The Handmaids Tale
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Are we addicted to watching women suffer on television?
And there is no promise that shes getting out of this alive.
Why couldnt I bring myself to feel as invested in Junes fate?
Perhaps because weve been trained to want our heroines plucky, and when they wilt, we shrug.
Or perhaps because enough is enough, already.
With nothing to do and nothing else to see, she teeters on the edge of madness.
But this wouldnt be much of a show if June were simply chained up for the next few months.
The right decision seems obvious always choose life, right?
but that doesnt make it easy.
Going back to the Waterfords is a way of not fighting back, after all.
But behind closed doors, there is no need to treat June like the prodigal kidnapped daughter.
Nothing reminds June that shes just a piece of property like Aunt Lydias grating, domineering instructions.
June hasnt lost her sass, however.
June offers, with a smile, No, Im having a great time!
Serena Joy may get to pop launch the adorable knit booties, but June has the intimacy of pregnancy.
The other Handmaids greet June with a mixture of interest and fear.
Ofrobert stops to explain that Mayday has gone silent and is no longer helping Handmaids.
She walks her down to the Wall and directs her gaze to a dangling hooded body with dark hands.
His wife, Aunt Lydia explains, is now a Handmaid.
Every ounce of hope has been stripped from her psyche.
Even the Nolite te bastardes carborundorum carving in her closet is gone.
This is rock bottom, right?
(like let this be rock bottom for all our sakes.)
Narratively, however, were in a dead end.
But where do we go from here?
June has reverted into Offred; her practiced, Weve been sent good weather chirps cement that.
