The Handmaid's Tale: Home (4x07)

Dang, that was an intense episode.

Cons:

I think the one portion of the episode that felt too on-the-nose for me was the grocery store moments where June is being triggered by things that remind her of Gilead. The concept is sound, but I think we could have gotten the idea just from June's behavior, instead of the actual flashes of memory from Gilead. A little too blunt, maybe. This is a nitpick!

Also, Moira's girlfriend apparently isn't out of the picture? I'm happy about this, but also we haven't gotten a real chance to get to know this character, and her status as she relates to Moira keeps shifting so I'm just not sure what to make of her yet.

Pros:

This episode doesn't make you wait for anything! June reunites with everyone we want her to reunite with. She gets to see Moira, Luke, and baby Nichole, obviously. And then also Emily, and her son, and Rita. And then in the very same episode, we also get that long-awaited first confrontation with Serena. I appreciated that this episode was full, because there was definitely some slowness in the earlier parts of the season, and now I feel like we're getting the show on the road.

Let's start with June, Rita, Moira, and Emily getting to have dinner together and talk about their trauma. This conversation is revealing for what it says about June's mental state. They've all got guilt, they've all got shit to deal with, but the other three women in that room have started to process and heal, and June is still at the very beginning of that journey.

Then there's the whole Nichole situation. I loved seeing June get to hold her daughter. The parallels between June telling Luke a story of seeing Hannah, and telling her that her mommy and daddy love her very much, to her holding Nichole and saying the same thing, only this time talking about Nick... gah. So much complexity and juicy drama. I loved seeing June get to hold her child, though.

Moira and Luke constantly saying "love you" to each other is sending me. Picture this from June's point of view. She's like... didn't you guys barely tolerate each other for my sake? And now they're a family. They are Nichole's mother and father for all intents and purposes. I love that they have this parenting rhythm, and June is the outsider observing it. Obviously unconventional families are going to happen in situations like this, and I hope that they can find harmony moving forward.

June is... not okay, in big and obvious ways. We see how cathartic she finds it, to scream at Serena and tell her she hopes she has a miscarriage. I don't blame her for her fury. I don't feel sympathy for Serena, really. But I think it's clear that we're meant to see June's outburst, the level of her vitriol, as a sign of how much pain she is in, and how much healing is still in front of her. Then that sex scene with Luke was... kind of disturbing. Okay, more than kind of disturbing. I think Luke was really worried about hurting June or pushing her too fast, and I think June needed to "rip the band-aid off" so to speak, and have sex with her husband. But uhh... a conversation needed to happen. I'm not convinced Luke was okay with what just happened, and there needs to be a reckoning with that.

June describes Serena as a sociopath, filled with rage and with emptiness underneath. We see that Serena, who was unwilling to work with Fred earlier, now realizes that she's in big trouble now that the American and Canadian governments have June on their side. So, it looks like the Waterfords are going to be allies once again. Chilling to contemplate, truly.

Honestly, the thing I'm most interested in going forward is the politics of it all. Moira's girlfriend admits that helping to smuggle such an important asset out of Gilead is helping offset some of the trouble they're in for breaking the rules. And June has so much data. June knows the inner workings. Can give concrete examples not only of the Waterfords' behavior, but of Aunt Lydia, and the way things have worked from the very start. It's going to be interesting to see what this means for Gilead's placement on the world stage moving forward!

I'll stop there. We're rushing through the season at lightning speed. I can't wait to see where they leave off at the end of season four!

(Oh, and also?? WHERE'S JANINE?!?!)

9/10