Summary: June and Lawrence put their plan into motion, but things go awry when a martha arrives in the daylight and is reported to have been seen. Lawrence wants to back out but June forces him to continue. Lawrence decides to stay in Gilead while June and the others escort the kids to the airport. A guardian patrol is barring the way so the handmaids and marthas cause a distraction, allowing the kids and the remaining marthas to get on the plane and escape. June and Janine are shot and badly wounded, but they survive. The plane lands safely in Canada. In Canada, Fred pettily throws Serena under the bus by suggesting that she was complicit in Nick raping June, getting Serena arrested.
The Good: Sometimes simple and predictable storytelling is absolutely the right way to handle things. What I expected and wanted from this episode was a tense and dramatic episode centering only around June actually enacting the plan of getting the 52 kids out of Gilead. And that is exactly what we got. This show has consistently enjoyed making storylines way more complex than they need to be, but episodes like this one prove that complexity doesn't necessarily make an episode better. A simple episode that is executed well can easily be better than a sloppily written episode that has more depth to it. The escape of the children from Gilead is a rare story that was built up across several episodes, and that played a big part in making the moment as successful as it was. The process of the kids escaping was really effective and it worked as a joyful moment that provided some much-needed hope into the world of Gilead. I thought that the handmaids and marthas attacking the one guardian patrol was a very strong scene and it was the most heroic that the victims of Gilead have ever been. This was a lovely moment of hope and strength that worked as a climax for the season. The scenes at the airport in Canada were even better. The arrival of the children and marthas was a rare victory over Gilead for the rebels. The moment hits hard and is surprisingly emotional as Rita meets with Emily and Luke. Furthermore, this scene marks the first time a rebellious move has actually had a significant impact in saving lives and fighting back against Gilead, finally giving us some pay-off for the show's endless promises of rebellion. June's determination to ensure that the kids get out was a very good story to follow. Her desperation when Maggie nearly ruins her plans is easy to understand and I really liked her choice to draw a gun on Maggie, with her willing to kill Maggie before letting Kiki go back. The prior scene where June got to empathize a little bit with Kiki was also very strong and it did a nice job of bringing June's emotional state to the forefront of her decision to draw a gun on Maggie. The scenes with Lawrence were strong, as always. He came off as pretty heroic in his final scene as he says goodbye to June, and I did enjoy June mouthing off to him earlier in the episode as she attempted to force Lawrence to stick to the plan. I liked the scenes with the Waterfords in Canada. Fred would be petty enough to throw Serena under the bus for betraying him, and it was very satisfying to see the walls close in on Serena, providing us with some sweet catharsis as Serena's plan falls apart right in front of her. The Bad: I get that the show was trying to say that this episode was the point where June went from a victim to a major rebellious leader. The existence of that opening scene suggests as much. But the story doesn't work at all for me because June hasn't really been a victim for so long. I can't recall the last time that June has been abused without her acting out in some way, so it's hard to relate with June as a victim in this season. I thought the scene of June pointing the gun at Kiki was very forced and it was difficult to buy into why June would do this. I don't buy into June being so desperate that she points a gun at Kiki. The scene simply existed because it was dramatic, not because it was logical. I found it odd that Serena was convicted at the word of a war criminal. Surely they would need some actual proof of her involvement. Also consensual sex isn't rape, Tuello claiming that it is was very stupid. The Unknown: What was Janine's gift that she gave to June? Will Janine and June be fine after getting shot? What will happen to them when Gilead discovers what they did? What will Lydia's reaction be? How will Gilead react to the child smuggling? Will they demand returns from Canada? Will this lead to war? Will Lawrence be punished for his actions? Or will they remain a secret? What consequences will Serena face? Best Moment: The airport scenes. Character of the Episode: June. Conclusion: This was a very good finale that had some emotional moments. This season was a major disappointment. It started well enough but then the middle of the season put the show in a slump as the writers stalled the story, wrote sloppy side-plots, and completely failed to produce emotional moments. There were some good episodes towards the end, but the show mostly didn't recover and I still ended the season feeling underwhelmed. Funnily enough, I thought that this could have been a really strong season if it was written better, but it never lived up to its full potential. This show continues to get worse with every season and it isn't showing any signs of learning from past mistakes, so I'm not feeling very hopeful about season 4's quality. I'm unsure if I will be reviewing that season next year due to my declining interest in the show. Score: 67
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Summary: Billy accepts June's plan and June is ecstatic. News arrives of the Waterfords arrest and that Winslow has gone missing. Mrs. Winslow comes by and Eleanor nearly reveals the plan to smuggle out children. June shouts at her upsetting her. Eleanor commits suicide and June sees her slowly dying, but she lets her die. Lawrence is distraught during the funeral but seems to suspect something about June. Serena's betrayal is confirmed and Fred is angry at her. Serena is allowed some time with Nichole but only after Moira shouts at her. Luke goes to speak with Fred who refuses to give any valuable information. Fred infuriates Luke who strikes him.
The Good: Elisabeth Moss is fantastic as per usual. I love how she conveyed June's excitement and happiness early in the episode. She has actual power now, 52 kids are going to be saved from Gilead and the Waterfords are facing some sweet comeuppance back in Canada. Everything is going perfectly from June, and Elisabeth Moss is able to convey a light in June's eyes that wasn't there in any prior episode. She is ecstatic about everything that has happened and for the first time in a long time, she is actually looking forward to what is coming up. This makes Eleanor nearly revealing the secret plan to Mrs. Winslow such a scary moment. In this one scene, June is faced to look at the reality of her actually falling back down to just another handmaid. After doing all of the hard work to get to the top, it's unbearable for her so she lashes out at Eleanor to ensure that the plan goes along perfectly. But she goes the extra mile. When she is faced with an opportunity to rid herself of any risk by letting Eleanor die, she takes it, and in one of the show's darkest scenes, June simply lets Eleanor pass away quietly. The moment is shot perfectly and it gives me chills, and it reminds me a lot of the scene in "Breaking Bad" where Walt lets Jane die when he has a chance to save her. Of course this moment isn't executed quite as well (see: The Bad), but it still hits the mark. Lawrence's reaction to Eleanor's death is pretty heartbreaking. He has been one of the best parts of the season, and his motives are pretty clearly defined. He loves his wife more than anything else, so it really destroys him to lose her. But Lawrence isn't stupid, and June seems oddly unperturbed by Eleanor's death to him. It seems like June and Lawrence are on-course for a major confrontation in the season finale. The scenes in Canada are good for the most part. It's satisfying to see Moira trash Serena, just as it's satisfying to see Luke get a good, clean hit on Fred. It's refreshing to see the Waterfords in a powerless position and it lets their real character show, not the fake facade that they have been putting on for way too many scenes in this season. The Bad: There's something lacking with Eleanor's death. In "Breaking Bad", Jane's death was the climax of a despairing episode that built slowly and intricately to Walt's fateful decision. Eleanor's death doesn't get the same treatment and there are only a couple of moments before it that allow us to buy into June's decision. The death isn't a major climax like Jane's was, it's just another underwhelming big moment in a season that has been filled with underwhelming big moments that haven't gotten the appropriate amount of set-up to make them impactful. June continues to get away with anything and everything and it is becoming more frustrating with every episode. In the last two episodes, June has been responsible for the deaths of two important people, yet she has currently faced no consequences for it. Somehow it's easier to get away with murder in Gilead than it is in the real world. It's frustrating that Winslow's disappearance has been attributed to the Americans. Were their no cameras to track where he went? Did nobody notice him go into Jezebel's and never come out? Were there really no pieces of evidence left behind to track where he had went? It's absurdly easy. I'll make a comparison with "Breaking Bad" again to demonstrate how this story is really lacking. "Grilled" was a hugely eventful episode in season 2 of "Breaking Bad" that led to the death of a major character. The consequences of his death were explored for 3 full episodes after his death, and the entire following episode was spent covering up his murder. The story was fleshed out and satisfying because of the time dedicated to it. Winslow's death is cheap and underwhelming because of how quickly it got brushed aside without any consequences. I think that June letting Eleanor die was a poor direction to take June's character. We have already explored the darkness inside June with the Ofmatthew story earlier this season. Do we really need to see more of it? This show is very low on characters I genuinely empathize with and care for, so it's dangerous to put June on such a dark path, especially when her actions have started to become more and more frustrating for me. Once I stop caring about June as a person, I will have lost most of my interest in the show. The show needs to be very careful with where it goes next. Unfortunately, the messy writing of this season hasn't got my hopes up at all. I still find myself disconnected with Serena's storyline. Not letting us know why Serena set Fred up is a huge mistake. Since we don't know what Serena sacrificed Fred for, we don't understand the significance of her actions. Furthermore, Serena seemed to genuinely care about Fred in their reunion scene which contradicts the idea that she still hates him. I'm left confused with Serena's motives, and that makes her story arc wholly uninteresting. The Unknown: Will June's children plan work out? Will they be saved? Will something go wrong? Will Lawrence escape? Is June going with him? What will happen to both of them? Does Lawrence suspect that June let Eleanor die? How did he figure it out? What will he do about it? What are the effects of Eleanor's death? Will that mean that June has to be shipped off to a new household since the Lawrence household no longer has a wife? What was Serena's deal with Tuello? What is she getting in return? Why are the Waterfords imprisoned in such cozy holding cells? Will Fred eventually break? What do the Canadians want to do with him? Will Gilead make an attempt to get the Waterfords back? Best Moment: June letting Eleanor die. Character of the Episode: June. Conclusion: This episode had some impressively good storytelling surrounding June, but the writing problems, fractured storytelling, and lack of consequences all but nullify the impact of the episode. There is a great story underneath all of the poor writing this season but it hasn't overcome enough to create something worthwhile. Score: 57 Summary: June convinces Eleanor to not kill Lawrence since she needs him. June begins putting her plan to save the kids into motion, but it gets screwed when Lawrence flees. When he returns, Lawrence reveals that he doesn't have the authority to get anybody out of Gilead now that he is being watched. June convinces him to take her to Jezebel's where she can speak with Billy, the contact that was helping get the kids out. After offering him Lawrence's house, she leaves Billy to think on the deal. June is seen by Winslow. Winslow tries to rape her and June fights back, ultimately killing him. June is smuggled out of Jezebel's while the Marthas dispose of the evidence. June and Lawrence prepare for war. Fred and Serena meet with Tuello who drives them into Canada where they are promptly arrested.
The Good: The Lawrences remain one of the best parts of this season. I'm really enjoying this slow transformation of Lawrence from a criminal to hero. While the middle of the season lost the plot surrounding Lawrence, this episode did a much better job of showing the conflict within him as he struggles to push himself over the edge to actively helping June's cause. The scene with him and Eleanor at the beginning is excellent, some good follow-up on the significant events from the last episode. To contrast Lawrence being vulnerable at the beginning of the episode, we get the end of the episode where Lawrence has seemingly resigned himself to his new role as he prepares to fully oppose Gilead, siding himself with June. Speaking of June, her story is great in this episode. She is working very hard to actually do something, which is very refreshing. If June had shown this same determination to save Hannah/escape Gilead, I think that some of June's earlier storylines could have been better. Needless to say, her urgency in this episode added a lot of tension, and I was invested in her scenes with Billy and the Marthas. The climax of June's story is horrific, yet awesome. Winslow is shown as pure evil here, and honestly I was originally groaning because I thought that June would just be raped here as the show spins its wheels yet again by making Winslow the most boring character ever, a literal clone of Fred. Instead, the show goes in a surprising new direction as June brutally murders Winslow, showing that she is done being the victim now. This murder propels the plot in a big way as Gilead will likely be after June and Lawrence for a crime. It took 11 episodes, but finally there has been some change in the stakes and the world this season. Speaking of change, Fred and Serena's story is very good and also leads to a big, game-changing ending. We get to see Fred and Serena bonding again and their scenes are actually quite good here. I liked seeing them reflect on where they could have been without Gilead, plus we even got Fred coming to terms with him being sterile. It's a nice moment for them and serves as their peak moment before their fall at the end of the episode. In the end, Tuello doesn't care about the Waterfords at all and instead chooses to arrest them, finally giving these two some consequences for the awful things they have done. Plus, there is possibly a hidden story in play here which is pretty interesting (see: The Unknown). The Bad: It's hard to care about what happens in this episode unfortunately. Sure, this was easily the most dramatic, exciting and game-changing episode of the season, but I wasn't feeling as excited as I should have been. The set-up to the key moments in this episode was botched horribly in different ways. I'll start with June killing Winslow. Winslow's death suffers from him being a shallow and boring character, making his attempted rape of June a much less interesting scene than if somebody like Fred was going to rape her instead. Winslow wasn't set up as a character in any way, and he came off as more of a means to an end than an actual player in the story like he was supposed to. He simply existed to die, and I think that's a really poor reason to introduce a new character. It's a shame that he did nothing interesting at all before dying. Furthermore, killing Winslow isn't the pivotal moment for June that it should be. She has been breaking rules left and right this season and facing no consequences. So why should we care if she killed Winslow? I'm certain she is going to get away scot-free in the end. Additionally, we have seen June openly rebel many times before, so this scene isn't as impactful as it tries to be. Fred and Serena getting their comeuppance is good but I think it took far too long for the story to get here. Had this happened back at the end of season 2 when the Waterford story was still interesting to me, I would have reacted to this much more positively than I did now. The Unknown: Who will come after Lawrence and June? How will they escape safely? Will Billy take June's offer for Lawrence's house? How is June going to get Lawrence to give up his house to Billy? How does she plan to get Gilead to accept this deal? Did Serena set Fred up to be arrested? It doesn't seem that way based on her reactions, but the hints are there to suggest that everything that Serena did after coming from Canada was to arrest Fred. We haven't seen Canada since that episode so many Luke was in on the plot. Best Moment: Winslow's death was a real surprise and it changes the story in a big way. Character of the Episode: June. Conclusion: This was a big episode but I thought it left a lot to be desired. By all rights, this should have been way better than it actually was and I think that the sloppy plot movement going into this episode made it really hard to invest myself in the key moments. It was still a good episode, but it should have been better. Score: 60 Summary: June proposes to Alma a plan to smuggle kids out of Gilead but she refuses the offer. June works to get Lawrence's help for her plan. Fred convinces Winslow to go to Lawrence's household and bear witness to the ceremony since Lawrence has had very unsuccessful records with handmaids. Lawrence begrudgingly does the ceremony to ensure that all of his household isn't killed. Horrified by his experience, Lawrence agrees to get Eleanor out of Gilead and to help June smuggle kids out of Gilead. Serena gets Fred to speak with her contact in Canada.
