‘Royal Pains’ season 5, episode 12 review: Election results, and who’s leaving HankMed?

“Royal Pains” last week chose to more or less ignore the big election for Evan for Village Council, but boy, did that storyline come roaring back tonight. Election Day arrived, and Evan had to try to contend against a pretty intense Blythe Ballard and her mountain of money. Somehow, this little election turned into something enormous courtesy of reporters getting blue in the face (literally) and campaign mud-slinging.

It was thanks to all of this that we first realized that Evan and Paige are not actually married, which was the first major shocker of the night. Seeing Evan actually win his position at the last second was another one, but Paige does not really seem all that thrilled about. She never has been, and her non-husband now has a marriage crisis on his hands, as well.

As for major shocker #2, Jeremiah may be gone from HankMed. Just when we thought that he was going to admit to having feelings for Divya (the glorious moment that we have long waited to see), he instead suggested that he felt used by Hank over realizing that he was coming to him for a prescription, and for that only. He was used because Hank knew that he would not ask too many questions, and the fact that Hank told no one else about it was another step in that direction. We hope that this by no means is a sign that Ben Shenkman is done on the series; it has been far better with him around, and Divya also has a possible love interest here who really cares about her first and foremost.

While we enjoyed all of this very much, we’re rather relieved that Don the cop is okay along with his daughter (the other most consistently-ill person alive). This was like a long patient of the week story, and one that was not that interesting.

Overall, did you think that this “Royal Pains” episode delivered? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below, and be sure to click here if you want to check out some more news related to the show, including a preview soon for the finale.

Photo: USA