‘Palm Royale’ Star Josh Lucas on Douglas’ Messy Marriage to ‘Trad Wife’ Maxine and How Her ‘Death’ Affects Him: ‘He’s Untethered, He’s Lost’

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “Maxine Plays Dead,” the Dec. 24 episode of “Palm Royale,” now streaming on Apple TV.

“Palm Royale’s” Maxine and Douglas may be divorced, but their unmistakable connection crossed the point of no return this week when she was a surprise guest at her own funeral and his devastation sent him into an unhinged frenzy.

When a body turned up in the Palm Royale pool, everyone assumed it was Maxine (Kristen Wiig) because, well, it looked like her. But society friends Dinah (Leslie Bibb) and Evelyn (Allison Janney) — along with Ann (Mindy Cohn), as Palm Beach’s resident reporter — quickly discovered at the morgue that the deceased is not Maxine.

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Meanwhile, Perry (Jordan Bridges) delivered “Maxine’s” ashes to a devastated Douglas (Josh Lucas), as the town gathered for the funeral, completely unaware that the very much alive Maxine is hiding inside the casket. The eccentric spiritualist Mary delivered a message from the real dead woman — Maxine’s twin, Mirabelle — then lifted the casket lid and saw that Maxine was there. Chaos erupted: mourners gasp, Mitzi (Kaia Gerber) ran screaming, and an inconsolable Douglas eulogized his ex, telling the “dead” Maxine how much he loves her.

Later that night, Maxine and Douglas connected, and she asked if he truly meant what he said at the church, that he loves her… but his answer isn’t exactly what she expected.

“He’s untethered, he’s lost, and he’s terrified,” Josh Lucas tells Variety. “He’s in such pain. He’s just devastated… And then you think, is it because he loves her so much or is it because he’s totally a narcissist?”

Maxine and Douglas’ love affair has changed since moving to Palm Royale. “When you have a relationship that’s that long — and even though you can dismiss it as these two are silly people — their souls are exploded,” he says. “So I don’t think Douglas is thinking about putting the pieces back together. I think he’s now truly unleashed. … His world has been his oyster, and it no longer is.”

It began with his infidelity and “each piece of it, it just keeps getting worse,” Lucas adds. “He loses Maxine, causes her to have a heart attack, and then when he finally [completely] loses her, I think he’s not a man who’s ever gonna put it back together again. He is not going to therapy.”

Lucas believes that up to the point he met Maxine, women were truly just “transactional” for him —and marrying Linda/Penelope (Laura Dern) was just “the next right thing to do for his life, career and money.”

He continues, “I think when he met Maxine, he truly fell in love. My sense of him is that he actually did have integrity in it, particularly in his mind that he was loyal and faithful, and he took great pride in that because he was flying all over the world. And sure, he would flirt with stewardesses, but he wouldn’t do anything.”

There is something childlike about Douglas — or dog-like, as Lucas says.

“He’s a Labrador puppy, who just is having the best time destroying the house, but then realizes, ‘Oh, my God, I destroyed the house!’” he says with a grin. “Look, he comes from incredible privilege. One of the things I think is so terrific about this show is the candy-coated confection of it all — but in the center of it is kind of this bitter pill all the time of reality.”

That dichotomy was part of the character design from the beginning. “Abe Sylvia and the creators, I don’t want to say in any way are making fun of these people because they’re not. These people exist, particularly back in this time,” he says of the 1970s setting. “But there’s obviously a through line to these, particularly white men of incredible wealth and privilege who just have no real understanding of the world. They’re truly in their own bubble. And Douglas has been in it his entire life.”

In a way, Maxine and Douglas’ marriage is playing out in a very realistic 1970s scenario, when men had their roles in the family and career, and women had theirs. Pre-Palm Royale, Maxine was a traditional wife, and Douglas was just fine with that.

“She talks about it — she’s a trad wife, and she takes great pride in that,” he says. “There’s honor in it. I do think that’s a very interesting thing that’s even going on in today’s time — the value or devalue of that. That’s where the show finds all these lovely through lines — Roe v Wade, women’s rights and the civil rights movement. But Douglas and Maxine are completely devoid of that.”

During a recent Q&A, Sylvia reminded the audience that during this period of time, in certain parts of this country, a woman could not have a checking account without her husband’s signature.

“Those would be things that Douglas would think would be good. And Maxine, her eyes are obviously being opened throughout the show by all these women who are showing her these layers of what’s possible in how society’s changing,” Lucas points out. “But I also think she takes great pride in being a wife who really loves and takes care of her husband. … I think we really try and stay away from pounding any sort of obvious political or psycho sociological message and just purely allow the show to exist as a confection.”

“Palm Royale” Season 2 is currently streaming exclusively on Apple TV+, with new episodes arriving weekly on Wednesdays.