3 hours ago, Baltimore Betty said:

My surprise by the Waterfords leaving the trial without an escort of police or feds was strange and how did Serena get the teal "wife" maternity dress?  None of the wives were supposed to get pregnant, right?  

 The no police thing was a stupid choice.  I really don't get that.  

The dress though?  Looks like Serena put that together, she was wearing a white turtle neck, and it looked like the dress had been draped and kind of "put together" by her.  She  advocated womanly arts, so she would know how to sew at least that much.

Wives do get pregnant in Gilead sometimes though, those wives don't have handmaids.  Remember that one Commander that got promoted because he impregnated his new bride?  Virility is prized in this "men are men" society.  (and in a lot of religious cults that exist today as well)

 

3 hours ago, Baltimore Betty said:

At one point I thought Serena was going to play Fred to get what she wanted as in a lighter sentence but now it seems she is down with helping Fred for real, I agree with June, Serena is a sociopath.

  I think you are correct, she was.  She may still, she will do whatever it takes to survive.  Right now, her survival may depend on them being a team (more later when we get to the protesters.)

 

3 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

OMG, Fred. Please STFU. I can't bear to hear someone who abused his position and power tell the court about how they all made sacrifices in Gilead. Yes, it must have been terrible for YOU when you were breaking Gilead laws to go to Jezebel's and raping your handmaid every month. My, my, such sacrifices he made.

God yes!  Also bullshit on Fred allowing a woman to represent him.  None of his buddies/coworking commanders back in Gilead are going to like that, in spite of the optics being good for his case.

 

3 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

The issues with June and Luke are so complex that I don't know where to begin. I was solidly with Moira when she told him that he didn't understand what June had been through. His reply ("Maybe that's the problem") made me really anxious. I get that he is June's husband and that he wants to move forward, which will require work on both their parts. But I am also firmly of the belief that an assault victim never needs to talk about their trauma unless they want to do so.

This is complicated by the fact that June was chomping at the bit to testify against the Waterfords, but I understand her desire to make them pay for what they did to her as a drop in the bucket for what Gilead did to so many other women. The difference is that she was able to dispassionately describe a list of things that they had subjected her to. Luke, on the other hand, would no doubt want more than that. He would want to talk about the details and how she felt and I don't think that she's even close to ready for that.

In a relationship, both people have to have similar goals in order to be in harmony. Luke wants to heal their relationship. June is deliberately shutting him out. I think she really needs to give serious thought as to whether she wants to be married to Luke anymore and what that will entail. Everything can't be on her terms (especially her sexual aggression).

But by the same token, Luke needs to respect June's boundaries. She said she didn't want him to come to court and hear her testimony but he showed up anyway. Maybe he should have considered that it might be more difficult for her to give her testimony if he was in the room.

Luke is just clueless.

I love that the show is making their relationship so complicated, because honestly?  I would be.  

He betrayed her by telling Tuello her secret about that summerhouse meeting with Hannah.  He just shot off his big mouth, and took a tool from her, cluelessly, as usual.  She wanted to keep that card hidden.  He doesn't get it, he will probably never get it.  He escaped.  She did not.  He's HEARD the stories, but he didn't live them.

She specifically asked him not to come to the trial, but HE did whatever the hell he wanted to do, as usual, and ignored her wishes.  Sure, his motives were good, in his mind anyway.  He wanted to understand his wife, he wanted to be able to help her adjust, and felt he needed to hear it all to be able to do that.  Partly it was his way of trying to save his marriage.

Meanwhile, June, knowing he's unreliable, still, some more, was trying in her own way to save their marriage as well.  She was protecting him, keeping him from pain, as well as protecting herself from Luke spilling whatever she says to Tuello or someone else.  Now though?  I'm not sure what she will try or not try.  

She is about to tell him the most painful thing of all, while holding him.  The last visit with Hannah.

 

3 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I disliked that the show ended up making June right again. I don't think she should have ambushed Emily at therapy by bringing the aunt. It should have been Emily's choice whether to confront her or see her at all.

All of this brings me to the point that June needs a real therapist. I appreciate Moira offering a support group to the handmaids who clearly need some fellowship with other survivors who understand what they've been through. That is important. But June (and the others) still need professional counseling about the immense amount of abuse and trauma that they suffered for years.

