The Handmaid’s Tale 2x06 Review: “First Blood” (More Than One Way to Bond) [Contributor: Melanie]

"First Blood"

Original Airdate: May 23, 2018

All right, after my few weeks of complaining about the direction of the season, we finally moved back toward what made the first season great. Again, not that I thought season was any massive step down — just a different direction. But this week’s episode brought us back to the nuances that made the first season so terrifying and great.

I love any episode that focuses on Serena. Her expansion from the evil stepmother type in the book into a complicated and, frankly, tragic figure (for more on that check out my interview with Yvonne Strahovski from last fall) is one of the best choices the show made in its adaptation of the work. We’re reminded this week that Serena is very much a woman who abused her privileged position to hand over her own freedom — and the freedom of every woman in America.

RECAP

June is undergoing an ultrasound and they determine the child is completely healthy, despite her scare. Serena allows June to see the ultrasound monitor to look at her child. When they get home, Serena sets her up in the living room as to not exert her on the stairs. June is cold to Nick’s new wife and June insists that they can no longer have secret rendezvous. That night, June gets up to get water where she has a tense, brief, conversation with Commander Waterford in the kitchen before returning. In the morning, Serena organizes a brunch for June and the other Handmaids to allow them social time.

Serena shows June the nursery and June asks for a chance to see her daughter. Serena denies her and their budding bond turns cold quickly. While June is packing her things to return to her room, Eden expresses her doubts about Nick, who has rebuffed her advances. She believes he might be a gender traitor and, fearing she may turn Nick in, June convinces him to warm up to his wife. Serena shares her frustrations over June with Fred who, as a peace offering, gives June a picture of her daughter. He then attempts to rekindle their relationship but she makes up an excuse to decline. Two days later, during the opening of Fred’s pet project — the Rachel and Leah Center to train new Handmaids — Ofglen detonates a bomb.

In flashbacks, Serena and Fred are speaking at a local college where they receive an angry response from students that quickly turns violent. Serena is eventually able to get the crowd’s attention and insists on the need to focus on the dwindling birth rates, to some positive response. However, as they are leaving the event, she is shot. Fred tracks down the student who shot her and shoots the student's wife in front of him as revenge.

REVIEW

My big takeaway this week was how the show continues to paint a tragic portrait of women turned against each other. Throughout this episode I fell for the false peace and borderline friendship between June and Serena that was, unsurprisingly, ultimately dismantled when the facade fell away. It did, however, for the first time feel like Serena was offering her kindness for more than just the sake of her baby. There’s a connection between June and Serena of shared slavery and pain. But Serena’s resentment of June’s ability to have a child and her resentment of herself for the harm she’s caused a mother create difficult roadblocks to overcome. Their animosity gets to remain between them, with little interference from Fred or Nick. Their hatred just as much as a would-be friendship, is a woman’s issue — between women.

Speaking of which: I didn’t realize how frustrating I found Nick until this week. He often cryptically offers advice to June and claims he knows best for her, but this week his latent mansplaining got turned around when he revealed his reluctance to consummate his relationship with his new wife... which June points out is hypocritical, considering her own sexual slavery. He claims it’s “unfair” and June brushes him off and walks out of the room. While the situation is an extreme one, it is still an example of the different rules that are assigned for men and women in social situations: women are expected to do or be something, while men have the luxury of choice and don’t acknowledge this privilege.

Ultimately, this week was a set-up for me from the bonkers, rushed plot of the first few episodes (that ended up nowhere). And, of course, this show continues to be unsettling and almost hard to watch at times with how close it hits to our unfortunately current home.

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The Handmaid’s Tale 2x04 and 2x05 Review: "Other Women" & "Seeds" (Source Material Expiration Date?) [Contributor: Melanie]

"Other Women" & "Seeds"

Original Airdates: May 9 and May 16, 2018

A happy belated Mother’s Day week to all (especially Yvonne Strahovski who — playing against type — just announced she’s pregnant with her first child)! What is a more wonderful way to spend this glorious time in the celebration of mothers than to continue to delve deeper into the chaotic and horrifying post-apocalyptic world of misogyny? In these episodes, we see a reversal of fortunes for June — meaning, she goes back to exactly where she started.

To be honest, it did feel a tad like the past few episodes of her escape attempt were filler material if she only ended right back where she started. But thus is the symptom of pushing a piece of media past its source material cut-off. 

RECAP

After June is apprehended by the Guardians, she’s chained down to a bed by Aunt Lydia who offers to send her back to the Waterfords if she behaves. June agrees. Commander Waterford believes her disappearance to be a kidnapping, while Serena is less benevolent in her reaction, attacking June before ultimately relenting for the sake of her unborn child. Serena shares her joy by throwing herself a baby shower where June sees that Nick is alive and unharmed, evidently still undetected for his part in her escape. Unfortunately, Ofglen had her tongue ripped out for her part in June’s rebellion.

To continue to force June’s hand,  Aunt Lydia shows her the body of Omar — the man who had been keeping her hidden — where it hangs at the wall. His wife was forced to become a Handmaid and his son was sent to another family. June accepts the blame for what happened to them.

In the flashbacks, June deals with Luke’s ex-wife who brings more hints of the rising theocratic tide when she insists that their wedding vows were “before God,” and therefore must be honored. June rebuffs her and later, the ex-wife watches June, Luke, and Hannah at dinner together.

