Summary of "The Regime," episode 3: The Heroes Banquet.

Mode Summary: Hidden Funds in Belize by Scott Tobias, freelance film critic

Heroes Hall of Fame Season 1, Episode 3

Editor's Review: 3 stars

Power Mode Hall of Fame Heroes Season 01 Episode 03

Photo: Miya Mizuno/HBO

The lush gardens of the palace, where the kitchen staff digs the soil in the opening of this episode of Mode, are reminiscent of the greenery surrounding Rudolph Goss's estate in Jonathan Glazer's film Zone of Interest, and both hint at a darker reality beyond the grounds. In Glazer's film, the Goss estate borders the walls of Auschwitz, where Rudolph doesn't have to go far to work - he effectively kills the masses, and his wife, along with a flock of liberated Jews, plays the role of impeccable mother and housewife. It is this diversity that gives the movie its power.

While the regime is far from climbing that far into the outside world, we can only assume that the peasant class of miners and farm laborers is not better off. Perhaps Herbert Zubak's folk food, consisting of three different lands from three different local ecosystems and boiled and salted dishes that are usually cooked rather than boiled, is a form of revenge, an insidious joke on the country's elite. Or maybe we should take him at his word and believe it's all perfectly healthy because hungry people eat the land. Either way, "Heroic Feast" strongly hints that Zubak is trying to start a revolution from within, exploiting the susceptibility of a weak chancellor to get justice for the people outside the walls. He's not a particularly conniving politician, but the satirical punch of this series makes it clear that he doesn't need to be. His minions are too busy digging their own graves.

Last week's episode ended with the completion of a very stupid plan to demote Elena and Zubak, elevating the latter to mythical status. Apparently the idea was that Elena's ego would lead her to become disillusioned with her new counselor, who is a descendant of the Foundling. While that might have been the case, the oligarchs of the country had unwittingly turned this explosive impostor into a folk hero, with the ability to maintain his power even beyond the Chancellor's sphere of influence. Elena has always relied on her special relationship with "the people" to maintain her power, along with her special relationship with the United States, which needs access to her cobalt mines. Zubak has already helped sever ties with the Americans and can now do the same with the people. Still, "Found" probably sounds more convincing in the long run than a supporter of the country's authoritarian regime.

The farther the series gets away from its splendid premiere, the harder it is to see the sum total of this palace conspiracy, but the show is still occasionally funny as a clever political satire for the sake of the satire itself. And "Heroic Feast" gives some dimension to the deviant Zubak, who may be a butcher and a thug but still seeks some form of justice for ordinary people. It seems unlikely that the policy of "land reform" came from Helena herself, but is instilled by Zubac, who declares that "greed and foreign money must be eliminated from our character as a nation," and the way to do that is to transfer private property from elite landowners to the working classes. This is a dramatic agenda item for a regime that exists solely for the sake of exploiting the working classes to achieve wealth, but Zubak is a creepy man and seems only capable of accomplishing this by force. Who doesn't love the transfer of private property from elite landowners?

In one scene, Zubak cheekily asks where all the money went, and Elena answers him, perhaps not for the first time: "Hidden funds in Belize," she says. "A state-owned bank, a holding company. A billion or more in assets. My name, Nicky's name through our partners. Thousands, thousands of damned cash flows extorted from local businesses, farms, pension funds. Just a mountain I'll never be able to untangle.

The regime is asking a lot from its audience - accepting that Elena might agree with a popular revolution within her own government by being a fake popular figure stealing money from the people. At the same time, she's throwing her father's birthday party to honor his dead body, so she's not always thinking clearly. The episode builds to the point where Zubak finally snaps and attacks Elena, who is starting to tire of his presence. She calls him a "great bull baby" and he literally gets at her throat before beating up poor Bartos. And so the Foundling's time at the pinnacle of power comes to an abrupt and ignominious end, but Elena and the oligarchs, each in their own way, have created a monster capable of doing serious damage in the countryside. Perhaps Elena's expansion into the Faban Corridor, a swath of mountainous territory, will give it power too. Revolution from within may be impossible for a man without a Zubak-like charm, but he has already become an icon to the outside world.

• Nikki, however, correctly understands Elena's new reforms: "You can't be both Robin Hood and a king at the same time. You can't give back to the country while hiding half of it in your own wallet."
• The news that Elena's isolationist policy has reduced her presence in American media is devastating both for her and for American politicians who cannot always be on TV.
• It's a pity for the high-level kitchen staff who have to replace French dishes with traditional cuisine: "I sympathize with your whisks," Agnes jokes.
• “If someone had a summer cottage by Lake Ober, something like this wouldn’t be distributed, right?”
• “You asked the United States if they considered the possible risks of their adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Indonesia, Central America, every corner of the world?” Again, her clear understanding of how the world works, expressed through her irritation at the reaction to the annexation of Fabana, contradicts the emptiness that the series demands from her.
• "Once upon a time, there was a remarkable man / his work was so convoluted / He lived in a palace and pulled at his dignity / and shouted 'I have a grandfather - Found!'." Zubak does not go unanswered at the banquet.

Summary of the regime: Hidden funds in Belize.