Remember Emily already killed a wife, in the colonies.  Just to do it, to make that wife, someone she didn't even know, pay.  She also tried to kill Lydia.  June knows who Emily really is, and knows what Emily's been through.  Moira got out pretty quickly, she had a year or two of horror, Emily and June have had what?  5-7 years of it?

Moira has wonderful intentions, but most of the group did not want to disband, they wanted to stay, they wanted to really vent, something Moira seemed to always guide to some positive forgiveness or moving on goal.

Well, they had their own needs.  THEY chose to stay.  They aren't ready or willing to "move on."  Maybe they want or need more than a "safe" place to hide out.

June's made her choice, and it's been obvious for years now.  She wants Hannah out of that world.  Now though?  She wants them all out of that world.  She wants that world OVER and buried.  That IS her goal, and her focus now, and she is not alone in that.  Peace at any cost isn't in her wheelhouse.

 

3 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I'm glad that Janine is alive but so disappointed that she's back in Gilead and specifically under Lydia's thumb once again. Hopefully Lydia's attempts to brainwash Janine into turning against June won't be successful.

Gross to see how many supporters Fred and Serena had after his "God rewarded us" moralizing.

I bet the actress is loving all of this, but yes, Janine is the heart rending face of what Gilead really is.  I hope her teflon armor protects her and keeps her on our screens!

It was a relatively small crowd, but, as icky as it was?  It makes sense to me.  Religious fanatics are everywhere, they don't stop at borders.  Serena had millions of fans, and apparently, even after everything?  She still has some.

Speaking of Serena, she was soaking that in!  Until that moment, she was playing with Fred, both as a survival tool for her, and I think to manipulate him for Tuello to buy her freedom.  Now though?  She was basking in that "fan" adoration.  She's missed it so much!  The fame, the mass love, the attention.  This may change things up significantly for her!

 

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Like so many episodes, this episode had a lot of good ideas that all came together in a weird kind of way. For a show that wants to be so gritty, there are so many moments that don't seem real at all, like this high profile witness being allowed to just walk around free with only minor security, or the Pro Waterford crown all cheering Fred and Serena. I can buy that some crazy people would be on their side, but the Canadian government doesn't seem dumb enough to just let Fred give speeches to the world on the big screen and let the crazies run loose, and there would have absolutely have been people protested against the Waterfords, like there have been literally every other time the Waterfords have been seen in public. From everything we have seen, the Canadian public have been shown to almost universally hate Gilead and its supporters, but I guess now they have a whole crowd that make signs for them? Not really consistent with anything that has been shown before, but whatever. This show has been putting its big moments and visuals over the actual story for ages now. 

I agree with most of this.  This was a hit and miss episode, and honestly, I had to sleep on it, and look this morning with fresh eyes, and also with the impressions it left amid some of the jumble.  Some I've already put above, but in general?

Two marriages, both adapting/adjusting for survival reasons, both now extremely political in nature, though for mostly different reasons.

The nature of war, being fought on many fronts.  Manipulation via Tuello and the USA, Serena coldly trying to decide her best move, June unwilling to allow Gilead to survive no matter what the cost.

Emotionally, this episode worked for me, I felt all of those goals/desires/needs throughout.  Some of the details/optics didn't work for me though, such as the apparently unguarded Waterfords, the female lawyer, etc.

 

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

June looked so pleased with herself getting all the women in the support group to start venting about how pissed off they are, things are going to get pretty awkward back home after June hijacked Moira's group to start building her next army after her last one was run over by a train. I know that her testimony was just about Fred and not Gilead in general, but I feel like her testimony could have had more teeth. In general I wish we saw more Gilead refugees telling their stories about the horrible abuses and murderers they experienced and witnessed in Gilead, there is just so much to choose from. I did think June's testimony was some of Elizabeth Moss's best acting so far this season, especially when she talked about how Fred and Serena drank coffee in the kitchen while she and the Lawrence's were forced to do the ceremony. It felt really visceral, and made me think of poor Mrs. Lawrence.   

I think many, including Luke and Moira, mistakenly believed that getting to safety was June's only goal, after all, that was THEIR only goal.  Of course the whole pie in the sky rescue Hannah thing was there, but I doubt anyone believes that possible anymore.