In the next episode, June seems to be having some sort of health trouble when she starts bleeding in the midst of her pregnancy. Scared, she keeps the information to herself. However, Nick takes notice of June’s apparent melancholy and stress and brings his concerns to Mrs. Waterford. She, in turn, goes to Fred about the issue. But she also points out Nick’s apparent concern for their Handmaid. Fred then arranges for Nick to be married to a woman named Eden in recognition of the work done by the Guardians. During the celebrations, Nick finds June unconscious and she is rushed to the hospital. When June comes to, she learns the baby is okay but steels herself in her resolve to get herself and her child free from Gilead.

Meanwhile in the Colonies, Janine insists Emily keep faith by assuring her that God is watching over them. Emily is not uplifted by Janine’s tactics, even her organizing a wedding for a sick worker. Emily feels pessimism for their position and resents Janine’s attempt to falsely bring hope. Ultimately, the sick worker succumbs to her illness.

REVIEW

Now let's get back to my original issue with the recent episodes. I do think that The Handmaid's Tale is one of the best-written shows out there right now. Additionally, it’s visually stunning and incredibly impactful. I’m just having trouble getting over the hurdle of continued story. As I mentioned, June’s doomed escape attempt felt like filler — perhaps to get to the season’s extra three-episode mark. It seems to me that we’re taking a turn toward more plot-oriented action, rather than a focus on the overall commentary that last season delivered.

Season one was not, of course, a complete adaptation of the book either — nor does any adaptation have a requirement to be 100% faithful to its source material. But I think about Atwood’s original intention of her book and look now at the show which has taken a turn for high-stakes plot points and entertainment value. Season one was June’s story — a look into her life as bigger and more complicated pieces of plot moved around her, eventually sucking her in. This season, the story is about a wider set of characters, a larger world, and it’s taking a leaf from Lost’s book with the past and present timelines. (Though I will say that the flashes into the past showcase some eerie stuff and serve as a necessary warning for The Handmaid's Tale's audience.)

I’m curious to see how this stretch of episodes will look from beginning to end — as the sum of their parts by the culmination of the season, rather than dissected pieces of a larger story. And with The Handmaid's Tale greenlit for a third season, you can bet the writers do have a larger story they’re working toward.

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The Handmaid’s Tale 2x03 Review: “Baggage” (Trust Women) [Contributor: Melanie]

"Baggage"

Original Airdate: May 2, 2018

This week’s episode of The Handmaid’s Tale continues to dive into issues we’re watching unfold today. This time it has to do with the power foresight can have. After all, it seems like we hear every day how X, Y, and Z could have been prevented if we’d all just paid attention or cracked open a history book. Well, June decides to take a leaf from that particular book and get proactive with her situation... and it doesn’t go perfectly. Fun fact, the show was renewed for a third season this week and I’m not sure whether to be excited or if I’m feeling the inklings of concern about just how far this show is going to run with its source material.

RECAP

In the present, June has developed a routine while living inside the empty confines of The Boston Globe. During one of her morning runs she finds old news reels and newspaper clippings that warned off the coming revolution. She remarks that no one listened. Nick arrives and tells her she’ll be moving on to a new safe house soon as they try to get her across the border. When Omar, her courier, picks her up, he receives a text that prompts him to abandon the mission. She convinces him to take her with him, rather than strand her. He takes her back to his home where he lives with his wife (who is an Econowife) and son. However, when they are late coming back from church June decides to take action and escapes the apartment complex to get to the airstrip. Her plane is shot during takeoff and she is capture by the Guardians. Across the border, Moira works in the welcome center for new American refugees to Toronto.

In the flashbacks, June recounts her mother who was women’s rights activist leading up to the revolution. She feels disappointment from her mother who believes she settled to work in a white collar world and is also settling by marrying Luke. After the revolution, June sees a picture of her mother laboring in the Colonies during an education slideshow. Her mother was taken there for showing up on a register of women who had abortions.

REVIEW

So this week the series took to focusing on the power of foresight in political turmoil and it did so on two fronts. The more muted story was that of the press and the importance of sharing information. Last week, June recalled the horrific executions that befell members of the press at the onset of the revolution; and during this week she notes — as she hangs old newspapers on the wall — that the press was trying to warn the population that would not listen. It’s speaking directly to our current issue of “fake news” and “alternative facts”: two phrases you’re all probably sick of hearing by now. But episode three underpins how important they truly are.

The press — in its ideal state — is a privately owned piece of media with the sole goal of delivering news and information to the general population. There’s always going to be issues of bias, of seedy journalism, etc. But the point this episode tries to make is that the first place an oppressor will turn is to the media. In Fahrenheit 451 they burned books; historically, the Nazis did the same thing. Today our president directly attempts to discredit news outlets that don’t praise his performance. He went so far as to not allow certain networks press privileges in the White House and held a private meeting with journalists from various networks to educate them on how they should interact with him. It’s a slippery slope.

The second place where June’s hindsight warns to look for prophecy is in the rallies of the oppressed. Here, we specifically look at a Take Back the Night event but the idea is that any oppressed group speaking out about their oppression should he heeded. The Women’s March, Black Lives Matter, the March For Our Lives all attempt to raise valid points on the grand scale but are debased by opposition as fanatics and complainers. June, to a certain extent, felt the same way about her mother’s heavy activity in the world of activism and realizes far too late that you have to act on your surroundings or someone else will.

