The Handmaid's Tale: Promotion (6x04)

This episode felt like a bit of a transition, not as much to dig our teeth into.

Cons:

A lot of things that were already established were sort of... re-established here, without a ton of forward movement? We already knew Janine was at Jezebel's, and we saw her there. We already understand Lawrence's weird warped conflicted feelings about his situation, we already know Nick's father-in-law is hitting on Serena, we already know Nick is playing the middle... we already know Mayday is planning something big, and this episode is more of the planning. We see Aunt Lydia come to talk to Serena, but we don't actually see that conversation take place. Nothing wrong with a lot of this material, it just felt like a lot of setting up pieces on the chess board without making a definitive move.

I do feel like there's something slightly clunky about the core conflict between June on one side, and Luke and Moira on the other. I get June having the attitude of "I have more experience being a resistance fighter on the inside," but honestly, how true is it that she's uniquely qualified as a strategist? It doesn't feel like she actually has more knowledge of how to go against Gilead, she just has more experience getting out of near-death experiences because she's got protagonist plot armor. And Luke, I get it, Luke doesn't have experience dealing with stuff. But Moira certainly does! She's an escaped refugee of Gilead as well! I like the conflict as a character thing between these three, but the show seems to agree with June in a way that I wish it didn't? I don't know. This is a difficult critique to express, but there's just a slight wrongness here that I can't quite pin down.

Pros:

This episode isn't destined to be particularly memorable or impactful, but there are still some really powerful moments here.

Lawrence bringing little Angela's drawing for Janine to see... that moment really bowled me over. Lawrence is a character crafted with enough care that the minute he agreed to take Janine you knew he wouldn't touch her, there really isn't even a moment where you think he might go through with anything. And Janine telling him that he's "scary" is an important moment too. You can't sympathize with Lawrence, he's absolutely orchestrated his own misery in a lot of ways. But that feeling of being trapped is also so prevalent. He doesn't want to be here, he doesn't want to play these fucking games.

The scenes with little Angela are so heart-wrenching because Lawrence, despite the fact that Naomi and Angela were foisted upon him against his will, is trying to be a good man who cares for this innocent little girl. We see a glimpse of Naomi as a mother, and all she does is scold, while Lawrence admires Angela's art and reads to her. Listening to his voice read A Little Princess was so incredibly soothing. I loved that.

We also got to see Rita reunite with her sister - it's terrifying to think of anybody willingly coming back to Gilead to stay, but this episode demonstrates the reason why someone would make such a choice. I'm happy for Rita but also so, so scared for her and her family. Serena looking on at these reunions that she helped to facilitate, also knowing that she was part of the reason these families were torn apart... what's going on in your head, Serena? Do you really repent? Can you atone? I don't know how she could possibly make up for it all.

The core conflict between Luke and June, while I did have a bit of a complaint about it above, I do think it's interesting. Luke framing this as, he wants his chance to fight for Hannah... I mean, it makes sense. Dude has been sitting there helpless to do anything basically this whole time. He got June back, and then she keeps running off and putting herself in danger again and again for the good of the many. All that energy and anger building up, of course Luke would want to charge in there and make a difference directly. But also, June is right to caution him. Getting to Hannah might not be in the cards, no matter what else they manage to accomplish. I'm excited to see the two of them go into Gilead together, for a big crazy mission. I'm not sure how successful I think they'll be, but I'm along for the ride!

6.5/10