June's goals have been quite different for months now.  She doesn't care about her own safety, she's seen so much horror, and so much death, and so much torture, she's toughened up enough to know that the only way to stop it all, not just for HER, but for all those left behind in that hell, that Gilead, is to destroy Gilead completely.

Someone most sophisticated or talented might try to write profound books, or articles, but surely, among the many who have escaped, some have tried that.  Some try politics, talking, and they are good at that, government leaders have been trying that for years as well, kinda sorta, they have their own needs as well.

Some are fighting, all over Gilead, former United States citizens fighting to get their country back, to sabotage Gilead, from the Martha's who set those fires that allowed Emily and Nicole to escape, to the Mayday people who smuggle in and out weapons, and bomb makers, to the fighters in Chicago and elsewhere continually keeping Gilead troops fighting and wasting resources.  

That's what June knows, is learning, has decided is her destiny.  Why tell Luke that?  Would he even get it?  

Apparently that is a possible destiny for others as well, Emily, and the other escapees who stayed, over ruling Moira's attempt to disband.  Not everyone is willing to trade safety and personal comfort for the continued torture and hell of those left behind in their country.  

 

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Will Janine ever get a break? Could she please get a break? Honestly the show should have offed Lawrence after he helped June with the escape and Lydia when she lost the last batch of Handmaidens. If Gilead is supposed to be so scary and unforgiving, they should be a lot quicker to kill traitors and screw ups. They just need to learn when characters have outlived their narrative purpose. 

Lawrence is still alive because Gilead is running out of experienced Commanders, Fred captured, many killed by June in that Jezebel's.  In addition, Lawrence was one of the prime economic brains they had to bring Gilead into being.  He's on shaky ground, but they need him.  In addition, with Lydia's help?  He blackmailed other decision makers.

 

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I cant blame Emily for being happy that the woman who got her girlfriend killed and led to her being mutilated killed herself, its certainly not her job to give that woman her forgiveness after what she did to her. June getting the former handmaidens spitting mad is probably not going to end well, being filled with anger isn't exactly healthy, but at the same time telling people not to express anger, even angry violent vengeful thoughts, cant be healthy either. After all of the evil things that the Commanders and the other people who supported Gilead have done, wanting to dream about getting revenge in righteous fury seems pretty natural. Especially when so many of them are still out there murdering and abusing innocent people, a bit of anger can go a long way, as long as its properly channeled and doesn't eat you alive. You don't have to forgive people who hurt you, especially when they have done nothing to earn forgiveness. 

Emily isn't really the forgiving type.  She murdered that wife at the colonies.  She tried to murder Lydia.  Her delighting in having that Aunt who killed someone she loved, and got her mutilated makes perfect sense for this character.

Therapy wasn't working for her because Moira's brand of therapy isn't what Emily needed or wanted.  

 

6 hours ago, Bannon said:

I'm no expert, but if I had been mercilessly tortured by people who still held power and were still engaged in that behavior, and I was in a group therapy session, where the session leader was trying to tell me to reel back my expression of my desire to strike down on my oppressors with great vengeance and furious anger, I'd politely tell the session leader to eff off.  The time for moving on will come when enough m*therf*ckers are put in the ground, or are in small jail cells, and the torture regime is utterly destroyed.

EXACTLY!

Obviously when they refused to disband, that was their polite way of telling Moira her way was not the only way, nor was it helping them.

4 hours ago, AntFTW said:

Watching Janine... get dragged back... to Aunt Lydia... Breaks. My. Heart.

Oh God yes.  

4 hours ago, bettername2come said:

Poor Moira/great acting in the moment where her support group goes off the rails. The scene in the court was good. The crowd outside waiting for the Waterfords threw me off, not so much because they were supportive of them, but because they seemed way too happy and cheerful and their signs had words that seemed way too sane comparatively for them to be supporting these two and/or Gilead in general. 

Great acting all around.

I'd like to mention Serena's subtle basking in being famous again with that crowd cheering her.  Well done.

2 hours ago, greekmom said:

That's another good point. One thing that i forgot to mention was that I don't think this is SJ trial.  I don't see a lawyer for SJ (just Fred) and June did say she wants: "for the international court to confirm these charges against this man and put him on trial."

She doesn't mention for the international court to confirm the charges against the Waterfords or them.

Good point.

Yay, more to come!

Edited June 2, 2021 by Umbelina
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