This is an interesting path the show is taking us down. By forging their own story through a modern lens the showrunners are able to respond to our world in real-time. In a way, The Handmaid’s Tale is reading the pulse of our world, warning about where it might lead if we’re not vigilant. To me, it’s more an education in how to read history than it is a piece of entertainment.

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The Handmaid’s Tale 2x01 and 2x02 Review: “June” & “Unwoman” (Speed Walking to Totalitarianism) [Contributor: Mel]

"June" & "Unwoman"

Original Airdate: April 25, 2018

It is time again for a horrifying look at misogyny on a rampant and fundamental federal level, and for once it’s not the news! The Handmaid’s Tale is back to venture into a completely unknown world. Literally. With the first season ending right where the book left off 30 years ago, everything from this point on is new territory. You’ll remember last year this show was a cultural juggernaut in the world of a tumultuous election and a spotlight on women’s rights. It won eight Emmys and two Golden Globes, as well as critical acclaim across the board.

And so this new season opened with a two-parter to kick things off. Last season we left as Offred was being carted off and the Waterfords watched their best chance at having a child being lead to certain oblivion. There was, off course, a spark of hope in Offred’s reunion with her husband and daughter.

RECAP

"June" opens with striking scene of the rebellious Handmaids led to an overgrown Fenway Park, which has been converted into gallows. They are, ultimately, spared but forced to undergo cruel punishments as penance for refusing to stone Janine (Janine herself is now on her way to the Colonies). June is quickly spared from further corporal punishment when Aunt Lydia learns she’s pregnant, but she is forced to watch while her fellow Handmaids are tortured as a result of following her into rebellion (one gruesome scene involves handcuffing the hands of the Handmaids to a gas stove top and igniting it).

During her ultrasound appointment, Serena and Fred are overjoyed at the image of their child and attempt to make amends with their former Handmaid. After the appointment, June is left a key by the attending nurse which ultimately leads her to a butcher truck that gets her safely away to a discrete warehouse where Nick is waiting. She cuts her hair, burns her Handmaid robes, and cuts the tag out of her ear, proclaiming herself June Osborn.

In flashbacks, meanwhile, Hannah has come down with a cold and the school calls while June is at work. They inform her that children are required to be fever-free for 48 hours before they can return to school and — since they could not get a hold of June — they’ve called an ambulance. At the hospital, June is questioned by the nurse about giving Hannah Tylenol to break the fever and scolded for trying to avoid missing work. June is told that if she cannot prioritize the safety of her child then they will be forced to make other arrangements. Shaken, June arrives home with Hannah and learns that the Senate has been targeted in a massive shooting during a session and an explosion has gone off at the White House.

"Unwoman" opens with June being delivered to a run down and abandoned version of The Boston Globe where she’s instructed to wait for further developments. Meanwhile in the Colonies, Emily (formally Ofglen) is forced to work on radiated land with several other “unwomen.” Emily acts as the barracks doctor for the sick women. One night, Mrs. O’Connor — formerly a Commander’s wife — arrives at the Colonies to a cold welcome but Emily seems to befriend her before ultimately poisoning her for facilitating rape as wife of a Commander. At The Globe, June is horrified to see the remains of an execution scene for the journalists and insists to Nick that she needs to get out. He, in turn. insists it won’t be safe for her to leave for weeks. Ultimately she relents to waiting.

In the flashbacks Emily, a professor in biology, is relieved of her fall classes after the “new board” learned she had a picture of her wife and child as the background on her phone. A few weeks later her boss — who is also gay — is left hanging outside one of the buildings with the word “faggot” spray-painted beneath him. Emily and her wife attempt to flee to her wife’s native Canada but the border patrol declare their marriage no longer valid under the new laws and Emily is forced to stay behind.

BREAKING IT DOWN

While the first season is a look very much at the status quo of Gilead and the possibility of a bubbling resistance beneath the surface, the second season (which goes beyond the last page of Margaret Atwood’s novel) imagines what life on the run — and in a resistance — might look like. But that’s not so much the story in the episode — at least not the one I focused on and came away with. For me one of the best parts of the show continues to be the scenes in the past where we watch the slow burn toward tyrannically theocracy. I think these small bits of change are even more relevant with the publication of Amy Siskind’s new book The List which systematically tracks every time some form of our government or rights was put on the chopping block in Trump’s first year.

To me this is the real triumph of the show. The world of Gilead is horrifying and the scenes throughout are visually stunning to watch but it’s only an abstract concept until you see exactly how a society ended up there. In episode one we see that June suddenly has to have her husband sign off on birth control prescriptions, is no longer allowed to keep her maiden name post-marriage, and is scolded and vaguely threatened into prioritizing caring for her child full time over going to work. Emily, who has a great bit where she knocks down some mansplaining in her lecture hall, is suddenly out of a teaching job because a picture of her wife and child is on her phone. Even more reminiscent of recent past is the revocation of Emily and Syl’s marriage certificate by the government.