The Good: The central focus on Lawrence and his household in this episode felt refreshing. He has languished in the background for so long after a hot introduction this season, so it is nice to put him back as the main focus. And unsurprisingly, this led into the strongest episode in a while with a fantastic focus on interesting side characters. The ceremony scene was phenomenal. This scene allowed Lawrence to finally face the consequences of creating Gilead. He expressed clear fear as he desperately tried to find a way out of doing something he doesn't want to do. His entire world effectively falls apart here when he realizes what he has to do and it has lasting effects on his character, which I really like. Eleanor had a stand-out episode as well. Julie Dretzin did a stellar job portraying her heartbreak when she realizes what was going to happen. Couple her fears with the lack of meds and she was utterly destroyed by everything that happened. Her visceral reaction evidently affected Lawrence more than anything else and it added more to the complexity and power of the ceremony scene. The effects of this scene are pretty big. Lawrence comes to a conclusion that he needs to get his wife out of Gilead in a terrific scene with June which allows him to seem more vulnerable and human than before. I particularly loved the line "I'll be a hero" which was delivered perfectly by Bradley Whitford. Lawrence says the line with such disgust that it becomes clear that he is feeling guilty for everything he has done and doesn't feel at all that he has earned the opportunity to be a hero. A fantastic moment. I thought the writing was really strong too. I understood that Fred only chose to go after Lawrence because of June mocking him and he wanted to establish that he still had power over her in a very petty way. While I have my problems with this development (see: The Bad), it makes logical sense and is an easier story to follow than most stories we get in this show. I really liked June telling Janine that her son was still alive in Califronia. It was a nice way for June to spare Janine of some unnecessary misery and also lets us know that Janine's observation that June is selfish is incorrect. Here we see June doing something solely for the sake of a friend. The Bad: I wish the Lawrences had been given a more focused storyline that built up to this episode. A climax can only be outstanding if the rising action before it allows the moment to carry all of the weight it possibly can. Unfortunately, the messy nature of this season detracted from the impact of this episode and made it less evocative than it could have been. The poor set up of this story let down this terrifically executed episode. June still gets too much leniency. After she was caught talking to other handmaids in the store, why is nobody watching her actions more closely? The fact that she can just go back to the store and speak with others in literally the exact same manner is frustrating. June gets far too much plot armour. I was confused by Winslow demanding that all handmaids be given a mouth-ring and veil. Does he really have power to just make this happen? Why hasn't he acted on this earlier then, because there are clearly handmaids in the world that aren't affected by these laws. Is he really so isolated in DC that he is oblivious to the world he is in charge of? Additionally, how does somebody so brutal ascend to a position of power? It's clear to me that most people resent the treatment of handmaids in DC, so how did they let somebody like Winslow gain power when they resent all that he does? I'm very confused by the government system in this show, as per usual. The Fred and June drama has grown bland. There was nothing new explored about them here. Fred is still an obsessive and creepy prick while June still likes to mock him when she can. If the show wants to continue exploring their relationship, we need to get some new storytelling content quick. The Unknown: Will June lying to Janine come back to haunt her? What happens if Janine learns what really happened to Caleb? Will Lawrence actually be able to save the kids? What will happen to him if he does? And how about his wife? It appears that Lawrence will actually get a proper redemption arc unlike Serena, and I suspect that he may be executed at the end of the season. What is Serena's plan? What does she plan to do with her contact in Canada? Does she want Fred to turn against Gilead? Best Moment: The Lawrences have us spoiled for choice here. My pick goes to Commander Lawrence choosing to help June and saying that he'll be a hero. Powerful stuff. Character of the Episode: It's tough to choose between Lawrence and Eleanor. I'll narrowly give it to Lawrence. Conclusion: This episode was really strong because of an excellent story about the Lawrences. But a lot of this season's problems still persisted and that prevents this episode from being one of the show's top-tier efforts. Score: 68 Summary: June is forced to wait with Ofmatthew for months until her baby is born. Ofmatthew will likely die but the doctors are doing whatever they can to save her baby. June loses her sanity over time and nearly murders Ofmatthew in several instances but she is stopped each time. After she attempts to kill Serena, the doctor speaks with her and calms her a little. June finds herself again after Ofmatthew's child is born and she is allowed to leave. June chooses to stay until Ofmatthew dies and confesses she lost her way> She decides she is going to try to save the children of Gilead by helping them escape.
The Good: I thought that this episode captured June's fraying sanity really well. Opening the episode with her callously singing "Heaven is a Place on Earth" while Ofmatthew's life ebbs away ended up being a genius move. It set the tone excellently, and the episode's focus on June really helped the exploration of her mental state. June is pretty scary and unpredictable in all of her scenes and there were numerous moments where I was horrified by the things she was saying to everyone. Evidently, the time with Ofmatthew hadn't helped her brain at all and she only seemed to get worse. And then her worsening state led to that reckless attempt on Serena's life which was a low point for her character. When Serena is lecturing her to be stronger, that's a pretty big fall for who is likely the most stubborn and resilient character in this story. The rest of the episode had the tough task of taking June from this low point and bring her back to who she was before. I thought the show did a pretty good job too. The scene between June and the doctor was really strong and it nicely showed to us that there are good people still living in Gilead. The doctor also touched on the fact that there are people who object against the lack of human concerns that the authority in Gilead have as they seemingly disregarded his objections to keeping June locked up with Ofmatthew and isolated for months on end. It seems like Gilead simply believes that the lord will save anyone no matter what the situation. In the end, June recovered and it led to the terrific moment of her choosing to stay by Ofmatthew's side as she died. There, she gave a powerful speech of how she lost herself after Gilead took everything from her and that she plans to correct her mistakes by saving Ofmatthew's baby. The scene was powerful and it nicely reset June to her former self. The episode looked very pretty. The white colour scheme was perfect, giving June's hospital room an asylum-like feel. It fit nicely with her decaying state, as did everything else the episode did. Those jarring cuts from day to day were perfect at showing how the time has sort of blended together for June as she sits around doing absolutely nothing. The Bad: I have to ask if this episode and all of the storylines within it were actually necessary for the story as a whole. The entire story of June losing her mind really didn't result in anything significant. Ofmatthew's character could have been skipped entirely without any detriment to the story. June could have easily decided to save children with a different story that doesn't waste as much time as this one did. The whole arc of June going evil unfortunately feels pointless and I don't think that the show needed to go in this direction at all. Sure the story was fine, but watching this show stall its characters and plot for something like the 7th time was ridiculous and it really tried my patience. I'm certain that this story of June going evil was just a delaying tactic from the showrunners instead of the logical next step in the story and that makes me feel really unsatisfied coming out of this episode. Furthermore, the sloppy writing that accompanied Ofmatthew's character made it hard to care at all about her fate or how June feels about her as a person. The show relied too hard on its great acting prowess to give depth to what was a shallow, simplistic and unnecessary story and unfortunately acting isn't good enough to accomplish this. Additionally, this episode is painfully slow at times. Looking at it on paper, there isn't much going on in this episode and it relies too hard on its artistic style to keep us interested. Granted, I did enjoy the style of this episode a lot, but I was definitely feeling a little bored in several scenes, especially with the repetitive nature of many scenes. It also doesn't help that I wasn't as invested as I should have been in the story which made me lose interest much quicker. The key to great bottle episodes is making the viewer care about the single story that is being told while also evolving the story and changing the situation to make the episode feel fresh despite being crammed into a single location. This episode accomplishes only a little bit of this. There were a couple other things I disliked. Aunt Lydia's character radically changes again as she shares a sweet moment with Janine. The show needs to decide how Lydia is going to behave and stick with it. As a final gripe, I thought Serena randomly showing up while June was looking for somebody to kill was way too convenient. Why was she even visiting anyways, especially with how her last conversation with June went? The Unknown: Will Ofmatthew's baby survive? How does June plan to get children out of Gilead? Does she plan to use Lawrence? Best Moment: June confessing to Ofmattehw was really good. Character of the Episode: June. Conclusion: Despite this episode telling a strong story, it ended up being slow, tough to invest in and ultimately quite pointless. Even though the story was told competently and the episode was masterfully crafted, the episode failed to compel me as much as it should have. It's a shame because this episode itself is very good, but it's the unsuccessful overall story of this season that causes it to fall from a great episode to an average one at best. Score: 56 Summary: Flashbacks show Aunt Lydia's past. She had a healthy relationship with a mother, Noelle, and was encouraging her to be a better parent. But when Lydia is rejected by a man, she lashes out at Noelle by removing her son from her custody. In the present, June is frustrated with Ofmatthew and gets the handmaids to pick on her. Going crazy from constantly being assaulted and bothered by those around her, Ofmatthew snaps at the store and kills a guard, stealing his gun. Before she does anything, Ofmatthew is shot. June is pleased by the whole development.
The Good: I'm very glad that we got to see Lydia's backstory. I've been wanting to see more of her character since the start of the show, so this episode fulfilled something I've been eagerly awaiting. I thought her backstory was a nice little story showing how Lydia became so cold and ruthless, highlighting her own insecurity as her big flaw. Though it wasn't anywhere near as good as I had hoped and didn't really fit the character(see: The Bad), it's a competent story that's easy enough to watch. I thought Ann Dowd was terrific and I definitely felt something as I watched Noelle angrily lash out at Lydia who had done so much hard work turning her into a better mother only to throw it all away for nothing. Even though Lydia gets most of the focus in this episode, I think the star was June. She has changed drastically after the events of the last episode which I really like to see. This show doesn't give us enough fallout to big events which has been crippling it for a while now. But her we get to see June very nearly lose her mind now that she has lost Hannah. Throughout the episode she seems to care about nothing and refuses to cooperate with anyone. While this does add to my constant criticism of June having too much plot armour (see: The Bad), at least now it has apurpose int he story and is adding on to a pretty satisfying story arc. I'm most surprised by how evil June comes off as in this episode as she tortures Ofmatthew, and in that horrific ending scene June appears to be completely insane as she smiles in the face of a death and proudly enjoys the fact that she has ruined the life of a pregnant lady. It's very frightening stuff and has a pprofound impact on everyone watching. Seeing the protagonist turn bad is always a shock and I'm pleased to say that they did a good job of it here. I just hope that June faces some comeuppance for her horrid actions in this episode so that there is a point to this development. It's impossible not to feel bad for Ofmatthew during this episode as she is completely torn apart by how she is being continuously harassed by June. She feels more alone than ever and is afraid of the world, and even more afraid of June's wrath. The moment when she snaps is built up to well (take notes "Game of Thrones", this is how you show a character snap), and the scene itself is one of the best moments the show has ever done. It's a perfect mix of sad, horrific and shocking, leaving a huge impact as the final scene of the episode. The Bad: For as much as this episode does right, it also gets a lot wrong and unfortunately the details completely shatter the story that was being told in this episode. I'll start with Ofmatthew. She is pregnant and that is not treated as a big deal by anybody. The fact that Lydia simply allows her to be harassed and that Ofmatthew isn't given the luxurious treatment that June was makes no sense at all to me. June was treated like a treasure when she was pregnant, but Ofmatthew is just another handmaid in this time. Furthermore, I find it hard to believe that nobody tried to talk to her and save her. Instead she is just killed. It's shocking to see her killed so thoughtlessly, especially when you look at how much effort was made to save Janine back in season 1. Babies and handmaids have always been protected at all costs, yet that wasn't the case here. Once again, the writers presume that they can just change the rules of Gilead to suit their story and it just isn't working. And this isn't the only time that this is an issue. June's lack of punishment is baffling to me, especially with all of the things that she does in this episode. She is a literal loose cannon and she makes it well known to everyone. She mouths off to Lydia, she gets in Lawrence's face and she refuses to cooperate in almost every situation. Yet she doesn't face any punishment. Why? They say it's because they need her to shoot commercials for the Waterfords, but that's a very bad excuse. Sure that can explain why they can't do anything drastic like cut her fingers off or burn her, but it doesn't prevent them from doing more subtle punishments. It's almost like the show forgot that over-the-top violent punishments aren't the only way to punish the characters. Just give June a slap on the wrists with some lashings maybe (the cameras won't see those), or maybe something else. Torture her without doing any lasting damage, isolate her and chain her up for a while, send her back to the Red Center, all of these can be done without any issues. Yet June is spared because the writers don't want to punish her, and it's really hurting my investment in the show and the world of Gilead. Lydia's backstory is unfortunately a total disappointment. Lydia has been so strange as a character this season since the writers have tried to change her to make her more sympathetic. It's like they are ignoring all of the horrors that Lydia has done in seasons 1 and 2, almost as if they believe that she was some other character back then. That's why the backstory we get for Lydia isn't at all consistent with the character. We learn why Lydia is so devout and why she believes in the Gilead system of finding ideal mothers. But we get no insight on Lydia's violent tendencies and the cruel punishments she gave to the handmaids. This darker aspect of Lydia is an important aspect of her character and it can't be ignored. Yet the writers are refusing to address this aspect of her character in any way this season. Furthermore, Lydia's motives in the flashbacks are so basic that it's almost laughable. In short, the reason that she is such a horrible person is because she was stood up by a guy she wanted to have sex with. Really? That's such a basic and poor reason for Lydia to become a terrible person and it seems more ridiculous the more I think about it. Surely there would have been more to make Lydia into such a deranged person. The Unknown: Is Lawrence thinking of sending his wife away? I can't think of any other reason that he allows June to mouth off like she did in this episode. Was it a guardian who killed Ofmatthew or somebody else? What will become of Ofmatthew's death? Will June be punished for it? Best Moment: The final scene where Ofmatthew finally loses it and ends up getting killed. The icing on the cake was the dark turn for June who smiled menacingly in the face of certain death, a smile cold and scary enough that it frightened Ofmatthew out of trying to kill her. Character of the Episode: June. Conclusion: This episode had a lot of really good elements. In fact, I think that on paper this could be one of the show's best episodes. But execution is everything, and unfortunately this amazing story was told very incompetently and that led to this episode being much worse than it should have been. Another big disappointment in what has been another disappointing season. Score: 55 Summary: June wants to go visit Hannah again and speaks with Frances, Hannah's martha. June takes Mrs. Lawrence with her but they ultimately fail to see Hannah. Frances is executed for her conversation with June that Ofmatthew reported to Aunt Lydia. The Waterfords begin to settle down in DC and tensions between them are resolved. In Canada, Emily has to report her crimes in Gilead. Moira and Emily head to a protest and are arrested when they accost a minister.
