After watching The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 Episode 10 it's impossible not to imagine the laws of Gilead being written with much of the same vengeance and malice the Waterfords were feeling when they realized how little control they had over their own lives. For all the pomp and circumstance that they'd provided for in their ridiculous rules to create life in spite of what God had decided by ensuring some of humanity wouldn't be reproducing, it wasn't up to any of it or them when and how a baby would be born into their family. And is often the case between the haves and the have-nots, the closer the have-nots got to the haves, the more resentment they felt for not having. Gilead was created in the name of God and by way of vengeance for losing the ability to have what others did. What those who created the new society were too arrogant to step back and take a moment to think about, to ponder, were whether God's reasons for relieving them of their ability to reproduce were just. Related: The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 Episode 9 Review: Smart Power The more often the ruling class have-nots are forced to think with any amount of sanity, if they have to face their barbaric activities, if they grow close to someone who has what they do not, they fall into a pit of despair and darkness that in turn sends them back into their spiral of depravity. We've been witnessing how easy that can happen all season, or perhaps since the series began. It worked out well for June and Nick to fall in love and make love a lot until such a time as June became pregnant. Then Serena found their happiness unpleasant, and she denied the two any pleasure they found while creating "her" child after that. Why should they have anything she didn't have? Serena Joy didn't have a loving relationship or good sex with Fred, so no matter if it kept June away from her husband or kept the woman from causing problems in the household, Serena Joy would forbid it any longer. Related: The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Women's Work When June stops paying attention to Fred, Fred and Serena team up to marry off Nick. Suddenly the unhappiest couple is in on something together. Their common bond is found in their passive-aggressive, abusive treatment of their handmaid. They have little else to offer one another. So when Serena Joy found a friend in June and hope in a future that might be a bit different than she originally conceived in Gilead, losing it was like being knocked off her axis. She recalled how easily June could run, taking the baby with her forever. Having Braxton Hicks instead of actual labor was not only embarrassing, it was a reminder that June still holds all the cards. Serena Joy isn't having the baby, June is having the baby. And every time the Waterfords try to rein in their belief that the child will become theirs, June tosses out the Hannah card. Related: The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 Episode 7 Review: After In case they've forgotten, June isn't just having a child for the Waterfords, but already has another out there that she is still interested in seeing. That means that for as long as she lives, June will never stop thinking about the child she's carrying for the Waterfords, either. For the moments they think they might find a friend in June, and they have both had those moments, they are also stuck with the realization June will always be the baby's mother -- a point struck home only recently when Janine was reunited with her dying baby to bring it back to life miraculously. What kind of system have they created in which they have no control? They are in charge, after all. June is nothing but a handmaid. Handmaids aka mothers, the system will learn, are the foundation of the system. It's not their shitty laws or the embarrassing rituals that hold no weight nor investment among anybody but the people who wrote them. Related: The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 Episode 6 Review: First Blood Day by day, those who are struggling to prove to themselves what they've created is worth the paper their laws are printed on are faced with the fact it's worth nothing. And it's turning them from a God loving and abiding group to a group who does outrageous acts in the name of God, which I don't believe was their initial intention. So Serena Joy pulls Fred's strings as June manipulates both of theirs. They are all one string pull away from snapping. They push and pull and then ask forgiveness. June: I've already lost a child, and I'm about to be lose another one. It would help if I could be moved to my daughter's district. Please. If it is at all within your power to do that. Fred: Who are you to tell me what's within my power? June: I understand that it's unusual. I would never approach her. She would never even see me. I can promise that. Fred: I've been too lenient with you, too indulgent. June: What? Fred: I've spoiled you. Get out [waves his hand]. GET OUT!!! Permalink: I've spoiled you. Get out . GET OUT!! ! Permalink: I've spoiled you. Get out . GET OUT!! ! Fred is the best at it, especially when it comes to June. Whether she has definitely earned a soft spot in his heart or not is hard to read. but when he sends June on