Tag: The Handmaid's Tale S5

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 7: No Man’s Land Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

In episode 7, June and Serena are on the run in No Man’s Land as Serena’s labor intensifies. Flashbacks show a birth both women attended in Gilead shortly after June was placed with the Waterfords.

June’s never ending, terrible, no good, very bad day continues.

Recap

Serena points the gun at the front of the car and tells June to drive. June does, but questions where Serena wants her to go and what Wheeler’s men did with Luke. Serena has another contraction and accidentally pulls the trigger, firing a shot through the windshield. She immediately starts apologizing, but June has had enough and stops the car.

She jogs away from the car as Serena tells her she’s not going to shoot her and tries to follow in the car. On her next contraction, she drives off the road and gets stuck in mud. June runs deeper into the forest, then stops and reconsiders.

This season’s motif of June, lost in the No Man’s Land Forest with a companion and in danger, continues. First she was with Moira, then Luke, now Serena. In the forest, June finds clearings, empty old buildings, inhabitants who live off the grid in odd buildings and other strange sights, such as the dead rapist, but whenever she enters it’s much more difficult than expected to get out. The only times she gets in and out safely are when Nick is involved. That might make him her protector or it might make him the Big Bad Wolf who’s in charge of the forest- or both.

Continue reading “The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 7: No Man’s Land Recap” →

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 6: Together Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

Episode 6 picks up soon after the previous episode left off, with June and Luke in a prison van, on their way to an undisclosed location in No Man’s Land. Serena discovers that her morning doctor’s appointment will take place in the Wheeler’s attic, in a birthing suite they’ve furnished with the latest technology. Just to make sure she and the baby remain completely safe and in their clutches. Aunt Lydia finds out that Esther is three weeks pregnant, revealing Commander Putnam raped her when they were alone together at Fred’s wake. Outraged, Lydia takes the scandal to Commander Lawrence, who brings Nick in help handle the out of control Commander.

Recap

June (Elisabeth Moss) and Luke (O-T Fagbenle) are cuffed (should we say “ziptied” now?) for the long van ride to their captors’ detention center. Luke moans in distress and tries to break the zipties. June instructs him that it’s not worth wasting his energy this way, when there’s no chance of escape. When he asks if the kidnappers are from Gilead, she explains that it’s not likely, since the van has a disinfectant smell and Gilead shuns such strong chemicals.

Continue reading “The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 6: Together Recap” →

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 5: Fairytale Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

During episode 5 June and Luke go bowling in No Man’s Land, while Serena meets Commander Mr Wheeler and spars with Warren and Joseph. The message of the episode: Life is a fairytale, but one written by the Brothers Grimm, not by Walt Disney.

A few moments from the “Previously” stand out: Moira’s line delivery when she tells June that Hannah wont become a wife under any circumstances is so heartfelt; the tears in Luke’s eyes combined with the anger in his voice at the end of his meeting with Serena- she pushed all of his buttons after knowing him for less than an hour in total; the way Serena leans into Ezra as he escorts her out of the Information Center when they hear the gunshot- she’s looking for a man she can rely on; and Mrs Ryan Wheeler’s crazy eyes when she looks up at Serena as she caresses the baby in her womb- no way is she letting Serena keep that child.

Recap

The episode begins with one of June’s (Elisabeth Moss) iconic flashbacks to toddler Hannah (Jordana Blake) at the aquarium, a memory that both sustained and haunted June throughout her time in Gilead. The end of the flashback rewinds, then June wakes up to her phone buzzing. She was dreaming. The rewind was an expression of her fear that Hannah’s memories of her childhood with June and Luke (O-T Fagbenle) are disappearing and being replaced by memories of childhood in Gilead with the MacKenzies. By extension, she’s worried about the way Gilead is shaping Hannah as a person.

Continue reading “The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 5: Fairytale Recap” →

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 4: Dear Offred Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

Episode 4 finds Serena setting up camp in the newly renovated Gilead Information Center, while June (Elisabeth Moss), Moira (Samira Wiley) and Luke (O-T Fagbengle) continue to deal with the fall out from Hannah’s appearance on TV. Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) opens a dialogue with Janine (Madeline Brewer) and Joseph (Bradley Whitford) about how she can improve working conditions for the handmaids. Neither is initially receptive to her change of heart.

Recap

June distractedly pushes Nichole in a toddler swing at a public playground while Nichole busies herself with being adorable. June’s reverie is interrupted by a woman (Imogen Haworth) standing in front of them who complements the baby and asks her age (14 months). She turns out to know exactly who she’s speaking with, calling both June and Nichole by name.