The Good: This episode nailed a few of its scenes and I enjoyed those moments thoroughly. Unfortunately the rest of the episode was messy and nonsensical (see: The Bad). I really enjoyed Emily being forced to reveal all of her criminal activities in Gilead. Alexis Bledel was fantastic and I was able to sympathize with her as she's forced to face up to her actions and also reveal them to Sylvia. The ending of her story was good too as she and Moira reflect on the monstrous things they did and contemplate if they are even good people anymore. The last scene of the episode where June assaults Ofmatthew was really well done. I could understand why June reached a boiling point with her, and the vicious attack she unleashes on Ofmatthew was outstanding. It was a fitting way to demonstrate June's sheer rage as she lashes out at the person who took Hannah away from her. I liked the sequence where Serena walked through the abandoned house with Liv. It was very atmospheric and there was something really powerful about the way that both of them spoke so optimistically as we were given the visuals of an abandoned house filled with remnants of the likely dead family that once lived there. The Bad: June's storyline in this episode is completely ridiculous. We hear nothing of June's plan to see Hannah before this episode, yet suddenly she decides that today is the day that she will do something drastic. It makes no sense, and worse yet is the fact that she selfishly attempts to drag somebody else with her. Her last-second planning to bring somebody else is ridiculous and paints her as more selfish and stupid than ever. Does she have no fear for the consequences of her actions? Thankfully she gets punished for her brash actions in this episode. Unfortunately the fact that I'm praising the show for punishing June completely nullifies the tragedy at the end of the episode. It's tragic if June made some choices that I could sympathize with that led to Hannah being taken away. But if June does some out-of-character, stupid things that never had a chance to end well, my sympathy for her cause goes away and so does the tragedy of the story. I was also annoyed with Commander Lawrence in this episode. His story with June was easily the most compelling part of the season, so I'm confused why it has been shafted so far into the background. In fact, there was a great opportunity to continue it here but the show refused to move anywhere. Lawrence just doesn't seem to care about how June stupidly took Mrs. Lawrence away which is odd considering how he snapped at her for talking about Mrs. Lawrence in a previous episode. It's inconsistent for his character and it appears to me that the writers simply didn't want June to face appropriate consequences for her actions, so they forced a way out of punishing her. June was pretty atrocious in this episode and I found it hard to believe that she hasn't gotten more punishments. She directly disobeys Aunt Lydia TWICE in this episode, yet somehow she gets away with it scot free. Furthermore, the episode ends with June assaulting a pregnant woman, a huge no-no in Gilead and I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't be severely punished for this. But seeing how lenient the writers have been with June in this season, I doubt that anything will come of this. Also, how repetitive was the main story in this episode? We have seen June make so many attempts to visit Hannah before, so seeing it again is hardly original content. I hardly felt anything when June was trying to get into the school to see Hannah because I had already seen these exact same emotions many times before. As a side note, did we really need to see Gilead people moving the children with rope? Gilead is a strict community that values children, not an evil and cruel organization. It seems like the writers may have forgotten about that in these past few episodes with the silenced handmaids in the last episode and now this. The Waterfords were boring in this episode. I find it ridiculously hard to care about their story now that June is gone. Neither Serena nor Fred are strong enough as independent characters to make me care about their plight. Fred has been too shallow in previous seasons for me to believe there is any depth to him at all, while Serena has been so inconsistent as she constantly flip-flops on her morals which causes me to not really buy into anything she is doing. The dance at the end of the episode was really poor and I found it incredibly hard to believe that these two ended up back together, especially after the whole finger-cutting thing (which was never brought up again!). The protest scene was filmed really badly. Normally the politicians wouldn't be able to respond to any comments because 1: they don't want to, and 2: because there are so many people trying to talk to them that it becomes difficult to even understand what people say. Yet somehow Moira is isolated and gets in a direct conversation with the minister, which is too on-the-nose and convenient. Why is Ofmatthew doing the executions? She doesn't seem to be getting the same treatment that the pregnant June was getting last season. The Unknown: Are the Waterfords staying in DC? What's next for their story if June doesn't see them anymore? I really hope that something interesting comes from this. Is Lawrence contemplating giving Mrs. Lawrence more freedom? He seemed to dwell on the fact that she was happy when she went out with June. Where have The McKenzies gone with Hannah? Will June find her again? Will June face consequences for attacking a pregnant handmaid? What would those consequences be? How will Emily and Moira get out of jail? Also, was this the first time we heard Emily's last name? Best Moment: Probably Emily being forced to reflect on killing the guardian and attempting to kill Lydia. Character of the Episode: Emily. Conclusion: This episode was a mess and was filled with repetitive, nonsensical storytelling. The midseason lull is in full effect and I can't say that I'm optimistic about this season anymore. Score: 47 Summary: June is summoned by the Waterfords to DC so that they can continue to pressure Canada to return Nichole. Lydia accompanies her. The Waterfords stay with Commander Winslow who offers Fred a promotion after seeing his dedication to Gilead in the videos he is shooting. June discovers that some handmaids have been silenced, horrifying her and Aunt Lydia. The Swiss arrive to conduct interviews on behalf of Canada. June tries to make a deal with them to keep Nichole out of Gilead by letting them speak to Nick, a commander. However, the deal falls through when the Swiss check up on Nick's past. Serena tells June that Nick was a soldier who fought in the crusades. June is upset that the deal falls through and has a spat with Serena.
The Good: As usual, this was acted brilliantly and shot beautifully. This show is beautiful to behold and it took that to a new level in this episode. Things like the destroyed Lincoln Memorial, the modified Washington Monument and the new Union Station were lovely to see and they added a lot to the world of Gilead. There were some really good scenes of character interaction as well. June's final scene with Serena was emotionally charged and was a good way to provide a climactic moment in their conflict regarding Nichole, though it did have its problems (see: The Bad). Lydia and June's scene was phenomenal, showing a more human side to Lydia and giving us some really good emotion. Though again, that moment had problems (see: The Bad). Lastly, I really enjoyed the brief moments between June and Rita as they took a few seconds to relax and talk amidst a hostile environment. I appreciate that we finally got to learn more about Nick. His backstory seems to take his character in an interesting new direction and I'm happy about that, though like everything else in this episode, I had my fair share of problems about this development too. The Bad: That shouting match between June and Serena didn't achieve its full potential for a number of reasons. First of all, this logistically should never have happened. If Gilead is so restrictive, how on Earth is June able to get away with such a loud shouting match? And in the Lincoln Memorial of all places with its loud echoes! Surely everyone would have heard that. Additionally, there is no way that June was allowed to go to Lincoln Memorial alone, especially not in the capital where it has been established that the rules are far more strict. Furthermore, all of these fights between Serena and June are beginning to feel a little bit numb for me and the only thing that keeps them engaging is the acting from Elisabeth Moss and Yvonne Strahovski. I've seen them fight and make up so many times by now that the repetition outright annoys me. Nick's past really seems like a last-ditch effort to give the character something to do, and it comes off as something that is pulled out of nowhere. I can't fully remember the backstory given to Nick in prior seasons, but I'm confident that nothing like this was even hinted at before. The reveal doesn't feel earned at all unfortunately. Furthermore, it seems odd that Nick's previous life caused the Swiss to refuse to speak with him. Surely speaking with a commander is too big of a chance to pass up regardless of somebody's past. As much as I loved Lydia and June's scene, it seems very out of character for Aunt Lydia. This same woman would torture the handmaids without a second thought, yet she is freakishly horrified by the idea of silencing and then proceeds to actually open up a little bit to June. It doesn't fit with what we know of her character, and continues the show's trend of making characters contradict their past actions. I didn't like the idea of the silenced handmaids. It is unnecessarily excessive brutality, even for Gilead and it seems fairly counterproductive. After all, how would they hide this from convoys from other countries? Surely other countries would have discovered the horrors of Gilead if they are as careless as this. Furthermore, it feels like a manipulative way to gross us out. Just showing the handmaids with cloths over their mouths is telling enough and it sends the message. The rings in the mouths are pointlessly excessive and don't add anything other than a gross out for the viewers. Fred's promotion doesn't make sense to me, especially since he was literally just demoted a little while back. The way that Winslow's impression of Fred suddenly changed offscreen was very convenient and it didn't work for me. The Unknown: Does Winslow have any other plans for Fred? Is he earnest in his offer of a promotion? What were the crusades that were mentioned in Nick's past? I'm interested to learn more about them. Best Moment: Probably Lydia and June's scene, flawed as it was. Character of the Episode: June. Conclusion: This episode was fine overall if not the most exciting, but the problems underneath the surface detracted massively from my enjoyment. The show is hitting a midseason lull once again. Score: 53 Summary: Serena is still unhappy because she wants to be with Nichole. She arranges a deal with June to have June call Luke and arrange a meeting between him and Serena so that Serena can see Nichole. At the meeting, Serena threatens Luke into letting her share some time with Nichole. June gives Serena some tapes to give Luke as a gift. The tapes have messaged from June on them and she tells Luke everything that happened. Back in Gilead, June is taken by some Eyes to a set. The Waterfords a filming a TV spot demanding the return of Nichole to Gilead.
The Good: Scene by scene this show is outstanding. There was tons of emotion on display in this episode and some of the scenes were as good as anything else this show has produced. June and Luke's moments in particular were wonderful. I really enjoyed their actual phone call as Luke was overjoyed to hear June's voice, while June stoically kept herself together so she could spout the dialogue that everyone wanted her to say. Because of how fake this felt, the conversation felt somewhat disappointing. But that was the point. By the end of the episode we get to see what their conversation should have been as June gets to spill everything to Luke over a cassette tape. The scene is wonderful, and O.T. Fagbenle ended up doing his best work on the show as he reacted to the bombshell revelations that June gives him. This was by far the most likable Luke has ever been. He had some wonderful internal conflicts to deal with in this episode as he got to speak with his wife for the first time in ages. We see him pondering the validity of what June said on the phone, we see him processing the information that June fell in love with another man, and we see him choose to obey Serena when he realizes that his irresponsible actions could have massive consequences for June. There is a lot for him to do in this episode and thankfully O.T. Fagbenle stepped up to the task. Serena and Luke's scene ended up being quite brilliant. While getting to it was a bit iffy (see: The Bad), the scene itself carried a lot of weight, even in their opening dialogue as Serena gives a generic Gilead greeting while Luke swears at her hatefully. Serena initially tries to be kind, but when she sees it isn't working, she desperately goes towards a subtle threat in order to get some more time with Nichole. Seeing that his wife is in danger, Luke's resolve shatters and he gives in to Serena's demands. What's most fascinating is that Serena doesn't even seem to acknowledge that she played dirty against Luke. I think she believes she is being a genuine person, and that she does have a mother's right to persuade Luke to let Serena be part of Nichole's life, no matter how she goes about it. One of my biggest issues with this show is the lack of consequences for its characters. So when the show takes the time to make a character's actions have disastrous results, it feels even more satisfying. This is the case with the ending of the episode as June sees the Waterfords attempt to bring baby Nichole back to Gilead. And the worst part is that it's all her fault. She was the one who inexplicably tried to get them back together. She was the one who showed Serena kindness and agreed to let her see Nichole once more. And now her kindness has ended up in her baby being in danger of being brought back to Gilead. June's willingness to work with the Waterfords completely backfired on her, and these are the kinds of consequences I want to see characters face when they do stupid things. There were some other moments I enjoyed as well. I liked Lawrence sharing some time with his wife as they listen to the mixtapes together. It was a lovely moment that seems to hint that Lawrence isn't a bad guy underneath everything we have seen from him in the past few episodes. I also enjoyed Ofmatthew's horror when she became pregnant again. Evidently her pious act is a sort of denial, and when faced with the loss of another baby, she seems to be losing her composure. I've finally picked up that it's "Nichole" and not "Nicole". Better late than never I suppose. The Bad: The show is suffering from the same big issue as last season. The continuity between episodes is non-existent and there is never any change in the story. The fact that we are back at a Serena vs June conflict is ridiculous, and I don't care to see that explored anymore this season. Furthermore, we have several moments which breach the continuity of the show. We have never heard back from June's attempt to start a rebellion back in "Useful". Aunt Lydia faces zero consequences for beating up Janine last episode, and she seems to be back to her old self again without any development. Lawrence and June's interactions aren't advancing at all and the constant repetition is already testing my patience. The show is facing the danger of completely losing its quality in the middle section of its season once again. Serena has been woefully underused this season. For 5 episodes, all she has done is cry, cry, and cry again. It gets old quick and it's disappointing to see somebody as talented as Yvonne Strahovski forced to play the exact same scene over and over again. Honestly if I had a shot of alcohol every time Serena starts crying this season, I would be dead. Serena's character has been inconsistent, and not in a good way. The show seemed to set her up for a redemption arc, but now they have cut the legs off of that story by having Serena demand to bring Nichole back. Why would she do this? Does she no longer care about the safety of her daughter? It's so out of character for her to completely back out on her choice to let Nichole go. Worst of all, she makes this decision off-screen so we can't even see her get pushed to decide that Nichole must come back. Also, why is she back with Fred now? Did she forget that he had her finger cut off? I can't see a single reason for Serena to stay with him or listen to a word that he says. It's absurd. Furthermore if she wants to see Nichole again, why not leave Gilead? That would be much more organic for her character to do this, yet because the writers need to keep spinning the show's wheels we instead have Serena remain a villain. The Gilead government is really stupid in this episode. Clearly they are aware that Luke has Nichole. So why do they need to wait for Serena to say something before they demand to get her back? Shouldn't they be searching tirelessly for her already? The fact that they only did something when Serena actually wanted them to is so stupid. Another problem is the phone call from Luke to June and the meeting they arranged. Did the government really just allows June to make this conversation? And did they really just allow Serena to leave the country without her commander? Having the main plot of the episode built on such a flimsy foundation ended up hurting my immersion in the story a lot, making me less invested in the story being told. With stronger writing, the story would have hit a lot harder. 5 episodes in and there has been nothing for Moira and Nick to do. If you have these side characters, you should give them something to do. As it stands, they are useless to the story right now. The Unknown: Does Lawrence still have good in him? Who left that satellite phone in Serena's bag? How will that be significant in the future? How will the world react to the Waterfords broadcast? Will Canada fight back? Will they be pressured to give Nichole back? Canada better at least try to prove that Nichole isn't related to the Waterfords at all because she really isn't. So why hasn't Emily or anyone else tried to start a revolution against Gilead? Why haven't they revealed more about the truth of what is going on in Gilead? Best Moment: As much as I loved the Serena/Luke meeting, I have to give it to the moment when Luke listens to the tapes that June recorded and reacts to a flood of information. Such a lovely scene. Character of the Episode: Luke. Conclusion: On the surface, this is another excellent episode. I think the actual scenes we have been given this season are the strongest since season 1. Yet the lack of consistency and consequence drags things down once again, and an episode that should have been incredible ends up being merely good. Score: 63 Summary: The handmaids and commanders go to a ceremony celebrating the children of Gilead. June meets with Serena and Fred and tries to sort out their relationship. June orchestrates a deal for Fred to allow Serena to have some power behind the scenes, and it seemingly gets them on good terms again. Janine goes to see her baby again and oversteps her boundaries. Lydia gives in to her darker side and viciously beats Janine, but she immediately regrets it afterwards. Luke is seen on TV carrying Nicole. Emily reunites with her son and is emotional when she returns to her old life.
