be a very public one, it seems, seeing as, in that ‘suitcase’ fight scene, we can clearly make out several students behind Wilhelm, watching everything that’s going down in the courtyard through the windows of the school. Season three will see the public getting a front-row seat in the mudslinging going down between Wilhelm and August, and the fact that the students are all on Wilhelm’s side of the shot foreshadows who will have to bear the brunt of the public's attention.

One tiny detail about this scene seems particularly sinister: If you watch the ‘suitcase’ fight scene closely, you will notice that it’s the reporter lady who demands pictures of the three young men carrying the suitcases into the school be taken in the first place. She is the one instigating the whole scene to begin with. This strongly suggests that the media won’t just play the passive observer once the battle royale between August and Wilhelm breaks out openly come season three. No, the media will be the instigator of this conflict. The press will start to go on hunting expeditions, trying to dig up dirt on the contestants themselves to incite the whole thing, to fuel the fight and keep it going. It’s really just a tiny detail, but seeing as the whole ‘suitcase’ fight scene wouldn’t even have happened if it hadn’t been for the suggestion of that reporter lady to take those pictures, I see that as strong evidence that the media will be playing a very active role in whatever nefarious shenanigans August and the Royal Court will engage in in season three to wrest that metaphorical ‘suitcase’ from Wilhelm’s hands.

Speaking of August and the Court, here’s the next cool detail about that scene:

5) August has Erik’s support.

(Now, this is really subtle, and it doesn’t seem to make intuitive sense, but it’s actually quite clever, as you will see in a moment.) August and Erik are embracing each other in that scene, their arms slung around each other’s shoulders, holding onto each other quite tightly. Erik is actually going to kiss August on his ear(!) a few moments later. Now, what could all of this mean? After all, Erik will be long dead by the time the open conflict between Wilhelm and August will break out. So how can this detail be so important?

Let me first say a few words about that kiss, which is the first kiss on this show we get to see if I recall correctly (and a first very subtle introduction to the ‘ear’ metaphor, which is just an extension of the ‘music’ metaphor we have discussed before). Erik’s kiss lands on August’s earlobe, and we know for a fact that ‘ears’ represent ‘hearts’ on this show, the ‘ear’ metaphor being a very consistent metaphor on ‘Young Royals’. So, you can see that Erik genuinely feels close to August. (They’re not lovers, obviously; Erik isn’t kissing his ear in that way. He’s not exactly doing what Simon will be doing with Wilhelm’s ear in that certain bedroom scene in season two when he really goes for Wilhelm’s heart, ahem, I mean ‘ear’.) So, they’re close, the two of them, August and Erik. You can see that, and it’s a genuine friendship. The fact that it’s Erik who’s kissing August on the ear (and not the other way around) arguably shows us that Erik is in the role of the protector, the older relative here: He’s close enough to him to be touching August’s heart, looking out for him, trying to give August’s heart the emotional warmth the teenager clearly needs after all the trauma in the Horn family, all of which probably explains the fact why Erik tends to overlook some of August’s obvious flaws: He’s trying to look out for him, trying to touch his heart.

Anyway…But what has August and Erik’s tight side-hug in that scene (while August fights off Wilhelm with the other hand) got to do with the foreshadowing of events that are only going to unfold after Erik’s death?

Well, as much as we might sympathize with Erik on account of his trying to look out for a cousin in need and essentially embodying the role of a single parent for his beloved younger brother, we shouldn’t make excuses for Erik either: Erik is very much part of the establishment, as becomes clear only a few minutes of screentime later when, after the church scene, Erik admonishes Wilhelm to keep up his façade. As a matter of fact, there’s a lot of evidence that Erik was deeply embedded in the establishment and the Royal Court system, a part of the problem and not a rebel, and I’m not going to recount it all. What matters to us in the ‘suitcase’ fight scene is largely just one thing: Erik metaphorically represents the establishment, i.e. the Royal Court here.

So, August trying to fight off Wilhelm, as he grabs the suitcase from him, and embracing Erik (read: the Royal Court) at the same time is deeply meaningful.

August will have the full backing of the Court in his fight with Wilhelm. August will metaphorically embrace the Court while trying to wrest the Crown from Wilhelm. Well, in part we have already seen that happen in the second half of season two. Let’s wait and see where season three takes this. The foreshadowing is clear here, in any case.

Note that Wilhelm doesn’t get any support in this ‘suitcase’ fight scene. No one is helping him: Erik (read: the Court) is not embracing Wilhelm. The press is on his case the entire time. Nobody is standing by him (neither figuratively nor literally in the shot). All the students are watching him through the windows. He is all alone in that scene and trying to wrest that metaphorical ‘suitcase’ from August completely on his own – with nothing but his bare hands.

Note how brilliantly this scene is shot, too:

August and Erik are both framed by the door of the school behind them. Read: They are both part of the establishment (which the school on this show represents none-too-subtly). Wilhelm is standing to the side. He is not framed by that door at all. Read: Wilhelm is operating outside of the establishment.

(I realize that we will have to talk about shot composition a bit more in-depth at some point because I keep bringing up the way shots are structured in a lot of my articles. This will probably be the next ‘bonus treat’ for my paid subscribers in about three to four weeks: ‘Shot Composition 101’ classroom talk using an example from ‘Young Royals’. It’ll stay outside of our chain of metaphors that we’re discussing here, but understanding how symbolic meaning is traditionally conveyed through shot composition is actually quite important for deciphering the metaphorical subtext of a show. EDIT to add: The article on ‘Shot Composition 101’ is now out!)

Anyway, back to our scene. Here comes the potentially cleverest and best hidden of details.

6) Whose suitcase is Erik holding in that scene?

You might think that while Wilhelm and August have their little spat on the sidelines, Erik is content to hold his suitcase. He is the current Crown Prince, after all. Surely, nobody is competing with him for his metaphorical ‘suitcase’. He gets to hold his suitcase in peace and smile at the cameras.

But you see, that’s actually the clever part: That suitcase isn’t Erik’s suitcase!

This scene is metaphorically telling us something nobody in the audience can possibly know at this point in the story: Erik will soon be out of the picture, and Wilhelm will take over.

That metaphorical ‘suitcase’ is not Erik’s suitcase. It’s Wilhelm’s. It’s Wilhelm’s luggage they’re carrying into that school. All of these ‘suitcases’ represent the Crown, and they’re all Wilhelm’s. Erik doesn’t go to that school anymore. Erik is only carrying Wilhelm’s suitcases into the school building. Erik will very soon bid Wilhelm farewell and be gone from the school…and then from the story in general. He will disappear – first from that building and then from the show as a whole.

