Critic’s Score: 4.45 / 5.0
4.45
I didn’t anticipate an episode of The Handmaid’s Story to punch me within the chest the way in which this one did. Not immediately.
Not once I’m reckoning with the truth that I’ve been slowly killing myself — little selections, small dismissals of wants, disregarding signs, waving off indicators. Not once I’m crawling out of that fog and realizing that I’m not fantastic. Not even shut.
After which this episode airs.
Girls executed in stalls like they’re nothing, Nick selecting survival over reality, and June dragging her damaged physique again into the hearth as a result of there’s nobody left to do it.
And someway, by means of all of the wreckage, they nonetheless plan a revolution. Nonetheless transfer.
It hit me exhausting. Too exhausting, perhaps. However that’s the ability of this present when it remembers what it’s.
This wasn’t simply tv. It was a name to arms.
The Fallout We Noticed Coming — And Nonetheless Left Us Unprepared
Let’s speak about Nick as a result of we beloved him. Perhaps we nonetheless do. I don’t know anymore.
He advised Gabriel the reality, handed over Mayday’s plan, and helped dismantle Jezebel’s not as a resistance act however as injury management.
And he did it understanding — understanding — what Gilead would do with that energy. That they’d take out the ladies first, that Janine and the others could be sacrificed earlier than anybody in command even broke a sweat.
And but, he justified it.
“We’re human. That’s what we do.”
Self-preservation. That’s what he supplied June when she requested him why, not regret or grief. Simply an unsightly, vital reality. And it gutted her. It gutted me.
As a result of I’ve mentioned that, I’ve rationalized issues that harm me as a result of I wanted to outlive that day, that week, that month. You possibly can’t combat a system whereas additionally doing meal prep, answering emails, and sleeping.
However what The Handmaid’s Story jogged my memory — and perhaps reminded June — is that survival isn’t sufficient when it comes on the expense of every little thing else.
“Don’t Be in Love With a F#ck!ng Nazi.”
Luke mentioned what needed to be mentioned, which is what I’ve advised myself about individuals I as soon as believed in; individuals I as soon as trusted.
He noticed Nick clearly — all the time did. However June wanted to consider in somebody who noticed her. And Nick did, for a really very long time. However seeing somebody and saving them aren’t the identical, not when it places others within the crosshairs.
June walked away. Lastly. As a result of some truths you possibly can’t stroll again from, and a few selections you possibly can’t unmake.
However June and Luke aren’t strolling away from one another, and that’s what issues. I admit that I had Luke all flawed. That he stands by June due to and in any case she’s completed says all of it.
Lydia Is Not the Girl We Hold Hoping She Will Be
I assumed Lydia would break this time. I did.
She sobbed over Angela’s drawing, cried at Jezebel’s, and wept with pleasure when she realized Janine was alive.
After which she circled and proudly accepted an project to D.C. — to assist pitch a plan to show Handmaids into one thing resembling respectable servants. “Attendants.” Like lipstick earlier than the guillotine.
It could virtually be simpler if Lydia had been heartless. However she’s not.
She’s damaged otherwise — one the place the indoctrination is so deep and the trauma so normalized that she nonetheless thinks she’s doing good and nonetheless believes God is guiding her.
She noticed Janine’s battered face in Bell’s window, and whereas she was considerably moved, she walked away, nonetheless decided to forge by means of together with her plan to “save” handmaids — by providing them up as caregivers for individuals who decided their destiny.
Lydia received’t change, no less than not throughout this chapter of Gilead’s story. And that’s virtually extra horrifying than Bell himself.
Serena Pleasure’s Blinders Develop into the Resistance’s Open Door
After which there’s Serena. If Nick is survival, and Lydia is delusion, Serena is self-importance — weaponized and hollowed out.
She’s clawed her approach again from shame. We watched her stripped of energy, imprisoned, introduced low. And as an alternative of studying from that fall, she constructed herself a pedestal yet again. One marriage ceremony cake tier at a time.
This week, we noticed her attempt to rally the wives behind New Bethlehem — a spot she as soon as scoffed at herself. They mocked her. They mocked Joseph.
They insulted the costume outlets, the insurance policies, and the optics. Serena was humiliated, and Gabriel? He advised her to smile by means of it, to repair it with an even bigger ceremony, with extra pomp — with extra handmaids.
And she or he mentioned sure as a result of what she needs — what she’s all the time wished — is to be seen, not revered, simply seen. She might say in any other case, however her actions convey the reality.
And Joseph noticed that. He used it when June was able to stroll away and shut the e book. Joseph reminded her: Serena by no means give up. She bought knocked down and pulled herself again up, heels sharpened and eyes huge open.
June was livid. So what? Was she presupposed to be impressed by Serena Pleasure? Hell, sure. How may she let defeat be her swansong when Serena simply retains pushing for herself?
As a result of if Serena can rise once more after every little thing she’s completed, then so can June — and June can do it proper.
That’s the reality Joseph threw at June like a lit match: Serena’s want for spectacle is the resistance’s alternative. Her marriage ceremony is the breach. The veil. The right crack within the system.
And June? She’s the one with the arms regular sufficient to blow it huge open.
Joseph Strikes the Items — Once more
After which there’s Joseph. Smug, wry, infuriating Joseph.
Simply once I’d written him off, he got here again swinging — not with heat, however with technique. He is aware of the time for center floor is over. He pushed June to behave, reminded her that the marriage was the right alternative, and cleared the sphere by delivery Lydia off to D.C.
He’s nonetheless taking part in the lengthy recreation. And truthfully, we’d like that.
We want somebody who doesn’t faux issues are salvageable, who is aware of the one approach ahead is to blow the entire thing up — metaphorically and perhaps actually.
It seems all Joseph wanted was to know everybody mocked and wished to kill him. That’ll do it!
This Revolution Isn’t Clear — However It’s Ours
The plan is reckless. Veiled Handmaids at Serena’s marriage ceremony. Hidden weapons. No extraction till the tip. Each single pal they’ve ever had — from Rita to Phoebe — is concerned.
It’s messy, harmful, and proper.
And when Moira asks for a speech, what does June give us?
“The Lord is my shepherd… and please pricey God, give us the energy to homicide these motherfuckers.”
That wasn’t blasphemy. That was religion. Religion in herself. Religion within the lady beside her. Religion that this — all of this — would possibly lastly be the final chapter written by them.
Why This One Mattered Extra Than I Anticipated
I’ve been low. Drained. Scared. Not fairly capable of finding my footing. After which this episode got here at me like a freight prepare wrapped in barbed wire.
It mentioned: You’re allowed to be damaged. However get up.
It mentioned, Sure, this world is unfair, merciless, and relentless, however you don’t owe it your silence.
It mentioned, Battle, even when all you may have left is spite, half a plan, and a killer music by Coronary heart.
It jogged my memory that the ladies who survive don’t accomplish that as a result of they’re stronger or smarter or purer. They survive as a result of they resolve not to die. Not emotionally. Not spiritually. Not immediately.
Closing Ideas: Shattered However Not Completed
That is The Handmaid’s Story at its finest, not as a result of it offers us solutions, however as a result of it lights a fuse.
We’re presupposed to be unsettled, indignant, and prepared as a result of that’s the place actual change begins. Look, I do know that this story received’t finish right here, however their tales will. They should go down combating, or they’ll by no means forgive themselves.
So right here’s to the resistance — fictional and in any other case. Right here’s to each lady crawling out of her personal grave, disregarding the filth, and saying, “Not but.“
And right here’s to a revolution backed by Barracuda.
As a result of rattling it, that’s the type of power I would like proper now.
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