The Good: The focal point of this episode was on June trying to restore the fractured relationship between the Waterfords. I thought the scenes between June and Serena/Fred were pretty compelling. It was easy to understand June's goals, and I thought that it was a clever idea to examine both of the Waterfords individually from June's perspective as they attempt to put their marriage back together. The acting was superb as expected and I was surprised by how sympathetic all 3 characters were throughout this story. Aunt Lydia had a really good arc in this episode. Following her injury back in "The Word", we have seen a darker and more bitter side to her character after she had been hurt by the handmaids that she loved so much. She snapped at June back in "Mary and Martha" which was a sign that she wasn't taking her injury too well. Here we know for sure that this woman isn't the same one we met at the beginning of the show as she viciously takes out all of her anger on Janine, brutally beating her down for a mistake which was pretty understandable. Everyone was quite uncomfortable watching Janine get smacked around, and after the moment had passed, Aunt Lydia was suitably horrified by her actions. It seems clear that these rage issues are eating away at Lydia from the inside, and now it seems that she may be facing some big consequences for lashing out like that in front of so many commanders and their wives (see: The Unknown). Ann Dowd conveyed Lydia's fear wonderfully in the ensuing scene and I'm curious to see where her story goes next. As usual, Emily's story was quite good. I liked seeing her reunite with her family and there was definitely a lot of emotion in her returning to the life that she had lost in Gilead. Bledel was spectacular as usual and she really made every moment she was on screen count. The Bad: This episode was problematic for a number of reasons however and I'm nervous that the show may be falling to its familiar trappings once again. For one, repetition mixed with slow pacing is a deadly combo for TV shows. The past few episodes of this season have felt fresh with a pace quicker than what I was expecting, even too quick at times. Yet everything came grounding to a halt in this week. This entire episode (outside of Emily's story) took place during a single gathering where nothing particularly interesting actually happened. The episode really milked this gathering for all it was worth and I don't think there was enough substance to justify this. Surely the Waterford storyline could have been incorporated into a plot with a bit more forwards momentum. Additionally, the show milked some more time through world-building by revealing this celebration for the recent children of Gilead. What is the problem you may ask? Well the issue is that nothing new is revealed through this. We already know that Gilead values its children, and we have even seen some of these celebrations last season, in episodes like "Seeds". There is nothing new on display for the world, so the entire episode hinges on minor character development and plot movement for Aunt Lydia and the Waterfords. What's worse is that all of the more exciting storylines coming out of the last episode were ignored for the brunt of this hour. There's no Lawrence, who has been by far the most interesting aspect of this season. And there was also absolutely no mention of the rebellion which was teased heavily at the end of the last episode. Not following up on any of these moments make this episode feel a little disappointing overall. June's plot armour continues to grow to ridiculous amounts. Just look at everything she is doing in this episode without consequences. She actively goes against Aunt Lydia to pull her off Janine and nobody says a word. She is constantly engaging in normal conversation with the Waterfords yet nobody seems to care about this. Even the Eyes don't punish her for eavesdropping on their conversation. By far the worst thing is that she is actually able to follow Serena, talk to her and even smoke without anybody noticing this. News flash, when people smoke the smell sticks around them for a while! Everyone would smell the smoke on her and she would be busted immediately. I'm struggling to comprehend how June's relationship with the Waterfords became so caring. Last season these same people raped June while she was pregnant and did a number of other vile atrocities. Yet now June seems to genuinely care about them as people and is actively trying to help them. I always thought that June was manipulating them for her own goals, yet in this episode she feels oddly genuine. I have no idea why she is so attached to them now, and that hurts my immersion in the Waterford storyline. The kid actors in this show are awful. Oliver was pretty bad and his line delivery did nothing for me. Kid actros have always been an issue in this show. I initially liked Hannah's portrayal back in season 2 because she seemed so creepy and messed up in the head. Looking back on it, it's clear that I was never supposed to look at her scenes in this regard (June seems to think that Hannah is just fine) and it was just a really bad performance by the kid actor playing her that gave off these vibes unintentionally. Really Luke? Your going to show off a kidnapped baby on the news for everyone to see? How stupid is this guy? The Unknown: What's the story behind Ofmatthew? She is getting a decent amount of screentime so I think she will have some importance. I'm curious to learn how she became so pious. What consequences will there be for Lydia's actions? Could she be fired from her position for such a vile misuse of her power? Is Gilead going to target Luke now? What are they going to do to get Nicole back? Will they send some men to kidnap Nicole? Or perhaps they will send men to kill Luke. Or will they do something else entirely? Best Moment: Lydia beating down Janine simply because she had a very human desire to go back with the people she thought of as family. It's a very powerful scene, and Lydia's reaction after realizing what she has done was chilling. Character of the Episode: Lydia. Conclusion: This episode had some glimmers of greatness with the Lydia storyline and most of the Waterford storyline. However the stagnant plot, strangled pacing and inconsistent characters hurt the episode. Score: 57 Summary: Lawrence invites other commanders to his house for a meeting. Nick is now a commander. June gets to briefly speak with Fred. Lawrence continues playing mind games with June. After the meeting they get into an argument. Lawrence reveals he saved Emily because she is useful to the world, and refuses to do the same with June who is selfish and useless. Lawrence gives June the option to save 5 women who are going to be sent to the colonies. June initially refuses but eventually gives in and selects 5 women she thinks will be best to kick off a rebellion. Serena is isolated from Fred and struggles to overcome the sorrow of losing her baby. She visits June who helps her get through it. Nick has been assigned to Chicago and visits June to say goodbye.
The Good: As usual, the acting was stellar. The scenes between Lawrence and June highlighted this the most as the two of them continued to play mind games on each other. But it's clear that Lawrence has the upper hand here. He sees through June's manipulation attempts and fires back at her at every step. Lawrence is not as easily controlled as Fred, and he makes that clear in this episode. The two characters end up having some fascinating moments together. The two that stand out are the scenes during the commander's meeting and the argument they had afterwards. I was really pleased that we got a look into Lawrence's mind to learn why he is so hostile with June when he was mostly kind to Emily. He believes in judging a person by the goodness of their heart, as well as their intelligence. Rather than accepting everyone as equals, Lawrence clearly puts values on people and he judges them based off of this value. And it's this belief that led to the creation of Gilead. It took 3 seasons to finally get an explanation about this, and thankfully what we got didn't disappoint. Lawrence makes it clear that the commander's wives aren't just randomly selected women; rather they are the most suitable mothers in the world, the one's with the purest hearts. The problem he has with June isn't that she has a confident nature. His issue is that she is selfish and does things solely for herself and her immediate family with no intentions of helping others. And he's right. Since the beginning, June has been selfish and only looks out for her own interests. She has never done a selfless act and is obsessed with bettering her life with no regard to those around her. I love that the show had first presented us with such a flawed main character, and now has presented us with an antagonist who perfectly goes up against these flaws. This Lawrence/June story has been fantastic so far and I think I could watch Elisabeth Moss and Bradley Whitford going up against each other for days without getting bored. Yvonne Strahovski got a chance to shine as an actress one again. While Serena's story may not have been the very best (see: The Bad), Strahovski still manages to make us feel emotion by how brilliantly she is able to express the emotions that Serena is feeling. In this episode Serena is mourning the loss of her child and is desperately hunting for a way to rid herself of this pain. She goes to her mother first and then to June, and is forced by both to face up to her emotions and emerge stronger. She finally does so at the end of the episode, and judging by her giving the cold shoulder to Fred, she may become a valuable new member to June's planned rebellion. Fred had a pretty good episode too. Yet again, he is manipulated so easily by June who is able to get exactly what she wants from him. Fred is really kind of pathetic to watch in this episode. He is such a weak-minded person and he has given up his entire heart to Gilead. It was pretty painful to see him practicing being genuine at Jezebel's because he didn't have enough confidence to simply talk to Serena and win her over. I think deep down inside he is aware that he is a bad person, but he is too happy with his current life to make any effort to change this. The Bad: I wish there was more clarity to Serena's mental state. Since the first season, she has probably been the most complex character in the entire show and episodes focused on her have usually explored some unique and interesting moral dilemmas. Yet when we look at this episode, her story is so basic. It's very odd to watch Serena going through such a basic storyline where she is squarely placed as sympathetic because she has never been portrayed through such a black/white lens before. Serena has always resided firmly in grey territory. It feels inconsistent to suddenly push her as a good guy in this episode. June and Nick's farewell was a great scene. Yet it didn't work in the context of the whole episode. For one, we have no idea how Nick got into this position. How is he a commander? Why? What did he do to get this promotion? It makes very little sense, and I really can't be bothered to care for his character if the writers don't give me enough details. Furthermore, the goodbye scene is so short and doesn't really have any set-up or follow-up surrounding it. This makes it lose weight, and it feels like a rushed scene that doesn't belong in such an overcrowded episode. And we get another "empowering" ending. I liked the scene with Serena since it paid off of her story. But June's? It was weird having her suddenly change her mind about saving the 5 women. That's not because I don't buy her changing her mind - I definitely do - but it's because we don't spend any time with June making this decision. In a show which loves to focus on the actors as they make decisions, the absence of any focus surrounding this decision stands out in a bad way. The final scene feels tacked on just to give us another "yeah women are strong!" moment. The Unknown: What happened to Cora? Did she die? Or was she sent to the colonies? How did Nick become a commander? Will we ever get an answer for this? Did he just get written out of the story? What was the relationship between Nick and Beth? I recall them meeting back in season 1, but I'm not sure if they had an actual relationship. Their interactions suggested a history between them. Feel free to let me know in the comments if I missed anything. Why did Serena get to leave Fred? What are the rules about a wife leaving her husband anyways? Who is Serena's mother? Why does she get to live without a commander? Best Moment: Lawrence revealing why he is so against June was an outstanding moment. It's a great explanation of the system that Gilead operates under while also paying off of the tensions between June and Lawrence in an awesome way. Character of the Episode: Lawrence. He has injected a much needed freshness into the show. Conclusion: This was another very good episode that just misses out on hitting a 70. While each episode this season has had its own individual flaws, the overall story is gelling together in a way it hasn't really done before. I'm liking season 3 so far, and I hope that the quality can keep up. Score: 69 Summary: June adjusts to life in Lawrence's household. Lydia pays her a visit and expresses distaste for her prior actions. The marthas are planning an escape so June joins in. Lawrence sees them and wants the marthas gone, but June convinces him to leave them be. The escape attempt goes awry and a martha is shot. She gets refuge in Lawrence's house. Lawrence is not pleased and the martha eventually dies. June buries her, but there are huge tensions between her and Lawrence. In Little America, Emily goes to a doctor and adjusts to her new life. Luke struggles to deal with the fact that June decided to stay in Gilead. Emily reunites with her wife, Sylvia.
The Good: It's great to see Ann Dowd again, and her performance is stunning as per usual. She is facing some physical consequences after Emily destroyed her back in "The Word", and I definitely like that she has suspicions over Lawrence because of this. Her interactions with June are very consistent with her character. Lydia is still kind to her since she is a handmaid, but there are huge tensions due to June's stunt with the McKenzies in the last episode. The moment when Lydia snapped after June tried to talk down to her was wonderful, and it nicely encapsulated June's growing confidence and Lydia's distaste for her current physical state. This episode was all about June though. The story that this episode was centered around was June's growing arrogance and confidence. In this episode she does so many bold moves, actions which she would never have dreamed of taking at the beginning of the show. Despite the change of scenery, June doesn't spend time building up a relationship with Lawrence and instead she negotiates with him as she would with the Waterfords. Furthermore, she overhears some rebellious acts between the marthas and she immediately joins in with efforts to bump up the scale of what they are doing to make a bigger impact. June doesn't intend to waste time in Gilead, and she wants to ensure that change will happen. Yet June's confidence leads her astray. You can't just force change in the blink of an eye, and June realizes that as all of her actions totally backfire. One of the marthas are killed, and June takes the blame for forcing the action. The mission is a failure and it nearly ends with Lawrence's rebellious actions being found out by the Guardians. Furthermore, Lawrence could have easily been a valuable ally for June. Yet June's arrogant actions have completely alienated Lawrence, who may be more of a threat to June than she may expect. Speaking of Lawrence, we learn here that he is not a good of a guy as he may have initially seemed. He is shown to have some very disturbing personality traits here, particularly his interesting hate for strangers, and his continually odd interactions with his hateful wife. Bradley Whitford's portrayal of Lawrence is really great, portraying him as intimidating, mysterious, and even scary at times. Lawrence is gripping to watch in every scene he is in, and I really hope that he will have more depth than Fred did. Another very interesting detail was Lawrence suggesting that June wasn't a stranger to him, which raises some big questions (see: The Unknown). The Little America story was mostly excellent in this episode. Emily's scenes were fantastic as per usual. It's amazing how I have to draw attention to Alexis Bledel's performance in every single episode because she is just that good in every single scene she is in. It's really something special to watch. Emily had two huge scenes in this episode. The first was in a doctor's visit where Bledel's facial expressions really sold Emily's confused, mulit-layered reaction to being told that her biggest problem is high cholesterol. Then of course there is the ending when Emily and Sylvia finally connect again in a very powerful scene. The Bad: Luke's story was a bit dull and rushed. It didn't have the emotional resonance I was expecting, which has become typical for Luke across the run of the show. His emotions were practically skimmed over and I didn't really have any kind of a connection to what he was feeling. It doesn't help that O.T. Fagbenle has consistently been one of the weaker actors on the show. I thought it was a little odd that Lawrence would change his mind and let the marthas stay. It seems like far too large of a risk for him to be willing to take, and I was unsure what reasons he may have had to simply go along with it. It makes Lawrence seem lazy if anything, since it seemed to me that he just didn't want to argue with June over letting the marthas stay. I thought the martha story wasn't the most engaging. We hardly knew any of the characetrs, so it was difficult to care much about what they were doing. The weakest parts of the episode were probably the scenes of June with the marthas. The Unknown: What is wrong with Mrs. Lawrence? I can't recall if it was explained in the last season or not. Lawrence implied that he knew who June was before he met her. How is that possible? Is there some decision-making process for which handmaids can be smuggles out of Gilead? Does Lawrence have access to some resources that we don't know about? Best Moment: There were many great scenes. I'll go with Lawrence snapping at June after the martha died. June facing the consequences of her actions is really important for her character, and Lawrence was as terrifying as ever. The fact that his wife was the final nail in the coffin before he started shouting suggests that maybe there is something more to that relationship than what we have seen. Character of the Episode: Lawrence. Conclusion: This was a great episode with a lot to like. The acting is still phenomenal and the storytelling was very strong. This season is off to a promising start. Let's hope it can maintain this quality, unlike last season. Score: 68 Summary: June returns to Lawrence who reluctantly agrees to take her to the McKenzie residence. June sees Hannah again but she is caught. June is returned to the Waterfords. Serena is angry that June left Nicole with Emily but eventually relents. In an act of defiance towards Fred, Serena burns down the house. June is punished for her escape with lashings to her feet and she is assigned to a new household: Commander Lawrence's. Emily makes it to Canada and meets Luke and Moira.
