The Handmaid’s Tale “Mayday”

Well, that ended.

So, yeah, June has probably way too much plot armor and maybe not enough actual armor given how this episode ended. Does she get the kids out of Gilead? Yeah, and with little real problems that she can’t willpower her way through. Commander Lawrence at one point tried to stop it because a Martha tried smuggling a kid over a couple hours early. That is both prudent and cowardly. June, however, pulled a gun on the kid to get her to stay, showing she is both courageous and foolhardy given the risks.

Lawrence comes around in the end and even helps, then decides to stay in Gilead, probably to face all kinds of punishment.

You know, when we first met the guy, he seemed like he might be a formidable opponent for June, but in the end, he kinda just rolled over like everyone else on the show. True, he showed her actual respect by referring to her by her real name, and I’m actually gonna miss the guy, but that’s that.

And, for all her efforts, June gets shot, though she also kills one of the Eyes in the process. The other Handmaids find her and carry her off in what is almost certainly meant to be a symbolic shot, following Aunt Lydia’s warning about the dangers of misusing popularity.

Heck, June is a little too casual to Lydia at this point. I don’t mind a strong protagonist, but given how omnipresent Gilead is supposed to be, June is downright flippant. It’s a wonder she didn’t get caught sooner given how seemingly obvious it was how the Handmaids were passing her messages. I suppose the point is June learned to be ruthless due to her time in Gilead as a flashback shows her being far more determined than scared even when she was first arrested, particularly given how much the Eyes were sorting out the physically and mentally disabled women from the bunch for what was probably some kind of genetic cleaning. You know, as if they weren’t Nazi-esque enough.

But maybe June just never lost her defiance because she learned to hide it better than, say, Janine did. Sure, Janine is helping at the end, but something happened and I hope we get a little course correction. I’m glad June is rebelling, I just wish she didn’t do it in such a blatantly obvious way where it seems like dumb luck and stupid observers are the only reason she doesn’t get caught.

Yeah, even if June did get shot, it still feels like the world bends to her will now, like a reverse Wile E. Coyote and everything just works when it maybe shouldn’t.

And seeing Fred give the Americans some more dirt on Serena Joy so she can also be tried for War Crimes…well, that may or may not make me feel better in season four.

In the meantime…yeah, that happened.

So, where to now for Mondays? I dunno. Let’s go back and see how season two of Titans went.