It wouldn’t be unacceptable to head into this season with a fair bit of skepticism considering they’re developing a sequel to a book that’s been in print for over thirty years. And there’s always the danger of oversaturation and shark jumping when it comes to dystopian stories in today’s entertainment media. But the grounding of this is in the very real possibility of the United States slipping into some version of Gilead between minor policy changes, growing attitudes of misogynistic pushback on fourth wave feminism, conservative punishment for queer members of society (you know since we have that VP who “wants to hang ‘em all”), and the possibility of mass shootings with assault weapons. The Handmaid’s Tale has always been a warning, above all things. And while I’m interested to see where June goes from here, how Serena copes with another loss of a chance at a child, and how June’s family is fairing, the dark and terrifying way dystopian seems to creep on America in the flashbacks is the most eerie part of the show.

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The Handmaid’s Tale 1x05 Review: “Faithful” (Post-Apocalyptic Character Development) [Contributor: Melanie]

"Faithful"

Original Airdate: May 10, 2017

The episode opens with Waterford and Offred playing another game of Scrabble — this time far more casual and with romantic overtones. He gives her a beauty magazine from the time before. Offred recalls the day she met her future husband. Moira introduces her to Luke while they were waiting in line for hot dogs from a street vendor by asking him his opinion on June’s Tinder profile.

In the present, Nick comes into the kitchen and Offred believes he is trying to see her. But just then, Serena Joy comes in asking for her help outside with gardening. Offred believes she’s luring her outside to be arrested, having found out about Scrabble or the writing in the closet. Instead, Serena Joy warns Offred that her time to produce a child is running out and offers to get her pregnant by Nick and claim it’s the Commander’s. Offred agrees.

In the grocery store, Offred encounters Janine who is boasting about her child and informs her that Ofglen — who is Ofsteven now — has returned. Offred speaks with her and asks her if Nick is the Eye living in her house. Ofsteven says she can no longer be a part of Mayday but does not explain what it is before the new Ofglen whisks Offred away. Outside, Ofglen warns Offred to stay away from Ofsteven. Ofglen divulges that her previous life of prostitution and drugs has been curbed and she enjoys her comforts of shelter and food. She doesn’t want that ruined for her.

Later, Serena Joy comes to get Offred and take her to Nick. Offred flashes back and recalls an early date with Luke — after feeling that her tryst with Nick is the first time she feels as if she is actually cheating on Luke.

In the past, Luke asks if June and Moira ever had a relationship in college and she scolds him for assuming a stereotype. Luke notes that he has not told his wife that he’s been having lunch with another woman. They joke about renting a motel room to continue their meetings — and they eventually do begin meeting in hotel rooms. In the present, Offred and Nick have the similarly routine intercourse she had with the Commander, while Serena Joy stands guard.

Ofsteven speaks with her mistress while playing with the family dog. The wife suggests they skip the Ceremony because she is feeling sick. Ofsteven warns her that she can’t avoid the Ceremony every month, and Ofsteven's mistress seems sympathetic.

Meanwhile, Serena Joy and Offred are waiting for their own Ceremony to begin, which is punctuated by the Commander’s eye contact with Offred during and intimate touching. That night, she meets with Waterford and warns him that being cavalier and touching her could result in her being sent to the colonies. They discuss the nature of love and lust and he reveals Ofsteven’s punishment to Offred who excuses herself. The Commander claims they wanted to make the world better, but that doesn’t mean “better for everyone.” Later that night, Offred becomes sick while thinking about her conversation with the Commander. Nick finds her and she confronts him about Ofsteven’s punishment, asking if he’s an Eye. He says that he is. Meanwhile in the past, June tells Luke she wants him to leave his wife and he agrees.

The next day, Ofglen and Offred go to the market. She speaks with Ofsteven while another Handmaid distracts Ofglen. Ofsteven then steals a car and runs over one of the Guardians before she is captured and taken away. On her way home, Offred recalls the origin of the phrase Mayday from the French m'aidez meaning “help me.” She comes home to Serena Joy who asks if she was hurt at all during the scuffle in town. While Serena Joy is speaking to her, Offred considers killing her with gardening shears, but leaves the room. Later that night, she remarks that, despite mutilating Emily, they could not take everything from her. Offred goes to meet Nick and the two secretly engage in much less “routine” sex.

This is another episode that seems to be more about Offred’s character development as she learns to become an active player in her world. Many of the events depicted in this episode take place toward the end of the book — at a point where Offred decides to actually take some action in her world, though notes she feels like she lacks control. Here, she’s got all sorts of control as she goes back to Nick to engage in much less formal, Ceremony-like relations. This is catalyzed by Ofsteven’s hijacking of a Guardian car.

That particular scene, like much of Emily’s story, was invented for the show and was easily the most gruesome thing seen thus far. It seems poignant that several people have been shot, beaten, and mutilated, but the first instance of actual gore we get is the moment Emily decides to run the car over an injured Guardian to the effect of his head exploding. It’s a purposeful moment of justice. It’s also important: we don’t see much of the gruesome parts of the female violence, as is often in the case in entertainment media. But we do get a front row seat to one of the Guardians getting run over by a car, driven by an oppressed Handmaid.

It will be very interesting to see what becomes of Emily after this as I don’t think her functioning ovaries are going to get her out of this one. Likewise, the novel ends ambiguously as to whether Offred’s affair with Nick is discovered or not. But considering a season two is on the way, I imagine those actions won’t go unpunished. Offred also always believed Luke was still alive in the book, and he likely still is in the show, especially now that she’s expressed her discomfort with the feelings she has for Nick and what it means for fidelity toward Luke.