The Good: It felt surprisingly good to be back in Gilead. While season 2's average score was pretty solid, I finished the season feeling disappointed and uninterested in seeing more. My feelings towards the season were much more negative than the score suggested. So colour me surprised to say that it was an absolute delight to be back in Gilead for this episode. There's something about the unique style, impressive imagery and darker colour tone of the show that makes it stand out among other TV shows. And then of course there are the performances from the actors which never cease to amaze (except Max Minghella, he sticks out like a sore thumb). I really stand by the fact that this show would stink if the performances weren't so good. I think every scene I enjoyed in this episode was carried by a strong performance by one or more actors. Some of those aforementioned scenes were pretty spectacular to watch. The Waterfords interacting with June is always a blast, and I thought that Serena and June's interactions in this episode were mostly strong. Fred remained relevant too and his despicable character shined through in his scenes with Serena as he tries to damage control her newfound rebellious attitude. Lastly, the scenes between June and Mrs. McKenzie were quite great. Elisabeth Moss is so damn good it's almost unbelievable. She poured her heart out portraying June as she and Mrs. McKenzie discussed how Hannah has been living in Gilead. The burning of the Waterford house feels like a significant moment. At least the show didn't pull the reset to June returning to the Waterfords like it did so many times last season. I thought they captured something really good with the Waterford house being burned down. It was a wonderful moment for Serena, who after seasons of being static is finally undergoing the major character shift I was hoping for. A few scenes prior, Fred had mentioned how he just wants to protect his house and family. Serena, bitter and angry after losing her finger, spites Fred by burning his house to the ground, proving that she is finally going to start fighting back. I liked that we got such a nice look at Little America. I think it was the most we have seen of the place, which is welcome since the show has been so poor at its world building. Emily's arrival and her surprise at being applauded was a genuine moment that allowed Alexis Bledel to shine once again. The ending of the episode was very interesting. I wasn't very interested in Lawrence last season since he seemed like a convenient side character to get Emily and June out of Gilead. But his presence in this first episode seems to suggest that there is a lot more to him than I initially expected. More than anything, he feels like a gust of fresh air on a show which desperately needed it. I'm unsure what his role in the show will be or how he is going to interact with June. I think that watching June live in his house could lead to some really good stories if executed properly, and I'm excited to see more. The Bad: I'm still in total confusion as to why June chose to return to Gilead. She didn't even come up with a good plan to save Hannah and simply got captured again. The stink from last season's ending did pass on to this episode unfortunately. Furthermore, how exactly did June get found out so quick. I was left confused by how the Guardians knew exactly where to go to find her. Serena and June's relationship appears to have greatly improved, which I'm all for. Yet they remain as inconsistent as ever. This episode featured a completely out-of-nowhere moment of hostility from June who continues to spite Serena despite their growing bond. The moment felt awkward and I was surprised by how quickly Serena and Fred forgave her words. June's lack of consequences is getting absurd. Can she seriously kidnap a baby and send it to Canada without any major consequences? Serena got maimed for something much tamer than this. Even Emily suffered worse back in season 1. Yet June only gets a few lashes on her feet, something very tame compared to what we have seen before on this show. The plot armour that has been growing on June in the last season hit new levels in this episode. The stupid musical choices on this show continue to ruin so many shows. The random 80s song during the burning of the Waterford house completely ruined the moment for me. It just feels so odd when a show so atmospheric and miserable has a cheesy empowering moment. It completely breaks my immersion every time but the show still persists with it. Did this episode really need to be called "Night"? The season 1 finale was called "Night" too! How uncreative. The Unknown: Is Lawrence an ally or an enemy? He helped Emily and June escape, yet I feel like he isn't as good as he appears to be. Is it possible that Lawrence notified the Guardians about June being at the McKenzie house? Where will the Waterfords go now? How will the destruction of thier house affect their relationship? Will Fred suspect Serena of intentionally burning down the house? Best Moment: I was going to say the burning of the house, but the music ruined it. So it has to be Emily getting applauded after arriving in Little Canada. It's a great moment of relief for a character that has suffered so much. Character of the Episode: June. Elisabeth Moss is too damn good. Conclusion: This was a solid season premiere that promises us that the story will head in a new direction this season as opposed to the repetitive season 2. There were still problems for sure, but my overall outlook after this episode is cautiously optimistic. Score: 63 Summary: Emily attacks Aunt Lydia and is taken away by Lawrence. Serena is given a Bible from offred which Eden had been reading. Serena appeals to let women read the Bible and reads it herself to demonstrate. Fred and the Commanders don't take it well and Serena loses a finger. Offred is given a way to escape Gilead from Rita and she leaves with Nicole. Serena tries to stop her but she realizes that Nicole would be better growing up outside of Gilead. Lawrence picks up Offred and takes her and Emily to leave Gilead. Offred gives Nicole to Emily and tells her to go while she chooses to stay.
The Good: Once more, this episode is made much better due to the stellar performances from the core cast who made the stories being told many times more interesting. Elisabeth Moss was great as always, Yvonne Strahovski did a terrific job conveying the conflicting feelings within Serena, Joseph Fiennes was terrifyingly terrific, and Alexis Bledel continues to amaze me with her ability to act in total silence. I have enjoyed Offred's story for the most part this season. They have done a great job of pushing Offred to a breaking point by having her slowly become more aggressive and hostile towards the Waterfords to the point where she explodes at both Fred and Serena in this episode in standout scenes. While I'm unsure of how this will aid the story in the long run (see: The Bad), I think it was a great way to properly get some triumph for Offred so that the show isn't constantly languishing in its own misery. Serena's conflict in this episode was very good too and we finally got to see her put on the spot of deciding if Gilead is truly a healthy society. And it seems that she is finally willing to accept that Gilead isn't a good place now that she's had her finger cut off for wanting to stand up for women. All of this happening with no support from her husband at all. It was a harsh realization which Yvonne Strahovski played wonderfully. This tragedy changed Serena's mindset enough for the Offred's speech to her later in the episode to really hit home. Serena understands now that Gilead is no place for her child to grow up, and she is left with no choice but to make the difficult decision to let Nicole go. It's really powerful and effective stuff, paying off of a season of Serena being forced to face the horrors of Gilead. Now hopefully she will be attempting to find her own way out of Gilead. The best storyline in this episode wasn't Serena, it was instead Emily. Emily's storyline managed to combine two different stories to form one massive catharsis. We witnessed the storylines of Aunt Lydia being awful to handmaids and Emily being angry with the world coming together in one terrific scene where Emily finally took revenge, violently and viciously assaulting Aunt Lydia and coming close to killing her, or even worse (see: The Unknown). But the most compelling part of this scene was what came afterwards. Sure, watching Emily assault Aunt Lydia was satisfying, but it only provided emotions of tension and satisfaction, ignoring the more compelling emotions that the show has primarily focused on. Those emotions followed in the next scene, once Emily realized what she had just did and was forced to deal with the fact that she very well may have just ended her own life due to her actions. This was shown in a simple scene of Emily alone in a room, and the direction, sound design and acting came together wonderfully to create one of the most powerful scenes of the entire show. I also liked the scene where Offred and Nick were with their baby together. I love that they would still do whatever it took to spend some time with their child in secret, and just giving us one short scene was enough to show us how much they cared for their baby. The Bad: I don't like that Offred seems able to do anything she wants without having any sort of consequence. The first season illustrated that every little mistake will have consequences and that created tons of tension in the show. But now all of that is gone as Offred appears to be doing more and more things which should be against the rules and has faced absolutely no consequences, which ruins the scary aura of the show. The show doesn't have anywhere near the amount of tension and drama as it used to. This is why I was worried about the show wanting to give moments of triumph for Offred, as I think that it will damage the show going forwards since there may not be any way to replicate the magic that season one had in some of its episodes with this lack of tension. I'm frustrated with the fact that Fred is not doing anything to punish Offred, especially after what she said in this episode to him. He's willing to cut off Serena's finger, but he's not willing to do anything to Offred? Seriously? This is the same man who raped her violently while she was pregnant a few episodes ago, the same man who has been portrayed as a complete selfish prick for two seasons with absolutely no upside. The show should at least be consistent with its characters and it isn't doing that anymore just so that there can be some "badass" moments of women standing up to their oppressors. The first part of this episode was pretty dull for me because it focused on everyone mourning Eden. I didn't care about Eden at all so this fell flat, and seeing that the rest of the episode never mentions her, it seems that the writers didn't care much for her either. Offred and Serena's relationship has left me scratching my head. After being responsible for some of the most compelling parts of this season, the relationship has become overexposed and overdone, with so many instances of Offred and Serena flip-flopping from hating each other and sympathizing with each other. Unsurprisingly, this happened again and it's really grating on me now. Let's see something new from these two next season. The ending of this episode was the one really awful part of this, and I think it ruined a lot of what this episode accomplished. To put in bluntly, the ending saw Offred give away her child to a mentally unstable woman she hardly knows to stay in an oppressive society. Really? Could she not leave and come back to get Hannah later, which is exactly what she planned to do earlier in the season? It's frustrating to see her do this and even worse when you consider that she is in the middle of nowhere with nobody to help her. What does she think she can do? It's frustrating when you realize that she can just go to Canada and add on to the publicity that Gilead is an awful place as they will now have a real live handmaid as evidence instead of just letters. Wouldn't that be a much easier way to get your daughter back? The show really just wanted the "badass" moment of a woman standing up to an oppressing society to end the season. If the show wasn't so obsessed with moments like these it would hit a more consistent quality. I find it hard to buy that Offred had enough time to carve Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum into the wall before escaping. Little things like this wouldn't have existed back in season one. The Unknown: What is Aunt Lydia's fate? Is she dead or will we see her again next season? What is Offred going to do now? I actually have no idea. Is Serena going to escape Gilead next season? What's her plan now that she has sent Offred away with her baby? Surely she has no reason to stay in Gilead now. Best Moment: Emily in the room, isolated and panicking was powerful stuff. Character of the Episode: Emily. Conclusion: This was a good finale overall with some great moments, but it was flawed just like almost every other episode this season, dragging down the quality. The season as a whole was pretty disappointing. There were some moments which hinted that the show could hit a higher level, particularly earlier in the season, but the show pretty much refused to take any of the opportunities it had to change, meaning that it just repeated itself over and over. For this entire season, the story was stalled, repeated and stretched out with only a few storylines standing out. While I did enjoy some parts of the season quite a bit, it was too inconsistent to be anything special and is certainly a step down from season one. Hopefully season 3 can be structured better so that the show can capitalize on its potential, but I'm not sure that it's going to happen. Score: 65 Summary: Selena gets Offred's baby and sends her away but Aunt Lydia arranges for Offred to be brought back to the Waterford house for better lactation. Eden elopes with Isaac but is caught. She has the option to beg for mercy but she doesn't and she is executed with Isaac. Emily is assigned a new household where she meets Lawrence who created the colonies.
