#ill write about robert and wilhelmina in another post bc this was getting loooooong

[ladysophiebeckett]

im gonna talk about the royals again, so like blacklist my ass idc. 

i was thinking about s2 and s3 in regards to wilhelmina and liam’s interactions. it’s basically a polo match meetcute. and afterwards, bc they run in the same social circles, they keep running into each other so you think ‘oh these two are going to be a thing’ and that’s kind of what we all wanted. (but then the dominique plot kicks and liam gets distracted). 

there is an obvious attraction between them but liam doesn’t pursue her---if anything wilhelmina is the one doing the (gentle) pursuing. i think we can all agree that wilhelmina, for the most part, has good intentions. she’s not a ‘crown chaser’, okay she’s not gemma (miss her tho tbh)--but she is pro monarchy and she does see liam’s potential---she’s the one to give him the push that he can still change things from the inside, illegitimate son or not (bc remember she was staring the # campaign with the general knowledge that he was not Simon’s son). 

by the end of s2 it looks like they both have kind of reached an understanding---there’s mutual attraction but liam is not in the best headspace for a relationship but wilhelmina makes it clear she’s not gonna be ‘just another girl’ that he just sleeps with and forgets about (2x06) and he tells her he would never be the guy to stand her up (lies). they’re in a limbo of ‘not just friends’ on to maybe becoming something else, so wilhelmina thinks. 

s3 wilhelmina kind tip toes around, dropping hints to liam like ‘is it okay to accept your mothers’ job offer? i dont want it to get in the way of our friendship’--looking for a sign fm him but he gives her his blessing. which can be seen as a positive for wilhelmina bc it means ‘oh he does want me in his life’ but it was actually kind of a negative bc this is when he begins to really distance himself fm her and only coming to her when he needs comfort.  

madden showing an interest in her doesn’t negatively affect liam---he doesn’t try that hard to push them together but he’s certainly not against it. when he mentions madden to wilhelmina, wilhelmina is expecting The Sign that he wants to finally pursue her but it’s the opposite. and you can see that the entire conversation hurts wilhelmina tho she tries to hide it. 

when liam very hesitantly tells her he’s going to see someone, a girl he is seeing (kathryn)--it shows that he knew it would hurt wilhelmina, therefore he knew that she was waiting for him, he knew that she still had lingering feelings for him. 

when she finds out on her own that the woman he’s seeing is kathryn---she keeps it to herself and only mentioning it to him when he’s mad at her for (doing her job) having posted a picture of kathryn and robert. meaning that what her hurts the most, what offends her the most--is the realization that this man does not even see her as a friend---yes there’s the part where she had feelings for him but she swallows that up and moves forward anyway--that this person does not even view her as a friend, an equal. it’s only when he needs her that he remembers her. and upon that realization she calls him out on it and while she’s at it, she throws the s2 elephant of unspoken flirtation and mutual attraction in the room and what does he do? claim it doesn’t exist. that he never asked her to wait for him. and that kills whatever lingering feelings she had for him. 

for liam that 3x08 scene was a fight, for wilhelmina it was the end. in 3x09 he tries to get her back for reasons of pure self interest (he needs a distraction and emotional comfort) but she shuts it down. the thing about wilhelmina, up until this point, is that she is not vindictive. she still believes in liam and lets him know that. but then she makes it clear she wants nothing else to do with him. the friendship she thought she had with him, is over. its done. and this was completely liam’s own doing. nobody secretly instigated this. there was no manipulation. no one took anything fm anyone. 

which brings me to robert. 

the end of s3 puts robert and wilhelmina in similar places, in that they’ve both been hurt by liam in some way or form. bc of s2, we kind of thought liam and wilhelmina were The Pairing---but they never really got together, the last minute inclusion of kathyrn stops that fm happening. which makes me think that wilhelmina is\was always intended to be with robert. 

wilhelmina’s backstory hinges on the fact that her mother chose love over power. in the pilot (i think) liam laments about having to choose between them, questions--’is it possible to have both?’(or something to that extent). 

wilhelmina hasn’t decided anything--but she will be made to choose between love or power and who’s to say that she will not get both in robert?