Elena and Zubak’s Unholy Alliance Starts to Get Kinky in ‘The Regime’ Episode 2

The interdependent relationship developing between Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet) and Corporal Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts) was already hella weird in the first episode of HBO‘s new Sunday night drama, The Regime, but this week it starts to tiptoe into the realms of kink. Joint workouts get wild, spicy dreams are shared, and Elena finally decides it’s time to bed her husband (Guillaume Gallienne) for the first time in ages. But the biggest clue that The Regime might eventually be headed into some naughty, nasty, sexy territory comes with Elena’s disaffected cabinet members share oppo research on Zubak. Thanks to some hidden cameras in his depressing cell of a bedroom, we now know that he not only masturbates to Elena’s portrait, but drags asphyxiation play into it. The Butcher has a crush for sure.

The Regime is HBO’s new limited series about the messed up relationship that develops between the autocrat of a fictional “Middle Europe” country and a lowly military man without a scrap of hope. In The Regime‘s premiere, the brutish Corporal Herbert Zubak is transferred to work in the nation’s opulent palace after massacring political protestors. His job is to follow Chancellor Elena Vernham with a gadget that measures the moisture in the air. (She’s far more frantically afraid of mold than the threat of a killer by her side.) After embarrassing himself at an important gala, Zubak is moved to the night shift…and manages to save his beloved ruler from a would-be assassin. Soon, he is advising her to ditch her venomous lieutenants and embrace the power of traditional remedies over quack science, like potato steam.

Zubak has indeed wormed his way into every corner of Elena’s life. Well, all except for one. It is thought that the two have not consummated their intense relationship, although it’s seeming more and more inevitable. One only has to watch the way their workouts, lit like we’re in some sort of racy fantasy, are teetering into BDSM. As they push each other back and forth — Zubak ordering, “Harder!” — the camera pans to images of naked men on the walls. Later, when Zubak and Elena confer about their shared dreams, he notes they’ve been “very spicy” of late. She concurs and says, “Spice is nice.”

Spice is so nice that Elena finally decides to bed her own husband after over a year of celibacy. Kate Winslet emerges from her bathroom in an over-the-top black getup to announce, “I’m going to fuck you now.” And she does! (And you bet she’s on top!)

Zubak, lowly and alone, only has himself to play with. Although he opens up enough to Agnes (Andrea Riseborough) to let her see his scars of self-flagellation, he doesn’t realize she is the one who has bugged his room. Because of that, Elena’s ministers are able to discover that Zubak is most definitely fantasizing about his Chancellor. (And, yes, there’s auto-erotic asphyxiation at play.)

It’s unclear if it’s Zubak’s desire that’s upsetting to these suits, or if it’s the arrogance to masturbate over so lofty a figure as Elena Vernham. The councillors hatch a plot that they hope ensures Elena will tire of her hoi polloi hero. They make up a phony DNA test that proves Zubak is a descendent of a mythic figure called “The Foundling.” At first, though, it seems to have the opposite effect. The episode ends with Elena commissioning a portrait portraying Zubak as a knight.

Weirdly, the most erotically charged moment between Chancellor and Corporal in The Regime Episode 2 doesn’t have anything obvious to do with sex. It has to do with their shared euphoria after boxing American bureaucrat Judith Holt (Martha Plimpton) alone in the palace with the imposing Zubak. Turning the tables on the international power player, leaving her flustered, isolated, and terrified gives both a surge of ecstasy. The power they wield together is the drug that glues them together.