The Handmaid's Tale: Holly (2x11)

Wow, Elisabeth Moss totally crushed it.

Cons:

I didn't get the wolf thing. Was it hunting her? Or was it meant to be some sort of symbol of hope or something? It felt random, like an added threat in an episode already filled with enough threats. I liked the way the episode tilted into the horror genre in certain ways, and I thought that almost every decision worked. But the wolf felt out of place to me.

Pros:

That is a total nitpick though. This episode was almost entirely focused on June, alone and scared and about to give birth. Let's start, however, with the flashback material.

As June prepares to give birth for the second time, she thinks back on her pregnancy with Hannah. There weren't any particularly big revelations or new plot information provided here, it was just a chance for us to see June, Luke, and Moira together, preparing for the addition of a new life. We see June in labor, we see her mother showing up, a bit late but there nonetheless, we see a scene of June leaving a crying Hannah behind at school, in a heartbreaking parallel to their goodbye in last week's episode. I love seeing these flashback scenes, not just in this episode, but throughout the show. It helps to emphasize the extreme difference between past and present. Obviously Gilead is a surreal nightmare for June, and this becomes even more clear when we see what her life once was.

So. Present day. June is trapped, and she's desperate, and she's completely alone. I love that this episode doesn't offer any relief about what happened to Nick. That's a dangling thread I'm surprised to find myself caring about as much as I do. The thing is, Nick was probably planning on taking June back to the Waterfords' residence. And June was probably going to let him. So she didn't exactly ask to be in this situation, and now that she is... it's a weird mix of a nightmare and a blessing. This episode managed to portray the terror of being alone in an unfamiliar place, where virtually nobody knows to look for you, with the strange excitement of potential escape. June and her baby could get away! Where would they go? How would they manage it? Who knows. But the possibility is intoxicating.

Rather than go through the plot of what happens to June, I just want to comment on a few key moments that I thought were really powerful. One was the moment where she gets into the car and turns on the radio, to hear that the American government still exists, and resistance to Gilead continues. This was a nice moment to break up the tension. In a less well-acted episode, or a less well-paced episode, some of the things happening here could feel repetitive. We basically spend the whole episode waiting for June to figure out how to get a car out of a garage. Not exactly gripping, on its face. But there were enough interruptions, enough moments of contrast, to make it really work. This message from a hopeful distant land of freedom was just the right touch. And I read somewhere that it was Oprah speaking? That's excellent!

One of the highlights of this episode is the scene where Fred and Serena show up at the house to fetch Offred and Nick, who have not returned as planned. Serena reaches a breaking point, screaming at her husband - she gave up everything for him, her autonomy, her career, etc.... all because she wanted a child. And now, because of Fred's actions, she'll never get to hold her baby. I loved the way this scene played out because of course you've got the suspense aspect - Offred is still in the house, but Serena finds her discarded cloak and cap and thinks that Offred and Nick ran off together. So there's tension in the fact that Offred could be discovered any minute. But there's also the catharsis of Serena breaking down, yelling at her husband, and despairing at her loss. Particularly fascinating was the moment when Serena is telling Fred that he's naive for thinking that June would come back. June hates them both, and, Serena seems to say - with good reason. She reminds her husband that he just raped her, and Fred comes back with an angry retort - that was Serena's idea, and this whole visit to Hannah was supposed to smooth things over.

What's so fascinating about this is that in this moment, both of these people are acknowledging that they know they're wrong. They know what they've done to Offred is wrong, and maybe what they've done to society over all is wrong, despite how badly they try to hold on to the illusion.

June gives birth all by herself in this big empty house, but not before she manages to get off a few shots to alert someone that she's there. As a viewer, you want June to do the impossible - to give birth, and then to run away with her new infant daughter. But she makes a different choice, because she doesn't want baby Holly (named after her mom) to die. It's the logical choice, and it reinforces this horrible pattern that June has found herself in. This time, she didn't even try to escape, and she still found herself with an opportunity to get away. And yet, when all is said and done, she will end up back where she started. Who knows what punishment she'll receive from Gilead? Who's going to believe her explanation of events over whatever Fred and Serena come up with?

So... yes. The things I admire about this show are endless, as anybody reading these reviews can see. I worry sometimes about where the story can go from here - how do we keep following June? Is she going to escape? Be reunited with her children? I'm excited to find out, and I trust this show to stop itself from getting too repetitive!

9/10