That metaphorical ‘suitcase’ was never Erik’s to begin with. It’s always been Wilhelm’s. It’s Wilhelm’s burden to bear. Fate decided that a long time ago – long before Wilhelm knew any of this. So no matter how serenely Erik smiles at the cameras in that scene, no matter how prettily he’s holding that suitcase and how statesmanlike he reacts to anyone calling him Crown Prince throughout these scenes in general: He’s holding Wilhelm’s suitcase (read: future role as Crown Prince); he’s carrying it into the school and into the narrative where it will be Wilhelm’s to do with as he pleases.

Do we get any kind of confirmation of this reading? Yes, we do, as a matter of fact. 

Just a few minutes of screentime later (after the church scene), we get a scene with Erik and Wilhelm sitting in Wilhelm’s room, talking about the next three years that Wilhelm will spend at this school: The suitcase is conspicuously positioned in front of Wilhelm, sitting on Wilhelm’s side of the room. Wilhelm’s hand and arm are lying on top of it, as a matter of fact. 

Erik throws the Hillerska ‘Etiquette’ booklet at Wilhelm (as everyone and their mother watching this show has probably noticed at this point), showcasing the contrast between the older brother who’s deeply embedded in the establishment and the younger brother who’s struggling with his role and upbringing, but throughout the entire scene, the suitcase isn’t going anywhere.

As Wilhelm complains about being forced to attend this school and shows clear signs of anxiety at having to play a role, never being allowed to just be a normal person, he keeps playing with the clasp of the suitcase (read: it looks like someone has trouble unlocking this metaphorical ‘suitcase’, trouble unlocking the future role he will have to play).

Most notably, however, there is no suitcase on Erik’s side of the room in that scene. Erik is sitting on an empty bed. This is the last time Wilhelm will see Erik in person, and Erik is already shown to be without a ‘suitcase’ (read: without the Crown). The ‘suitcase’ is now in Wilhelm’s hands.

7) What about the ending of the scene?

Now, I can almost see you thinking out loud at this point: Anyone who’s ever watched that scene (and I know for a fact that a lot of my readers have done so repeatedly) knows that, at the end of that struggle with August, Wilhelm lets go of the suitcase, gives in and just let’s August have it.

Does that foreshadow an ending in which Wilhelm will give up the Crown and let August take over in season three? After all, August has the support of Alexander and the backing of the Court (metaphorically: Erik’s side-hug), and Wilhelm has nobody in that scene. To add insult to injury, all of this is happening in front of the reporters and photographers and under the watchful eye of the other students (read: society in general), which probably foreshadows how events are going to unfold in season three. For a kid that’s already struggling with panic attacks and severe anxiety, a mudslinging press and a lot of public attention are most likely going to be almost unbearable.

So, does this moment in which Wilhelm reluctantly lets go of the suitcase handle and lets August have the suitcase foreshadow events in season three? Will Wilhelm abdicate? Will he give up his right to the throne as he threatened to do in season two? Will August become the next King of Sweden in the ‘Young Royals’ universe?

Well, that’s at least one possible way of interpreting this scene. (If you’re on Team Abdication, please rest assured that we will come back to this at the end of this article.) It would, however, be remiss of me not to point out that there’s also another way you can look at this:

In episode one of season one, Wilhelm is not yet ready for anything that’s going to be thrown his way. (As the hero of the story, the protagonist always has to go through a myriad of struggles to both defeat his enemies and conquer his own fears – only to eventually succeed in the end; that’s how storytelling works.) The main point this show has been making (in a lot of other subtextual ways too, as we will see in future posts of this analysis series) is that Wilhelm is not ready yet because he is facing the behemoth on his own. He is not ready yet because he’s all alone at this point in the story.

Wilhelm hasn’t met Simon yet. Wilhelm doesn’t know what love is yet. He doesn’t know what power it can unleash (both destructive and constructive). And arguably that’s why this particular shot depicts him as so incredibly alone: August has Alexander. August has Erik (read: the Royal Court). August has everyone’s support. August is smooth and knows everyone (both at the school and in their aristocratic circles in general). August has the backing of so many people.

Wilhelm in that scene is standing to the side and has no one. Absolutely nobody.

And you could argue that that’s precisely why he lets go of the suitcase in that scene. (It’s at least one way of looking at it.)

Because his metaphorical ‘suitcase’ (i.e. this incredibly heavy burden, this very, very difficult role that fate has reserved for Wilhelm) is essentially not something you can carry alone.

August has a whole support system around him to lift that thing off the ground and wrest it away from Wilhelm, but actually a network like that is always just an ersatz support, never the real deal. The real deal is love, obviously. The love of your life. And Wilhelm will have that later on in the story.

And may I refer you once again to that certain scene a few minutes later: Erik and Wilhelm are sitting in Wilhelm’s room after the church scene. Wilhelm has just caught sight of Simon for the very first time. Love has just been sung into his ear (read: heart, as per the ‘music’ metaphor). And the suitcase is now in Wilhelm’s room, right under Wilhelm’s arm and under Wilhelm’s control. He’s playing with the clasp as though he doesn’t yet know how to unlock this metaphorical ‘suitcase’. But note one important detail: August didn’t get to keep the suitcase!

August might have won that short ‘suitcase’ wrestling match earlier on, but he won a battle and not the war. Ultimately, the ‘suitcase’ still ended up in Wilhelm’s room. It is specifically shown to us, pointed out to us that it’s there. It’s his! It’s not as though this suitcase were sitting in August’s room. (Just to make sure, we understand each other: A show doesn’t have to go out of its way to show something to us. If it does, it means something. The writers could have just as well decided that the suitcase was still somewhere in a baggage room, still in the process of being brought up to Wilhelm’s room or just stashed away under Wilhelm’s bed and thus invisible to us. But that’s not how the writers wrote it: The suitcase is right there. We’re shown that August doesn’t have it. We’re shown that it’s not on Erik’s side of the room or under Erik’s control anymore either. It’s under Wilhelm’s arm, who might not fully know how to handle it yet but who has got it now for better or worse. And all of this happens only after he’s seen Simon for the first time in his life.)

Note that once Erik is buried and Wilhelm becomes Crown Prince in episode four of season one, his luggage (several big bags and a suitcase) just magically materializes in Wilhelm’s new room again. Translation: The metaphorical ‘suitcase’ is there. It’s his. Nobody is taking any of this ‘baggage’ from Wilhelm. It will always end up with him in the end, this cinematic sleight of hand seems to suggest.

In episode four of season one, when Wilhelm first enters his new room with the headmistress, some of these bags are even sitting on the desk, to make sure we really, really notice them. The suitcase is also clearly visible in the shot. In fact, Wilhelm hugs the headmistress right in front of these bags. We see both him, her and the bags on the desk very closely together in the shot as they embrace: Wilhelm’s fate is a hard one (i.e. heavy just like that luggage), and in this difficult hour, he’s craving human touch. He isn’t allowed to have it from the person he most wants to get it from, so he hugs the headmistress instead, but the reason why he needs that hug so much is clearly shown to us in the same shot, too: It’s sitting on the desk; it’s the prospect of the Crown.

