“You’re such a boss now,” Rita tells June, positively glowing with pride. It is worth remembering that it is often his music, in conjunction with Elisabeth Moss’s performances, that makes all of June’s long close-ups so powerful. His work this week, especially on the funeral scene, was top notch. No well-known songs this week, just original compositions from Adam Taylor, who has provided the show’s original music since season one. Moira, who has had criminally little to do this season, finally got her chance to confront Serena – and deliver a line so perfect that the writers must have been sitting on it for three years: “I am who I am, and I’ve sinned plenty, but you … you are the gender traitor.” Who else but Moira could have called Serena out for what she really is, under all her piety and business-like neatness? She is the woman who climbed to power over the dead and suffering women of Gilead. Meanwhile, Fred is lounging on his sofa like he is taking meetings, goading Luke into punching him as if to demonstrate his power and control, even in his reduced circumstances.īest of all, though, was Moira delivering Nichole for Serena’s hour-long supervised visit, in which Serena was chastised by a social worker for calling herself “mama” in front of Nichole. Fred is still in his suit Serena has switched to trousers and (literally) let her hair down, but she still can’t escape Gilead, with her room’s “wife”-coloured armchairs. Photograph: Jasper Savage/Huluįred and Serena aren’t in the orange jumpsuits that June was imagining – instead, they are in a prison that most people would happily stay in on holiday. But she is still dependent on Fred – surely her deal relies on the Americans getting something useful out of him? Serena had been very nice to Fred recently, until she calmly removed her devoted wife mask and pushed Fred’s hand from her throat, finally showing the distain that she has clearly felt for him for some time. “She’s only nice when she’s up to something,” June pointed out this week. She didn’t bring the Americans 52 stolen kids, but she did bring them a senior commander.
The real meat of the story this week – despite Gilead’s various deaths – happened in Canada, where we learned that, as suspected, Serena has done a deal with Tuello to secure her freedom. They have earned that clandestine finger-touch of solidarity over the potatoes as they bitch about their old bosses. It came across as the sort of gossip old friends have in the real world, filled with “Wait til you hear …” and “Can you believe it?” June and Rita are old war buddies they survived the Waterford house together they got baby Nichole to safety. Her triumph was further underlined by her chat with Rita over the carrots. Once left alone, she burst into laughter, giddy with joy and relief. She initially seemed conflicted over the news of the Waterfords’ arrest, but that was her Gilead training kicking in – don’t show emotion in front of anyone in power. Photograph: Jasper Savage/Huluīefore the episode’s tragic end, June was allowed some big victories.
Moira (Samira Wiley) and Luke (OT Fagbenle).
After all, she is not the only one.īack with a bang. Bradley Whitford was great, too, as the grieving husband mechanically going through with June’s plan, while perhaps beginning to suspect that it is no coincidence that his wife died while June was under his roof.
Her suicide, though, was completely consistent with the character, and bleakly inevitable. Julie Dretzin has been brilliant as Eleanor, but in recent episodes the character has morphed into a cliched mad truth-teller, as confused or as wise as each scene required her to be. She was, as the episode’s title suggests, the sacrifice needed to save those children – in June’s mind, at least. But it is far more likely that June allowed her to die because she was simply too much of a risk to their escape plan in her unmedicated state. Perhaps June thought she was simply carrying out Eleanor’s wishes – after all, as Eleanor pointed out this week, there is no escape from Gilead for her and Lawrence, even if they make it across the border. We may have cheered June on when she killed the thoroughly villainous Commander Winslow in self-defence, but standing by and allowing Eleanor Lawrence to die from an overdose was another level of crime altogether.
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