Well, I was right. I wish I hadn't been right, but I was right. Honestly, it was even worse than I'd expected, somehow. Jesus Christ. Let's dive right the fuck in, shall we?
Cons:
Like. I don't actually have the energy to do a big long rant about Nick but I'm sure that I'll end up doing a big long rant about Nick anyway. If this is the story you wanted to tell about this guy, then you needed to explain to me WHY he's actually bad, why he's actually corrupt, at what point he actually stopped being an undercover resistance fighter... like, it's so unmotivated and stupid! Right there at the end, he says to Lawrence that "she tried to tell me to give it all up" and I was like... and why didn't you, Nick? What were your reasons for not running off and leaving Gilead? Is it just that you're a coward? Is it just that you secretly covet the power? Both potential stories that could have been told with this character, but they never were told with this character. Up until this last season it's been pretty clear that he hates Gilead and loves June. My prediction was that Nick would die by the end of the season, but I thought he'd get the big hero's death that Lawrence is getting, I thought his death would be a redemptive moment for him.
I'm going to move on from Nick to just say that this episode also had an issue with like... personal investment? I don't know any of these Handmaids or Commanders as characters, so seeing this big bloody vengeance moment wasn't really effective. In earlier seasons of the show, we spent real time with a lot of these women, but these days not so much. When June is giving her big speech, we see reaction shots from Janine and Moira with the ropes around their necks, of course, but nobody else, because who even are these people? They are nobody to us, and that's a big problem.
The Taylor Swift song at the beginning was so tone deaf I literally laughed out loud, thanks.
And Luke showing up right at the last moment and shit going down at the big public hanging was just... I mean, this show has a lot of contrived moments, but for this to be the payoff of his big hero arc as he comes to save June, it just felt so prescribed and goofy to me. Also goofy is the fact that Wharton lets Lydia and June give their speeches begging for forgiveness, and then seems genuinely annoyed and displeased when they both use their opportunity to give Gilead the middle finger. What kind of arch villain are you, Wharton, why are you letting these women talk?
That's another problem - Wharton isn't a good arch villain, and the end of this episode, the plane blowing up, it's like... okay, so Wharton is dead, as are a bunch of other nameless but apparently important Gilead Commanders... Mayday says that this is their one and only opportunity to end things, but their argument for why that is, is just not that convincing? Serena even says it, that they'll just send more men to pick up where these ones left off. And she's... right, isn't she? So this big giant moment where two main characters in this goddamn television show get blown up in a plane, it just doesn't hit the way it should, because I don't believe that doing that is actually going to be a nail in the coffin for Gilead! The nail in the coffin is that the Americans are here and they're an occupying force and it's war time. Blowing up a few more important men from the government doesn't feel like the linchpin moment this episode wants me to believe it is!
This episode had this weird pacing thing where they did a poignant moment and then they repeated a second version of the poignant moment thus making it worse? The first was that Aunt Lydia gave her big speech about forgiveness and then turns it on a dime at the end and says all the men are evil and wicked. Everyone gasps, she gets dragged to the noose. And then June's like "my turn to do the same thing" and she also starts off with a prayer for forgiveness and then turns it into a "fuck you" to Gilead. It was so bizarre watching this happen back to back. Just too much.
The second instance was even worse. We have a moment that I'm going to talk about in the "pros" section as Lawrence gets on the plane, going knowingly to his death, and it was honestly kind of hitting for me. And then just when you think the emotional arc of this scene is over, Nick shows up, walks slowly to the plane, hesitates in the doorway just like Lawrence did, and goes inside, cut to June's devastated expression. Like, Nick doesn't know June's there, so his hesitation is just for dramatic tension for the viewer. And we just saw Lawrence do this, and Joseph fucking knows there's a bomb. Nick is just... I don't know. He already drove here, he already decided, the second version of this "hesitating at the door to the death plane" thing just doesn't work for me.
