Warning: Reviews of The Regime will contain spoilers.

Just as I predicted at the end of last week’s episode, Elena has to choose in the season finale of The Regime between her love of Herbert Zubak and her love of power. Of course, it gets much more complicated than and dangerous than a simple binary choice, and episode 6 puts them both through the ringer repeatedly. I didn’t know exactly how this show would end, or what kind of statement it would be making by the end of it, but for every expected beat, there was an added surprise or two.

The episode picks up not long after last week, with Elena and Herbert escaping through the palace tunnels to safety. But “safety” is a relative term, since the rebels have a strong presence throughout the country, and they have no more friends, relatives, or allies to turn to. Of course, Elena initially believes she can just waltz her way back into the palace and demand the rebels leave, but Herbert quickly snaps her back into reality. For as twisted as their relationship definitely is, episode 6 shows how they are essentially two sides of the same coin. He’s pragmatic, knowing what can and cannot be done, especially when it comes to navigating outside the palace walls. And she’s the chess player, using her knowledge of politics and people-reading to know how to talk her way out of danger.

The trouble is that both Elena and Herbert are out-matched here, as the military eventually tracks them down after a drunk picks them up. She strikes a deal to be taken back to the palace, where she’ll be tried for her crimes and likely killed. I hadn’t expected parts of the season finale to pivot so strikingly into action-thriller mode (don’t tell me you didn’t get flashbacks to The Departed after the elevator scene), but I don’t mind it. In fact, it helps pick up the pace since the remainder of “Don’t Yet Rejoice” moves so slowly. Large chunks of the episode are dedicated to conversations between Elena and Herbert, or Herbert/Elena and a government official.

I’d likely dock the episode more severely if I didn’t thoroughly enjoy Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts’s performances. The season finale gives them a range of emotions to juggle, tactics to consider – and that’s leaving out the complicated relationship between Elena and Herbert. Regardless of how I feel about The Regime overall now that it’s over, I can’t deny Winslet and Schoenaerts and their phenomenal performances each week.

I wish I could say that The Regime goes out on a high note, or that it’s final moments have something profound to say, but my primary feeling was mostly confusion. Given the number of times Herbert and Elena had evoked there dreams throughout the series, I had a creeping feeling that the “it was all a dream” escape lever would be pulled. 

But I would have preferred something so simple compared to what we see here. It seems that, just after Elena agrees to a puppet regime run by the United States, and before she says her final goodbye to Herbert, she’s suddenly awoken and back at the palace with Nicki (Guillame Gallienne). Then she goes to address an adoring country in celebration of Victory Day, and it’s revealed that Herbert’s body is lying in the same glass coffin as her father. It’s a disappointing way to end what has otherwise been an enjoyable limited series, and it raises more questions than it answers. (Also, I suppose we’ll never know whatever happened to Oskar.) Worst of all, the revelation muddies whatever Will Tracy has been trying to say about Elena, or people in Elena’s position, or our American relationship to the Elenas of the world. I don’t think this is enough to turn me off of future projects from Tracy, Stephen Frears, Winslet, or Schoenaerts, but I still can’t help but wish the final product was more substantial. Ah well, we’ll always have this nameless Central European country.