The Good: I was glad that Offred was back in the Waterford household. The story would have been stagnant if she left so I'm pleased that she wasn't gone. I do like how she enlisted Aunt Lydia to help bring her back to properly get her back where she belongs. It showed good desperation from Offred which fit the situation as she would do anything to get back to her baby. It was a good development early in the episode. The scenes with Lawrence were really good. He came off as an interesting character with mysterious motivations as he seemingly specifically wanted to get Emily as his handmaid. It's an exciting development and gives us a new part of Gilead to explore as we get to see the world from the point of view of the man who created the colonies and his family. His wife was also very interesting as she is shaken and broken by Lawrence, making me wonder what he is capable of. The Bad: This episode disappointed me heavily. First of all, I hate the direction they took here. The last two episodes promised change to the story as Offred began her own adventure, the Waterfords began imploding and Nick was captured. But now all that has gone away and it all led nowhere, making the last two episodes completely pointless, a familiar complaint for this season. This is especially anticlimactic because we seemed to be setting up for a big story change heading towards the finale, but instead the writers have taken the safest and least interesting route forward. Additionally, I hate that we don't see how Offred came back. When we started this episode, I was confused because everything was different, but when I realized that there was a time skip I got frustrated that we went back in circles. Additionally, the fact that Nick's capture was a "misunderstanding" is confusing, vague and hard to buy into. It seems like the writers just wanted Offred to be alone when she gave birth so they sloppily removed Nick from the story. It's really bad writing and storytelling to do something like that. I'm really sick of how so many storylines just lead nowhere though they had lots of potential. it's been a theme this entire season and it continues to frustrate me every episode. Serena wanted Offred gone after her baby is born, and that's a big deal. But it doesn't matter because Offred just comes back and Serena doesn't do much about it. A pointless story arc. Nick has a child wife now and is struggling to deal with that. But it's okay because she elopes and dies. Offred is all alone now and she has a baby. But that goes nowhere because they find her and bring her back without any consequence to the story. These three examples were this episode alone and it's insane that you can come up with just as many for pretty much every episode of the show. Unfortunately that makes it hard for me to get invested in new storylines, since I have the sinking feeling in my stomach that it will all lead nowhere. That's what hurt the Lawrence storyline from me, and it's the reason why it isn't as exciting as it should be. Furthermore, it's the penultimate episode yet a new storyline is being introduced. This feels like it should have happened 5-6 episodes ago so it could be properly explored, but I sense that the story will just end anticlimactically in the next episode. The resolution to the Eden story was terrible in a lot of ways. For one, the story wasn't earned at all because it relied on us caring about Eden and Isaac as characters and their relationship, which has hardly been mentioned, never mind explored. Since I don't care about them or buy into their relationship, I find it tough to believe that Eden would sacrifice her life for him, and on top of that, I get no emotional impact from them both dying. It felt like it was supposed to be a major scene but I felt totally indifferent to it, making it a spectacular failure. To add on, the Eden storyline as a whole this season completely fails to capitalize on what makes secondary storylines so engaging. Since Eden ends up dying without getting much development, the storyline needs to be used to further our understanding of other characters. In this case I had hoped that we would get more focus on Nick from this storyline so we can learn more. And while Nick got some focus, what did we learn about him? He's unable to love Eden because he loves Offred instead. We already knew this, so why dedicate an entire story to accomplish this? Seeing that Eden had no impact to characters or the overall plot, I'm left wondering why she was even included to begin with. It's disappointing that this season has stalled so much with so many aimless storylines, so much so that it's really grinding my gears. Another annoying moment was when Serena and Offred teamed up again. Honestly I'm tired of this storyline because it's so repetitive. How many times have the two of them gone from liking each other to hating each other? It's so repetitive and shows that this show is already running out of material to explore. I don't know what to feel about Serena anymore. Yvonne Strahovski is a terrific actress but it feels like her character just swings in whatever direction the plot demands her to. Because it has happened so many times, I can't say for sure what kind of person Serena actually is, and I don't know if the show even knows who she is. That's problematic for a central character and the show needs to sort out her storyline into something which makes more sense. The Unknown: Is Lawrence a bad person? What was with his household? Will he be terrible like Fred or is he genuinely not that bad? What does Lawrence need Emily for? Why did he pick her specifically? How long until Serena and Offred turn on each other again? Best Moment: Lawrence talking to Emily and slowly letting her know that he knows everything about her is scary and gripping. I'm excited to figure out more about Lawrence. Character of the Episode: Lawrence. Conclusion: This episode is the epitomy of every problem this season has faced. While some aspects were good, the majority of this was disappointing, anticlimactic, badly written and utterly pointless. This show needs to get back on track. Score: 46 Summary: Offred is left alone and she ventures around the property. The Waterfords show up, looking for her and Offred debates killing them. She chooses not to and they leave. Offred gies birth alone in the house.
The Good: As the summary demonstrates, this was a really basic episode which fixated purely around Offred's birth. That's not a bad thing though as it did allow her birth to feel important and powerful, while also fitting the show and the character of Offred. The focus on Offred benefitted the episode for sure. It allowed Elisabeth Moss to put in a killer performance, carrying the episode to higher qualities than it would have otherwise reached. Moss is extremely talented and breathed life into this episode. The episode was really tense at times, especially when the Waterfords arrived. There was the initial tension of wondering if Offred was going to get caught, but that was one-upped by the much better tension regarding if Offred was going to go to extreme lengths to get her revenge by killing both of the Waterfords. The tension was very significant and added a lot to the episode. The Waterfords were stellar in this episode though. They finally blew up at each other and the scene was absolutely tremendous as the both of them blamed each other for all of the awful things they did to Offred. I particularly loved how Serena openly admitted to building Gilead for the sole selfish purpose of getting herself a child, showing how selfish, narrow-sighted and downright awful she is. It honestly makes me wonder why the show tries to garner sympathy for her. I am very fascinated by the relationship between Serena and Fred, so I hope that this episode is a sign for things to come in their relationship. The Bad: Unfortunately it seems that Fred actually wanted to give Offred something nice bysending her to see her daughter, which is stupid. Why would he do that? We get no satisfying explanation here. It's a really forced decision which makes no sense in any context, proving that Fred's decisions aren't based on character, but rather what the plot demands. I don't like how repetitive the show appears to have become Once more we see Offred feeling alone because the world is cruel and she has to go through something tough because she is tough, while there are also teases of escape. While this episode was enjoyable overall, the show's inability to change and adapt is hurting it and is preventing it from achieving its potential. Offred was holding a shotgun. No chance she does any major damage to either Waterford from that distance. The Unknown: So America still exists. What is the significance of that? Will it come into play ever? So what actually happened to Nick? Why are the Mackenzies not at the house? Did they betray the Waterfords? Will there be consequences coming for every character in the final two episodes? That could set up the major change which I've been waiting for to freshen up the show. How will Serena take the fact that Offred already had her baby? I'm sure she will be less than pleased, and it should be interesting to see who she blames for it. What was the significance of the wolf and why did it have to appear three times? I thought it was a bit too ont he nose with how many times it showed up. Best Moment: The actual birth of Holly was a spectacular moment. Moss' screams felt so real, and I thought that the flashback sequence did a great job of demonstrating how Offred had to draw into the past to get the willpower and grit to push through the birth. It was artful, powerful and satisfying to watch and delivered a great climax for the episode. Character of the Episode: Offred. Conclusion: This was a fine episode, but there really wasn't a whole lot to it, barring the Waterfords. This review is shorter because of that. While I did enjoy myself watching the episode, it does feel like a lot of wasted time as similar themes were retreaded and there was a ton of downtime here. In the end this is a middling episode. Score: 63 Summary: Emily is moved to a different house after her Commander dies during a ceremony. Offred has a false labour which angers Serena. Offred goes to Fred in hopes that he will help her get repositioned near her daughter. Fred refuses and Offred reveals the baby isn't his. Fred and Serena force a ceremony and Offred is raped. Eden finally snaps at Nick. Fred lets Offred see Hannah and Nick takes her. Hannah has been renamed as Agnes. Offred emotionally meets with her but she leaves. Soldiers arrive and capture Nick while Offred hides.
The Good: This was a much better episode with a better emotional focus, even if the show still feels a bit disjointed (see: The Bad). Emily's storyline is one of the very disjointed aspects of the show due to how little screen-time she gets, but I did like her few scenes in this episode. I enjoyed the opening scene where a Commander died doing the ceremony and Emily coldly refusing to call for help was a pretty nice touch. The main storyline was what made this episode so strong. The episode started with Offred having a false labour, which was a great way to raise conflict between Offred and Serena again. While I have been critical of the way their relationship has been handled recently, I still do enjoy seeing them having a permanent cold war against each other. Additionally, it was easy to buy this moment as a breaking point for Serena as Offred was a bit too antagonizing towards Serena, making it easier to buy Serena and Fred's decision to rape Offred, which seems a little extreme (see: The Bad). I really enjoyed the scene between Offred and Fred. Fred learning the child wasn't his was a long time coming, and the moment was suitably powerful and shocking. Elisabeth Moss was terrific at showing the anger and rage inside of Offred, which allowed for a bit of June to come out and ruin Fred's world. I also loved how subtly the moment was handled, without any needless drama and over-the-top lines. It was just a subtle jab from Offred which revealed a lot to Fred bout the reality of his baby, which isn't actually even his. Of course having Offred antagonize both Fred and Serena in the same episode can't possibly end well for her. This led into the most violent, uncomfortable and depressing rape scene in the series thus far. If you didn't hate Fred or Serena before, you certainly must now as they completely disregard the health of their child just to let out their frustrations at Offred in a scene which was bordering on taking it too far, but thanks to some clever cinematography and directing, it served its purpose of having the Waterfords get back at Offred without feeling needlessly violent (take notes Game of Thrones). Surprisingly, this leads to Fred allowing Offred to actually visit Hannah, which is a very intriguing development (see: The Unknown). His motives are unclear which adds a lot of tension to he rest of the episode as we are unsure what to expect once Nick and Offred arrive. However, the episode actually commits and provides one of the most long-awaited reunions in the show as Offred gets to see her daughter once more. The scene completely delivered on the emotions, as Offred showed the necessary love, excitement, gratefulness and desperation that a parent would feel after seeing their daughter for the first time in years. Just as good as that storyline however, was the ending which saw Offred go from a state of blissful happiness to total despair as she was suddenly thrust back into the real world, lonelier and more miserable than ever before. If she wants to see her daughter again, it looks like she will have to do it herself. The ending sequence was stellar with Offred in tears after having her daughter wrenched from her grasp, and she immediately turns to Nick for comfort. But then mere moments later she has to watch as Nick is taken away from her, leaving her completely on her lonesome with all of the grief she is feeling. It's very powerful stuff which engages the emotions appropriately. Nick's storyline thankfully had a major progression here as Eden finally snapped at Nick and had to face the reality that Nick loves Offred and not her. It's tragic for her character, and the scene of Eden crying in Nick's room while he does nothing was pretty intense. It was an appropriate payoff and I do wonder if Nick is now facing the consequences of not loving Eden. The Bad: Honestly Nick is an idiot. I want to root for him and the show has done a much better job with him this season, but seeing him stupidly do nothing to show some kind of love for Eden makes it really tough. He is practically digging his own grave, and it is really annoying to see that he seemingly doesn't even care about the fact that Eden could get him in really serious trouble. While I really loved Hannah and Offred's reunion, I thought that the dialogue for Hannah wasn't good. She felt way too cold and angry for a child, and I never bought into the idea that she would be so detached after living in Gilead. Surely she wouldn't hate Offred in the way it is conveyed, and it feels even more awkward when Hannah comes around to Offred in just a few minutes. I don't like the idea of Serena agreeing to rape Offred. Her priority is always the baby, so surely she would be worried about the baby. But she shows no regard for the baby just to get some revenge on Offred, which is really inconsistent with her character. The show still feels extremely disjointed. It feels like we have completely different stories in each episode with no rhythm or flow between episodes. Last episode seemingly set up a huge uprising against Gilead, but that plot line has been dropped. It's annoying to see that these episodes don't properly connect with each other and it often takes me out of the experience when something completely different happens between episodes. The Unknown: What happened to Hannah after she was taken in? How did she become so cold? Was the capture of Nick an intentionally placed trap from Fred? Was it because Eden wanted Nick to suffer? Or could it have all been Fred's idea? Did he perhaps want both Offred and Nick to suffer? Did he figure out that Nick was likely the father to Offred's child? Or was this all just a big coincidence? What dos Offred do now that she is all alone and far from home? Best Moment: Offred reuniting with Hannah was so powerful and Elisabeth Moss played the scene so perfectly. Character of the Episode: Offred. Conclusion: This was a very strong episode with a lot of powerful scenes which paid off of long-running storylines. The show appears to be picking up as it heads towards the season finale which is very exciting. I will gladly take more impactful episodes like these. Score: 70 Summary: Serena tells Offred that she will be evicted once the baby is born. Offred entrusts Rita and Aunt Lydia to take care of the baby when she leaves. The Waterfords go to Canada for better relationships. They aren’t welcome there and Luke confronts them in a mob. Nick gives the handmaid letters to Luke and they are exposed to the world. The Waterfords are sent out from Canada. Serena meets a man named Mark who offers her a way to escape Gilead but she doesn’t take the offer. Eden begins to have hostilities towards Nick.
