Liam might have been wrong when it came to why Robert had been paying Ted Pryce on The Royals, but he seems to be right in thinking that his brother is up to something nefarious. Spoilers for Sunday's episode follow. There is a power outage on The Royals at the end of "Seek for Thy Noble Father in the Dust" and it looks like Robert is responsible for it. Robert has successfully convinced Helena, Eleanor, and Willow that he's a decent person, but Liam, Jasper, and Cyrus don't trust him — and for good reason. Robert counts down before a citywide blackout occurs and the timing is particularly ominous for Jasper. So while Liam is most certainly off the rails, the women in his life shouldn't be ignoring his suspicions when it comes to King Robert.
A good king wouldn't want to throw the city of London into a panic with a blackout. But with this power outage, Robert shows that he's not a good king (in case you had any lingering doubts). His motivations for apparently organizing this power outage aren't clear, but there could be a few reasons. First off, he despises the fact that Jasper and Eleanor are together and Jasper's press conference in the previous episode only enraged Robert more. Jasper is headed back to the palace in an ambulance when the power outage occurs, so perhaps Robert had planned it that way to put Jasper's life in peril again. After all, Robert threatens Jasper in the hospital when he says, "You'll remain my bodyguard, of course, when you recover — if you recover."
Beyond Jasper, Robert also seems to have an issue with his mother — even if he pretends he doesn't to her face. Right before he counts down to the power outage, Robert has a photo of his mother sleeping with Colin Yorke up on his computer. Besides that being incredibly creepy, that means he has someone spying on his mom. In the Season 4 premiere, Robert had directed his mom to sleep with the married politician since he thought it would be advantageous to the crown. But Helena ended her relationship with Colin during "Seek for Thy Noble Father in the Dust," so Robert could be mad about that. Or, he could have set his mother up so he can expose her later since the queen mother sleeping with a future prime minister certainly wouldn't look good.
No matter what exactly Robert plans to do about his mom and Colin, Helena is in the wine cellar when the power outage occurs. And it sounds like someone is down there with her, so Robert's blackout could put the queen mother in a dangerous position — and that may have been the king's intention.
While it doesn't seem like a power outage would portray a king in a good light (pun intended), another reason Robert may have orchestrated it is so that he can save the day. As Cyrus mentions, the public loves Robert. So the king may use this blackout as a way to woo the British people even more. That's incredibly sadistic since many people beyond Jasper and Helena will be negatively impacted by not having power. And so if you were like Liam and started to think that maybe Robert really is good, this power outage plan reminds viewers that the current king might just be a psychopath.
It's almost a relief to see Robert being manipulative because it proves that Liam is not going crazy. But it also means disaster for the people inside the palace. On the outside, Robert seems like the perfect king, but there is a darkness in him. In that way, he's almost worse than Helena and Cyrus, who were always obviously scheming. Everyone knows they shouldn't trust Helena and Cyrus, but Robert endears himself to people like Eleanor and Willow, who both truly believe he's a good man. So this blackout will hopefully expose Robert for the puppet master that he is. But, because this is The Royals, there's bound to be more chaos courtesy of the king before his true colors are revealed.