Once the headmistress and her entourage leave, Wilhelm picks up his frog prince snow globe from the desk, and he does so right in front of his metaphorical ‘baggage’. (By the way, did you know that the Grimm Brothers’ original fairy tale is actually not called the frog prince, but ‘The Frog King’? Just saying. If you’re on Team Coronation and not on Team Abdication, this would be a point in your favour.) Wilhelm then deletes Simon’s number still right in front of said metaphorical ‘baggage’, the visual black contact bar in his phone for a moment covering and overlapping with the ‘baggage’ on the desk (a very clever way of visually showing us that these two problems overlap). And he has his panic attack and flashbacks to kissing Simon still sitting on that same bed, presumably still looking at that very same ‘baggage’.

The metaphorical ‘baggage’ is sitting right there, waiting to be picked up – and not by the headmistress or the bodyguards, that’s for sure. Somebody else should be helping Wilhelm carry his ‘baggage’...

Now, if I were on Team Coronation and were a writer on this show, this is what I would write into season three to highlight the importance of a partner to help with a burden such as the Crown: I would write a scene with Wilhelm and Simon literally carrying a few pieces of luggage together (suitcases, big duffel bags, whatever). They could be shown to struggle. They could be out of breath, groaning and complaining about how heavy this metaphorical ‘baggage’ is. But ultimately it should be shown that, between the two of them, they’d manage to pull it off.

Translation: As long as Wilhelm has to do it alone, there’s no chance he will manage to fulfil his role as Crown Prince. If he has the love of his life by his side, he will manage – no matter how hard the task (metaphorically: how heavy the burden is).

That’s at least one way of looking at it. (If you’re on Team Abdication instead, rest assured that we will take a closer look at how that should be written into the metaphorical subtext at the end of this article.)

Here’s one detail I would add (but obviously I’m not a writer on this show): In what context could Simon and Wilhelm be seen carrying luggage together? Well, unless you want season three to go all camping trip (which is, of course, always a possibility), the most logical way to go about it would be to show it when Simon moves to Hillerska as a boarder.

I know this topic is at least as contentious as the Team Coronation vs. Team Abdication debate, but at least on this front, the metaphorical subtext is really quite clear: Simon will move in there; that’s obvious. There are plenty of (subtextual, metaphorical) reasons for that, which we will examine in at least two later posts of this analysis series.

So, if Simon moves in there, I say let the two boys carry his luggage together. In this way, the show can get its point across that, between the two of them, they can actually manage to wear something as heavy as the Crown. (There’s a reason this show is called ‘Young Royals’, and it’s not that this title describes Wilhelm and Erik, other unnamed young European princes and princesses or, Heaven forbid, August. The young Royals here are Wilhelm and Simon, make no mistake. That’s why it’s in the plural form.)

Now, what about the detail that I would add? 

Well, you might ask how this would make any sense: If Simon moves to Hillerska as a boarder and the two of them carry Simon’s luggage into the school, wouldn’t that just be Simon’s metaphorical ‘baggage’? How is Simon’s stuff supposed to metaphorically represent Wilhelm’s Crown that they will be wearing together? Well, again, I can’t speak for the show because that’s not my place of work, but here’s how I would do it (disclaimer: this is not a prediction; it’s just me thinking out loud):

As a writer, I would make up some superficial plot-level excuse for Simon not owning a suitcase of his own (something along the lines of: his suitcase once got lost at an airport on a flight from South America to Sweden). Note that writing-wise this could be a great opportunity to metaphorically comment on the fact that, as the child of an immigrant, Simon doesn’t own the same type of luxury ‘suitcases’ other people around him have. His suitcase got ‘lost in transit’ from South America to Sweden, i.e. he fears he doesn’t get to play the same super-important, privileged role in society that, say, an August gets to fulfil – all due to his being of immigrant descent.

Then, when Simon inevitably moves into the school as a boarder, I would have Wilhelm offer Simon his suitcases to move his things from Bjärstad to the school. This would represent a great opportunity to metaphorically have Wilhelm offer to share the Crown with Simon. (If you’re reading an almost-proposal into this, you would be right, as well. But this could be about more than just their love and their marriage prospects; this would make a broader point about showing society that bearing a burden like this can never be done alone and making people understand that they have to accept whoever it is that you want to carry your metaphorical ‘luggage’ with you: If it’s a boy, people have to accept that it’s a boy. Otherwise the ‘luggage’ doesn’t get carried anywhere at all.)

Then I would show the two of them moving Simon’s things inside Wilhelm’s suitcases into the school. I would show that these suitcases are heavy and difficult to lift (as I said before, the Crown is a heavy burden), but I’d show that between the two of them they’d actually manage.

The suitcases would still be Wilhelm’s, of course, but the stuff inside would be Simon’s. This would metaphorically accentuate the fact that the Crown only becomes alive when it’s filled with the sweetness, courage and love of someone Wilhelm can share his life with. It would obviously also mean that Simon would bring all of his ‘baggage’ (his own issues, fears and problems) with him in those suitcases, as we all undoubtedly do when we embark on a relationship; it’s only natural. But the Crown (the suitcases) would be hollow without the things Simon would fill them with: both good and bad.

So, anyway, that’s how I would do it if I had to write a Team Coronation scenario into the metaphorical subtext. I haven’t got the faintest idea how the show is going to go about it. But since it brought up the metaphor in the first place, I would expect it to give its viewers some long-term pay-off for recognizing the metaphor come season three.

(And again, if you’re on Team Abdication, fear not, we will come back to this at the end of this article.)

So, do we actually get some evidence that Wilhelm being alone and completely without support in that ‘suitcase’ fight scene with August in episode one of season one is the main issue, the main reason why he lets go of the suitcase (at least at that point in the story)?

Yes, there are several hints, but they’re all very subtle.

In the season finale of season one, we get a scene in which Simon meets the Queen for the first time. Look at this shot for a moment, please:

There are a lot of different things going on in that scene, but one of the main things that instantly caught my eye is the fact that Wilhelm is carrying a backpack here. And not only is Simon not helping Wilhelm shoulder that burden (at that point in the story). Wilhelm is actually holding it with his right hand, i.e. the hand that’s further away from Simon.

Translation: Here, too, the two of them are shown to be not ready to support each other in the way two partners in life should. At some point in the future they will probably be ready to do that for each other, but here they’re clearly nowhere near that yet. Simon isn’t helping Wilhelm carry anything (i.e. he doesn’t understand Wilhelm’s problems yet). And Wilhelm is subconsciously holding that backpack away from Simon (read: Wilhelm isn’t even ready to open up about those problems yet).

It’s a very interesting scene for a different reason, as well: Wilhelm isn’t carrying a suitcase here. It’s just a backpack, i.e. it’s basically just one part of the broader ‘suitcase’ metaphor.

