The Handmaid's Tale: Fairytale (5x05)

Okay, things are getting pretty intense up in here...

Cons:

I really feel like this season is supposed to sell me on Luke and June as an endgame romantic couple, and I remain a bit unconvinced. There are things about this episode that in a vacuum, sure, they're cute. Luke serenading June, the two of them dancing together, having this moment of peace... then just the simple fact that they're willing to go do this dangerous thing together for the chance to get information on Hannah... all very much Couples Goals and all that. It's just that the show as a whole hasn't done enough to convince me that they truly understand each other on a deeper level. Probably my least favorite moment of the episode was when Moira remarked on how they never stop fighting for each other. Because that was a moment that tells me what the show is wanting me to think. And what the show is wanting me to think is that Luke and June can beat the odds, that they're united in some fundamental way that can transcend their separation and their wildly divergent life experiences. And nothing that the show has done thus far has convinced me that that's the case.

While I'm happy we're making some progress in upping the stakes for June and Luke, as it appears they've been captured by Gilead and separated at the end of the episode, a part of me was a little murky on the logistical details in a way that irritated me. Crossing over into Gilead is a huge risk, and June and Luke going together means they're risking orphaning Nichole. And the reason they're doing this isn't because it's necessarily going to get them any closer to recovering Hannah, but simply as a bid for information. They're worried and scared about Hannah in the Wife School, and that's very understandable, but all they get out of this little field trip is confirmation of what they already could have guessed. Young girls on the cusp of puberty are put through training to run a household, then married off at a disgustingly young age. They already knew that Hannah was in danger in this specific way. Why risk so much for no concrete progress at all?

I found myself missing Janine this week, and I think part of that is that she's extremely easy to be sympathetic towards. I love all the messy and even downright evil characters in this show, but there's something grounding about a character who is so fully deserving of good things, and without Janine we don't really have a character as interesting who is as worthy of my sympathy, if that makes sense.

Pros:

I continue to be interested in what Serena is up to, trying to be ambitious and have something of a career, but hitting up against the wall of Gilead's strict patriarchy. It's a delicious irony, given that she was one of the creators of her own fate years ago. I thought the flashbacks were really effective in this episode. The chilling, sterile environment of seeing children behind glass walls that had been taken from their "unworthy" parents, the scene of Serena picking a Handmaid for her household, rejecting one that had, according to Aunt Lydia "caught Commander Waterford's eye". You can just see all the ways Serena has tried to rebel, and defy, and build a life for herself, and how instead her world is getting smaller and smaller, her influence less and less potent, the harder she tries.

Mr. Wheeler is a chilling character to me, because he's so unassuming, so seemingly kind. And yet he quite effectively and casually imprisons Serena, cutting her off from the outside world all for the good of the baby. I love the creepy, sycophantic devotion of the wife and the casual condescension of the husband. A good example of the sinister implications of Gilead's whole deal.

We learn that Commander Lawrence has a plan to welcome rebels back into Gilead, as an effort to not let Gilead die. The other Commanders are not interested, but Commander Lawrence, for all that his plans are in service of a great evil, knows what he's talking about. Gilead is a doomed experiment if they don't adapt and expand. Showing the flashbacks in this episode in contrast to what Gilead has become is such a smart move.

I did like the scenes in the bowling alley. It was predictable, what was going to happen: you meet this sweet kid who is willing to take great risks for a better world, even though he barely remembers his life before Gilead. You know the episode has to end in tragedy, but that doesn't make it any less effective when suddenly the poor sweet ray of sunshine is getting his leg blown off. It was a breath of fresh air followed immediately by a gasp of horror. This show's specialty, really!

This is a somewhat short review, but I think I'll leave it here. There's plenty to like about this season, but I think I'm still just missing a big ol' piece of the puzzle when it comes to my willingness to be on board with Luke and June as a couple that I think could actually go the distance.

7.5/10