As one character notes, this is becoming even more routine in Gilead of late.
And so we watch handmaids pull.
We watch people place their heads in the ropes.
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We watch them hang.
And we watch the handmaids disperse.
As promised last season, the Martha is looking out for her.
But Juneperhaps because of the awful event she just went throughwants more.
She wants to get to Hannah.
“I just came from my fourth hanging this week,” June tells her.
“Do you think it’s going to get better?”
The plan is set in motion.
But after the interview is completed Sylvia expresses total understanding.
“You don’t have to deal with this on your own,” she tells Emily.
Indeed Emily’s PTSD is one Sylvia can’t quite get on the same level with.
But fortunately, Emily does find a friend who’s lived it, too, in Moira.
The sequence is visceral.
Eventually, both are arrested.
In jail, they reflect together, more.
But when they arrive the guard that the Martha had promised would help them isn’t there.
They let her inbut not June.
This time she’s flustered, evidently unwell.
June asks if she wants to be taken home.
And Mrs. Winslow is pushing for the Waterfords to move to D.C. full-time.
“I’ll think about it,” Serena says.
She’s very moved by this.
She dances with Fred later, the whole ballroom watching.
Here’s a chance at a reset for these two that’s starting to look irresistible.
And then, suddenly, Hannah’s Martha appears before the handmaids, sobbing.
She is to die.
Someone, in other words, talked.
It’s an absolutely devastating sequence.
Suddenly, a voice.
“You should be thankful.”
“Your temptation’s been lifted.
June turns around to her in a confused rage.
Ofmathew continues, saying that Lydia had told her to watch June.
“I saved youwe saved you.”
June takes off her bonnet, staring for a long time.
Then she loses it.
“You saved me?”
She grabs her by the throat and holds her down, against the bridge.
“You fing bitch,” she screams.
At last June is pulled away by the other handmaids.
But the damagethe betrayalhas been done.