A backpack contains just the most personal things an individual carries from place to place. I would argue that the show intentionally chose to show Wilhelm with a backpack here. They could have just as well shown us Wilhelm with yet another suitcase, but what they showed us with the backpack are Wilhelm’s intimately personal issues. Not the broader ‘suitcase’ metaphor of the Crown, the unwanted Crown Prince role and the whole heavy burden, no…just his very own personal ‘stuff’: his anxiety, his panic attacks, his mental health issues, his grief for his beloved brother, his whole messed-up upbringing, the fact that his parents are never there for him, the lack of communication in his family, his being closeted, his absolute state of panic at the thought of what coming out would mean with public exposure and the press following him everywhere and probably most importantly his fear of getting close to other people, both physically and emotionally…all of that is his ‘backpack’.

And now look how Wilhelm is holding that thing away from Simon in that scene. He’s not ready to share any of this with Simon yet.

The ‘suitcase’ is his heavy burden in life: the Crown. The ‘backpack’ is a whole variety of personal and very difficult-to-unpack issues. (Obviously the two things are also intertwined with each other; that’s why you can take things out of the ‘suitcase’ and put them into the ‘backpack’ and vice versa.)

You know what makes this scene even better: The Queen is conspicuously carrying a bag of her own in that scene. Did you notice? There’s no reason for us to be shown her handbag, but she’s holding it in front of her body and even corrects the hold she has on it, so we can see it better. Remember what I said in the article about the ‘clementine’ metaphor? You can often spot it when actors were told to hold a certain prop more conspicuously just by the way they’re holding it.)

Translation: The Queen has very personal issues of her own, and we even get a confirmation of that a few minutes later in the car scene when she tells Wilhelm that she, too, had been in love at his age, but the whole thing had apparently been doomed from the start.

How tragic to know that many, many decades later she is still feeling some of that pain (cf. her handbag in that specific scene when she meets Simon). I know, you might argue that her issues could be related to something else, but since she’s showing us her handbag specifically in this very scene, I’m pretty sure that this is about her doomed teenage love affair.

It’s supported not just by the fact that she verbally confirms this a few moments later in the car; it’s also highlighted by the actress’s superb and wonderfully understated performance in that scene when she meets Simon. I know a lot of people read her expression in that scene as cool, cruel even, as her checking Simon out like an insect she wants to crush. I personally never saw that in the perfectly subtle performance the actress gave there: She looks sceptical at first, yes, but watch her face as Simon bids Wilhelm goodbye and leaves; there’s a tiny smile on her face, and that smile is incredibly wistful and oh-so-knowing. There’s an echo of some long past yearning on those lips; you can see it. This woman with her emotional ‘baggage’ (metaphorically: her handbag) is standing there, watching Simon go as if she’s seeing her own lover leave her over and over and over again.

The cruelty, the near-sneering face, all of that comes later in the car when she talks to Wilhelm and pretty much tells him none of this is worth throwing away the Crown for (as though she’s cruelly telling it herself all over again because otherwise she might regret a decision she was forced to make decades ago). All of that coldness, the self-disgust only breaks out of her once they’re alone in the car. But as long as she’s still standing there, watching Simon leave, her emotional ‘handbag’ hidden under the folds of her extravagant coat at that point, but her hands still clearly clutching it, her smile is melancholy, not cruel. It’s almost as if her face were saying, “I know exactly what my son sees in this beautiful boy. Too bad it will all have to end the same way it ended for me.”

This whole scene gets an extension, by the way, after Wilhelm has made his statement of denial: In a quiet scene without any dialogue, we see Wilhelm pack his backpack and leave the castle.

Now, I’m sure a lot of people read this as a sign of him leaving this place behind that he associates with so much pain now. But I think it’s more than just that: Wilhelm is taking all of his issues (metaphorically: his backpack) with him.

And what does he do with them? Well, he takes them straight back to Simon, with whom he meets up right after that scene.

Note that he, once again, keeps his ‘backpack’ from Simon: The thing is nowhere to be seen when Simon breaks up with him. (It’s presumably still in the car.) We’re specifically shown a scene in which Wilhelm packs it and takes it with him, but then we don’t see it once he meets up with Simon. And that’s the whole problem here: The two of them aren’t communicating, they aren’t ‘unpacking’ Wilhelm’s ‘backpack’. (And there is a lot to metaphorically ‘unpack’ there, that’s for sure.) But both boys aren’t ready for any of this yet, and so they just break up.

Before you say, “But doesn’t Simon have problems of his own? It’s not like he’s discussing his issues with Wilhelm openly.” Yes, you’re absolutely right. And we’re shown this consistently throughout the show: Simon’s orange backpack is pretty much everywhere. That boy has issues galore. And we most likely haven’t even seen half of those yet.

What, did you think that orange backpack was a cute little prop? It’s the visualization of something dead-serious and quite sad.

Just to give you an example: When August first approaches Simon in episode one of season one to ask him for booze, Simon can be seen carrying his backpack on his shoulder.

Now, if you’ve learned one thing throughout this little film analysis series of mine, it should be this: We never say, “But Simon is just carrying his backpack here because he’s on his way home,” or “Simon has to carry his things in something. So, it’s only natural that we would see him with his backpack in scene X, Y, and Z.” What is very important to remember is that Simon isn’t a real person. Simon is a fictional character. Simon isn’t carrying his backpack anywhere; the writers make him do things. If they didn’t want their audience to notice the metaphorical ‘backpack’ Simon has strapped to his back in oh-so-many scenes, they could change the setting for the scenes in question. 

August doesn’t necessarily have to approach Simon as he’s on his way home. There are literally a hundred other ways you can write a scene like that. But it was written so there would be a backpack in it. And it’s Simon’s. And it’s noticeable. It’s pretty much the first thing we catch sight of in that scene, seeing as it starts with Simon having turned his back to us, the viewers. That backpack is practically screaming at us from afar, i.e. Simon has issues, and the show points that out precisely in a scene in which Simon is being approached about alcohol. This is no coincidence. Some of Simon’s issues are tied up with his dad being an alcoholic. Simon is literally carrying those issues on his back just as August comes running along and inadvertently starts to blather on about things that Simon finds very hard to bear (metaphorically: heavy to carry).

And consequently Simon can be seen carrying the very same backpack later on when he goes to visit his dad. The show makes this really, really obvious when Micke eventually hugs Simon, and Simon awkwardly hugs his father back with one arm while holding on to his backpack with the other, even lifting it a tiny bit for us, the audience, to see. There are three of them in that hug: Micke, Simon and…their ‘baggage’.

I’m sure there are at least another dozen or so scenes on this show in which Simon is shown with his backpack, and if I were a betting person, I’d wager that all of them are connected in some way to some issue or other that Simon is carrying around with him in his metaphorical ‘backpack’. Think: Simon approaching Magister Englund with his backpack firmly in place. (It’s clear what his problem is here, and the backpack foreshadows that a lot of new problems are going to arise precisely because Simon chose to approach his teacher and ask him for those private tutoring lessons.)

