Queen Agnes

Agnes is a servant in Peter III's Russian court, assigned to attend the newly arrived Catherine. She is unassuming, eager to please, and largely oblivious to the palace's cruelty and absurdity, treating its horrors as simply the way things are. Her friendship with Catherine forms almost by accident, born of proximity rather than ambition.

Grace Molony plays Agnes with a guileless sweetness that makes her the show's moral thermometer — when something appalls even her, you know it's truly appalling. The writing uses her as an outsider's eye on aristocratic madness, and Molony's comic timing keeps her warmth from ever curdling into naivety played for pity.