Will Ophelia Get Back To England On 'The Royals'?

Just in case anyone forgot (as if): The Royals Season 2 is happening, and it will be here faster then two shakes of a faked paternity test. When we left things at the end of the first season, we were at a bit of a cliffhanger with... just about everyone. Instead of running away to dance in the clubs of the rich and famous (actually despite their best efforts to do just that) Liam changed his mind about bailing. That was actually good news for Ophelia, who was done putting off her dreams and stayed in New York to study dance. But, with her departure from the UK, will Merritt Patterson's character Ophelia still be on The Royals Season 2? I had assumed that she would very quickly bounce back to England (I mean, I guess the show could go on without her, but why would it want to?) before Season 2 got started.

But, it turns out Ophelia is going to be in New York for longer than just the break between seasons. According to social media, actress Merritt Patterson (who plays the dancer-to-be) seemingly did not actually join the cast when Season 2 filming got started, but she did make it out about a month later. My guess is she will be an off-screen presence in New York (maybe referenced through a text or phone call). She’ll likely get pulled back to England when she finds out that Gemma was behind her getting hired in the first place. Or, maybe something big will go down at the palace and her father will need her— it's The Royals, literally anything could happen.

And, how did we find all of this out? With nothing but a little friendly social media stalking. Thanks to the brilliance of the Internet, we can see that The Royals Season 2 started filming on June 15. The regular cast did some twitter updates, here we can see that Alexandra Park (who plays the Princess Eleanor) tweeted the following on June 14:

The next day she Instagramed some Royals action, focusing on the four-legged Jasper.

Speaking of the main sometimes-villain himself, mister Tom Austen (who plays the nefarious and recently freed Jasper) tweeted the following on June 15, basically confirming all theories that mid-June was the magical filming start date.

But, there was no sign of Patterson until July 10 when she posted some great news to Instagram:

Back and looking more chipper than ever! Since she missed about a month of shooting, I think it's safe to say she will be gone for the first 2-3 episodes, though with the magic of editing it may even be sooner! Either way, I'm glad to know she'll definitely be back, and better late than never!

Instagram:Tim Whitby/E!