I hadn’t really been feeling this season of The Handmaid’s Tale. June’s plot armour was getting downright ridiculous, it infuriated me how everyone around her died but she always escaped. (Alright, there was a whole episode’s worth of her being psychologically tortured, but we’ve seen people hung for less, is what I’m saying.) And then there were the endless lingering closeups, the various “ooh maybe Serena is on the verge of redemption after all for the billionth time”…
But FINALLY in the last couple episodes things paid off! The season finale was flat-out amazing. I almost teared up when the women came together to help June and throw the rocks (using a tool of their oppression to their advantage, my gosh, it was such a heroic moment) and I definitely almost teared up when the plane landed in Canada. At long last things are turning around! Moira and Luke are doing okay! Emily is doing okay! Rita is free! That one little girl was reunited with her father! It was beautiful.
And it was more beautiful after the utter, utter horror of that opening scene. I want to say it reminded me of Children of Men because I don’t want to think about the other things it reminded me of.
On a much happier note, my GOD was I over the moon when the Waterfords finally got what was coming to them. That was possibly the most satisfying justice I have seen all year, too bad it only happened in fiction. But I was so happy to know that at last they are going down, and they only have themselves to blame.
Imagine that gif a hundred times over and you’ll start getting an idea of HOW MUCH schadenfreude I feel.
I can’t imagine how s4 is going to go but I don’t think anyone still in Gilead can return to their “homes” now. What I’d like to see is June, Janine and the others living out in the forest, avoiding detection and looking for Hannah. Hannah still being trapped in Gilead kills me.
I remember when I first read The Handmaid’s Tale in high school and I was so proud of myself for putting together the clues which pointed to the narrator’s real name and working out it was June. For a while, I admit it, it felt almost like a secret pact between me and the book. Now of course, everyone knows her name. This episode made me realise all over again what a perfect name it is for her, though.
What comes after Mayday? June.
