The Handmaid's Tale: Border (5x03)

Oh man... Serena Joy, what the hell are you going to do now...

Cons:

I've always praised the depiction of Aunt Lydia, a somewhat grotesque depiction of the matronly older lady who claims to protect and love the young women in her charge, but also does irreparable harm to them. This episode, this whole plot beat about Esther's attempted suicide and murder of Janine, kind of confuses me, though. I didn't think Janine was actually going to die, but the anticlimax of both Janine and Esther making it through apparently just fine from that ordeal was a little odd under the circumstances. I'm just not sure that Lydia weeping over Janine's bedside taught us anything new about her. We've seen her grapple with her temper before, we've seen her humbled by her choices, and we see her twisted love for "her girls" all the time. I'm just not sure what to take away from this.

This isn't so much a complaint as it is a question, a hope for the future of the season... we've checked in a couple times now with the Canadian people who are pro-Gilead, there to encourage Serena, seeing her as a symbol. I'd love to get a little more in these people's heads. Is it just... Evangelical Christianity? Is there anything more going on there? Do these people uniformly believe that they would be among the Wives and Commanders of Gilead, and thus don't appreciate the true horror of what's happening along class and subjective morality lines? I just wish we knew a little more about why we've got folks on Serena's side, here. 

Pros:

Serena making a play to stay in Gilead and then being rejected, sent back to Canada... OOF that was so much. I was kind of torn about whether I wanted her to go back or not. The interplay in Gilead is so intense, with everyone being polite and congratulating her on the baby, but also that lingering truth that even though they're offering their condolences, they were definitely planning on killing Fred after a trial anyway. But on the other hand, back in Gilead we've got June and Serena's rivalry, which is obviously such a fascinating thing to focus on.

I think the scenes with Serena and Commander Lawrence were some of the strongest this week. Lawrence has declared that he won't remarry, but it's not clear how long he's going to be allowed to get away with that. Serena makes a play for him, basically, thinking that they can both solve their widow/widower problem in one fell swoop, but Lawrence doesn't take the bait. That scene of him feeling the baby kick contrasts so well with the next day, when Lawrence is sitting on the side of the men who want to kick Serena back out of the country, so she can be an ambassador for their cause. Unofficially, of course.

We also get to see another example of Mayday, as June and Moira go to meet up with some people near the border, in order to get a message to Nick. It was really touching for June to realize that she really had been part of a bigger network, that Mayday existed and continues to exist, that what June did to get people out of Gilead matters, and is part of a bigger tradition. I loved that!

And because of Mayday, June gets to talk to Nick on the phone. They have a conversation about Nick's new wife Rose, and what's going on with Hannah (called Agnes by her current "parents"). I loved this conversation because it was simultaneously incredibly fraught as they discussed things like Hannah's fate of being transferred to a school for future Wives, and Nick saying he can't call for a while due to the risk he's taking. But it was also... a conversation between exes who still love each other? June offering tentative congratulations on Nick's new marriage, this sad sense of what could have been if circumstances had been different. I love that Nick wanted to be the one to break the news to June, and makes a point of telling her that he's told his new wife all about her. Man, these two have such a fascinating relationship. Luke is a nice guy, but it's gotta be Nick, doesn't it?

While I wasn't too sure about the stuff with Aunt Lydia in this episode, the scene where Janine's daughter gets to visit her, along with Mrs. Putnam, actually made me tear up. Mrs. Putnam is an active and seemingly willing participant in a horrific system that rapes and enslaves people regularly. She also clearly loves Angela, as twisted as that is, and when she promised that Angela would know of Janine's smile and warm, gentle nature, I believe that she meant it.

When June showed up to threaten Serena at the end of the episode, I had a moment where I wondered if it was in Serena's head. It happened so suddenly, and with no warning, and I love how intense it was! Nick Tuello is really in the middle of the world's most twisted rivalry between these two women, both of whom I think he sort of... respects, in this weird way? That's fun to watch play out.

This episode didn't really push anything definitively forward, in the quest to get Hannah back, or any of the other big goals. But it played around with these interesting character dynamics, which is the thing I love about the show to begin with!

8.5/10