The Handmaid’s Tale – It is not over.

The Handmaid's Tale: 6x02 Exile.

 

The only way is to show up and fight.

I think the animating question of this final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, with limits imposed on how far the resistance against Gilead can be allowed to proceed since there is already a Gilead-set sequel in the works, is about the personal decision on how to live a meaningful life with the existence of a terror regime looming over everything, even the relative places of safety that both June and Serena find themselves in now. They are coming at the question from opposite ends:
Serena is one of the architects of the original Gilead in all its horrors, contributing the ideology and profiting from its exploitation of other women. The episode shows her in the days just before, visiting her declining father, a preacher of some kind, excitedly telling him about her relationship with Fred and how they are changing the world (significantly, as his beautiful garden which he can no longer care for lies fallow and wilting around them). She has always believed in the tenets of Gilead, and she still does, with some caveats regarding the power accorded to women (and I think it’s pretty clear that these doubts about Gilead stem much more from her own experience than from being moved in any particular way by the suffering of others, including June). In this episode, she has found an unlikely haven that she should thrive in: a religious commune in Canada that cares for women and children, devoid of the brutality and violence of Gilead. She is safe there, and if she could let go of her desire for power, she could continue to exist, in this small life, harvesting ripe tomatoes and seeing Noah grow up exactly the way she has claimed she wants him to. But it’s not enough! I don’t even think that in the end it’s Commander Lawrence’s thinly veiled threat about the Eyes knowing where she is, the stick he brings out when he fears that the carrot of giving her power and influence in New Bethlehem isn’t enough. It’s sufficient that his diagnosis of her boredom is correct: Serena will never be satisfied with a small life, and she has taken all the wrong lessons from what happened to her on the train. She will not quietly atone for her sins in a community of women who accept her in spite of knowing who she really is. She wants to become an architect of Gilead once again, this time of a transformation that promises to continue Gilead on into the future.

There are historical examples of totalitarian regimes building model villages – and model concentration camps – to create the illusion that things are not as horrible and terrible as they are. It gives other countries an excuse to stop the boycotts, to also profit from what Gilead has achieved, without seeming too morally compromised. Once these connections are made, once Canada and others begin importing Gileadean goods, perhaps even use similar methods to bring babies back, it will be next to impossible to meaningfully oppose the true Gilead that will continue to exist. The thaw already has consequences for the refugees in Canada, who are being terrorised and evicted from their new homes. New Bethlehem’s existence does not mean that the other horrors of the regime have ended – nobody has yet talked about what is happening in Gilead proper, in the Handmaids training centre for example, and what effect it will have on the Colonies or the judicial regime of terror. It’s a fig leaf for Commander Lawrence, who is horrified by what he has created but too cowardly to face the consequences. It’s Commander Wharton who points out to Lawrence that he needs Serena as the face of New Bethlehem – and he knows that his position is precarious enough within the regime that he has to do whatever he is told. He tasks Nick, who is now under the watchful eye of his father-in-law, to use his contacts in the Eyes to track down Serena. Lawrence arrives in Canaan with his new wife in tow – we’ve seen him and Naomi bickering, with Lawrence deeply uncomfortable in this new life that Gilead has assigned him, hesitant to give up his control over his house and awkward around Naomi’s (Janine’s) child. He knows how to play Serena, how she ticks, and the scene at the table where neither he nor his wife can deliver a believable prayer before the meal showcases why he is in the position he is in: he’s barely passing as a true believer in Gilead, without the religious fundamentalism or the true faith of the other Commanders (Wharton, on the other hand, wears the role so comfortably – in his conversation with his son-in-law about how he grew up with a mother that “worked outside the house”, with a father who didn’t care for him, and a hidden warning to Nick that he reads well enough to toss the phone SIM that Tuello has given him). Serena is the one who ends up saying grace in a way that sounds like she is already prepping for her newly assigned role, perfect, seamless, ending in a goodbye to the women who have accepted her and Noah into the community. She was never going to be satisfied with this quiet life they were offering, and her time has once again come to regain her power. 

June is on the other side here. She is a victim of Gilead. Horrible things have been done to her. Alaska is a place of safety, of an impossible reunion with a mother she has thought lost. She could stay here, settle down, or go on to Hawai’s or Guam, the other remaining parts of the United States. Luke, freed for now by Tuello and Moira, is waiting for his hearing in Canada, but if all goes well, he could join her. If it weren’t for Hannah pulling her back, this is once again a promise of a relatively safe life. But we’ve seen Luke’s fury boiling for a while now, his shame for not fighting harder, for having suffered less than June and done so little to fight back. He is just as eager as Moira to join Mayday, and off-screen, they begin their fight and get lost in No Man’s Land. In the conversation between Nick and Tuello, it becomes clear how willing Mark is to send these untrained people to be chewed up as cannon fodder: he will do it for as long as he has people to burn, regardless of whether they have a shot at real change or not. He is so open to Nick about it that he doesn’t even realise he is burning that contact, because Nick isn’t willing to put himself and his new family in danger if there is no clear upside at the end of it. Without Nick as a contact, Mayday doesn’t have access to the kind of information it needs to operate. Suddenly, the phone calls (a limited resource always effectively adds drama) June makes from Alaska stop going through, until she finds out that her best friend and her husband are lost, and she is the only one able to help, because Nick would listen to her. Holly, her mother, asks her not to risk herself again. She has only just found her daughter, after years of desperately trying to find her and hoping she was still alive. Holly is also the first person who calls Nick what he truly is – a Nazi. As much as Nick is also not a true believer, his actions have enabled the regime, he is a part of the Eyes, essentially secret police that is terrorising Gileadeans. It doesn’t matter if his heart is in it. Holly thinks June shouldn’t trust him, but she’s never been clear-eyed about Nichole’s father. The only thing Holly’s pleading achieves is that June leaves Nichole behind when she goes back to join the fight. Holly thinks that the rational thing to do in light of the overpowering presence of Gilead is to protect the people that you love, to hold them close. June still wants to burn it all down, and it might be the only way to get Hannah back.

Random notes:

There’s some great acting happening between Elisabeth Moss and Cherry Jones to showcase how complex the relationship between June and her mother is. In the past, Holly has always been the radical, blaming June for her relatively mainstream life, but now that June wants to do something dangerous that could put her in danger yet again, Holly asks her to stay.

Bradley Whitford and Ever Carradine do some great comedic work in their uneasy interaction as unwilling spouses. I’m also looking forward to more showdowns between Whitford and Josh Charles, who are evenly matched.

Rita is thinking about going to New Bethlehem because she is looking for her sister and about to be evicted in Toronto. It’s easy to see Gilead as a villain – it’s a totalitarian state – but the idea of Canada acquiescing and becoming an unsafe place for refugees is maybe the more terrifying proposition in 2025.