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
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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