The Good: I loved the development of the Waterfords going to Canada for this episode. The show has been so constricted in Gilead that it’s began to get frustrating (see: The Bad), so to expand a little allows for new territory to be explored. Furthermore, it allows Luke and Moira to fit more organically into the story, which rectifies the flaw of their storylines feeling like insignificant afterthoughts so far this season. The actual scenes of the Waterfords in Canada were pretty good. I particularly enjoyed the bits where Serena got to see the outside world firsthand, being forced to see the world which she abandoned in favour of Gilead. There were some good character interactions too. Luke had good moments in this episode as he attacked Waterford for what he is doing to June, and got to interact with Nick later on. While the conversation with Nick wasn’t perfect, I think it was pretty good overall and had genuine emotion to it as Luke got to let out his anger while Nick did the right thing by slipping Luke the letters from the handmaids. The scene was constructed fairly well and made some progress towards getting me to like Nick’s character. Speaking of Nick, he had a really good storyline here which did a lot to make me care about what happens to him. Nick made the decision to give the letters to Luke, and went the extra mile to tell Offred everything that Luke wanted to tell her. This showed his heart brilliantly, as he had no hate towards Luke because of his relationship with Offred, and seemed willing to accept that his relationship with Offred is temporary. Nick showing his acceptance is honourable and adds more depth to who his character is, and also makes me root for him more. This episode was nearly perfect for him. The ending where the Waterfords got evicted from Canada was really good. The show has been very static so far (see: The Bad), and not much of substance has actually happened. But now, with Canada turned against Gilead and the letters leaked online, there is a promise for change which is exactly what this show needs to kick itself into gear. The Bad: While this episode was certainly better than previous ones this season, I still have to mention my frustration at how the show appears to be static in its storytelling. When looking at what has been accomplished this season, it’s shocking to believe that nine full episodes have gone by. Not much has really changed in terms of storylines, and the show feels content with sitting back and showing us how terrible Gilead is. However, that’s a problem because season 1 already spent 10 episodes showing us this reality. Now we need to see something new, some change, and the fact that we haven’t got anything like that after nine episodes is pretty disappointing. However, I picked a bad time to mention this, as with the Canada plot in this episode, the show looks like it’s about to start changing things up a little. Nothing exemplifies my point about being static more than the Serena and Offred relationship. While I am fascinated by their character dynamic and the way that they are explored, their relationship hasn’t evolved very much at all. The previous episode looked to change their relationship, yet all of that hard work is rendered pointless as Serena just decides to hate Offred again and be cruel to her. After all of this exploration of their relationship, everything is exactly the same as before which makes me question why the show even bothered focusing on the two of them so much. Nick’s character had a good episode, but it wasn’t perfect. He is so rude to Eden to what is honestly a ridiculous level. It’s one thing to not show love to her, but Nick is downright awful to her to a frustrating level. The show is trying too hard to set up that Eden will be Nick’s downfall, so much so, that I fear it won’t feel earned when it happens. The episode had some other major flaws too. For one, the show has been annoyingly inconsistent with the details surrounding Gilead. I am very confused about what the other countries actually know about Gilead and that hurts my ability to be engaged in the overall story. I don’t understand how the world isn’t aware that Gilead is against gay people, to the point that they have a gay man speak to Fred. I thought they sent people to Gilead, so shouldn’t they understand the rules and laws of the place? I find it impossible to believe that Gilead can just exist without the rest of the world understanding what Gilead is. Furthermore, if we are to assume that Gilead isn’t frowned upon, why do all the other people throw mean glances toward Serena? It seems like they understand perfectly well what Gilead is, so why can’t their government? It’s frustratingly vague. Additionally, it’s implied that the letter leak was the first time this information has been spread from Gilead. Seriously? Are we supposed to believe that hundreds of people have escaped Gilead, yet not one of them brought any proof that would expose the truths about what happens in Gilead? The story is frustratingly vague about all of this. There were a few smaller scale flaws which still served to annoy me. For one, Nick gives the letters in a way which makes it insanely easy to track him. The Waterfords would have to be foolish to not suspect that Nick betrayed them, especially since he was seen in public. Another flaw surrounding the letters, is Moira’s reaction to them. How did she not realize that they could be significant to bringing down Gilead? Her wish that Nick gave a bomb or something felt exceptionally dumb and gave me an unintentional moment of stupid comedy. Lastly, having Luke charge Fred alone made no sense. There was a whole mob of people there, and yet only Luke charged Fred. With what seemed like only two security guards, I’m shocked that there wasn’t a huge riot when Fred arrived. Finally, the ending was tone deaf again as the show tried to be empowering, despite its nature as what is essentially a depressing horror show warning us about the future. The Unknown: Will we finally get some change in the story with that ending? I sure hope so. Mark was a very curious character and his conversation with Serena interested me. Does he have any other motives, or does he just want to help her? Will she accept his deal at a later date or is she still committed to her decision of staying true to Gilead? Best Moment: The best moment for me was with Aunt Lydia and Offred. It took a lot of courage for Offred to ask Aunt Lydia to take care of her child, and I was impressed with the way that the scene captured those emotions. Aunt Lydia was very genuine here and the most likeable she has ever been, as she genuinely cared for Offred and let her know that she will take care of the child, while also giving us an exciting glimpse of her backstory. That was a very good scene. Character of the Episode: Aunt Lydia. Conclusion: This episode had some really good scenes and developments, but some frustrating writing and that same vague explanation of Gilead as a whole detracted from this. Score: 59 Summary: Offred and Serena continue to work together until Fred returns. Baby Angela gets sick and Janine finds out and panics. It's expected she won't make it but Janine shows her love and she survives. Fred discovers what Serena has been doing and whips her as punishment. Offred sets up allegiances with both Fred and Serena. Nick continues to be hostile towards Eden.
The Good: This was Madeline Brewer's episode to shine and she delivered a fantastic performance. Her fears for Angela (or Charlotte to her) were conveyed brilliantly and the moment she learned the truth from Offred specifically was really well performed. Her fantastic performance got me to invest into the baby Angela storyline and deserves loads of credit. The storyline surrounding Angela was good. It was easy to relate with the characters because the death of a baby would be horrible in any situation. It provided a good struggle for Janine and for Serena who had to take initiative to save Angela's life by forging Fred's signature. Serena's story was really nicely done. It was great to see her acting decently with a heart, and I believe that this season is doing a great job of humanizing her. By the end of the episode, I was sympathizing with her, so the episode certainly accomplished its goal, though I have some issues with that goal (see: The Bad). The Nick and Eden story is still interesting and it is the most intriguing for me because there are a lot of possibilities for where that story can go. Having Eden find the handmaid letters was a good way to get him to lash out at her and I'm excited to see how she responds, especially seeing how her characterization makes her very unpredictable. The Bad: The pacing of this episode feels completely wrong. With Fred returning so quickly in the episode, it feels like we have glossed over a ton of important drama and storytelling regarding Offred and Serena's blossoming relationship. They have been hostile towards each other for the whole series and yet this one episode makes a total U-turn and makes them friends within a span of ten minutes. It's rushed to a shocking degree and hurts the impact of the story. Serena's arc is rushed too. She was a villainous character last episode, yet now she seems to be a heroic character who we sympathize with. The change is too sudden and doesn't feel spurred on by anything. I suppose Fred's hospitalization did it, but I don't understand why that is which is problematic. Furthermore, to make her seem more likeable, Fred has to once more go to cartoonish lengths of villainy to get us to feel for her. In the end the show is sacrificing its best villain to make a hero and replacing her with a dull and 1-dimensional villain who doesn't interest me at all. I hate that we have been given no fallout to the major bokbing from a few episodes ago. When it happened, it felt like a huge event but in the end it accomplished nothing. Fred is back and unharmed too which means that the bombing led to absolutely no change in any characters or the story as a whole. For such a pivotal moment, it did nothing of note and that is a massive disappointment. Nick's storyline felt static here and not much of note happened. Furthermore, its hard to relate to Nick since he makes no effort whatsoever to be kind to Eden who didn't ask to be put in as Nick's wife. This makes Nick seem selfish, which does nothing to make me care for him at all. The ending scene with Offred was disappointing. We genuinely don't know how she feels for the first time ever and I don't think that's a good thing. The show has been strong because it's easy to relate with Offred and sympathize with her struggles, so to see her doing something mysterious is disappointing. We needed to understand her mindset for her scenes with Fred and Serena to have any impact. The Unknown: Will Angela survive then? Since Janine saved her, does that mean she will be brought back into the Putnam household? What was wrong with Angela? Was it really just neglect? Will Emily rebel again? She seems to be angry once again. Where are Offred's current allegiances and what is her plan goign forwards? Will she help Serena or Fred? Did Eden read the letters? What will she do next after Nick's outburst. Best Moment: Offred coming to Serena's door and showing some compassion was outstanding and did a great job of showing how far they have come. It would have been even better though if Offred didn't go to Fred right after and that somewhat soured the moment. Character of the Episode: Serena. Conclusion: This episode had moments of power and good storytelling, but it was messy in terms of pace and writing. With better execution there is a great episode here but unfortunately what we got was pretty disappointing and only average overall. Score: 56 Summary: Moira recalls times with he fiancé Odette. She discovers that she was killed in the explosion. Fred has been badly injured by the explosion and is in the hospital. Cushing suspects that Offred ran away and wasn't taken, so Serena teams up with her to remove Cushing. Emily and Janine are brought back from the colonies as handmaids since many were killed in the explosion.
The Good: There were some pretty good parts here. I liked the funeral scene which the episode started with. I thought the black mourning clothes for the handmaids was a really nice detail too. Once more Aunt Lydia impressed me with her genuine love for the handmaids and her sadness after many were killed. I enjoyed Offred's storyline too. I loved the tension in her scene with Cushing which was a good continuation from season one where we had a scene with an Eye who came to question Offred about Emily. I like that Cushing was smart enough to figure that Offred isn't so innocent, but in his attempt to get information, he made some enemies in Offred and Serena who both want the best for their children. Their team-up was good and made sense. I appreciated Offred subtly threatening Serena to let her know to help her or maybe Serena won't have a child. It's an interesting development which will surely add something fresh to this fascinating relationship. Samira Wiley was superb in this episode. While I have big issues with Moira's storyline (see: The Bad), I thought that Wiley's performance was so superb that she managed to make me care about something that I really shouldn't have cared at all about. The reuniting handmaids at the end was a great scene. Janine and Emily have been separated from Offred for so long, so that makes their reunion feel genuinely sweet and powerful, though this story has its flaws too (see: The Bad). The Bad: This episode was disappointing overall and the weakest of the season. The biggest flaw with this was how cluttered it felt, which in turn made a lot of storylines feel rushed. This episode addressed the Waterfords, Offred and Serena’s conflict, the colonies, Little America and even a little bit for Eden and Nick. That’s too much for a single episode and it affected the quality here. The colonies in particular felt really disappointing. Several episodes had storylines dedicated to the colonies, and yet it all ended up meaning nothing since the colonies were completely abandoned now with Emily and Janine all returning back to Offred. And the worst part? None of them had any changes in character. Nothing has changed about them since they left to the colonies making their entire journey pointless. I’m fine with splitting characters off to have individual stories, but they must go through some kind of change for it to have a purpose overall. If there is no purpose, then it’s no different from a bottle episode like “The Lost Sister” from Stranger Things which didn’t have much meat to its story at all. Moira’s story is similarly detached from the main narrative, albeit in a different way. Her story feels totally forced into this episode and completely out of left field, and that is because of Odette. The big problem with the existence of Odette is that she was never hinted at or foreshadowed beforehand. Because of that, it feels awkward that we just assume now that Moira had this fiancé who she cared so much about. Furthermore, we don’t care about her as much as we should either. After all, if Moira didn’t think about Odette for a season and a half, why should we care about her? This entire storyline feels like it’s in the episode to give it a manipulative emotional edge and also to make up for Moira’s weak characterization thus far. Also, there was a really awkward scene where Moira just randomly decided to find pictures of Odette and started crying in response. It was so random and I found it difficult to connect with the emotions Moira was feeling because of that. I think that this season as a whole has a big problem which I just noticed in this episode. The season has independent storylines which are addressed in a single episode, but are never brought up before or after. It was Odette in this episode, Emily’s past in “Unwomen” and June’s mother in “Baggage”. I understand that these disconnected stories are similar in format to the novel, but that doesn’t translate well in a TV season. It worked in the novel because the novel was written as a story that Offred was reflecting on. But on the show, the story isn’t being told in present tense, so I feel that there needs to be better story structure and flow to make up for this. Choosing to not do that is lazy and ineffective at engaging me. The soundtrack choices continue to be really poor. Out of place music completely took me out of two scenes in this episode, once during the handmaids saying their names, and once during the funeral. This show needs to El are about subtlety with its music choice. The scene with the Eyes hanging bodies everywhere felt pretty pointless. We get it, Gilead is an evil place, let’s see something new now. The Unknown: Why were the Eyes killing people? What were they trying to prove? How long will this Serena/Offred alliance last? Do they actually have a chance at becoming friends of sorts despite their history? Will Fred be okay? How long until he is out of the hospital? Best Moment: I will pick the moment where Serena and Offred chose to work together for mutual gain. It wasn’t the most impactful moment, but all of the other moments had major flaws attached to them, so I think this was the best scene. Character of the Episode: Moira. Conclusion: This episode was really weak and showed the biggest holes in The Handmaid’s Tale’s storytelling. Let’s see some more cohesion and change in Gilead in future episodes to prevent awkward instalments like this one. Score: 54 Summary: In flashbacks Serena is shot while making a speech to an angry audience. Fred kills the wife of the man responsible. In the present, Offred and Serena try to be kind to each other but the charade falls away when Offred asks to see Hannah again. Serena and Offred become enemies again. Nick has sex with Eden despite not wanting to. Eden is worried that Nick doesn't like her and Offred tells her he will come around. Fred has built a new Red Centre and he performs a speech to all of the commanders. However, Ofglen interrupts it and detonates a bomb, killing herself in the process.
The Good: Once more, an episode focused around Serena delivers and provides one of the best episodes of the season. Serena was excellent here and her character was explored really nicely. We understand that she genuinely thinks that she is in the right here, like any good villain. She believes that what she is doing is the right thing, and so when she treats Offred nicely, she expects that Offred can just forget about how unfair everything is and just become her friend, just like how Eden is doing. It's so deluded and crazy, but she believes in it, and that's the key to creating a hateable and compelling villain. The flashbacks were well done too. Serena is established as being somebody who isn't appreciated by the public (to say the least) which helps put her in a more sympathetic light. Her efforts to support Gilead despite its massive unpopularity is almost admirable and it makes you feel a small bit of sympathy for her since Gilead hasn't seemed to turn into the kind of world she had hoped for. Clearly she was hoping for a world which allowed her to do what she wanted, sort of like that final scene with Offred and Eden where she could just command people. But things haven't gone as she wanted. Additionally, her conflict with Offred was fascinating. I really enjoyed seeing them interact nicely in the early parts of the episode. They were both trying to be nice and were sort of feeling each other out, wondering if they had actually turned a new leaf. But that all came crumbling down when Offred asked to see her daughter once more. Serena had believed that Offred could be happy in her new life, but was suitably disappointed when she couldn't let go of her daughter. But on the other hand, Offred thought that Serena could actually be a decent human being but was disappointed when she proved to be cruel and spiteful once more. The storytelling was superb and it was enthralling to watch these two have a sort of cold war in the household. The one scene where Serena organized a group meeting with the handmaids was superbly done. I loved her interactions with Ofglen. At first she was annoyed that Ofglen wasn't talking, but was suitably horrified in a quiet fashion when she realized she had been talking to somebody who no longer had a tongue. Nick's conflict has been really good too. It's by far the most interesting he has been and I'm starting to buy into his love for Offred a little more now that he has a relationship to compare it to. I definitely sympathized with Nick as he had to have sex with an underage girl who he is being forced to love. While he still has a long way to go, the story is certainly moving Nick in the right direction now. Eden was fantastic in this episode. Unlike Offred, Eden has accepted her role in the world and seems unable to comprehend how unfair everything is. Her character is another scary reality for the world of Gilead, and her scene with Offred was pretty horrifying in a subtle and realistic way. Her character feels like a fresh new way to display the horrors of Gilead. I also enjoyed that Nick finally decided to get some vengeance on Fred by giving away what he's been doing. It's a fitting move for Nick who is not happy with the fact that Fred got him a child wife. The Bad: The Red Centre storyline didn't feel very natural. It was an afterthought until the ending where it was used for a great cliffhanger. Unfortunately, it wasn't particularly well executed. Ofglen had no time to make her decision to kamikaze feel relatable. All we know is that she lost her tongue and apparently that has now led to her wanting to die. I wish that we had seen more of Ofglen before this scene. The Unknown: How did Ofglen get a bomb? Is she connected with Mayday? What is in store for Fred now that Nick has given him away? How many people died at the ending scene? What consequences will there be? Who will pay for it now that Ofglen is dead? Best Moment: The nursery scene between Offred and Serena was superb storytelling. Character of the Episode: Serena. Conclusion: Once more an episode focused around Serena Joy delivered some of the show's best storytelling. This episode was really great and gripping to watch and would be in contention as one of the very best episodes if it wasn't for the out of place ending scene. Still, this was really great. Score: 70 Summary: Everybody except Nick ignores Offred through her pregnancy. Offred begins to bleed, hinting at her perhaps having a miscarriage. She is taken to the doctor after being found unconscious and her baby is saved. Fred rewards Nick for his service by getting him a child bride. Janine holds a wedding in the colonies for a dying woman to raise spirits despite Emily's protests. Emily eventually apologizes and says it was a beautiful wedding.