Or think: Simon driving away with Rosh and Ayub after physically assaulting August, whom he leaves behind literally crying in the dark. Simon’s backpack can be seen shining brightly in the darkness as he’s sitting on the back of Ayub’s scooter. Rosh actually calls Simon out on his issues a few minutes later; then Rosh and Ayub ride off and leave Simon standing there – all alone with his backpack.

(The contrast to his scooter ride together with Wilhelm is stark: Simon didn’t have a backpack with him there, and he didn’t have one at the football match itself either, just joy and happiness at being able to spend time with Wilhelm.)

Having been dropped off by Rosh and Ayub, Simon returns home, instantly lies to his mother claiming that he’s okay (he’s really not; and his metaphorical ‘backpack’ is still firmly strapped to his back). Simon then walks into his room where he’s surprised to find Sara. And it’s only when she starts talking about Wilhelm that he can let go of his backpack and start to smile, even laugh and giggle with her again.

I won’t go through all of these Simon-backpack scenes here because this article is long enough already, but I’m sure you’ll all go hunting for them now. As a matter of fact, I love that this is becoming a bit of a tradition: I’m posting a thing about a metaphor, and everyone finds even more evidence than there was originally in the article. So, there it is: Go crazy! Try to find all of the scenes in which Simon is shown with his metaphorical ‘backpack’ (i.e. his issues that are weighing him down).

I will instead mention a different scene featuring Simon’s issues because it so nicely mirrors the scene in which Wilhelm can be seen packing his metaphorical ‘backpack’ at the castle after his statement of denial:

Before the planned sleepover in Wilhelm’s room (after the Parents’ Day), the sleepover that falls through because of Erik’s death, Simon can be seen packing not just a backpack but a whole duffel bag. Now, I’m sure a lot of you watched that scene and went, “Aw, he’s packing his things, so he can stay with Wilhelm,” but I can assure you that I instantly thought, “Uh-oh, that’s a bittersweet scene right there. He’s taking all of his issues with him. Boy, there seem to be quite a lot of them.”

This does give the whole sweet packing scene a slightly sad undertone, doesn’t it? (As we’ve seen before, the show is full of ostensibly sweet scenes that are a bit melancholy once you examine their metaphorical subtext.) Simon is a person with a lot of issues, and wherever he goes, he takes them with him – even to a planned night of passion with the boy he just fell for. The fact that this ‘duffel bag’ is really about his issues is actually highlighted verbally in that scene in plain text: As Simon carries that bag to the door, he lies to his mother (again! Because basically that’s all he ever does in his interactions with Linda: He lies!) about where he’s going to stay the night. Simon’s constant lying is one of Simon’s core problems, and here we see him packing and then carrying a ‘duffel bag’. Just saying. Note that we never see him unpack that ‘duffel bag’ afterwards. 

By the way, did you notice how different Simon’s and Wilhelm’s backpacks are? Wilhelm’s is a fancy leather one that probably cost an arm and a leg, and Simon’s is a far simpler affair, made of some rather cheap orange material. This is more than just a costuming decision to highlight the massive difference in socioeconomic status between the two of them; it also shows that their metaphorical ‘baggage’, their most personal issues, are connected to wealth and class. Wilhelm’s personal issues are very much interwoven with the expectations that come with his family’s status, with his upbringing, with that role he has to play – that’s why it’s a fancy leather backpack. Simon’s issues have a lot to do with his being poor, dealing drugs to make up for that, lying to cover all of that up, etc. And all of that is, of course, reflected in that cheap backpack of his.

This is echoed, by the way, in other bags we see at that school. Did you notice the girls (Felice, Stella, Frederika, etc.) sometimes carry handbags around with them? You’d think that ordinary students at an ordinary school just carry their file folders, books and pencil cases around with them between classes, but these particular posh girls carry actual fancy clutches on their extravagant persons, all of them undoubtedly of the expensive Gucci, Prada and Hermès variety – once again, a quick flashlight on the fact that all of these girls have issues of their own, issues inextricably linked to their upbringing and the expectations that come with being from a wealthy family. 

And then there is one other scene in which you can see a multitude of Hillerska students dragging their luggage back to school in the season opener of season two. Translation: All of these rich kids have issues, that’s almost a certainty at this point. (And before you say, “Aren’t you reading too much into this? How else are they supposed to get their stuff back to school after the Christmas break?” These aren’t actual, real people. These are fictional characters. If it’s not meaningful, the show doesn’t have to show them with their metaphorical ‘baggage’ at all.)

A special honorary mention goes to Sara and her luggage that she can be seen taking with her when she leaves Hillerska. She is pretty much attached to her metaphorical ‘baggage’ when August tries to stop her by telling her about the horse. Note that apart from her two bags, she also has an actual suitcase in that scene. I mentioned above that the suitcases probably represent the role a person has to play in life. (Wilhelm’s suitcases are his Crown Prince role, for example.) So, if you want to read Sara’s suitcase (that she’s leaving with) as a sad little hint at the fact that she got pretty close to becoming the next Queen Consort of Sweden via a relationship with August, be my guest. It’s certainly a possibility – especially since we see that suitcase of hers specifically in a scene in which August tries to stop her.

If you think I’m taking things too far with these ‘baggage’ scenes, rest assured that this particular metaphor is really used incredibly widely across very different source ‘texts’. As a matter of fact, I’ll tell you a little secret: When I first watched the show, this particular metaphor was the first one I picked up on. I noticed it right away in the ‘suitcase’ fight scene between August and Wilhelm, and the reason for that is precisely its near-ubiquitous use on screen.

If I started to recount the films and shows in which this metaphor is used with this exact (or at least an adjacent) meaning, this article would be as long as Marcus’s face when he realizes Simon’s love song isn’t for him.

I told you all about that ‘suitcase’ scene in ‘House M.D.’ at the beginning of this article because it features a pretty straightforward use of the ‘baggage’ metaphor. But there are many far more elaborate and intricate examples of it being employed, as well. (Have any of you seen the 2009 movie “Up in the Air” with George Clooney? There the ‘baggage’ metaphor’s meaning is actually turned upside down, in a manner of speaking. And the character whom George Clooney portrays in it literally tells you all about it being a metaphor in an actual speech he gives.)

I’m telling you this to assure you that I’m not just ‘seeing’ things here; it really is one of the most widely used metaphors on screen; it’s used virtually everywhere, and ‘Young Royals’ is no exception.

Nowhere does the show manage to do it more artfully than in the following scene, though. (And obviously I have, once again, saved the best for last.)

It happens in season two, and to set the scene a bit, we have to first remind ourselves how Wilhelm returns to Hillerska in the season opener:

In episode one of season two, he can be seen exiting the car in front of the school with his backpack (read: his personal issues and problems) on his shoulder. His suitcases and bigger bags he leaves for Malin, the bodyguard, to deal with.