Check back for more recaps as the season unfolds!

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Handmaid’s Tale 1x04 Recap: “Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum” (#LadiesSupportingLadies) [Contributor: Melanie]

"Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum"

Original Airdate: May 3, 2017

This episode begins with Offred remembering a night she and her husband took their daughter to a carnival. We then learn that it has been thirteen days since Offred was banished to her room, and she's beginning to go stir-crazy in her memories. While exploring her bedroom she finds something etched on the inside of the closet wall: "Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum." She  wonders if the previous Offred wrote it as a message to her. So she lays in the closest and in her memories she recalls a conversation with Moira while in the bathroom where Moira carved “Aunt Lydia sucks” into the wall of the bathroom.

Serena Joy greets Fred at breakfast where he tells her an Aunt escaped from the Red Center to Canada and gave an interview to the Toronto Star, revealing the actions of the Red Center (which Fred calls “lies and hyperbole”). Rita comes to bring breakfast to Offred and panics when she sees her on the ground, believing she killed herself. Offred claims she simply passed out. Serena Joy initially does not want to make a doctor’s appointment for her but Rita reminds her they have the ceremony and she relents. Offred is excited at the prospect of going outside for the first time in two weeks, despite Serena Joy’s reluctant and cold attitude.

Offred recalls a time in the Red Center when the Handmaids-in-training learned the poses of the Ceremony. Moira asks for clarification on the point of the process and Aunt Lydia recalls the Bible verse of Rachel and Bilhah — about Jacob having children by his wife’s handmaid when she was unable to get pregnant. At the doctor’s office, Offred lays down on the examination table, a sheet separating her from the doctor from the waist up. The doctor asks her a series of questions before offering to “help” her get pregnant — reminding her that despite Waterford likely being sterile, they will consider the lack of children her fault. She declines, saying it’s too dangerous. Offred then recalls the carnival again on the ride home, in a near hallucination state.

Nick apologizes to Offred when they arrive home. She ignores him and attempts to apologize to Serena Joy, who just orders Offred back to her bedroom. Continuing to stare at the markings from the previous Offred, the current Offred wonders how the woman managed to survive Serena Joy’s cruelty. In our flashbacks to the Red Center, Moira attacks an Aunt. Moira and June force the Aunt to remove her clothes. Moira spares the Aunt as she and June escape, with Moira disguised as an Aunt leading a Handmaid out.

In the present, it is time again for the Ceremony. But Commander Waterford breaks protocol when he enters the room before his wife, alone with Offred. He asks her to a rematch of their Scrabble game. She does not respond before Serena Joy enters. However, just as the act is about to commence, the commander redresses himself and leaves the room in an agitated silence. Serena Joy follows him and offers to help with his performance issues, but he rebuffs her.

Offred recalls, again, the rest of her and Moira's escape attempt. They walked outside to see the street signs removed and all former evidence of government burned. They make it to the subway in an attempt to find a collective that can help them get across the border.  In the subway, they are separated and June tells Moira to keep going. So Moira gets on a train to Boston, leaving June behind. In the closet in the present-day, Offred tells herself Moira would not stand for being locked away for two weeks. She decides to leave her room and go see the Commander.

Offred and Waterford discuss his work while playing their game of Scrabble. When Waterford challenges a word and Offred retrieves the dictionary, she spots a book on Latin grammar. She considers asking the commander if he knows the meaning of the phrase in her room, but wonders if her predecessor was also invited to the room and somehow angered the Commander.

Meanwhile in the past, June is brought back to the Red Center and receives corporeal punishment for her attempt to flee. In present-day, Offred works up the nerve to ask the Commander the phrase and he explains that it doesn’t mean anything, but is in fact a play on words in Latin that roughly translates to, “don’t let the bastards grind you down.” She then asks about the previous Offred and Waterford informs her that she killed herself in her bedroom. He also reveals he’s asked her to play games and attempted to form a friendship with her to prevent her from killing herself as well. Offred uses this sympathy to play Waterford against his wife and get permission to leave her bedroom.

As she leaves her room for the first time in weeks, she recalls how her fellow Handmaids-in-training snuck her food and offered solidarity after her punishment for running away. In the present, she thanks the previous Offred for giving her the courage to stand up for herself, noting that the Handmaids will always protect each other.

This episode, the first one since the premier batch of three, is the first one so far to not have an overt political message woven into the plot — though any situation where women band together is inherently political at this point in our history. Instead, this week’s episode is more about the personal growth of Offred in the face of her loss of Ofglen as an ally, the cruel treatment of Serena Joy, and the continued oppression of her situation.

Throughout the novel, Offred is static in her situation. The book is more of a slice of her life. She does not overtly take a side, though she does try — however half-heartedly — to find information about the Commander and pass it along to Oflgen. She spends much of her time deploring her oppressors but not making a choice to do anything about it. The episode addresses that issue head-on with multiple memories of Moira taking and a stand and ultimately getting free of the Red Center. This is paralleled against Offred’s discovery of some words of advice etched into the closet wall by the previous Offred.

