Selina Struggles To Navigate Post-Election Life On 'Veep'

"This last year has been fun. Really fun," Selina declares on national TV during an interview with Dan Egan in the opening scene of the Veep Season 6 premiere. Sure, she's sad the American people rejected her — but she's had the opportunity to get reacquainted with an old friend named Selina Meyer and (surprise!) she really likes herself. On the one-year anniversary of her defeat, Selina is a tad over-eager to talk about all the amazing things she's doing — like writing a memoir and tackling important issues like adult literacy and AIDS. Of course, once the cameras have stopped rolling, we see that Selina's life after losing the presidency on Veep is not going quite as well as she'd like the public to believe.

When Season 6 of Veep was penned, the world was blissfully unaware of what the future had in store. Much like another female presidential candidate who was expected to win, Selina spent her entire life preparing to be commander-in-chief. A year after being booted from the Oval Office, she and her former staffers are floundering. Dan's on cable TV, Amy is the campaign manager for a gubernatorial candidate, and Ben has a short-lived stint at Uber before getting the axe for using inappropriate language. The common thread amongst all of these characters is that they're accustomed to the high stakes atmosphere of the White House, and they're struggling to adjust to life outside D.C. — and none of their new co-workers know quite what to make of them.

Unsurprisingly, real life candidate Hillary Clinton found her footing much more quickly than Selina. After declaring in a recent speech that she's ready to "come out of the woods," Clinton stated it's unlikely that she'll seek public office again and, according to The New York Times, she plans to focus her efforts on helping women get involved in politics. But, Selina's in a different position — despite her failed attempt to become the first elected woman president, she still thinks she has a chance when the next election rolls around. Selina is probably not the best person to mentor young women with political aspirations (or anyone else, for that matter), but why not another run for herself?

After a year of moping around her New York City brownstone in a bathrobe playing backgammon with Gary, Selina is confident that she has more of herself to give. Gary thinks that another presidential run is a fantastic idea (I would expect nothing less), but he has no company. Catherine bursts into tears at the very thought and Andrew is less than enthused — but the real blow comes when Ben tells Selina it's not a realistic possibility. Never one to pull any punches, he points out that she won't get support from donors or her own party. And for good measure, he adds that, "there's nobody out there who wants to see a Meyer comeback. Selina, it's over." Ouch.

It's safe to assume that Selina has spent the past year biding her time as she waited for the right moment to announce a presidential run — and she doesn't appear to have any sort of backup plan. Catherine's tears didn't change her mind (have they ever?), but Ben's words do have an impact. Selina immediately cancels an appearance at the dinner where she'd hoped to launch her campaign and boards a passenger plane (with Gary in tow, of course) looking more miserable than ever.

So, what's next for Selina? She won't settle for anything less than president, so we can rule out another run for public office. And, she's not especially invested in The Meyer Fund, a charitable organization that she founded at some point after her failed bid for the presidency. Her hope that she'd finally become president is likely the only thing that's sustained her for the past year — so it's safe to assume that, whatever the future holds, Selina has a rough road ahead of her in Season 6.

Best of luck to Gary and Richard Splett as they navigate this life change with Selina — they'll certainly need it.