Translation: At the beginning of season two, Wilhelm is only focusing on his personal stuff, i.e. taking revenge on August and getting Simon back. Wilhelm isn’t even interested in what happens with the Crown (metaphorically: his suitcases). He lets a bodyguard deal with it all, i.e. when it comes to his Crown Prince role, he is pretty much ‘phoning it in’, as they say. (Even that expression is probably not apt here, seeing as he isn’t even taking his mother’s phone calls.) The Crown Prince role is functionally vacant at that point in the story, and Wilhelm doesn’t give a damn.

And now that we’ve set the scene, let’s get to the clever part I promised you. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, it will feature a very subtle hint at the fact that the Crown is not just Wilhelm’s anymore; it subtextually concerns Simon now, as well.

After Wilhelm threatened the Royal Court with what amounts to abdication at the end of the season opener, Jan-Olof is sent to Hillerska to physically remove Wilhelm from the school (if necessary by force) in episode two.

And right at the beginning of their confrontation, as Jan-Olof appears in the classroom, you can already tell that the following scenes will be all about Wilhelm’s metaphorical ‘suitcase’ that Wilhelm had largely neglected so far (as we saw in the season opener).

Jan-Olof walks into the classroom and tells Wilhelm to ‘bring his belongings’, which is something you would tell someone who’s going to be asked to pack up and leave later on. So, already you get a tiny hidden reference to packing here. A minute later, in the corridor, Jan-Olof reinforces that message by telling Wilhelm, “Let’s go pack your bags,” while pretty much in the same breath telling him that he can’t threaten the monarchy and expect there to be no consequences. (You can see how the ‘luggage’ metaphor and the Crown are mentioned virtually in the same sentence here.)

Then Jan-Olof gets way more explicit once they are in Wilhelm’s room. He is looking for Wilhelm’s bags now. He verbally (!) asks for them. (You can see how important this ‘luggage’ metaphor is, right?)

And now pay close attention, please:

Jan-Olof tells Wilhelm to pack just a few personal things (presumably his little backpack) and leave the ‘rest’ (presumably the big stuff, i.e. the bigger duffel bags and suitcases) for the Court to deal with. 

This distinction that the script makes here suggests to me that I was probably right in making the distinction between the metaphorical ‘backpack’ representing Wilhelm’s personal issues and the metaphorical ‘suitcases’ representing his Crown Prince role. (Obviously, the two are difficult to separate. Wilhelm’s issues are intertwined with the expectations that come with his role, i.e. metaphorically: it’s difficult to say what stuff goes in the ‘backpack’ and what stuff goes in the ‘suitcase’. But Jan-Olof making this distinction here is very important!)

Because what Jan-Olof is subtextually telling Wilhelm here is what his life is going to be like from now on:

From now on, Wilhelm will have only (!) his issues left (only his ‘backpack’): He will have his panic attacks and his anxiety, will throw up before speaking in public. He will have his grief for his brother. And he will be closeted and miserable. He will have sleepless nights and pain. All of that. But he won’t have any control over the way the Crown Prince role is handled. The Royal Court will take charge. The Court will have his metaphorical ‘suitcases’ under its control. So, that’s what his life will be like once he leaves Hillerska. Wilhelm will have just his ‘backpack’ of issues, and no control whatsoever over the big luggage, the ‘suitcases’. What an utterly terrifying and horrible prospect.

You can even hear Jan-Olof unzip some bag or other in that scene; a loud zipping sound can be heard in the background as Wilhelm nervously shakes his frog prince snow globe. The sound seems to say, “And that’s where we’re going to put all of your issues now. All the horrors, just for you, packed up nicely in this bag.” (The frog prince snow globe is yet another reference to his Crown Prince role, as we’re told none-too-subtly in a flashback to Erik a second later, so the fact that Wilhelm shakes it right as the zipping sound can be heard is, of course, deeply meaningful.)

Wait, but did I say there’s a tiny, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail that suggests that the Crown does concern Simon now, as well? Yes, I did, and yes, there is.

Remember Felice and Simon texting each other back and forth in the classroom after Wilhelm leaves with Jan-Olof? We all know Simon reacts rather strongly: He lies to his teacher, leaves the classroom under a pretext and goes to the Headmistress to beg her to do something.

On the surface of the text (the plot level, the literal layer of the script) he reacts because Felice texts him about Wilhelm being forced to leave the school, but there’s one text exchange right before that, that made me sit up a bit straighter because the wording was oh-so-interesting. (And this show is nothing if not clever when it comes to word choice.)

Felice specifically texts Simon that they are making Wilhelm pack.

And the show then reinforces that message by having a perplexed Simon text back, “What do you mean, pack?”

So, subtextually, the thing Simon is reacting to is more than just the fact that Wilhelm is leaving. He is also reacting to the fact that Wilhelm is being forced to pack his metaphorical ‘luggage’.

Because that luggage, all of it, the ‘backpack’ of personal stuff and the big ‘duffel bags’ and ‘suitcases’ of official Crown Prince duties, all of that concerns Simon now, too. Wilhelm’s metaphorical ‘luggage’ isn’t just Wilhelm’s anymore. It’s Simon’s, as well, this seems to suggest. And Simon won’t just let some old guy in a coat stroll in and take his future from him (and by future I mean both, Wilhelm and the life Simon could potentially have with him, which this show is hinting at really, really subtly here).

Wilhelm’s baggage is now Simon’s, as well. For better or worse. That’s just what it’s like when you’re emotionally in a relationship with someone. (We’ve already seen that the show strongly hints at the fact that their official relationship status doesn’t really matter; Simon himself subtextually perceives his fling with Marcus as ‘cheating’ on Wilhelm.) When you’re in a relationship with someone, their ‘baggage’ (good and bad) becomes yours, as well. Their problems and issues become yours, but their future, their life, their prospects, their career, their fate, everything that awaits them in their life concerns you now, as well.

That’s why Simon has to react to a text essentially telling him that Wilhelm is packing. Simon can’t let the Court take control of Wilhelm’s metaphorical ‘suitcases’, and he can’t let Wilhelm pack his metaphorical ‘backpack’ and leave. All of that (!) is now a part of Simon’s life, as well. It’s subtle, but it’s there.

Now, I’ve mentioned a few times already that we have to get back and seriously discuss the prospect of Wilhelm abdicating too because, with the way things are going right now, it might very well be that the characters manage to tear up the constitution by the end of episode one of season three and the monarchy will be toast by episode two.

The Team Abdication vs. Team Coronation debate tends to be quite contentious, I get that. But here’s one thing to keep in mind, and it’s very, very important when you’re analyzing a source ‘text’ (be it a novel, a play, a movie or a TV show):

Do not let your personal preferences colour the way you analyze the ‘text’. (I know this is easier said than done, believe me.)

