I kind of figured that Alexi would order him to do it. That will be a fascinating scene to play out. I do think it's going to take a lot longer than a few days for Joseph to truly overcome the psychological aspects of it, though, to figure out how to live as a free man. I think in my mind, more of it is in his head now than you're thinking. But that's ok.

In the more immediate future... the only way I can see for Erik to truly remove the "poison" from the bond with Alexi is to actually approach his own demons. I'm not entirely sure if I want to play that out, however.