Part of the joy of The Romanoffs being an anthology series is that it can really be anything it wants to be. Sure, it has to include the hook of the show's premise -- having a character who believes themselves to be a descendant of the Romanov family -- but that's less limiting than it initially appears. It's just a jumping off point for these stories about humanity. More importantly, the anthology nature allows the show to pull off any genre or tone from week to week. That's not to say Matt Weiner didn't do his fair share of experimentation on Mad Men, in episodes like the non-linear "Far Away Places" and the pitch black horror of "Mystery Date." But it was still a show that was tied to certain limitations of plot and character. With The Romanoffs, it has the freedom to completely reset, which is exciting when you're working with a creator like this.
So reset it does with "House of Special Purpose," which initially appears to be one of those Hollywood insider stories that creators love to make, despite the limited audience relatability. We're introduced to actress Olivia Rogers (Christina Hendricks), who's opening an envelope with a script for a television series called The Romanovs. Apparently she's coming on to the project late, replacing the previous actress playing Alexandra Romanov, who she is told was fired. So there's already that meta nature of Hendricks playing a character in The Romanoffs who's playing a character in a show called The Romanovs, but the episode is also littered with tons of inside baseball about the nature of producing TV, including references to shooting out of order, getting last minute script revisions, and hitting marks. Olivia even has a winking meta line in the middle of the episode where says, "How are you going to have a Romanov show where there's no murder? That's all anyone knows about them."
Once on the set, Olivia meets Jacqueline Gerard (Isabelle Huppert), the director on the project. Jacqueline is a legendary actress, one who served as an inspiration to Olivia when she was growing up, but she's past the point in her career where she could star in a vehicle like this. So her path to legitimacy now involves directing, but it's clear that there's a part of her that longs for a time when she was on the other side of the camera. She makes all of these pointed remarks like "I cannot play all the parts!" when the actors aren't giving her what she wants, always especially resentful towards Olivia and her choices. Here, the story is reminiscent of the film Clouds of Sils Maria from a few years ago, another narrative where an actress must confront her aging when she has to act in a play in which she played the younger role 20 years earlier. The portions of the episode focusing on that tension between Olivia and Jacqueline take on that same heady, reflexive nature of Clouds. The stakes are high for both of these women: for Jacqueline, it's because she's trying to prove herself in this new phase of her career (she had to lie and say she's a Romanov descendant just to get the job); for Olivia, it's because she's trying to regain momentum after the passing of her mother and walking away from this difficult project could be a career-ender.
All along the way, there are odd elements that pepper the story with increasing frequency. It starts with that foggy establishing shot of the hotel Olivia is staying in, which makes it looks like a haunted Victorian manor. Then, Olivia is visited in the dead of night by the ghost of Anastasia Romanov, who smells of gasoline and vanishes into the closet (a nod to the urban legend that Anastasia escaped and survived while the rest of her family was murdered). The episode has fun with this bizarre horror tone it attempts to strike, often playing the terror through the lens of a world gone awry. At many points it seems like everyone but Olivia is working against all logic and reason, like her scene partner breaking into song and being praised as if it was a normal take. There's also the hotel concierge, who initially lies to Olivia about there being a bar at the hotel, and then treats her with aloofness and disdain when it's revealed that there is a bar and that she's the bartender.
But the most potent section of the episode is when it really tries to dig into what it means to be a woman in the film and television industry. Every episode of the series so far has dealt with sexual impropriety in some way, but this one tackles it head-on when Olivia's co-star Samuel Ryan (Jack Huston) goes off-script and sexually assaults her in a scene. It's a clear abuse of the power dynamic between scene partners, but it's all just bushed off as okay, and worth it because it draws a fiery performance from Olivia. It's a moment that, intentionally or not, is hard not to draw parallels with Matt Weiner's own workplace transgressions. "House of Special Purpose" is co-written by Mary Sweeney, the first woman to have her name on an episode of the show, and it feels very informed by a female perspective as well.