Last thing, I think. I think. I don't know, there's a lot of fucking stupid to cover here, isn't there. But - last thing. Serena! Who the fuck is Serena, this season? Did she get dropped on her head at some point and I missed it? Maybe falling out of that train gave her a brain injury. What is this character who says "I thought she was my friend" about June? What is this character who is willing after one lackluster persuasive argument from June to give up Wharton's location? Actually, earlier on, what is this character who storms out on her husband with an infant in her arms on her wedding night, and then after one conversation is like "okay never mind I'll just do whatever you say." I don't get her! Are we supposed to feel like she's redeemed by giving up the Commander's plan? Are we meant to be glad she's survived, are we meant to feel feelings at this final moment of betrayal? Because I don't. You know when I felt feelings about Serena turning her back on Gilead? I don't know, maybe last season when she had a baby and was on the run and she and June saw each other on the train? That was a legitimately big thing to happen on the show, and then this season just unwound the clock on Serena and put her through such a weird character arc. I can't even explain what is supposed to be the deal with her, it's truly bizarre.
Pros:
Ahem. Anyway. Here we are with only one more episode to go in this show, and I really don't think there's a way they can turn this around any more. I hope that the finale can give me some sense of closure and good developments, but honestly I'm already wincing at the thought of June and Luke and Holly as a happy little family or whatever ending they think they're going to give us that's going to make any of this shit satisfying - oh, fuck, sorry, I'm in the pros section now. Let's reset here.
There were three moments that actually got me emotional in this episode, and all three of them were with Commander Lawrence. Now, this might be because Bradley Whitford stole my heart a long time ago and he can do no wrong in my eyes, but I also think that of all the weird character assassination that's happened in this final season of the show, Lawrence is the character whose redemptive path has been the most compelling and consistent to me.
Moment one is when he hands that book to Naomi and tells her that their daughter wants to learn and that they have to teach her. In everything that Joseph did as an architect of Gilead, he never ever believed in the poisonous ideology of it all. That doesn't justify shit, but this was a great moment where not only does he show his love for a young and innocent girl, he also gives a tool of resistance to Naomi, a woman who he doesn't like, in fact actively dislikes, but who he still trusts to do the right thing in this moment. And I liked that Naomi, who, let me be clear, sucks as a person, actually does see the wisdom there and takes the book, entering into this complicity. It worked for me in isolation!
Moment two is Serena and Joseph praying for June?? Like, why did this make me cry? I think it's knowing Joseph doesn't believe, isn't religious, but is willing to ritualize his pain and grief over June's plight in a way that's recognized by Serena. And he genuinely cares so much, he's genuinely devastated that she's about to die. There's always something so moving to me about people doing something very vulnerable, maybe even cheesy and bizarre from an outsider's perspective, in order to honor a connection with other people. And that's what that moment was, two people who have hurt June terribly, and who have grown to respect her deeply, wishing they could help her at this critical moment.
And then moment three is when he gets on the plane, looks back to where June is hiding, and puts his hand over his heart. God, these two people have hurt each other and hated each other and trusted each other in ways completely inconceivable to even begin to grapple with. When I think about the wider context of this ending for this character, it makes my blood boil. The writing is bad. But in isolation, Lawrence's decision to do this really did hit for me, and I thought it was a poignant bit of acting.
There were other images in isolation that did work for me. I liked Tuello barging in, finding Serena holding Noah, and just yoinking her to safety. You have to imagine this man is like... oh my god. Are you serious? This woman again? Why is it always something. But then Tuello going to June to use her to convince Serena, I did like that bit of triangulation there.
I thought the actual riot at the execution scene was well choreographed and appropriately tense and chaotic. Gilead is big on the theatrics and the symbolism, so hoisting June high up in the air in a move intended to strangle her slowly instead of breaking her neck, that was appropriately gruesome and kind of delightfully over the top. I also liked how they framed that scene at the start, with June knowing she's walking to her own death, but then instead standing there as Lydia and then the other Handmaids, her friends, all gt brought out and put to the noose around her while she stands in the center. Gilead is fucked up in all sorts of ways, but their seeming glee in the theatrical framing of their atrocities really adds something to the sauce.
Hate to say it, but I think that's about all the nice words I have in me. This final season of The Handmaid's Tale has been... baffling, to say the least. I kept waiting for things to click together, I kept waiting for the choices they were making with Serena and Nick as characters to coalesce into something that actually works narratively, and it never did. Maybe I was a fool to think it ever would.
I'll be back for the finale because I want to see this clusterfuck through, but man, this was a major letdown!
3/10
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