Summary: In flashbacks, Emily works at a university and is married to Sylvia with a child. Gays are starting to be frowned upon in society and Emily's boss is executed. Emily tries to escape with her family but she isn't allowed to leave. In the present, Emily is working at the colonies. A commander's wife arrives and Emily secretly kills her. Janine arrives. June is taken to the Boston Globe where she awaits her rescue. Nick visits and June tries to escape but decides not to.
The Good: The colonies were really well established in this episode. I have been mostly disappointed with Gilead's world building so far, but season 2 seems to be applying more attention to the setting in these first 2 episodes. The colonies were immediately established as brutal wastelands which were terrible to live in. The way they were portrayed seemed akin to a war bunker from a war film which did a tremendous job of setting the tone of how run down this location was. The hardest part about the colonies was to establish that they are worse than living in actual Gilead. I was worried that the show may not have been able to convey the horrors appropriately enough, but thankfully there was outstanding work done here to make the colonies feel like a terrifying place to be. Emily's storyline in the colonies is very strong. The arrival of a commander's wife was a great way to examine the state of mind of these women, or unwomen as they are called. By introducing the commander's wife who is unable to get any respect from the unwomen, the show immediately draws comparisons to a prison where the commander's wife plays the role of a soft and innocent person who is sure to be raped and victimized by the much more seasoned veterans. Only this time we aren't rooting for the innocent. The innocent in this case completely deserves what she has coming to her and it's very satisfying to see Emily get a small revenge against the wives for the small role they have played in letting the handmaids exist. The storytelling is outstanding and it's a great way to reintroduce us to Emily who will presumably play a much bigger role in this season. Speaking of Emily, I was glad to see her get some flashbacks to deepen our understanding of her. The flashbacks in the show have mostly been disappointing, forgettable and meaningless so far, so it meant a lot to get a proper story in a flashback which had some emotional heft to it. It was great to see who Emily was prior to the rise of Gilead and seeing her struggle with being a homosexual was fantastic. I especially liked her boss who also offered some great insight on how difficult it would be to be homosexual in this world and I thought the boss made a great impression before he was brutally murdered. Furthermore, the flashbacks went to the next level by having Emily be forced to leave her family in a heartbreaking scene which was made surprisingly powerful due to a great performance by Alexis Bledel (see: Best Moment). Speaking of great performances, Elisabeth Moss was outstanding in this episode. Her storyline saw June get taken to the Boston Globe where she explored and discovered that the place was a site of an execution. The story is solid but it achieved a new level of excellence due to smart filmmaking and Moss' stellar performance. We are never actually shown anything in the building, but Moss' facial expressions let us understand exactly what June is seeing and why it has unsettled her so much. The sequence was beautifully constructed and was able to hit hard because of that. Also June was watching Friends in this episode. Great choice of sitcom. I approve. The Bad: June and Nick are still a very problematic relationship. Nick is so bland and does practically nothing for me as a character, and he has very limited chemistry with June as well. I have no reason to care about him as a character and his motives still aren't entirely clear to me. I understand he wants to protect his child, but does he love June? Does he want to be with her or does he only want to help his child? I know nothing about this and that isn't good. Furthermore, I don't know June's feelings for Nick either. Does she care at all about him? He seems like just a means for her to have sex to let out her emotions, but I get the sense that the show wants us to buy more into their relationship that that. If it does, it has failed miserably in making me care. The Unknown: What exactly happened at the Boston Globe? Who died and why did they die? What does the rest of the world look like? Are all the other major buildings just ruined like this one? Will June get discovered before Nick gets her out or is she actually going to escape? What are Luke and Moira up to? Best Moment: Emily leaving her family was powerful and painful. This show has been masterful with when it chooses to have no dialogue and it has used silence to its best effect to evoke an emotional reaction. I think that this creative choice is the main reason that scenes like this one work so well. Character of the Episode: Emily. Conclusion: This was a great episode which got us reacquainted to Emily and we learned a lot about her. There was a lot of power to this episode and I think it did a lot of things right. The 2 main storylines had powerful moments and aside from the June/Nick relationship, I was satisfied with everything this offered. This is easily one of the show's better episodes. Score: 69
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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