“A chair. A desk. A lamp. A window with white curtains.” These are the primary phrases Offred (Elisabeth Moss) speaks within the opening scene of The Handmaid’s Story following the flashback of her seize by Gilead. They’re highly effective phrases and ones that she ends with within the collection as properly.
However trying again, re-watching the chilling collection from its first season, it’s clear there was a delicate trace that we missed within the moments main as much as it. The second, for many who picked up on it or determined to re-watch and catch it in the present day, instructed us how the present was going to finish proper from the very starting.
The Refined However Impactful Trace
Within the first episode of The Handmaid’s Story Season 1, titled “Offred,” the harrowing scene begins when troopers from Gilead seize June, Luke (O-T Fagbenle), and their younger daughter Hannah. June is knocked out and positioned on a stretcher behind a truck, barely aware. When the scene cuts to the current day, she is sitting on the windowsill in her room within the Waterford dwelling, wearing full handmaid’s clothes. Simply earlier than she begins these phrases, you possibly can hear a quiet however distinct audible click on. Wanting again, that is the press of June’s tape recorder as she sits on this exact same spot years later and chronicles her life.
Within the closing episode of the collection, Season 6, Episode 10, “The Handmaid’s Story,” Gilead has fallen in Boston due to June and the efforts of the Mayday crew. Most of those that oppressed June are lengthy gone. These remaining have expressed regret for his or her actions. She is free, in a way, however nonetheless has lots left to struggle. Chief amongst these is getting her now teenage daughter Hannah (Jordana Blake) again.
Associated
8 Instances ‘The Handmaid’s Story’ Obtained Means Too Actual
It’s not possible not to attract comparisons between ‘The Handmaid’s Story’ and real-world points.
When telling her mom, Holly (Cherry Jones), about her plans, Holly urges her daughter to put in writing a guide about her story. June was a journalist earlier than she was taken, in any case. She had a pure expertise for storytelling. And discussing her experiences might be each cathartic for her and assist others.
Holly suggesting it is a great second between the 2, since Holly by no means appeared to respect June’s profession selection previous to Gilead taking up. Now, she acknowledges how vital her work is in contributing to the continuing struggle towards oppression. It’s additionally becoming on condition that whereas in Gilead, ladies had been forbidden from studying and writing altogether. It’s the right method for June to point out that she’s not their prisoner, and he or she’ll make her voice heard.
She returns to the Waterford dwelling, now deserted and dilapidated. She walks up the steps and to her previous room the place she seems to be round and observes these exact same objects she as soon as had, the one possessions she may name her personal. She sits on the windowsill, simply as she did earlier than. Besides now, she’s fittingly carrying a inexperienced coat, the identical shade the Commander’s wives wore.
She clicks her tape recorder, the identical quiet sound heard, and begins speaking. It mirrors the scene fantastically and suggests that every one the occasions all through the collection had been a part of June’s guide, being performed out for our eyes as she wrote the devastating and traumatizing phrases about the whole lot she had been by, everybody she misplaced.
How Her Phrases Evaluate
Within the opening scene of the collection in its pilot episode, June continues, “The glass is shatterproof, but it surely isn’t working away they’re afraid of. A handmaid wouldn’t get far. It’s these different escapes. Those you possibly can open in your self given a leading edge. Or a twisted sheet and a chandelier.” She’s referencing the truth that she has been posted on this dwelling following the demise by suicide of the earlier handmaid, who certainly used a twisted sheet hung from the chandelier to get rid of her ache.
“I attempt not to consider these escapes,” she continues, a slight crack in her voice however full of power as properly. “It’s tougher on ceremony days, however considering can harm your possibilities. My title is Offred. I had one other title but it surely’s forbidden now. So many issues are forbidden now.” On this second, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) walks in, and the occasions start to play out for the remainder of the story.
How does this evaluate to the ultimate scene? After dreaming of being reunited with Hannah, June perches atop the windowsill, and when she reaches into her pocket for her recorder, she clicks the “file” button and, as famous, it makes the equivalent sound from the opening scene. Now, it’s clear the voice we heard at the beginning of the collection is June now, not June again then.
Associated
10 Nagging Questions We Nonetheless Have After ‘The Handmaid’s Story’ Finale
In a narrative as wealthy as The Handmaid’s Story, it is unsurprising that a couple of unfastened ends stay.
She repeats the acquainted traces, mouthing the phrases together with the narration, confirming that she’s talking them within the current day. She has gotten out alive and continues to struggle, so others can, too. “I attempt not to consider these escapes,” she goes on, echoing these highly effective first phrases. “It’s tougher on ceremony days, however considering can harm your possibilities.” It’s right here that June seems to be as much as the display screen, nonetheless, and after saying “My title is Offred,” she smiles wickedly. She is aware of telling her story will make a distinction. Her title was Offred. However now, it’s June.
Regardless of all of the bodily sacrifice, the emotional turmoil she endured, and the fixed struggle towards Gilead, June’s writing after she escapes might turn into her strongest technique of assault. It’s these phrases which may lastly assist free her daughter from the clutches of Gilead, and finally, convey Gilead fully to its knees. She was proper that working wasn’t what Gilead was apprehensive about. It was these different escapes, those that Gilead by no means noticed coming.
Stream The Handmaid’s Story on Hulu.