The Handmaid's Tale: Milk (4x04)

Intense as always!

Cons:

I don't really get why Rita told Fred about Serena's pregnancy. She could have just ghosted them. It felt odd that she'd go to him and, arguably, help him in this roundabout way, all for the sake of getting herself out of the situation. Rita is a character who we haven't gotten to see much of, and I'm excited about the opportunity to explore her more. But while the conversation with Serena was fascinating and horrifying in equal measure, her motivations in going to Fred seemed obscure to me.

Just as like... a general note? This is an extremely white show, and I think it's telling that when they engage with race at all, it's done in this very side-eyeing kind of way. Like... Rita was a slave, owned by white people. And yeah, I get that there are Marthas and Handmaids of every race or whatever, but there's still a choice being made there and the show isn't really stepping up to say anything about that decision they've made. There's also the fact that we meet a new character of color in this episode and then he immediately turns around and demands sex as payment from June or Janine. What kind of message are we painting here? In a show where bad things happen to everyone and most people have committed evil acts, I'm not saying that having characters of color in those positions is automatically a problem. But when you've got a predominantly white cast and a white protagonist... I don't know. It's definitely been a problem this show has carried with it from day one, and I just wanted to name that here.

Pros:

What I liked about Rita in this episode, though, was how she's the clearest example of someone who clearly remembers and had a full life before Gilead was ever a thing, and yet now that she's escaped, she doesn't automatically wash her hands of it and say "oh, well, that's behind me, then." She's very reserved, she's quiet, she continues to dress and speak conservatively. She keeps calling Serena "ma'am". It's chilling, because whoever Rita was before all of this, it's hard to see her ever getting back to that. She's forever changed.

I also think the Serena and Rita scene exemplifies one of the strongest and most chilling components of this show, which is that Gilead exists for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest ones, and a very true one, is that the birthrate had declined to almost nothing. It's true, and all people in the world are fixated on this problem. Rita is overjoyed and shocked to learn that Serena is pregnant. She's genuinely happy at the thought of another baby being born in the world. Because it's this thing that connects all of humanity, worry about the future of the human race.

I don't have sympathy for Serena. She can rot in hell. But I do have sympathy for Rita, and I think it's interesting how she can know how she feels, and want nothing to do with the Waterfords, but also have this moment where she and Serena are celebrating together over something. It's this sad echo of what the world could look like. Everyone working together towards a common goal with consent and vigor.

Then we've got June and Janine. They manage to get onto a train heading towards Chicago, and end up swimming in an entire cargo container full of milk. Which was odd, and kind of pointless, ultimately, but let's go with it. Complicated relationships abound in this show, and here we see Janine pushing back against June treating her like an idiot. Telling her that the others died because of June, because they loved her and waited for her, and June turned them in and now they're dead. June is clearly carrying the weight of those dead on her shoulders, but she lashes out at Janine, saying that she should have left her a long time ago.

But when it comes time for them to escape and re-enter American territory, they are united once again, and make joint decisions, and try to be there for each other in every way they can. I liked the back and forth here, that June says some things that might be unforgiveable but Janine still has her back anyway.

And god. Janine. The flashbacks to her origin story were chilling because they tell a tale that's so real, and so true to what a lot of people are put through today. I liked the bait and switch when we see that Janine's abortion was for her second child, that she had her son already and that this wasn't a story about a girl changing her mind about terminating a pregnancy. The pregnancy center that preyed on Janine was so insidious in the lies it told, and then when she goes to a real doctor and finds out how easy it is, you can see the moment of relief. This story showed us a lot about who Janine is as a person. She's pretty easily shaken and is maybe not the sturdiest person in the world, but she does have conviction and she's "not a mushroom" as she later tells June. She can't just be kept in the dark and lied to. She knows what she wants and she can make her own choices.

Which is why her choice, ultimately, to let the American guy have sex with her so she and June can stay, is just... well, fuck. June in a position where she just couldn't bring herself to go through with it, vs. Janine's casual reveal at the end that it "wasn't so bad..." Different people react to trauma and abuse in vastly different ways. Obviously neither of them should be condemned in this moment. But there was something fun-house-mirror sweet about Janine being willing to do that because she could see that June couldn't, and they'd run out of other options. As much as June is the boss, Janine is seeing now that she's not infallible.

There's probably a lot more I could talk about. Janine and June are officially out of Gilead, but they still have a ways to go before they reach Chicago, and possibly Mayday connections. What's the long-term plan, then? Is June still trying to make it to Hannah, or is she aiming bigger? Seems like it. We'll find out more soon!

7.5/10