Some people might have a preference for Wilhelm abdicating; others want to see him crowned King; both have good arguments for why they want to see their preferred outcome. But a lot of this has less to do with the show ‘Young Royals’ and more with each and every viewer’s political leanings, general worldview, and attitudes towards the monarchy (any monarchy) in real life. (I also do suspect there might be a cultural difference between American and European viewers, but obviously I’m not in the polling business, so I don’t know this for certain.)

I would caution against letting your real-life attitudes influence the way you analyze a ‘text’ (any ‘text’, not just this particular show) because, if you’re just trying to find your own preferences reflected in the ‘text’, you won’t listen to what the ‘text’ is trying to tell you; you might easily end up trying to tell the ‘text’ something instead.

So, here’s the path I would suggest is at least worth considering: 1) Try to keep your personal preferences out of the analysis (as much as possible) even if it’s difficult. 2) Don’t look at the superficial plot level of the ‘text’ at all. 3) Just look at the metaphors.

Because in my experience, the metaphorical subtext never lies!

So, in the event that the show leaves the question of abdication vs. coronation open at the end of season three, try not to tell yourself, “Oh, well it had an open ending; now I will start endless arguments with strangers on the interwebs by discussing why my view is the right one and theirs is wrong.” Instead, look at what happened to the metaphors that have been established and are in place since episode one of season one. Often if you look at what happened to the metaphors, an open ending turns out to be not as open as you might have thought.

So, if (and only if!) the show decides to leave the question of abdication vs. coronation unanswered in its plot at the end of season three, take a close look at what became of the metaphorical ‘luggage’ (i.e. the big ‘duffel bags’ and ‘suitcases’).

If Wilhelm and Simon carry the suitcases up to Wilhelm’s room, for example, and then the suitcases just stay there and nothing bad ever happens to them throughout the last season of the show, well then that offers you iron-clad proof that Wilhelm and Simon will be crowned together and Wilhelm will not abdicate. No matter how open the ending is on the superficial plot level (the literal layer of the text), if nothing bad happens to the suitcases, then that question is settled subtextually.

However, if they carry the suitcases to Wilhelm’s room and then, say, a pipe bursts, severely damaging Wilhelm’s suitcases in the process, so they become completely unusable, well, then that’s iron-clad proof that the monarchy in this show’s universe is toast. The country will turn into a republic; Wilhelm will abdicate one way or another. And again, no matter how open-ended season three leaves the plot on the textual surface level, the metaphor will have told you all the writers wanted to tell you. (Did you notice how cleverly I worked the ‘water’ metaphor into my imagined scenario there? What with the ‘water’, a.k.a, their feelings/their relationship, destroying the metaphorical ‘suitcases’? Because that’s basically how I would write an abdication into the metaphorical subtext.)

What happens with the metaphorical ‘suitcases’ determines the outcome for the monarchy that the writers of this show envision in their fictional universe, no matter where the surface-level plot will leave the protagonists at the end of season three.

Now, you could argue, of course, that we could use the metaphor of ‘The Palace’ (the party location of the Hillerska students) in a similar way. After all, ‘The Palace’ is a metaphor that has been established in episode one of season one, as well. But things are arguably a bit more murky when it comes to ‘The Palace’, which is why I would caution against such an approach.

I had already very briefly summarized the metaphor of ‘The Palace’ in my article about the Visual Metaphors on ‘Young Royals’, but I had admittedly omitted quite a few key facts about it. (It’s sometimes difficult to determine which information to include in an article and where exactly to cut off a discussion because all the metaphors on this show are so intricately interwoven that it’s almost impossible to analyze one of them without going into a dozen other metaphors, as well.)

What we had established was that ‘The Palace’ is a metaphor for the monarchy as an institution. That’s why it’s dark and dirty. That’s why it makes people vomit (hello, Felice, how are you?). That’s why Wilhelm’s father misremembers its name as ‘The Fortress’ hinting at the fact that he feels trapped inside. That’s why it’s actually an old defunct factory (read: nothing glamourous, just a ‘firm’).

So in a sense, you could also use the fate of ‘The Palace’ as a barometer for what will happen to the monarchy – to an extent. (Sure enough, if ‘The Palace’ gets a deep clean and a renovation, then that will mean Wilhelm will be crowned King at some point after the end of the show and will clean out those Augean stables.) But you have to be more careful with this metaphor if you want to use it as a weathervane.

If ‘The Palace’ burns to the ground or gets destroyed in some other way (and there have already been some hints at that, what with Sara almost burning it down in the season opener of season two), this won’t automatically mean that Wilhelm will abdicate and never be crowned King.

Why? Well, because ‘The Palace’ represents more than just the monarchy itself.

It’s a more complex metaphor than it might seem at first glance (which is also why I cut its discussion a bit short when we were first getting into this).

Remember how Felice throws up in ‘The Palace’? Felice isn’t a member of the Royal family; she just wishes to become one (at that point in the story). This is also why we see Sara helping her climb out of ‘The Palace’: It’s Felice’s friendship with Sara that will help her ‘climb out’ of this situation, destroy the link with those royal aspirations her mother has talked her into.

This means that ‘The Palace’ as a metaphor represents more than just the monarchy. It represents an entire institution, i.e. it represents the link between the upper classes and the monarchy, the way these two fuel each other and depend on each other for their power.

You can see that in the fact that the so-called ‘Society’ holds its meetings at ‘The Palace’. These boys aren’t members of the Royal Family. But they’re all swearing an oath to preserve the bloodlines of the noble families, and they’re all loyal to the monarchy, which means that these two things are intimately linked with each other. And they do so at ‘The Palace’, which carves out a metaphorical space for this link.

And look at the way the Hillerska students all party at that place: These kids aren’t all royalty. They’re upper class and upper-middle class (the richest 1% of the top 1%). What they’re metaphorically celebrating there is the fact that this wealthiest and most powerful portion of society is joined at the hip with the monarchy.

So, should ‘The Palace’ go up in flames in season three or be otherwise completely destroyed and become unusable, then that doesn’t automatically mean ‘game over’ for the monarchy. It could just foreshadow the fact that the link between the 0,1 % and the monarchy will get irrevocably severed. (Just to make this crystal clear: I’m not saying I prefer one outcome over the other; I’m just saying that you have to work very accurately when deciphering a metaphor, and ‘The Palace’ is arguably a complex one.)

If ‘The Palace’ is torn down, for example, and another party location gets built in its place, this could mean the country will turn into a republic, but it doesn’t have to mean that automatically. 

