The Handmaid's Tale: June/Unwomen (2x01/02)

This show is so freakin' good. It's perfect.

Cons:

I don't have anything to complain about. I wish we could have had even more? I suppose the reveal as to where June is being taken in the beginning is a little strange, given that while she isn't escaping, she then very shortly after does escape, so it was kind of a weird way to undercut the intensity of those final few moments of last season. But then on the other hand I get exactly why they did that, and I'm not even really upset about it? I think I'm just fishing for flaws.

Pros:

So, this is two episodes, one primarily about June, and one primarily about Emily, but June does appear in Emily's episode as well. I'm just going to break it down by these two women.

Let's start with June. The opening sequence of this episode was honestly one of the most brutal, harrowing things I've ever seen on television. It was almost ten minutes with no dialogue, just a brutal, impossible to digest psychologically torturous scene. I honestly didn't know what was going to happen. Was somebody going to save June because she was pregnant, but everybody else gets killed? I wasn't expecting it to all be a lesson from Aunt Lydia, but somehow that just makes it even more horrific. And from there we see the consequences of the Handmaids disobeying Lydia's instructions to stone Janine. June is protected because she is pregnant, but the other girls all receive burns on their hands as punishment, adding on to the torment of believing they were going to be hanged. Just. Brutal. And so hard to watch, in exactly the right way.

I really like the way flashbacks are utilized on this show. It works so well because I feel the reality of it so much better. You can see how things could slip into a dystopia gradually. It's little things, like June needing Luke's signature in order to pick up birth control. And then a doctor at the hospital threatens June just a little bit, telling her not to let Hannah go to school while sick, since children are such a precious resource. These scenes are all so important in creating a sense of person-hood. We know who June is now, but we also know who she was, and it highlights her struggle all the more.

June is such a salty, powerful woman and I love it. One of the absolute best moments of this episode is when June is about to be examined by the doctor. Mrs. Waterford is there, and she tells June to knock it off with the rebellious crap and toe the line. June's response? "Don't get upset, Serena. It's bad for the baby." That was so perfect.

June has completed something of a "phase one" in her escape. She is now being kept in some abandoned warehouse that was used as a slaughterhouse for dissenters or undesireables some time in the recent past. I'm not all that interested in watching June and Nick's sex scenes, but they don't feel gratuitous or out of place, either. It's all part of watching June become the person she needs to be to survive. The episode is so smart about contrast, too. June's desperate, debauched sex with Nick is all the more difficult to stomach when contrasted with the cute little moments with Luke and June hinting about the possibility of trying for another kid.

Elisabeth Moss has to carry a lot of time in the episode all by herself, and she does so with aplomb. I particularly enjoyed her slow realization of what happened in this large empty building she's hiding in. She sees the nooses, and the bullet holes in the walls, and you can just watch her thoughts developing. She later sets up something of a memorial for the fallen, even though she doesn't know who any of them were. I also liked watching her watch Friends on a laptop. Little touches like that are what remind the viewer that this world is not so distant from ours.

Okay. Turning to the other half of the story: we learn more about Emily. We also get to see the colonies, which are only briefly discussed in Season One. This show is so good at creating an atmosphere of oppression and desperation, and watching these poor, rundown women, the "unwomen," as they are called, as they work to dispose of toxic waste... it's hard to stomach. Marisa Tomei guest stars as a former Wife who is being punished for having an affair. She and Emily seem to strike up a friendship, but then Emily straight up murders her by giving her pills that kill her. She lied and said they were antibiotics. Like, yikes. Emily says something to her that really strikes to the heart of all this. "You held down a woman while your husband raped her. Some things can't be forgiven." What Emily did was supremely messed up, yes, but you can understand where she's coming from.

As the episode ends, we see Janine briefly. She and Emily share a quick hug, but are of course instantly separated. Poor deranged Janine. I'm really excited to keep following Emily and Janine's stories.

In flashback news, we see Emily teaching as a college professor. She commiserates with a gay colleague about being forced back into the closet, and then that same colleague ends up hanged. When Emily and her wife try to flee, Emily is kept back while her wife and son are able to leave the country. Alexis Bledel is killing it. Seriously, she's so much more talented than I ever would have given her credit for. Just like with June's flashbacks, seeing Emily's life before Gilead is a great way of examining how frighteningly and deceptively simple it is to let things start sliding in the wrong direction. There are little things, like how people looking at their marriage certificate don't seem to be particularly hateful or homophobic, but you can tell people are scared to stand out or make a fuss. And then suddenly a family is being torn apart, maybe forever. It can all happen so fast.

I'll stop there, before I continue on into another long paragraph. This is one of the best shows I've ever seen. Full stop.

9.5/10