The Good: Offred's (yeah I'm calling her Offred again for now) character arc was very good in this episode. Her reclusive silence is tough to watch and allows us to once more sympathize with her and root for her to attempt to get out of Gilead once more. There is also a very uncomfortable feeling stemming from Offred's constant bleeding which she doesn't tell anyone about. The execution of a lot of the scenes portrays Offred's loneliness with some beautiful camera work, including the uncomfortable scene of Offred sitting alone in a tub full of blood without a single other soul knowing what she has gone through. Nick surprisingly got more depth here which I am all for. I would like or him to keep getting focus like this so that I can invest in him a little more. This is a great first step towards that as Nick has seemingly been given a proper story arc to take him through this season. The writers also allow us to start sympathizing with him (finally) by placing him in a difficult situation which forces him to do something he doesn't want to do, which is get into a relationship with his new bride which he had no choice in getting. Fred and Serena's relationship is fascinating, and like Fred in general, I want to see more of it so that I can understand exactly how it works. The other half of the episode was even better though. Outside of Offred's story, the episode gave some time back to the colonies so we can explore what Emily and Janine have been up to. Their scenes were outstanding and told a great story as Emily introduced Janine to the bleak new reality of her life. But Janine refuses to be such an animal and brings some positive love and feeling to the colonies, hosting a very sweet wedding for somebody on their deathbed to Emily's disdain. It's a relatable decision for Janine which brings a welcome change to the dreariness of the colonies, and also allows us to relate more with Emily who is resigned to her new life by now. Speaking of Emily, I'm very happy that her storyline with Janine didn't lead to meaningless melodrama and that we instead got to see her make up with Janine and ultimately accept what she is doing. It was a fitting and powerful conclusion which makes us appreciate the characters of Emily and Janine much more. The Bad: The baby surviving is a bit perplexing. There was a whole lot of blood lost throughout the episode and I don't think there is any way that the baby could realistically have survived the ordeal. It's confusing and I would have liked more information at the end of the episode about the baby. Serena was flawed once more. She was the only one checking to make sure Offred was okay, which is odd considering how she is supposed to hate Offred. I guess it could be chalked up as a change to her character, but it hasn't been hinted at in any way, so I find it tough to buy into this character change. This episode didn't have a whole lot to it ultimately, as evidenced by the short length of this review. I thought it was fine, but it didn't have very many talking points. The Unknown: So what are the details regarding Nick's marriage? How are the brides created for the men and who are eligible to get a bride? What is the bride's situation in the Waterford household and what will her relationship with Offred be? Will Janine have to face consequences for all the positive things she is doing in the colonies? I feel that this is setting up for a tragic catharsis. Best Moment: The death scene of the woman who had just got married was genuinely emotional. I thought the scene was shot superbly to get the most emotion out of the characters, and in turn getting an emotional reaction out of me. I also loved the music, which felt "The Leftovers"-esque in its sound which is always a great thing. Character of the Episode: Janine. Conclusion: This was a good episode which had some welcome developments, even if it didn't really feel like there was a whole lot of depth to this, unlike the previous episodes. Thankfully I felt that the writing was more consistent, making this one of the season's better episodes. Score: 65 Summary: In flashbacks, June is confronted by Luke's wife Annie who is upset that Luke is in love with her. In the present, June is under confinement from Aunt Lydia. June is returned to the Waterford residence and Lydia stays with her to ensure she doesn't escape again. June acts aggressively and infuriates Serena. Lydia takes June for a walk and shows her Omar's dead body and reveals the family's fate. June complies to become Offred again and accepts life as a handmaid once more.
The Good: This episode was another great examination of June's character. This season is doing a superb job of making June into a well-rounded character by exploring her flaws as well as her strengths. This episode is all about conveying how selfish June is and how her selfishness has caused damage to other people's happiness. The flashback scene in this episode demonstrates this with Annie being hurt by June's selfish desires to be with Luke, not even thinking about how his wife must feel. This is brought over into the present as well as Omar's dead body is revealed. June's selfishness and carelessness in the previous episode has come back to bite her as she once more feels guilty for not thinking about others and instead fixating on herself. In the end it's this guilt that leads to her reprising her role as Offred the handmaid, unwilling to fight back as June because she deserves her fate. The storytelling in this plotline was excellent in pretty much every way and is one of the reasons that "The Handmaid's Tale" is one of my favourite TV shows right now even if it hasn't quite reached greatness. Aunt Lydia was a highlight in this episode. Ann Dowd plays the character ridiculously well and does a great job of conveying Lydia's conflicting feelings about Offred. Lydia does love Offred like she does with all of the handmaids, but also wants to and has to punish her for her mistakes and everything she has done. These conflicting emotions create a killer performance, allowing Lydia to steal any scene she is in, even outperforming Elisabeth Moss at times which is very impressive. While Lydia had seemed a bit 2-dimensional in the first season, she has improved a lot in the past 4 episodes. I really liked how this episode set apart June and Offred as two different characters. This allows us to understand the different pieces of June's life better, as we have who she really is (June) and who other people want her to be (Offred) and this episode toys the line separating both characters and has June shift from one side of the line to the other. As mentioned above, the execution of June's transformation was great, but what I want to commend here is the decision to bring attention to the fact that there are basically two different versions of June in the series. Simply addressing this fact allowed the episode to take a more thoughtful and memorable approach and I'm glad that the show went with that instead of something basic which you will often see from lesser shows. Serena and June's rivalry continues to be fairly enjoyable. I'm glad that their storyline hasn't been dropped and that their falling out from last season has impacted their relationship will has soured a ton. I thought their conflict in this episode had good build-up and on very uncomfortable moment as Serena talked to her baby in the middle of the night without even acknowledging June. There wasn't anything particularly great here, but it was enjoyable enough. The Bad: Serena is a bit of a double-edged sword at this point though. While she has compelling aspects about her, she also seems very inconsistent. In "A Woman's Place" back in season 1, we learned about how Serena sacrificed everything for her current life. Yet that has had no impact on Serena's story at all and instead her storyline consists of her being an annoying and angry character who is apparently being easily manipulated by Fred. That doesn't add up nicely and makes her character as much of a mystery to me as she is compelling which isn't good. Furthermore, this new addition of her surprisingly motherly instincts leans things more to the bad side as it is yet another aspect of her character we didn't know before which we have to just accept now. We aren't told why she is motherly, just that he is which is much less satisfying. If Serena is a double-edged sword, then Fred is a blunt blade. His character intrigued me so much last season because I was interested to find out the deeper layers to his character and what drove him from a good person into the monster he is now. But instead we got nothing and I've had to realize that the show is happy to leave him as a 2-dimensional and boring villain. This is a huge waste which I feel wastes the potential of giving this show one of the all-time great villains. The best way to put it is that the show could have had a Ben Linus but has instead settled for a Negan. A great performance, but a one-note character who isn't as interesting as the show thinks he is. I think this show is going a bit too heavily on the misery. In the first season it was important to establish the harsh reality of this world, but now I think there needs to be more change and that the show should start gravitating away from the horrors it loves to explore. In time these horrors will grow weary and I think the show should be smart enough to move away from them before that happens. Let's hope for something a little less bleak in the future, or at least something that's bleak for a different reason. The Unknown: Will June escape/rebel again? She seems to be stuck as Offred for now, so what will make her go back to being June? Will anything make her go back to being June? After seeing Annie in the past, I wonder if she will make an appearance in the present. Could she be in the colonies too? Perhaps the colonies will become more central to the story in the second half of the season since there has been little focus on them. I want more insight on Serena and her motherly instincts. Why does she have them? Was it something in her childhood or something she gained whilst living in Gilead? Best Moment: Omar's death reveal was the most powerful scene for sure. It was tough watching June fall to her knees and have so much guilt washing over her. A very "The Handmaid's Tale" scene in every right with how much misery was conveyed. Aunt Lydia's cold speech was the icing on the cake though, taking a disheartening and powerful scene and turning it into something special. Character of the Episode: Lydia. Conclusion: This was a very strong episode of storytelling, but it is hurt by familiar inconsistencies with the Waterfords who haven't been as compelling as they should be. I still enjoyed this, but I feel like there needs to be better characterization going on for the Waterfords in order for the show to be excellent again. Score: 64 Summary: In flashbacks, June's mother judges her for not doing more with her life. Later, June discovers her mother was taken into the colonies. In Little America, Luke, Erin and Moira live together but Moira is having troubles overcoming her past. June is taken by a man named Omar to save her. Omar and his family don't return from church so June leaves on her own. She gets on a plane to escape but the plane is shot down and June is captured.
The Good: It was nice to see what Moira and Luke are up to. Though their scenes were brief, they were pretty solid and painted a good picture. Moira should be content but she is unable to escape her traumas in Gilead which is a development I really love. Moira's story was really short though and was never the focal point of the episode. The bulk of the episode focused on June's attempted escape from Gilead and it was fun for the most part. We are introduced to Omar who is the man assigned to help out June and it is fascinating to learn more about him. His family introduces that not all fertile women are handmaids and that the lower-class women are downgraded to econowives, which is a very welcome bit of world-building. I am really enjoying the increased world-building this season now that we aren't enclosed in the Waterford residence. It's still not as fleshed out as I would like, but it's getting there with every new piece of information. But let's focus more on Omar's family itself for a moment and what it meant for June. Omar's son was the first child June has interacted with in a very, very long time so the moment was much more powerful than it ad any right to be, with Elisabeth Moss once again delivering. The rest of June's time in the apartment was just as good too. I like that June was curious and looked around the apartment a little bit. After all she has been living in a single building for a long time so any new location would be exciting for her. Furthermore, I thought the discovery of the Quran was a lovely moment. This show hasn't touched on its more religious side very much, so this was a refreshing new theme to explore. The idea of having to be a closet Muslim in a Christian society is pretty scary and because of that I hope that we see this family again to get more exploration on the topic. The ending of the episode was quite powerful too as June is ultimately caught after coming so close to escape. The show did a great job of making me believe that June may actually get away and that the show would take a different approach this season because it had spent so much time on June's escape. But it was all a red herring as the show once more doubled down on its misery as June was captured at the very end. Another new development is the introduction of June's mother. I thought this was a nice addition for the show as it gives more depth to June and allows us to understand her more by hinting at how her childhood was. I appreciate that the show didn't use flashbacks to blatantly show us June's childhood and instead let June's interactions with her mother as an adult tell us the story of their relationship. I like that it tied into the present storyline as well with June feeling some guilt over not listening to her mother and doing more as a woman to prevent the world from going to hell. I presume that this plot thread will continue through the season which will hopefully pay off with some powerful moments. I also hope that June's mother does appear in the colonies at some point as Cherry Jones is too good of an actress to only have for a single episode. The Bad: This episode was too dependent on coincidences. One of the more frustrating ones was the way that June's mother was revealed to be in the colonies. For one, how unlikely is it for her to still be alive? After all, this is the same government that murders all rebels as evidenced in "The Other Side", so why would they keep her alive? Worse though is the sheer coincidence that she would be shown on that presentation. Of the presumably hundreds or even thousands of women in the colonies, it just happened to be June's mother who was in the picture? That's too coincidental. But that wouldn't be a problem if there were only one or two coincidences. The problem is that this episode is literally built on coincidences. Literally everyone June needs to help her are conveniently caught exactly when she tries to escape. This happened last season too during the flashbacks of Luke and June's attempted escape. But this episode has the coincidence of Omar getting a text exactly when he was talking to June, the coincidence of Omar's family conveniently getting caught for something the day that June is there and also the coincidence of the pilot getting busted the time that June is escaping. All of this is way too much and doesn't make for satisfying storytelling, instead feeling cheap and manipulative. There were some other issues with this episode too. For one, June is pretty annoying as she listens to nobody and seems to just ride on the fact that she is a handmaid as an excuse for not listening which is frustrating. She shows no regard for Omar's family and doesn't come off as the least bit grateful. Omar tells her not to speak and she immediately talks to his wife and then later goes to talk with his child. Seriously? Furthermore, she is told to touch nothing and immediately touches everything. And then after that when the family goes to church, June pokes around with everything, moving things around and getting fingerprints everywhere. And then to cap it all off, she leaves her clothes in their apartment which would further incriminate them for anything if they were actually caught. All of this is ridiculously selfish and really made me annoyed with June which is the complete opposite of what the show is trying to make me feel. Another issue is how rushed the stories in Little America are. Apparently Erin talks now but all of that development happened off screen. I still don't care at all about her so this does absolutely nothing for me. Additionally, Moira's unhappiness in Little America felt glossed over. Sure we got one great scene, but we had no information given to us about anything. Is this Moira's job still? Why? Did she choose to do this or was she forced to do it for some reason? I have no clue why any of this is happening and because of that the scene falls flat for me. With a little more information given, the scene could have hit me with the intended effects. But instead it felt forced and rushed. Speaking of rushed, there's also June' decision to leave Hannah. This would have been powerful if June had actually thought about Hannah more than twice this season. Honestly the moment felt like a "oh crap I forgot about Hannah, oh well I'll just leave her" moment instead of something genuine and heartfelt. The Unknown: What text this Omar receive and why did it make him want to leave June? Did it have something to do with what happened to him and his family? Speaking of which, what actually did happen to his family? And who was that man who came to the door? So what determines if you become an econowife or a handmaid? What is the class standing for that? I have a hard time believing that June was a high-class citizen who was selected as a handmaid considering what her job was. Perhaps I'm just missing something. Best Moment: The twist ending with the plane being stopped was the most powerful moment for me and it was also one of the very few scenes which wasn't hampered by dumb writing. Character of the Episode: June. Conclusion: This episode had some good developments but it was poorly written. The over-reliance on coincidence as well as the unlikable portrayal of June hurt this a lot and made this a notable downgrade from the first 2 episodes. Score: 58 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 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
February 2024
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