Warning: Reviews of The Regime will contain spoilers.

Six months have passed since “Midnight Feast”, and episode 5 quickly and frequently shows how much things have gone off the rails for Elena (Kate Winslet) and her country. What started out as unruly protests in episode 4 has evolved into a full-scale civil war. The episode even chimes in by occasionally showing the increasingly small distance between the rebels and the palace. I remain impressed with how The Regime has fully embraced its silly side, from this week’s opening moments to the end. But, as always, it manages to balance sharp character drama (and action, in the final moments) in-between.

It’s Christmas in Elena’s central European country, and a little armed rebellion isn’t going to dampen Elena or Herbert’s (Matthias Schoenaerts) holiday spirits. The show could have easily dove into the bizarre holiday traditions of Elena’s country, but thankfully, aside from some business with a Christmas cod, episode writers Gary Shteyngart and Jen Spyra don’t hammer it in too heavily. She spends most of the first half of episode 5 dallying about, decorating the palace, without worrying about the very real threat of death coming closer to her doorstep. Elena has shown herself to be delusional and self-centered since the onset of The Regime, so I can’t fault the show too much for depicting her in this way, far-fetched as it may seem. The show is a comedy, first and foremost, so some jumps in logic are par for the course. Winslet sells every moment of it, and her finest moment comes in the episode’s final moments, when she takes every available second to delay her surrendering of power.

Of course, Elena’s delusions are exacerbated by her rapidly evolving affair with Herbert, much to the chagrin – and horror – of her cabinet. They’re making their exit strategies, but Herbert’s deranged loyalty frightens them from making any diplomatic moves. I would have absolutely loved an entire episode revolving around the various ministers in the palace bar as they bemoan their situation and their increasing horror at what they’re witnessing, including Elena’s misguided holiday special. I’d also love an entire episode about whatever Nicki (Guillame Gallienne) has been up to in the last six months. The Christmas special shows him giving a message from “Switzerland”, but as we’ve learned, we can never really trust Elena’s word on someone’s whereabouts. Even with the ministers commenting, and a FaceTime call between him and Elena, it’s still not entirely clear to me what happened to him or where he is, or the status of their relationship.

Caught in the middle of the civil war are Agnes (Andrea Riseborough) and her son Oskar (Louie Mynett), but Agnes has a way out thanks to a CIA mole. Agnes has always been positioned as the show’s sympathetic character, a regular Joe who has close ties to the palace but no long-standing loyalty to anyone within it. But The Regime has struggled to portray Agnes any deeper than that, so it’s hard to understand her hesitancy around leaving – though her description of the living conditions in France to Oskar was hilarious. That doesn’t make her ultimate fate any less heartbreaking though, and the same goes for the implications for Oskar’s future.

If The Regime’s goal all along was to show a doomed romance between two volatile people – one of whom just happens to run a country – it seems that episode 5 succeeds. The dynamic has shifted from curiosity to infatuation in new but familiar ways, with Elena and Herbert seeing a dream interpreter (not a therapist, notably) to decipher his increasingly violent dreams. The scene where they exchange Christmas gifts is a perfect encapsulation of what the show has done at its best, by mixing hysterical comedy (his painting of Elena) and pitch-black character stuff (her gift of the German gun). Now, with Elena and Herbert on the run, the show has a number of different avenues to take them. But with Elena essentially powerless now, it seems that she’ll have to choose between her love of authority or her love for Herbert.