Netflix’s Norwegian drama, Royalteen: Princess Margrethe follows the titular princess as she navigates the family drama after a prom scandal lands her in hospital.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Princess Margrethe collapses at the prom party, following which she gets hospitalized. The King and the Queen arrive and everyone learns that Margrethe collapsed due to the use of cocaine and alcohol.
Margrethe keeps struggling with something that happened at the party quietly, by herself, while others at school are quick to lambast her on socials. Meanwhile, her best friend Ingrid encourages her to move things forward with Prince Alexander of Denmark, whose family is friends with Margrethe’s.
The royal family of Denmark eventually arrives and the two families meet at Hemsedal. She tries to steam things up with Alexander after he consoles her and calms her down during a panic attack, but Alexander doesn’t see her that way.
This embarrassment leads her to lash out at Ingrid, and the two drift apart. Meanwhile, the guy who Margrethe was intimate with and took cocaine with, Gustav, keeps pressuring her to meet regarding the video he took of her snorting cocaine.
When he tries to take sexual advantage of the leverage he has on her, Margrethe refuses and ends up at a stranger’s house, drunk. Fortunately getting out of the situation unarmed and well, thanks to the stranger, she is soon told of the video getting leaked.
Meanwhile, she also learns about the reason behind tensions and strife in her family and between her parents. She braces herself and addresses the situation to the press, expressing vulnerability but also confidence.
Having come out of the ordeal with newfound confidence, she makes up with Ingrid and later supports Arnie when he grows cold before opening for a big artist, before Royalteen: Princess Margrethe rolls the credits.
Royalteen: Princess Margrethe ending explained in detail
Why do Margrethe and Ingrid fall out?
Amid tensions and drama in her family, Margrethe wants nothing other than to feel normal, like other people. This lands her in trouble when her drug addiction leads to her getting recorded by Gustav at the prom party.
This keeps weighing on her conscience, and the thought of the video getting leaked terrifies her when the expectations of strength, poise, and class already burden her. To distract her from her problems, Ingrid thinks it best to get a new boyfriend, thinking it’d take her mind off things and improve her mood.
When Prince Alexander of Denmark, a friend of Margrethe, reaches out to her via text messages, asking her how she’s doing after her hospital visit. Ingrid takes this as a sign of a potential relationship between the two. She keeps encouraging her to spark something with Alexander when he comes and meets her.
Margrethe is into Alexander and is also sexually into him, but she misunderstands this attraction for being something mutual between them, and Alexander sets the record straight, apologizing to her if he misled her and telling her that he’s always seen her as his little sister.
This leaves Margrethe, who had come to his room in lingerie, understandably embarrassed. She vents this frustration onto Ingrid, asking her to give her some space and not always push her into doing something she might not want to. Ingrid is hurt and leaves Margrethe alone.
However, at the end of Royalteen: Princess Margrethe, the two best friends reconcile and apologize to each other, before resuming their friendly hijinks and endeavors like always.
What is wrong with Margrethe’s parents?
Margrethe’s family has been going through dysfunctional pangs for a while. Her father, King Sverre, isn’t home most of the time and spends very little time with the family of late.
Meanwhile, her mother, Queen Louise, is suffering from anxiety and remains inside her room for the most part, taking pills for her condition while most others in the family don’t acknowledge her issues out loud.
Margrethe takes this distance between her parents as a result of her father’s extramarital affair of some kind. She eventually confronts him about this mistress of his. However, he corrects her and reveals that it’s not a mistress but a man.
He further explains that the man he’s seeing of late is a man who used to be his lover once, telling her daughter he’s gay. He also tells her that this former lover is named Martin and is suffering from late-stage cancer. He goes to visit him, which is why he’s been absent for a while.
Margrethe also learns that her mother is already aware of her husband’s sexuality but they didn’t reveal it to her or make a fuss about it because they love each other and their daughter, not to mention their inability to act like “normal” people, given they’re royalty and hence, the expectations that come with the status.
Do Margrethe and Arnie get together?
Arnie loves Margrethe and it’s visible throughout Royalteen: Princess Margrethe, but his romantic advances towards Margrethe end up at an awkward standstill at first. Margrethe is too occupied with her anxieties to respond to Arnie’s advances with a clear mind.
She does care for him and he is shown to be jealous of Alexander later on in the film. Margrethe needs him after her fight with Ingrid but she feels sad when she sees him intimate with another girl.
After overcoming her anxieties and feeling a lot better, her friendship with Arnie is once again the strong bond that it was before. Meanwhile, Arnie gets the opportunity to open for TÖS, but before his performance, he grows cold feet and suffers from imposter syndrome.
However, Margrethe comes to the rescue and helps raise his confidence, encouraging him to not pull out of the show. He goes to the stage and has a minor technical issue, which prompts Margrethe to hop on the stage, pick up the mic, and set off singing, helping Arnie take the initiative and the stage.
As his track makes the people break out in dance, Margrethe pulls Arnie aside and kisses him on the stage, right in front of everyone else, as their friends cheer and dance.
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