The Royals - Taint Not Thy Mind, nor Let Thy Soul Contrive Against Thy Mother - Review

Hey Royals fans! Sorry for the late review! Hope the holidays have treated you all well! For any One Tree Hill fans out there I just want you to be aware that James Lafferty A.K.A. Nathan Scott directed this episode of The Royals. I was hoping for a full One Tree Hill reunion, but I’ll take what I can get. Okay moving on from my fangirling over James Lafferty, let’s recap the amazing episode that he directed.


Turns out in this episode it really was the twins birthday. They both didn’t seem to want to acknowledge it and I don’t blame them considering how their birthday party turned out. However Helena did, she took Alistair’s advice and decided to play the supportive mother role. She decided to solely focus on her daughter after witnessing what took place after the birthday party. To lift up Len’s spirits she took her horseback riding on her childhood horse. On their horseback ride she shared her on personal experiences with her mother and gave Len advice on how to handle her love life. I’m not going to lie these ladies looked fabulous, even riding horses. Who looks that stylish riding horses? Only these two can! My favorite part of the mother daughter bonding experience was Helena encouraging Len to forgive Jasper and find true happiness with him. Will Len take her advice? I hope so!

The caring mother act didn’t last for long as Helena returned to her old ways. She let her mother get into her head about Violet and Cyrus. The Duchess warned Helena that if Cyrus went through with his proposal, Violet would be the reigning Queen of England in the event that Cyrus died. This means that all of Helena’s hard work would of got her nowhere. This brought Helena back to reality and she went back into her fighting mode. I hope this doesn’t mean we won’t get to see those amazing bonding scenes with Len. Let’s hope Helena can still be fierce and be a sympathetic mother at the same time.

I was just starting to like Helena when Liam had to go and ruin it all. Jasper helped him locate the cocktail waitress from his birthday party. Look Jasper is hot no question and no denying that the British accent makes him even hotter, but enough with the pretending to be British. Jasper needs to be honest from now on. The two men tracked down the waitress and she actually happens to be the Domino leader’s daughter. She explains to Liam the history of the Domino group, while simultaneously her father does so with Ted.

Do I think Ted is the murder? All signs are pointing to yes. He’s not denying that he did it and he’s being all shady, but it’s too obvious. The show is setting us up to believe he did it. I’m not saying he doesn’t know who the real murder is and protecting them, but I just don’t think he did it. I know it’s crazy not to think he did it, but I think it is someone we don’t even know about. One thing I was right about from my previous review is that he would start working with the domino group. I think they are trying to make him the main villain of this season.

Speaking of my favorite villain, how is King Cyrus doing you might ask? Pretty terrible. He finally agrees to address the people of England and explain to them that he has cancer, but only if Violet is by his side. Coincidently after having tea with the duchesses she has to run off and get a family heirloom for Cyrus. She never returns to see Cyrus make his speech, leaving Cyrus to be more hurt then ever. Look there is no denying how awful Cyrus is, but give the guy a break he has suffered one heartache after another this season. It’s time to let Cyrus to be happy.

Through Liam and Ted, information was finally shared about the Domino group. It is called Domino because it is named after the late Dominique Stewart. Her brother as I like to call the Domino henchman used to call her Domino as a little boy. So who is Dominique Stewart? Well she was King Simon’s first love and the henchman’s sister. When Simon became the reigning King of England, a list was composed of suitable wives for him. He didn’t care about the list, because all he wanted to do was be with Dominique. Interestingly enough guess who’s name was on the list? Helena! The Duchess went to great lengths to make sure her daughters name was put on that list. Dominique was a show jumper and this ultimately led to her death as she was thrown off a horse. Simon needed to improve the economy and what better way to do this then a royal wedding, so he decided to marry Helena. There would be no issue if Dominique’s death were an accident, but according to her brother it wasn’t. The horse that Dominique had been riding was drugged causing the horse to go wild. Helena’s family had actually hosted the event and all evidence is suggesting that Helena or as I’m betting her mother drugged the horse so Dominique would fall off. If this is true which I’m sure is, it looks like Helena or her mother might be joining Lucius in jail.

Side notes:
-The Duchess had some pretty harsh words for Helena. According to her she only hangs around Helena because she is the Queen, not because she loves her.
-Helena's speech to Len about how she loves her for who she is and not what she is was one of the sweetest moments in the shows history.
-Jasper needs to find the courage to go speak to Len and apologize. I do not want to wait till the season finale for a reunion.
-The domino leaders daughter seemed to have the most chemistry with Liam then any other girl has had in a while.
-Even though I was a fan of James Lafferty directing technique. They should bring him back for another episode and put him in front of the screen. He could be a potential love interest for Len or one of Liam’s buddies.

What was your favourite moment from this episode of The Royals? Don't forget to Comment below!