The Handmaid’s Tale “A Woman’s Place”

I’ll give the Republic of Gilead this much:  it sucks for pretty much everybody, and that includes the fools who set the whole thing up.

Offred is feeling a bit weird for willingly sleeping with Nick, but there’s no time for that.  There is a diplomatic entourage coming to see the Commander from Mexico.  And they want to meet, well, Offred.

The meeting is a bit awkward since Offred assumes the man in front of her is the Mexican ambassador.  He isn’t.  He’s the assistant.  The ambassador is the woman standing just behind him.  She wants to know if Offred is happy.  Heck, she assumes Offred actually volunteered to be a Handmaid.  That woman wasn’t around when the Handmaids were cleaning the blood of the execution wall.  Does Offred say she’s happy?

Yes.  It’s about as convincing as a politician’s denial, but she says it.

What does the Mexican government want anyway?  Well, Serena Joy is putting on a big show on how successful Gilead has been with the whole Handmaid program, and yeah, they probably want to trade for Handmaids.  What else does Gilead have?

There’s a special place in Hell for women like Serena Joy, and she’s been living part of it on Earth so far.  Flashbacks show she used to have an actual career as a conservative author and activist.  She and Fred had what looked like a loving, healthy relationship.  Now the Commander is demanding kisses from Handmaids, and yeah, Offred will do it, but afterwards she’ll be brushing her teeth until she bleeds.  But Serena worked hard to help build this society, built on the back of murder, rape, and treason, and she clearly lost everything she loved herself.  Did she think she’d be immune from the laws she was pushing for?  She isn’t.  No woman is.  She may be ruining the lives of others, but in many ways she shot herself in the foot in the process.

And though Offred does later tell the Mexican ambassador the truth, Mexico isn’t exactly in a good place right now and there’s nothing that woman can do. But her assistant?  He says he knows Luke is alive.  And he can pass along a message…