The Handmaid's Tale: Exodus (6x08)

Not going to lie, I'm pretty massively underwhelmed by this one.

Cons: 

I just... for one thing, I thought the wedding was going to be where Shit Went Down, and instead it was where People Handed Each Other Weapons and Then Went Home. Just kind of a momentum killer, to be honest. Drugging the wedding cake is certainly audacious, but it's also silly. And I kept thinking that if going to the wedding was just about distributing stuff, why on earth did June and Moira even risk going? Everyone else is supposed to be there. No risk of Serena or Nick or anybody else recognizing them. It felt silly that they'd be there at all.

Serena has this big moment where she learns that her new husband is "just like all the others" and is not a good man, since he brings a Handmaid into their home together. Honestly, the idea that Serena would be surprised by this, that she would have bought into her own delusions enough to believe that this would be a different kind of marriage, didn't really bother me. But the way she reacted? Like, Serena, are you stupid? Just play dumb, lay low, get Noah out of there safely! Now you're on the run with no supplies and no recourse. I just wish she'd played it more clever. Like, nodded and smiled and asked that for their wedding night, it just be the two of them... then in the light of day find a way to get Noah away and figure out a plan. It just seemed silly for her to freak out and burn that bridge with no thought to strategy at all.

The big scene of this episode, the one that I wanted to move me, was the June speech to Lydia. And it just... did not land for me! I'm sorry! What, exactly, has changed Lydia's mind here? The Janine stuff? Okay, so then why did she need June to come and explain it to her when she's already seen Janine beaten by Bell? I was extremely distracted by the guard holding a gun in this scene. There's this crowd of Handmaids waiting with baited breath, there's June making her big speech, there's Lydia listening with a trembling lip... and I'm sitting there thinking: who's this dude, what does he think, is he being swayed? Is he too scared to act? Would he have shot June if Lydia had commanded it? And that's not what I wanted to be feeling, in this big culminating moment. I didn't want to be preoccupied by what the one man in the room thought about the things happening. It just didn't work for me as this ultimate turning point for Lydia. I'm not convinced that this would sway her after so much else did not. And I honestly thought June's speech went on a little too long and was a little too generic.

Pros:

I'm not completely writing this show off as a loss, of course. We have two more episodes, and I'm hoping they're bombastic and shocking and interesting. Serena's wedding was kind of a dud, more setup without payoff, but now the Handmaids are on the loose, and they're out for blood. There were a lot of cool little moments nested into this episode, even if the overall effect was underwhelming.

At the wedding, I loved how... insane and delusional Serena was when she went to talk to the Handmaids. Like she really thinks that being nice to them and trying to claim that she and her former Handmaid found a way to forgive and make friends, is going to make up for anything? She really thinks it's enough? She's totally lost it. When Rita came up and says "eyes on the prize, ladies," I was grinning so big. Like, I'm sorry, Serena, but I want you to get what's coming to you, and I want you to know it was June who did it.

I also like that Nick and June don't cross paths, that he remains entirely unaware that she's there and that anything is going on. The tension of that, when she can't quite stop herself from walking a few steps closer to him, when she fixates on him and Rose there together as this "happy" little family unit... I still don't understand what they're trying to do with Nick as a character but I have this hope/thought that he's going to figure out what's up and help June at the eleventh hour, which I would appreciate, at least.

While the Serena moments did kind of piss me off, I did like how genuinely crushed she was as she asked the Handmaid what her real name was. She's not a good person, and there's no going back on what she's done, but selfishly I'm glad she's at least woken up to how monstrous the system is, even if it's not sufficient to any degree. Great acting in that moment of dawning horror.

Similarly, while so much about the big Aunt Lydia v. June moment annoyed me, I loved Moira standing in her power and shouting Lydia down, and I especially love that Lydia didn't remember who she was. It puts paid to so many of the lies Lydia has told herself. That she's doing this to protect and save "her girls." She doesn't even know the names of all the people she's tortured and handed over to serial rapists over the years. And I loved Moira prepared to stare down Lydia and protect June, and then June just showing up like "here I am." Great acting from Ann Dowd in the aftermath of that scene, as she calls out "God help me" and sinks to her knees. I really believe in her as a broken, confused woman. Although again, that doesn't justify shit about shit, when you get right down to it.

So... yeah. I find myself really uncertain what we're meant to think, going into these last two episodes of the show. Poisoning the cake at the wedding felt like an anticlimax, people are behaving kinda stupid, and do we really think that this is going to be enough to bring down Gilead for good? Or maybe it's not, maybe this is a setup for The Testaments, maybe we're meant to believe that there are decades left before the real downfall comes. Who can say! All I know is, I don't want to walk away from this whole show with a sour taste in my mouth. I hope it all comes together in a way that feels earned and powerful.

6.5/10