What Offred realizes in this moment is that the strength lies in the group protection of the Handmaids. Her predecessor left her advice from beyond the grave, the Handmaids from the Red Center gave her food and protection after she was punished for running, and even Ofglen tried to offer whatever help she could. Offred’s flaw is her solitary idea of survival, that she must push away others (much like she kept Ofglen at arm’s length before discovering the truth about her).

This continues to hammer home one of the big themes of the show: the power in female empowerment from other females. In a world, both fictional and real, where women are encouraged to be in constant competition, the power of bonding and mutual respect and empowerment is a crucial part of how the world is going to be changed and how every woman is going to learn to survive. Offred shows a distrust of the men in her life throughout this episode: rejecting the doctor’s offer to help her get pregnant, mocking Nick’s ignorant attempt to offer her some sympathy, and using the Commander and his own version of white guilt to get her freedom back.

Offred doesn’t exactly make any promises here or plans to do something, but she achieves the fundamental first step of understanding that she’s not alone. She truly understands who the "us" is and who the "them" is.

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The Handmaid’s Tale 1x03 Review: “Late” (Get Woke) [Contributor: Melanie]

“Late” 

Original Airdate: April 26, 2017

Ofglen has been arrested by the Guardians, though it seems like she’s still alive. We learn the very scary story of how this world began. Women systematically had their credit cards and cellphones shut off before they were all fired from work — an act enforced by what June refers to as a “different kind of army.” Turns out it’s against the law for women to own property or money. Moira goes on an impassioned speech about the internalized mentality of men “taking care” of women. Which, as she points out, is synonymous with removing female agency. Later, Moira and June attend a march which quickly turns violent when riot police not only open fire on the protesters, but chase them down and — eventually — even launch ballistics at them.

Meanwhile in the present-day, Janine’s postpartum depression has the added pain of not actually getting to be with her daughter (whom, in her mind, she has named Charlotte), since she only serves as a source of food for the baby. But Janine has come up with a delusion that her master is going to run away with her and the baby. Serena Joy’s icy demeanor toward Offred has warmed after noticing that Offred is late — Serena Joy believes her to be pregnant (an ironic twist after the incredibly seductive and illicit game of Scrabble).

On the way home, Nick warns Offred that there is nothing she can do to change the course of events. Everyone, eventually, bows to the system. He then drops her off for an interrogation with the Guardians who want to know what Ofglen knew. The questions quickly turn into asking if Oglen ever tried to inflict her heinous lesbian ways on her. In all seriousness, this scene is very important to me personally for an anecdotal reason I’ll return to in a bit. Offred ends the scene, and incurs a beating, by standing up to Aunt Lydia quoting the Bible: “Blessed are those who suffer for the cause of righteousness.”

At Ofglen’s trial, she and her Martha lover are both immediately found guilty of “gender treachery” with a Bible verse in Romans given as the key piece of evidence. The Martha is sentenced to death while Ofglen, despite “(her) existence being an abomination” is sentenced to redemption as her fertile body is too precious to lose. However, part of that “redemption” involves female mutilation to remove any temptation for Ofglen (revealed to be named Emily). Unfortunately, Serena Joy does a complete 180 when she learns Offred is not pregnant.

The best line from this episode comes while Offred is recounting the early days of the government takeover, talking about a time that could easily be our own: “When they slaughtered Congress, we didn’t wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended The Constitution, we didn’t wake up.”

Offred gets bolder in this episode, speaking out to the Guardian interrogating her about Ofglen. She goes along with their questions until, eventually, she refuses to refer to Ofglen as a “gender traitor” any longer and simply says that she’s gay. The result is a beating from Aunt Lydia, who warns her that that the word is forbidden. I had a flashback to my elementary school years where I used the word "gay" at the lunch table while talking about some singer or actor. Another student told a teacher who looked at me and said — and I quote — “We don’t use that word.” At the time it was a scandal for, like, a week. But the scene where Offred is beaten for calling Ofglen simply what she is — like many things in this story — is not far from the truth at all. I obviously wasn’t tased or beaten, but I was made to believe there was something inherently dirty about that word and what it entailed.

So, as Offred said, at what point will we wake up?

Will it be when young Black men are murdered for walking down the street? Will it be when the president launches missiles at a foreign country without first seeking congressional approval? Will it be when someone wins the election by over three million votes but is denied the presidency? Will it be when 49 people are murdered with a machine gun in a nightclub, simply for being gay? Will it be when the president forces a gag order on scientific organizations? Will we wait, like Offred, until the horrible things have already happened and we stew in the consequences before we finally say: “Now I’m awake”?

The episode, as the title suggests, is all about not acting fast enough. "Get woke" is fun to say, but it also means something. Seeing the problem is only the first half of the battle. Throughout the steady crawl toward this dystopia that happens in the flashbacks, Luke consistently says it will blow over. And even Moira says things will eventually go back to normal.

When everyone gets together and says that things will get better — that it’ll work out, it’ll be fine one day — then no one is actually doing anything to make that a reality.

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The Handmaid’s Tale 1x02 Review: “Birthday” (Revenge of the Baby Boomers) [Contributor: Melanie]

“Birthday” 

Original Airdate: April 26, 2017

The episode opens with yet another rousing bout of the Ceremony. Offred and Ofglen talk more about their past while on their daily shopping trip. We learn that Offred was once a book editor in Brooklyn and Ofglen was a college professor who was spared the execution prescribed to college professors because she had “two working ovaries” (college professors, priests, doctors who performed abortions, and LGBTQA+ citizens were all executed). Ofglen offers to Offred to join “us” (the resistance) and spy on the Commander. Offred notes that there must be an “us” because there is a “them.”

