The Regime
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Compare these two monologues from Elena Vernham, chancellor of Central Europes premier source of cobalt and sugar beets.
I was once tired, lethargic, weighed down by the stresses of modern life.
Until I unlocked the ancient power of the potato.
And now, thanks to the healing properties of potato steam … To that gesture, she offers this:
We let you dig our earth for a pittance.
We provided refueling and airspace support for your wars in the Middle East.
We handed you hundreds of dossiers on supposed Russian cyberterrorists working in our country.
We swore off China and her Belt and Road.
We let your CIA run its black sites here, right here, on our sovereign soil.
You shoveled your shit on our doorstep for years and told us we were happy to eat it.
Based on these two passages, who is the real Elena Vernham?
The one possible common denominator here is power.
She likes to wield it and she tends to respond to it.
Elenas new hard-line position against the United States is upsetting the natural order of things.
(Again, the show is weirdly cagey about whether Elena is savvy or impressionable.)
(And in the marital bed, for that matter.)
(How does it feel to not be in control?
You will never be in control of this place again, do you hear me?)
Bit by bit, hes become less useful to her.
Were mice in a bathtub.
Three inches of water and we drown.
Hes rewarded for his candor by being embarrassed in a public ceremony for kowtowing to the U.S.
Nothing more humiliating for a billionaire than stacking chairs.
Breathe through your mouth.
How else does one get through life?
Wonderful to see Martha Plimpton turn up as Judith Holt.
Shes always had a tart sense of humor too, which serves her well in this role.
