The Handmaid's Tale: Useful (3x03)

Super intense.

Cons:

I was robbed of seeing Emily and Sylvia reunite, but maybe we'll get that in a future episode?

Pros:

Commander Lawrence... damn. Every episode, he just gets more and more twisty and interesting to me. I like the fact that nothing I've said in my previous reviews has been exactly... disproved. He's clearly not like the other Commanders, but that doesn't make him a hero or even a proper ally for June. His motivations, as stated in this episode, are truly sociopathic, but we don't know if that's the whole story or not. The very fact that he cares enough to take June to see the doomed women is proof enough that despite his protestations to the contrary, he feels something towards her. Pity? Curiosity? Anger? Who knows. But he has singled June out, whether he wants to admit it or not.

The scene where Lawrence made June fetch a book for him during a meeting was seriously so intense. I talk about it a lot in reviewing this show, but they're just so good at giving weight to moments that would feel mundane to describe. Things like clicking a pen open. Or fetching a book off a shelf. Everything about this scene is intense because of its context. Nick is in the room. June isn't allowed to know how to read, but her past as a book editor has just been brought up. She can't disobey Commander Lawrence's request to fetch a book off the shelf, but she can't get it without his "help" in figuring out which one. She can't defend herself against his painful, violent condescension. All of it was just brilliant and awful in the best way.

It looks like Nick's gotten a promotion, but he's being deployed to the front lines, which is apparently pretty much a death sentence. The goodbye between Nick and June was another incredibly well-acted and written moment. So intense, so heartfelt. Nick is an interesting character because while he's been very close to the epicenter of June's drama, he's actually managed to benefit overall, in many ways. So many horrible things have happened to him, but for the most part he's still completely protected from consequences. June is in a position to feel sympathy and connection for those who benefit from the system that oppresses her, but that strain is always going to be there between them.

June is turning in to quite the revolutionary. What Commander Lawrence does, in asking her to choose which women will be saved to become Marthas, is obviously truly wretched. At first, when I saw this moment, I was annoyed at the cliche of it: choose who lives and who dies, and therefore prove yourself to be no better than the villain! And yes, there is some of that messaging present in this moment. But June does not make a determination on who gets to live based on who deserves to live. She chooses based on who will be most useful for the revolution. It's the kind of thing Commander Lawrence would do. It's what he apparently did when letting Emily escape, because she's smart enough to make a positive difference in the world. It's not a moral thing to do, but it's the kind of thing a person does when they're trapped in such a horrific situation. Choices have to be made. As awful as it is to say, if June can help the revolution by recruiting useful Marthas... well, why wouldn't she?

I like the way we're seeing various rituals being disrupted in this episode. The best example is the way the automatic sayings are twisted. When Fred Waterford says "under his eye" to Commander Lawrence, the response he gets is "Sure." When Serena says "blessed be the fruit" to June, she replies with a simple: "Hi." The way that June talks to Serena, to Fred, to Commander Lawrence, all of these moments are a breaking of the protocol. There are so many people in authority now who are open enough to admit to June that they see it - they know this is a farce. Acts of revolution can be bloody and dramatic, but they can also be a reclaiming of language.

And then you've got Serena. You know, I don't feel bad for her. Not in the conventional sense. She is very much a part of the system. She very much orchestrated her own downfall. But I find her so, so, fascinating, because she makes me think of so many complicated questions. She is in a position of power relative to so many other women, but she still got her pinky cut off for daring to read a bible. She is still supposed to obey her husband no matter what. She's still a victim of this society. And yet... if June had never gotten pregnant, or if Serena had had a different handmaid, one who toed the line and did exactly as she was told, and who had produced a healthy baby... in other words, if the system that Serena helped create had actually worked for her on a fundamental level... would she ever have felt any remorse for it? I genuinely don't know the answer to that question, and that's the part where things get kind of scary.

The connection that June and Serena have is real, and powerful. When June implores Serena to imagine the pain of so many mothers, torn from their children, there's a part of us as the audience that wants to believe it's possible for Serena to be redeemed. That maybe she'll become a bad-ass and fight for women, atoning for her past role in subjugating them. But it's possible that's simply not in her. And we see very clearly in this episode how broken she is at this point. When she walked into the water, I was fairly certain that she wouldn't actually drown herself, but I was not positive. Her mother was a chilling character, doing everything she could to reinforce Serena's role as that of a wife. I wonder if we'll see more of that dynamic in the future. Since so much of this show is about motherhood, it would be interesting to see more examples of women and their adult children interacting in this world.

And that's that. These first three episodes were astounding, and I'm really excited for wherever the season takes us from here!

8.5/10