Offred is informed by Nick that the Commander has asked to see her alone at night, despite it being forbidden. Before she can linger too much on it, the birthmobile arrives to take her to a group midwife session where Janine gives birth to a child. In the weird, incredibly screwed up mentality they’ve got going here, the wife of the commander also pretends to go into labor with fellow wives around her. Offred recalls her own pregnancy and labor with her daughter. The postnatal ward in the hospital is empty as birth rates continue to diminish. Hannah is nearly abducted by a woman who breaks into the hospital in search of a health baby.

Meanwhile the faux birth play is even more screwed up when the wife gets behind Janine (not unlike the Ceremony positions) and pretends to give birth to the child. A healthy girl, Angela, is born and immediately taken away and handed to the wife. She gets into bed with the bundle, in an angelic mimic of Offred’s own incident with the abductor. Closing it all off, Janine is called on to be the wet nurse for her own child.

Offred goes to her meeting with the Commander, where he invites her to a rousing game of Scrabble (he beats her with one word because she lets him win). The game makes the meeting even more forbidden as women are not permitted to read in this future. The episode then has the GREATEST ENDING EVER when Offred takes her stride of pride out for the day to the backing of “Don’t You Forget About Me,” smugly ready to tell Ofglen that the Commander is taking a trip to Washington... when she finds someone new in Ofglen’s place.

This episode continued to play up the topical nature of content, this time in the form of declining birthrates. While in the story it’s a medical issue of women and men unable to produce a healthy child, the whole scenario and the knee-jerk response to it is something of a parallel to the way Baby Boomers have recently responded to the wave of progressive changes in the United States. The Millennial generation is often negatively stigmatized for the overall disinterest in having kids and the traditional family unit, 57% of the Millennial parents ages 26-31 had their children out of wedlock, and many other Millennial couples don’t have an interest with having kids at all. Further, with the legalization of gay marriage in the United States, adoption rates will be on the move as well. Meanwhile the Baby Boomers and their stance on having children is probably evident in their name.

This divide is one of many things that have put the Millennial generation at odds with the Baby Boomers, but the latter group recently had their last hurrah in the form of electing the neo-fascist idiot in the combover (since a Black president, gay marriage, women’s health rights, and the possibility of a woman president seemed too much for them to handle). They wanted a return to traditional values — to “make America great again.” A parallel happens here with the leaders of this new government (literally executing Congress and the president to set up their own America — now called Gilead — based on biblical doctrine and traditional gender roles). No Catholics, with Jews deported to Israel, educators and doctors who performed abortions killed, homosexual purges, and everything else that stands out from the union between a man and a woman and the traditional roles of men as leaders and women as housekeepers.

This metaphoric version of events depicts just how bad things can progress and how those marginalized by the government feel. Women may not be walking around in 2017 dressed in varying degrees of pilgrim clothes, but the label of “uterus on two legs” is something many women have felt deeply over the course of their lifetimes. Further, queer citizens have been and still are being murdered and abused today for their identities and orientations. Though these issues are presented in a hyperbolic sense in the Hulu series, it often takes works like The Handmaid's Tale to get privileged people with thick skulls to understand the issues. Those who don’t see these problems cannot believe they are exist, simply because they are not being affected by them.

But whatever, I’m not angry or anything. Check back here for more updates on the series!

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The Handmaid’s Tale 1x01 Review: “Offred” (Not All Men... Actually, No, ALL Men) [Contributor: Melanie]

“Offred”

Original Airdate: April 26, 2017

Note: Spoilers for the book also included toward the end of the review.

It took approximately 30 seconds into the first episode of The Handmaid's Tale for me to get angry.

The pilot opens with June (Elisabeth Moss), her husband Luke (O.T. Fagbenle), and their daughter Hannah (Jordana Blake), making a break for it into Canada (sound familiar?). They get within two miles of the border before they’re apprehended. Luke is shot and presumably killed while June and her daughter are separated. June is taken to a training center for Handmaids — fertile women who have been chosen to follow the Biblical precedent of Bilhah and bear children for the barren wives of government leaders. June is indoctrinated with Scripture, obeying to avoid punishment (one woman has an eye gouged out on her first day after speaking out of turn). A few years later, June finds herself now named Offred (as in “of Fred Waterford”), tasked with serving as the resident working uterus.

Naturally, Fred’s wife Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahvoski) — suburban white mom names didn’t go away post-apocalypse, praise be — is icy toward her. An attitude only further chilled after their first Ceremony, the censored name for the act of the Commander (Joseph Fiennes) having sex with Offred while she lays on Serena Joy’s lap. It’s a mechanical act, preluded by a reading of Scripture, then, with all clothes still on except for what absolutely has to be removed, the act, as it were, happens and then everyone goes to their bedrooms for the night. After this ordeal, Offred begins to suspect that the Commander’s driver, Nick (Max Minghella), might be an Eye. She spends her days going out into town to do the shopping based on a list provided by the Marthas (household women), always accompanied by her assigned companion Ofglen. They two have scripted conversation, both thinking the other is pious until they eventually bond over shared memories of a former ice cream store.