As June calmly retrieves Nichole from the swing, the stalker woman tells June about her own lost pregnancies, both boys. She thinks June was lucky to have been in Gilead, apparently giving them credit for Nichole’s healthy birth. She and the other pro-Gilead nuts must not know about Hannah (Jordana Blake)- probably for the best that it stays that way.

Continue reading “The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 4: Dear Offred Recap” →

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 3: Border Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

In episode 6, “Borders”, Moira (Samira Wiley) and June (Elisabeth Moss) visit a rebel camp on the Canadian border with the hope of getting more information about Hannah (Jordana Blake). Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) works to secure her future in Gilead. Hannah’s adoptive parents, the MacKenzies, worry that June is a threat to their family. As Janine (Madeline Brewer) lingers in a coma, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) stays by her bedside the way she once had June sit with Natalie/Ofmatthew (S3Ep9).

Recap

The episode picks up later in the evening after the end of the funeral in episode 2. June sits in her living room, going over the funeral broadcast in her mind and staring at a photo of Hannah from the before times. She asks Luke (OT Fagbenle) what Hannah was wearing, but he can’t remember. Moira, who’s been trying to get through to the refugee center on the phone, was watching at home and remembers the outfit. June asks if she noticed the color. Moira is upset that the broadcast revealed Tuello is in Gilead with Serena. But she recalls Hannah was wearing purple rather than pink, the color little girls wear.

They all look at each other with dread when this ominous sign that Hannah is growing up sinks in. June remembers seeing Nick (Max Minghella) there as well and decides to contact him. Luke reminds her that they have to use Tuello’s (Sam Jaeger) sat phone to do that. Moira tells them she knows of a group of rebels at the border who are able to get messages into Gilead.

Continue reading “The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 3: Border Recap” →

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 2: Ballet Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

In episode 2, June (Elisabeth Moss) returns to normal life with her family in Toronto while Serena returns to Gilead for Fred’s (Joseph Fiennes) funeral. Both have some difficulty achieving what they want and clash with their allies in the process. At the Red Center, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) prepares the latest crop of handmaids for placement, including Esther (Mckenna Grace) and Janine (Madeline Brewer).

This is a triggering episode for all of the women, whether they’re in Gilead or Canada, no matter their social station. The episode studies how each woman handles the crisis she faces, especially comparing June and Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), now that their positions have reversed. Serena is pregnant, alone and in danger of losing her child and her freedom, as June was at the beginning of S2, while June is married, in a safe place, with a home of her own and among friends, as Serena was for the first 2 seasons. But the threats that Gilead and the war pose to women and to the citizens of the US are always in the background for every character, whether they choose to acknowledge those threats or not.

Recap

As in episode 1, the Everly Brothers get the opening voiceover with All I Have to Do Is Dream, while June lies awake in bed running her reel of Serena memories on a loop. Among Serena’s greatest worst hits are the many times she violently manhandled Offred; the way, as the Wife, she (and Fred) took credit for June’s pregnancy (with Nick’s (Max Minghella) baby); and of course, her worst offenses- when she dangled her access to Hannah in front of June without letting June near her own daughter. Serena abused June/Offred just as much as Fred did, and in some ways the pain she caused was more insidious.

Continue reading “The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 2: Ballet Recap” →

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 1: Morning Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

It’s time to return to the world of Gilead for season 5 of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. When we left June (Elisabeth Moss) at the end of season 4, she and a group of former handmaids had just finished salvaging former Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) in the No Man’s Land between Canada and Gilead, after Mark Tuello (Sam Jaeger) and the US made a deal for a prisoner swap between the US and Gilead, then Nick Blaine (Max Minghella) and Joseph Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) handed off Fred to June after the swap. According to the terms of the deal, Fred was to be disposed of via Gilead’s justice system. According to Gilead’s justice system, the punishment for a rapist is death by salvaging, with the salvagings carried out by the handmaids of the district. Since the Eyes control the border, Nick had the authority to dispense the appropriate form of justice and to turn Fred over to the local handmaids to carry it out.

The terms of the deal with the US were met, 22 Marthas who were part of the resistance were saved and Fred got the ending he deserved according to the system he devised.

May the rest of the Commanders also find the same justice at their ends. Under His eye.

Season 5 picks up moments after season 4 ends. The enormity of what she’s done starts to hit June.

Continue reading “The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 1: Morning Recap” →