Summary
Elena and Herbert are destructive soulmates. She makes a bad situation 10 times worse, he shows how much he cares with a violent gift.
In Episode 4 of The Regime, the Chancellor’s bright idea to trade with China threatens to ruin local sugar production. As the factories are closing, Westgate workers are taking to the streets in protest. One protestor’s fatal injuries create a PR nightmare for Elena, so she successfully and intentionally makes it far worse. Meanwhile, Herbert spends the episode stuck inside his cell, where he meets Ed, the leftist leader of the opposition. Ed tries allying with Herbert, but the Butcher is still enamored with his cunning chancellor.
Four months on, Herbert is slowly losing his sanity inside his cell. Being forced to listen to Elena’s radio speeches for four hours daily isn’t helping his situation. He does notice a mysterious figure watching him in the courtyard.
At the palace, Elena is suffering from terrible hot flushes. Naturally, that means everyone else has to live in below-temperatures, including poor Oskar.
Elena’s councilors are worried about the new trade agreement with China, which is negatively affecting local businesses and the overall economy. The sugar beet factories are closing as they cannot compete with Chinese prices, and Elena has to deal with several protests.
She attends a council meeting from her ice bath, where her councilors tell her about an unfortunate event during the protests involving a policeman’s horse and a pregnant woman. Forced to do something about the optics, Elena agrees to a Q&A session with some Westgate children at the Palace.
Ed Has Not Been Living It Up In The Country
In prison, Herbert receives a gift from the leader of the opposition. Ed is also incarcerated, despite Elena’s many public remarks accusing him of conspiring against her.
When Herbert first sees Ed, he struggles to believe the man is also a prisoner just like him. Elena has been telling her people Ed was living it up in a country manor paid for by his rich leftist friends.
While tending to her duties, Agnes receives an ominous text offering her a “way out.” Terrified, she immediately deleted the message but seemed intrigued by a second text offering to free her and her son.
Elena Has A Meltdown On Live TV
The children’s Q&A is a complete disaster as Elena has a meltdown on live television and says a few wildly inappropriate things about the poor woman killed by a horse during the protests. She then gets a nosebleed and blames poor Oskar for not keeping track of the air humidity.
After her PR nightmare, Elena pays Ed a visit, who is imprisoned in the Palace basement. During the visit, Ed teases Elena for turning the country against her. She makes herself feel better by ordering the guards to beat him.
Stuck in his cell, Herbert catches a glimpse of Elena as she’s leaving the dungeon. Later that night, Eddie invites Herbert for another one of his midnight feasts. During dinner, the former chancellor advises Herbert to let go of his romanticized idea of Elena ever getting close to him again. That’s unconscionable for Herbert, who’s convinced that Elena once loved him.
After recording a video with her husband to show the people how important date night is for the country’s ruling couple, Elena starts going off on another tangent about that poor pregnant woman and the horse.
Using a touch of tough love, Nicky talks Elena into going on tour to see her people and try to boost morale. After all, the deal with China did put most of Westgate out of business and the sugarbeet factory workers are unhappy. As much as Elena wants to avoid leaving the Palace, she needs to try something to appease the protestors.
Is Ed trying to regain the Chancellorship?
Meanwhile, back in the dungeon, Ed is busy scheming his return to power. Considering Elena’s current crisis, Ed believes it’s only a matter of time before her regime fails. Ed wants Herbert’s help and even promises to go ahead with the land reform and keep the Americans out of the country’s business. Well… keep the Americans out after playing nice with them to get the sanctions lifted.
As for Elena, Ed wants to put her on trial so she can get “what she deserves.” Herbert is pretty noncommittal to the former Chancellor’s grand ideas.
Agnes Stays Loyal To Elena
Back at the Palace, Agnes receives a Google Maps link leading her to a street in the U.S. The image is of a man holding a sign. Whoever’s been texting Agnes is American, and they are offering her and Oskar aid.
When Agnes takes a call from the mystery man, he offers to get her and Oskar out of the Palace before the imminent crumble of Elena’s regime. In exchange for her safety, Agnes must offer up information about her Chancellor and the inner circle. She seems to be considering the proposal. Instead, she ends the call after reiterating her loyalty to Elena.
Elena’s visit to the sugar beet factory goes as well as expected. She meets the union reps, tours the factory, holds a brief second of silence for the poor woman who died in the protests and promises to curb Chinese sugar imports. The union leader even gives Elena a parting gift – a little sugar beet to plant in the palace gardens. Naturally, as soon as Elena’s back in the car, she angrily orders her husband to throw the little plant out the window.
As Herbert is hallucinating bizarrely erotic messages of love from Elena, our dear Chancellor orders Laskin to plant evidence of a conspiracy against her in the sugar beet union office. He’s then supposed to put an end to the “conspiracy” by any means necessary. If there was any doubt Elena was evil, this confirms it.
Herbert Strangles The Leader of the Opposition
Herbert breaks out of his cell and makes his way to Ed’s room. As much as Ed is trying to talk Herbert down, it all boils down to the Butcher not “loving” the old Chancellor. Herbert wants Elena, not Ed, or his ideas to make things better. So naturally, he strangles the poor left-leaning leader of the opposition.
The following day, Laskin wakes Herbert up and notes that his murderous actions from the previous night got the Chancellor’s attention.
After her police force planted guns and U.S. dollars at the Sugar Beet Union office, the officers proceeded to arrest the leader. The state-controlled news reports that the factory protests were part of a months-long American conspiracy against Elena’s regime.
Why did Elena frame the sugar beet union leader?
The arrest didn’t subdue the protests but made them more violent. For Elena, that’s good news. Getting her military involved with peaceful protests is a PR nightmare, but protecting the country from violent insurgents makes her appear a “protector.”
To make her stance against the West even clearer, Elena bans all Western electronics, and the palace must replace everything with Chinese versions. She also puts all Palace residents, including Agnes and Oskar, on lockdown. Elena ignores Agnes’s concern about a potential medical emergency for Oskar.
The Regime Episode 4 Ends With A Strange Twist
In an unexpected and strange twist, when Herbert enters Elena’s office, he loudly proclaims his desire to make sweet sweet love (he may have used a different expression). The two start kissing passionately in front of her appalled husband. Nicky tries to intervene but Herbert violently pushes him aside. Elena’s counselors escort Nicky out of the room as she continues to passionately fornicate with her beloved Butcher.