Offred has been passively but persistently looking for her friend Moira (Samira Wiley), who was a friend from college. However, on the day of a Salvaging  — a mob-based punishment for criminals reminiscent of The Lottery — she learns from Janine (Madeline Brewer) that Moira was declared an Unwoman and sent to the colonies for attempting to run. She has likely died from radiation poisoning there. In devastation, Offred takes her anger out on the Guardian who was convicted of raping a Handmaid and causing the miscarriage. The mob of Handmaids beat the man to death, with Offred moving in first. She realizes later — after she and Ofglen have their moment of understanding during which she warns Offred that there is an Eye in her house — that she must do anything she has to to survive and find her daughter.

That was the most cohesive recap I could muster since this first episode was heavily layered with world building, exposition, and flashbacks within flashbacks. But it was a great first start to the much-anticipated adaptation of the “grandmother of dystopian novels.”

The thing I really found myself focusing on in this opening episode was the changes between book and screen. The book, like the show, is constantly blending past and present — Offred remembers when life wasn’t utter crap, while trying to reconcile it with the now. In the first few pages she declares “I intend to survive,” which is a mantra she decides upon at the the end of the first episode after learning Moira is dead. But one thing the book and show continue to share is how scarily parallel this world is to our own. You switch a few bits of context around and much of what’s happening there could easily be happening here.

Ofglen tells Offred: “They’re good at making us distrust each other,” with the "they" being the men who have taken control of the government. The unfortunate reality is that that is a fact now. Whether it’s in TV shows, movies, staring at that really fit woman at the gym with envy, calling each other derogatory names, women are conditioned to be in constant competition with each other. While competition between men is a form of encouraged ambition, competition between women is a method of division. The power that comes from women joining together and communicating was palpable during the worldwide Women’s March in January which was the largest single-day protest in the history of the United States and held similar records all over the world with an estimated five million participants worldwide (of which I am proud to say I was one). But that joining together is a testament to what anti-feminists fear from the sorority of women.

That’s a theme here: Offred notes her daily walks with Ofglen aren’t for companionship as they’ve been told, but so either woman can act as a spy on the other and report back. The method worked, as both Ofglen and Offred refused to have any real conversation with each other, both believing the other was a “true believer” of the national religion and propaganda. It is only after it’s revealed that they’re on the same moral side that Offred makes the decision to no longer remain passive in her world. As we always say here at Just About Write... ladies supporting ladies.

The other very poignant moment in this first episode was the treatment of Janine at the Red Center. She is another captured runaway, brought into the center on the same day as June. Janine has an immediate rebellious attitude and finds herself short one eye within minutes of being at the center (“And if the right eye offend thee, pluck it out”). Later, she recounts the story of her apparent gang rape. Aunt Lydia — the instructor and caretaker of the Handmaid’s in-training — has no sympathy for her, and follows the story with a very familiar question: “And who led them on?” It’s a poignant moment as Janine struggles to find an answer. Aunt Lydia then declares that her rape was punishment from God, before forcing the other women to verbally state her guilt and shame her.

While that doesn’t happen in a room full of women in a clinical setting, it happens in a much worse place: at home, at work, on the street, everywhere. It’s an internalized part of our culture that we blame victims for their own rape, often — but not always — women. Evidence of this is found in the lenient punishments for rapists (most recently Brock Turner being released after only three months in jail on a six-month sentence — commuted down from what was originally requested to be 20 years). In fact, many rapes aren’t reported as a result of harsh backlash against the victim for several reasons.

One deviation from the book that I found interesting was the diversity and inclusive cast and character backstory. This doesn’t change the fact that our protagonist is still a white woman, but Samira Wiley, a queer woman of color, plays Moira, June’s best friend. Moira, a gay woman, escapes the purges — though her partner is not so lucky. June’s husband is a played by a Black man, her daughter being played by a Black actress. Ofglen’s backstory reveals she had a wife, with whom she had a son. While the original novel does not overtly state race or orientation on many characters, the inclusion of these points here is poignant, especially if you look at the characters to whom these changes have been applied.

Recently, in a Q&A and signing for the book that I attended at Toronto’s Eaton Center, Margaret Atwood was asked if she felt the story, which takes place in the U.S. (shocker) could happen in Canada. She replied that while Canada has not, historically, behaved well in some situations of oppression (citing their policy for allowing the U.S. to come in and extract runaway slaves during the 19th century, which is mimicked in this story when they bar refugee women and families) she felt that Canada was too diverse for something like this to happen. She qualified this by saying diversity was the ultimate enemy of monolithic government systems. This world works in the United States because the majority is white Christians with roots in theocratic government systems in its early life, in Canada, this theocracy is a harder sell.

That’s important here. Ofglen is — spoiler! — a resistance member (or at least she was in the book). Moira was an outspoken protester of this government and eventually survives deviantly from the prescribed Handmaid life. Nick — another character who will turn out to be (also spoiler!) a resistance member — is played by an actor of Chinese and Jewish heritage. The diversity is placed in those characters who are already fighting this system. This is also indicative of our current state of affairs as it is those marginalized minorities who are fighting for change.

I know, I know: this was long! But this was a great opening episode to The Handmaid’s Tale. Check back here for more recaps as we move through the season.

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