Olivia is at her most complicated and absorbing when she's put in these uncomfortable positions, faced with absurdity and animosity and being forced to greet it with a level head, for fear of seeming unaccommodating. It's a real joy to see Christina Hendricks, who was great on Mad Men but rarely gets used properly anywhere else, get another meaty role to play. Being able to feed off a legend like Isabelle Huppert seems to have given her alot of inspiration, because it might be her best performance yet. The scene between the two of them after the investor's dinner, where they are commiserating over the hardships of being a woman in the industry, is an episode highlight because of the chemistry the two of them have when they share a scene and let their guards down.
But that bond is short-lived once things go out of wack all over again. First, Olivia sees Samuel get mysteriously hauled off in a van in the middle of the night, in a moment that visually mirrors an earlier scene where the two of them watch his character's dead body being disposed of. (The only explanation that gets offered the next morning is that Samuel wrapped filming early.) Then Jacqueline shows up to set late and eerily playing some sort of character, eventually getting production shut down. This is an episode that constantly plays with the notion of what is real and what is not. What was the true nature of the departure of the previous actress who played Alexandra? Did Olivia really see the ghost of Anastasia? Was Jacqueline really possessed by the spirit of a Romanov at the investor's dinner?
And it makes one last play at that reality questioning for Olivia. She's awoken in the middle of the night by her castmates in costume, except when she objects to them aggressively urging her to come with them, they stay in character. She's spirited away with violence and hostility, eventually ending up at The House of Special Purpose. There, everyone still remains in character as she watches in horror while they get gunned down. Ultimately, the shock is too much for her and she collapses to the floor. We see a close-up on a puddle of blood next to her body and in its reflection there are the telltale studio lights, followed by "cut." Everybody's ecstatic -- they've nailed the big moment. But the episode concludes with a close-up on the blank stare of Olivia, who died due to this stunt.
Now, is Olivia really dead? Ultimately, it doesn't matter to the point the episode is trying to make. All throughout "House of Special Purpose," characters are telling Olivia that she is unwilling to lose herself in the role, to really do what it takes to hone in on this performance. That final moment represents her finally being engulfed so fully into character that she even takes on Alexandra's state of mortality. Whether Olivia is actually dead or not, everyone around her thinks the level of debasement they put her through was worth it for the sake of great art.
"House of Special Purpose" is a corker, one that proves The Romanoffs is not only capable of shifting genre from episode to episode, but it can also put on various masks within the same story. It's an episode that keeps the audience on its toes in terms of what it's doing and where it's going, a deliberate choice to make us empathize with what Olivia is going through. And the point we land on is a potent one, the idea that the ordinary world often looks like a horror show when you're not in a position of power.
Bonus Points
-I looked up co-writer Mary Sweeney's credits after watching the episode and I learned that on top of being a writer, she used to serve as an editor on most of David Lynch's work. All of a sudden this episode makes much more sense.
-When the cast list was first announced for the show, I was impressed with the sheer star power of the ensemble, but the thing that blew me away the most was the fact that Matt Weiner got Isabelle Huppert. She's a legend, and it feels like she's having a blast in this episode.
-The episode has two different scenes of bodies being disposed of. There are a few references about actors being infinitely replaceable too. It makes you think that Olivia's death will just be passed over, since there will always be another ingenue to step into her place.
-"I don't know how to say this, but I really respond to praise" feels like such a Mad Men line. I half expected a "that's what the money is for!" thrown back in response.
-I named-checked Clouds of Sils Maria in the review, but the episode also feels like another Olivier Assayas film: Personal Shopper. The way it never truly lets you know just how much of Jacqueline's actions in the second half are her playing games with Olivia and how much there is something genuinely other-worldly happening with her is one of the most fascinating threads.
-A second watch really clarified the episode's themes around the looseness of identity, from Samuel's method approach to Jacqueline telling that story of talking to herself in the mirror as a kid to become another person.
-Many critics cited this as their favorite out of the three episodes that were sent to them for review. I'd say this is maybe my least favorite so far. Still, it's a terrific episode that really rose in estimation for me when I rewatched it while writing this review.
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