The Handmaid's Tale: Janine (6x05)

Omg June, get your shit together!

Cons:

Here's something that's true of this episode but also just true of the whole show: these characters have to be simultaneously stupid enough to let themselves get into serious trouble, and then also lucky and/or clever enough to beat the odds every time. June's protagonist plot armor is the strongest I've ever seen, honestly. June offering to take Janine out of there, and then June and Moira having their fight still inside Jezebel's, without having even hidden the written material, was infuriating! So sloppy, so preventable. Just get out and get in the van and get out of there before you start fighting about how the two of you are processing your trauma. That conversation was so important for them to be having, but I was distracted screaming at them to get the hell out of the lion's den before they started talking about it all!

The bit where Lawrence hears the other Commanders talking about how he's out and they're just indulging him in the short term... I think that scene was a little too simple. The odds of Janine revealing the spy hole to Lawrence, and him tuning in to hear them saying everything out-right and being very explicit about how they're going to oust (and probably kill) him... it's just kind of silly. A subtler form of this same plot beat would work great, I think, but this was just too on the nose.

Pros:

Even when I'm being distracted by some of the silliness of these contrivances, I'm still always gripped by the tension and the drama of everything here. Such good atmosphere building and powerful performances.

We see Nick dealing with the fact that one of the men he shot actually survived in a coma. He contrives a way to be alone with the grievously wounded man, and we're left in suspense as to whether or not he kills him. He really should have made sure both those dudes weren't alive before he ran off with June and Luke and Moira. Yeesh. I kind of feel like we're reaching a breaking point with Nick, that he's going to flip out over all the risks he's taking and fall in line with Gilead. But we'll have to see how it all ends up!

It's deliciously fucked up to go from scenes of these women being preyed upon and raped by Commanders at Jezebel's, to this super romantic proposal moment for Serena. She's not a good person, she needs to pay and atone for her horrible crimes against humanity, and instead here she is, prospering, getting exactly what she always would have wanted: the life of privilege where she still gets to read and write and be a leader, a kind man to be her husband, a child with hopefully more to come. All within the system of horrifying misogyny and oppression that she helped to foster. She's getting everything handed to her right now, and it has to make you wonder when the turn is coming.

We get an interesting moment between Serena and Lydia, where both of them are grappling with their level of complicity in the fate of the Handmaids, and Serena suggests that they can work in the fertility centers once they're retired. Lydia's horrible cruelty towards "her girls" all being in service to a higher purpose is one of the more chilling things about this show, because you really do believe she cares about them and is trying to find a way to keep them safe, and then the system is just betraying her again and again, all because she decides to hold the line and work within the bounds.

Despite my frustration with June and Moira's choice of location for their argument, I did like the argument itself. Moira is understandably extremely frustrated with June for trying to go rogue on the plan and take Janine along, and June tries to justify it by explaining her fear for her friend, and her trauma... and then Moira reminds her that she's traumatized too, that this place is actually her nightmare, her specific background with trauma, not June's. They have a darkly comedic conversation about comparing their trauma: Moira got raped more often, June was only raped like once a month. But Moira got out much sooner, so... how does that balance? I liked the way they were able to laugh a bit about the abject absurdity of this situation. June is right: the minute they start trying to compare, they're letting their oppressors win. They need to be allies in this.

And... they're certainly allies shortly thereafter, when their dawdling behavior forces them to kill one of the guards who comes in and starts trying to rape Moira. This intense scene leads them to needing to take the dead man down to an incinerator, before going to meet Luke for the rendezvous. When they get there, Luke and the other woman from Mayday have been sent away, unable to stick around for the extraction. Oh no!

Janine is a highlight of this episode, she's really figured out a way to weaponize her sexuality and play along, while fostering connections with the other women. There's a real resistance brewing here, and Janine is thrilled that there's going to be an opportunity to get everyone out. I loved what she said to Lawrence, that he's not a good guy, he's just a good guy compared to the other Commanders. She gives him the tip to spy on the other Commanders, which very well could save his life in the future.

There's an earlier moment where Lawrence almost sees June pretending to be a Martha inside of Jezebel's, but it's not until the end, when he's trying to leave the building, that June darts out in front of his car and begs him to take her and Moira out. The alarm bells are blazing, Luke has been forced to leave, a man is dead and burning in an incinerator. And Lawrence has this look on his face like... "this might as well happen." I do love how the plot has contrived to put him in the mindset of doing the "right thing" here - he's just heard that his supposed comrades in arms in this whole Gilead venture are going to turn on him, and now here's the biggest possible thorn in Gilead's side, showing up out of the blue.

I like Lawrence and June being in scenes together, it's like I'm watching The West Wing again. I can't wait to see how things play out, since the last we see, Lawrence his closing up these two women in the trunk of his car. It's always a crazy week on this show...

Over all, I did like a lot of the individual moments and scenes in this episode, but my god was it hard to contain my frustration at Moira and June for deciding to have their heart to heart while still in the middle of their sneaky spy operation!

7.5/10