The Handmaids Tale
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My name is June Osborne.
I am a citizen of the United States, and I seek asylum in the country of Canada.
But its a home in exile, an entirely new country and city and house.
A new way of being in the world.
By all measures, Mann was fantastically lucky.
But still, unhappiness and disappointment plagued him.
Had he stayed in Germany, he would have died torturously at the hands of Hitlers cronies.
But, he wondered,Would that death have meant more than all the condemnatory speeches?
June is secured in a top-floor suite, with a charcuterie spread and abundant flower arrangements to greet her.
(The toiletries are so good that Moira reminds Luke to steal them.)
But everything is unfamiliar and overwhelming, especially the trivialities.
This dance is way trickier how do you explain to your spouse what theyve missed over several years?
Or how your back ended up an abstract painting of purple swells and red abrasions?
The handling of June and Lukes respective guilt has been exquisite.
Moira and Luke have perfected their co-parenting, tossing diapers back and forth in the grocery store like pros.
Does Serena truly believe that God is watching over her and believes her to be his special child?
Fred, however, has one simple aim, and its power.
Even removed from the dignity of his office, he thinks of himself as the master of Offred.
The crowning moment of this return-to-excellence episode is Junes confrontation with Serena.
For a long time, Serena swayed back and forth between cruel accomplice and potential turncoat.
(Remember how likely it seemed in season two that she might help June escape Gilead?)
Shes now the full-throated villain of the series, more dominant than Aunt Lydia and more venomous than Fred.
Do you know why God made you pregnant?
And then two guttural, leonine questions: Do you understand me?
DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
Serena, it seems, does understand her.
And perhaps, just a little bit, now realizes that her alleged God has forsaken her.
