The Handmaid's Tale season 2 episode 3 review and recap: Post-book, the show is flourishing
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Your support makes all the difference.Going beyond the source material is an immense challenge for a TV show, but so far The Handmaid's Tale has handled it seamlessly, the first three episodes of season 2 being as strong as any in season 1, if not stronger.
The latest instalment, 'Baggage' *spoilers ahead*, opens with June jogging around The Boston Globe, trying to keep her mind and body active but starting to feel as claustrophobic and confined in the empty building as she did in the Waterfords' spare room.
"The anti-Gilead organization is not necessarily a friend to June or a friend to handmaids," showrunner Bruce Miller previously teased of the second season, and this week we started to see that, as June struggles to cope with the vagaries of her rescue.
Told she is leaving the Globe only to be let down and suddenly informed the new safe house was compromised, a handler ultimately takes pity on her and takes her into his own home, much to the frustration of his wife (and fair enough, as doing so poses an enormous risk to their family). This leads to perhaps the episode's most powerful scene, where June discovers a Quran hidden under the couple's mattress. While once the nation argued and fought each other over differing faiths, the simple right to express one is now the most simple, beautiful thing to June, who clutches the holy book and lays out a prayer rug.
June's mother (played by the always excellent Cherry Jones) is the focus of this week's flashback, a hardened feminist who is in fact disappointed with her daughter's more moderate approach and decision to settle down with a man and get married while the nation falls to pieces. We learn that her mother's recalcitrance led to her being placed in the colonies, and these memories of her mother's tough spirit compel June to take action rather than continue waiting around for a succession of men to save her.
"I waited before [the war]," she says. "I thought things might be okay. I swore I'd never do that again.'
Heartbreakingly, this proves to be a rash decision, June managing to get as far as a rebel plane bound for Canada, only for it to be shot down before take-off and June and another stowaway dragged away. Again. She now faces the prospect of going back to square one, the only thing keeping her from being executed being the unborn child inside her. Eesh.
'Baggage' was an almost entirely June-centric episode, though we did check in with Moira too. In a brief sub-plot, Moira enjoys a sexual encounter with another woman in the restroom of a club, but doesn't allow herself to be pleasured, perhaps fearing she is still too mentally scarred to orgasm or even be touched - tellingly going by her Jezebels name, Ruby.
Side note: "Blessed be the Fruit Loops" was a nice dose of grim humour.
The best-looking show on TV right now, The Handmaid's Tale continues to excel in production design, cinematography, score and, crucially, storytelling (you can keep your Westworld). Praise be.
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