Warning: Major spoilers for The Regime episode 1 “Memorial” below!
Summary
- Elena’s paranoia about her health is tied to her father’s death from a lung disease, which she feels she has inherited.
- Some in The Chancellor’s cabinet are using her fear of mold and toxic air as a tool to manipulate her.
- The finale of The Regime’s episode 1 reveals that Elena’s illness is largely imaginary, and she takes back her power.
Kate Winslet’s Chancellor Elena Vernham suffers from a mystery illness in The Regime, but is it real or imagined? Winslet returns to HBO following the acclaim that greeted 2021’s Mare of Easttown, but with a very different type of show. The Regime casts Winslet as the Chancellor of an autocracy that is slowly unraveling from within. While more broadly comedic than something like HBO’s own Succession, it still deals with similar power games. While Kate Winslet’s performance is front and center, joining her in the series are Matthias Schoenaerts, Andrea Riseborough and Hugh Grant.
The first episode of the Rotten Tomatoes-approved The Regime does the necessary table setting, where Schoenaerts’ troubled soldier Herbert Zubak – who is dubbed “The Butcher” for his part in killing a group of protesters – is brought into the palace to become Elena’s new water diviner. Herbert and Elena soon form an unusual bond, and the episode ends with her taking his advice over her own government officials. The first episode also reveals many of Elena’s insecurities and fears – both about her position and health.
Why Elena Tracks Mold & Complains About The Air In The Palace
When Herbert is brought into the palace in
The Regime’s
opening scenes, Riseborough’s palace manager Agnes explains the building is in the process of being “cleansed” of mold. The soldier is told it will be his job to follow Elena around and test the humidity in the air using a special hydromonitor. Elena’s physician also informs the soldier the Chancellor is vulnerable to spores and that, for the sake of her health, the air around her needs constant monitoring; this is also the reason Elena rarely leaves her palace.
Elena herself takes this matter very seriously, insisting Herbert always walk in front of her to check the air isn’t toxic. The Regime’s Chancellor also refuses to shake hands, and after surviving an assassination attempt in her bedroom, she complains of having “breathed in” the same air as her would-be killer. However, Elena is also terrified of projecting weakness, so when Herbert informs her of the humidity levels during dinner with an American mining company, she later slapsand berates him for embarrassing her.
Chancellor Elena Is Paranoid About Illnesses & Her Mortality After Her Father’s Death
|
Kate Winslet’s HBO Shows |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
|---|---|
|
Mildred Pierce (2011) |
81% |
|
Mare of Easttown (2021) |
95% |
|
The Regime (2024) |
N/A |
An important scene in The Regime’s premiere is when Elena visits her father’s mausoleum during “Victory Day.” In addition to venting some personal grievances – including a humblebrag about how she’s way more successful and popular than he ever was – she notices his body has more “spots” than before.
Her father’s death from a lung disease is revealed to be the source of her health insecurities, as she’s being informed she has inherited the same condition and her lungs are highly vulnerable.
The Regime Review: Kate Winslet’s Bumbling Dictator Sells Undercooked HBO Satire
The Regime struggles to find a rhythm, but eventually hits its stride as a subdued, bitterly funny political satire with a stellar turn from Winslet.
While she stays in the palace, The Chancellor is told it will take years for it to be fully cleansed of mold. Her health worries have made Elena a prisoner in her own kingdom and have served to distance her from the people. There are numerous times throughout The Regime where she worries or hyperventilates about the possible toxic air she’s breathing in – her minions even have to eat breath mints before she enters a room – but she never appears to be genuinely ill either.
The Regime Episode 1’s Ending Reveals Elena Isn’t Actually Sick
The Regime episode 1’s finale features a turning point, where Elena’s advisors suggest moving her out of the palace to the countryside while she recovers from the assassination attempt. While she’s gone, they suggest they could step in and take care of things like the cobalt mining deal being set up with an American company. The Chancellor speaks with Herbert in private, revealing she trusts him to speak the truth because he’s a “nobody.”
The soldier then vents his many frustrations, suggesting her top people are feeding into her paranoia, and her illness is an imagined one. He believes her cabinet want to sideline her and take power for themselves, but she has to grab it back.
The Regime’s
ending suggests The Chancellor was never truly ill, and as she gives a rousing speech to the nation, while her minister of finance is arrested and accused of conspiring with foreign powers to kill her.
Elena also reveals she’s rejecting American money and any outside interference, while Herbert looks on from the sidelines with pride. This sets up the main power dynamic of The Regime, but given Herbert’s own insecurities, the long-term future for Elena’s reign doesn’t look great.
New episodes of
The Regime
are released Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes
The Regime
The Regime is an HBO/Max mini-series that takes place over the course of one year and follows a failing dictator as her fictional empire begins to crumble around her. The show will see the beginning of the end of the dictatorship and the challenges that the Chancellor faces to keep her unsustainable rule afloat.
- Release Date
- March 3, 2024
- Seasons
- 1
- Streaming Service(s)
- HBO
- Writers
- Will Tracy
- Directors
- Stephen Frears
- Showrunner
- Will Tracy
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
