Dear Reader,
Two thoughts to begin, each with a risk attached:
At the risk of spoiling too much, how did Hugh Grant’s agent sell him on appearing in only a single episode? We need to know, and we need to thank the agent for bringing this brilliant performance to the world.
At the risk of an unfortunate association with mental illness, “Midnight Feast” proves that The Regime is at its best when at its most bonkers.
Knowing that the end is nigh for Vernham’s regime, more rebellion-focused tropes entered the card this week. I’ll define those new ones that show up and get to the remainders with tomorrow’s episode.
Just Give Winslet and Grant an Award Already
In this episode of The Regime, viewers finally meet Chancellor Vernham’s rival and all-purpose bogeyman for frightening the populace: former Chancellor Edward Keplinger, played by Hugh Grant with “ruffled dissident cool,” as Vernham mocks him. He’s the Goldstein to her Big Brother. He’s the Trotsky to her Stalin—well, err, maybe not the best comparison given what happens between them….
Keplinger does not live in a mansion as the regime contends—he is a prisoner, trotted out sometimes to film “fiction” in the countryside for propaganda reels. He lives like a king in prison, though, with a richly furnished cell not so different from Vernham’s quarters and a cult-like following by the guards who do, occasionally, still have to beat him to keep up appearances. Even the violent Zubak, imprisoned for four months, is falling under his spell and beginning to reject Vernham. He is cultured, humane, and—it seems—genuinely concerned with democracy and the common people.
Vernham (Winslet), meanwhile, is having a hard go of it above ground. She’s reached perimenopause but insists she’s not having a hot flash—it really is hot, and everyone else better agree. Her palace is brought down to freezer temperatures as protests heat up in the Westgate region. Attempting to calm things down, she agrees to do a Q&A with disadvantaged children from Westgate at the palace. Things, still, predictably go off the rails, as Vernham goes on a rant, develops a nosebleed, and frightens the children—all on live national TV.
Blood still smeared across her face, wearing a peasant costume and braids that make her look like Heidi, Vernham dashes into a tunnel in the palace basement, emerging into Keplinger’s cell, where she greets him like an old friend.
It makes absolutely no sense—and it’s beautiful. The Regime wants you to know, for sure, if you were still unsure, this is satire, thank you very much. Instead of political rivals, with this suspension of disbelief Vernham and Keplinger can interact as archetypes of Tyrant and Rebel.
After some flirtatious banter, Vernham sits next to Keplinger on his table. He asks, finally, “Why are you here?”
“I’m here to f—k your brains out, Eddie.” She says.
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