Say a type of ‘community youth centre’ is built in its place, a building the local kids get access to as well. What would this tell us metaphorically? The tearing down of the old factory would, as a metaphor, definitely mean that the link between the monarchy and the upper classes would be severed forever, but a new building in its place could mean all manner of things: a new monarchy (under Wilhelm) that sees itself as an antagonist to the upper classes, for example. (Monarchies that position themselves in an antagonistic way to the upper classes are not without precedent historically.) It could also potentially mean an elective monarchy, which is also not without precedent worldwide. (Although it was usually the aristocracy that got to vote in the new monarch in these types of elective monarchies. But in our fictional universe, it’s at least thinkable to fundamentally alter the constitution in such a way that the people would get to confirm their new King via vote before the coronation.) The hereditary principle (i.e. the link through the bloodline) could be abolished. All sorts of things could be implied by this. And yes, a republic without a monarch could be the outcome of such a metaphorical scenario, as well. One of many possible outcomes! That’s because ‘The Palace’ is a complex metaphor and doesn’t give us the same crisp precision in meaning that Wilhelm’s metaphorical ‘luggage’ gives us.

So, I wouldn’t rely too much on ‘The Palace’ metaphor. That building can burn down (Sara, I see you!). It can be torn down. It can be flooded because of a burst pipe (the ‘water’ metaphor, anyone?) or be swallowed by the lake for all I care (more ‘water’ metaphor, you all!). All it would tell us basically is that the ‘system’ the way it's set up right now has to go, but nothing beyond that. Wilhelm’s ‘suitcases’, on the other hand, will tell us much more precisely what will happen to Wilhelm as a person: They will tell us precisely if he will abdicate or be crowned King instead.

Unlike the fate of ‘The Palace’, the fate of the ‘suitcases’ will unequivocally, unambiguously tell us what fate awaits the monarchy, and this metaphor will do so by specifically telling us about Wilhelm’s fate…and by extension Simon’s, as well.

And there’s a number of things the writers can do to the metaphorical ‘suitcases’ to give us a clear hint that Wilhelm will abdicate: I’ve already talked about a burst-pipe scenario in Wilhelm’s room, which would render his ‘suitcases’ unusable. But the suitcases could end up in the lake, as well. (Maybe a car containing the suitcases will veer off the road and plunge into its depths, thereby sealing the fate of the monarchy and giving us another splash of the ‘water’ metaphor.)

All manner of things could happen to these ‘suitcases’: burned in a campfire accident, lost, put in the shower as a prank by some other students (as you can see, I keep returning to the ‘water’ metaphor), burned during a Valborg celebration, thrown off a cliff or off the roof at Hillerska and into the fountain (oops, ‘water’ metaphor again), hacked into little pieces, sawed apart by a chainsaw, driven over by a car, bus, van, Marcus’s mini tractor (ugh, Marcus, no wait, forget about that one), used by Rosh for target practice on the football field, stolen (as long as it’s not by August), torn apart by wild animals, trampled by Rousseau (ooh, I like that one; this would be metaphorically so meaningful), used as a sled down the stairs by Simon’s little cousins from his extended South American family, peed on by Boris’s lapdog (come on, we all know he’s got one), covered in vomit by Krille (or should we make it Wilhelm to show us what he thinks of the Crown?), fired into the sun…what do I know.

All sorts of things could happen to those ‘suitcases’ and spell doom for the monarchy. There are a lot of ways in which you can metaphorically frame an abdication.

You could even make the choice to first have Wilhelm offer Simon his ‘suitcases’ (thereby showing his willingness to share the Crown with Simon) and then destroy them anyway. This way you’d show that Wilhelm wants to share everything with Simon, but the system is ultimately too rotten to be preserved.

Whatever happens in season three, watch Wilhelm’s luggage, is all I’m saying. Because what happens to it is deeply meaningful.

And all of that no matter how open-ended season three turns out to be or not to be. That’s why the suitcases are such a brilliant metaphor.

So, here’s my humble suggestion once again. If you want to find out what the true outcome is (abdication or coronation):

1) Try to leave your personal preferences aside (as much as humanly possible). 

2) Don’t pay too much attention to the plot (it could be open-ended; it could lie; it could be ambiguous). 

3) Pay close attention to the metaphors.

I have to insist on 2) especially. If you only focus on the plot level (textual surface level of the script), every discussion will quickly descend into arguments à la “Wilhelm hates the monarchy. He said he just wanted a normal life,” versus “But have you seen the way he moves around in that castle; he doesn’t even greet the servant with the vacuum cleaner.”

Looking at the plot just doesn’t get you very far, and every discussion of it will very quickly end up with people reading their personal preferred interpretation into the text. 

Analyzing the plot can be deeply misleading: The plot can lie. Characters can lie. Characters can change their opinion or their outlook on life. Characters can lie to themselves or simply be unaware of their own deeper motives. Showrunners often lie, as a matter of fact. Actors can lie. Directors lie. The network can lie.

But the metaphorical subtext never lies!

That’s why closely tracking the metaphors (especially those that have been established in episode one of season one and have been reinforced again and again and again) is so incredibly useful.

Analyzing only the plot can also keep entire chunks of meaning hidden from you. (Just to give you one example: If you only care for the plot, then Simon was literally angry with Wilhelm in season two episodes two/three because Wilhelm talked him into taking a shortcut through the woods…which is ridiculous, come on. Once you analyze the metaphorical subtext here, you know that the ‘shortcut’ was a metaphor, and the ‘cheating’ was a metaphor, and the run through the forest was a metaphor, as well. And that all of it means Simon is going through some very complex emotions, feeling that he’s cheating on Wilhelm even though they’re broken up, and being angry with Wilhelm for ‘forcing’ him to ‘cheat’ in this way. None of this is obvious at all if you just look at the plot.)

So, keep your eyes peeled for Wilhelm’s metaphorical ‘suitcases’ in season three is all I’m saying.

Here’s what’s more important to me than the fate of those ‘suitcases’, though:

The fate of Wilhelm’s and Simon’s backpacks!

At some point in season three, I would like Simon and Wilhelm to carry each other’s backpacks. This can be done quite casually, walking between classes, for example. (Or on a camping trip, if you’re into that sort of thing.) But it would instantly show us what it actually means to be in a relationship: You carry each other’s burdens (even if they’re just about the personal issues each partner is faced with and not about the capital letter Burden of the Crown).

And here’s something I would like to see even more than that: Please, dear showrunners, give us a scene in which Wilhelm and Simon ‘unpack’ their backpacks in front of each other. Preferably while they literally, verbally talk about their issues with each other.

Here’s the film shot that I need at least as much as a close-up of a clementine completely peeled with a quick cut to its peel lying in a waste basket:

A close-up of two backpacks, one brown leather, one orange, sitting side by side completely empty…unpacked.

~fin~

So, this was the article about the heaviest metaphor on the show. If you liked it, why not read the articles about:

• The funniest metaphor on the show

• The deepest metaphor on the show

• The truest metaphor on the show

• The most beautiful metaphor on the show

*By the way, feel free to drop me a line if you want me to write a couple of articles about ‘House M.D.’ because, boy, does that show feature with some fascinating metaphorical subtext; I could easily make this my next writing project in the admittedly unlikely event that I run out of ‘Young Royals’ related things to write about before season three comes out. 

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