The Handmaid's Tale: Devotion (6x03)

Okay... okay... Nick...

Cons:

I'm still feeling a bit of trepidation about Serena and the journey she's going on as a character here. It feels a little too much like going in circles, and I'm curious to see if her stated contrition for her part in the horrors of Gilead is real, and if she's ever going to grasp that the ideological beliefs she still holds are the underpinnings of that violence and abuse. Like, she can say "oh, Gilead went too far" but at the same time she still holds the oppressive values that founded it. So. I think the show is aware of this and exploring it, but I'm wary of how they're going to pull it off in the end. What kind of fate do you give a character like Serena?

This show has a strange consistency problem with like... the "good" that Gilead has done. Whenever we have representatives from foreign governments come, it's always this thing where they're astonished by the birth rate and so overjoyed to see young healthy children.  Because Gilead cleaned up the water, so women are getting pregnant and birth defects are less common. So... okay. Forcing all women capable of carrying pregnancies to ritually undergo rape to become pregnant is obviously the way Gilead has chosen to produce more kids. Got it. But what does that have to do with cleaning up the water? The medical/physical reasons behind the low birth rate have got to be relevant here, right? Surely there are other countries who are looking into ways to buckle down on environmental laws and cure the ills of the earth causing the problem, right? So I'm always curious about how bad it really is elsewhere, and what the actual solution could be that's not... you know... ritualized evangelical rape cults. We spend a lot of time in Canada and it seems pretty normal there, smog isn't choking the earth or whatever. So what gives? I just feel like the world-building here could be a bit more considered and explained.

Pros:

Lawrence is such a weird character. Seeing him go to his knees to "pray" to prove something to Serena was great, as was their little religious debate. I'm an atheist myself, and my attitude about it is kind of like Lawrence's - if other people are motivated by devotion to a deity, it doesn't matter to me. As long as we have goals in common and we can work together, people can believe whatever they like. Lawrence is drowning in guilt (as he should be!) but he wants to do the right thing. I think. As much as that's possible.

I've been really surprised by how much I've enjoyed Tuello the past couple of episodes, I feel like in past seasons he's really just a representative of the American government who's there to spout exposition. But I don't know, the short-cut they're taking to prove that he cares about these people, where they keep having them hug and express real relief that they're okay... it's working on me. He's a man who is forced by circumstance to instrumentalize "civilians" as Nick calls them, and yet I believe that Tuello wants what's best and is really conflicted about the compromises he's making on his road there.

So, Luke and Moira are on a Mayday mission, and they get pinned down by Gilead patrols. Nick's not picking up his super secret spy phone, so Tuello calls in the big guns, also known as June Osborne, to lure him out. I've gotta say, I loved every single second of Nick in this episode. Nick and June drive me kind of crazy, in the best way. This isn't a dig at Luke and Moira, at all, it's completely not their fault that they needed to be rescued. But the juxtaposition, narrative-wise, of Luke going off to do this thing and then needing help, and then June and Nick showing up like total bad-asses to save them? Nick shooting those guys? It really felt like an "us" and "them" was established here. Luke and Moira on one side, well-meaning and not totally incompetent, and then Nick and June: true soldiers of this current world order.

I was talking in the last episode's review about how I like June and Luke and I root for them. And it's true, in the sense of I think they're good people and they care for each other. But... my gawd. The electric charge in the air between June and Nick cannot be matched. That scene at the end where June tells him to stop always saying this big goodbye, because, "who are we kidding". Like, they weren't even standing that close to each other, they weren't touching, but you could see that Nick wasn't even breathing, just mesmerized and frozen by her nearness. I don't think I was breathing either. Plus, the part earlier where they directly talk about being in love with each other, the desolation in his tone when he says "... loved" and then she corrects herself, "love". Like, SHUT UP.

Also, dude is down so bad for her, he literally ran away from a really important Gilead obligation to help June's husband, like, it was a big deal that he wasn't there at New Bethlehem for the tours, Lawrence had to cover for him and everything. The matter-of-fact way he shot those two Gilead patrolmen was... I mean, is it wrong if I say I thought it was hot? It was hot. I saw one person doing a breakdown of the Nick and June relationship in this episode and they pointed out that when the men show up, June has a protective instinct towards Luke, she puts a hand on his arm and gestures him forward to get to safety. And then after Nick shoots the men, when she wants reassurance herself, she reaches for Nick. It's delicious. I feel bad for Luke, I really do, because if there's ever a world circumstance where Nick is no longer with Gilead... I'm not sure I think Luke has a real chance.

I'll stop there. I'm gripped by the excellent acting of this series, enough so that even if the plot or the theming gets kind of muddy or repetitive, I'm still deeply invested in the outcome. What kind of final conclusion will these characters get? I seriously don't know, and that's pretty thrilling!

8/10