her way with Nick, kissing her on the forehead and saying she "deserves this," the phrase later comes back to haunt. Was it a follow-up punishment of the tallest order on top of the "get the baby out the natural way" rape? Was that rape meant to scare the baby out or poke a hole in her cervix? Did they expect June to have an orgasm to loosen the muscle? Fat chance. Calling it anything but the act of anger and aggression it was didn't even seem to make sense to the Waterfords, whose faces -- while holding down a woman they both would rather call a friend than enemy -- were filled with terror at what they had become. Related: The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Seeds Associating reuniting with Hannah with rape would be cruel if we didn't know June would lose all four of her limbs for a chance to see her girl again. Listening to her daughter wonder why her parents never looked hard enough to find her and then for June to beg her flesh and blood to love her new parents and be safe was torture, but words Hannah will remember always. June: I need you to do something for me, OK? Are you listening? Enjoy your life. And love your parents. And you do whatever they tell you, OK? Because I need you to be careful and I need you to keep yourself safe. [to the Martha] Just take care of her for me. Protect her, please. Martha: I will. June: Just love her for me. Martha: I promise. Hannah: Mommy? June: Yes, sweetie? Hannah: Am I ever going to see you again? June: You know what? I'm gonna try. Permalink: You know what? I'm gonna try. Permalink: You know what? I'm gonna try. So what was it, exactly, that June deserved? Was it simply the gift of seeing her daughter again after being treated so brutally by the Waterfords for daring to have Braxton Hicks contractions? Or was it something more for telling Fred the child she bore wasn't his? For taunting Serena Joy? For having what they do not, one living child and another on the way of her blood, something to hold onto in the cold world they created that gives her fight they don't understand, that they want to staunch? Related: The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 Episode 4 Review: Other Women If it's the former, then the extra moments spent with Hannah were a precious mistake.<doc-sep>Price above Rubies. We keep hoping that she’ll have a transformative moment, but she never does. Serena seems miserable in the aftermath of the beating she received at the end of episode 8. She doesn’t want to go to Canada with the Commander for his upcoming diplomatic trip. But Commander Waterford needs her as a symbol. “The Canadians think that women here are oppressed and voiceless. I need you to show them a strong Gilead wife.” Oppressed and voiceless is exactly how Serena Joy feels. The whacks to her bottom last week delivered the message that she is no longer an equal partner in a marriage, but chattel. She has to present a lie. We can note the changes in the Waterford relationship since the beating. She is no longer responsive to his touch when he recites a Bible verse to her, although Bible verses were once a pre-sex turn-on for them. Fred can choose to respect or not respect her. It doesn’t really matter. Serena will never admit to buyer’s remorse. Send Me Dead Flowers. Predictably, Serena Joy’s reaction when faced with her own powerlessness is to hurt someone even less empowered than herself: Offred. She exerts her phenomenally cruel will, telling Offred that she has to leave as soon as the baby is born instead of staying on to nurse it. Serena Joy has done her homework on infancy and pregnancy, and she would know how important breast milk is for child development. She claims to love the baby and want the best for it, but she puts her own turbulent emotions ahead of the baby’s needs. Slapping Rita around isn’t good enough to slake Serena’s power trip today. She can’t have someone around who has seen her vulnerable. This is a continuation of her choice to reject June’s offer of comfort last week. When faced with evidence that she made bad choices, Serena always reacts in line with the backlash effect. She rigidly doubles down and avoids evolution or reckoning. The baby is not the most important thing; power is the most important thing. Diplomatic Limits. Up north in maple syrup land, Luke, Moira and Erin are watching CQN (Canadian Quick News?) footage of the Waterfords walking from the plane to the limo. Rachel Tapping at the embassy can’t do anything. She may agree with Luke and Moira that Waterford is a war criminal deserving of arrest, but she can’t do anything. On the way to the Commander’s meeting with the Canadian diplomats, Serena Joy ravenously watches normal life moving on around her from the car window. None of the Canadians speaks to her or looks at her once, except for Genevieve, the aide who stays behind to hand her the printed sheet with pictures indicating her planned cultural activities for the day. Mrs. Waterford has nothing of import to do. Her value is now as an object for display. Her brain doesn’t matter. She’s just as capable as anyone walking into that room, but they don’t even see her anymore. She’s been given the same meaningless fluff itinerary that any traditional, minimally educated, unqualified political wife would have been given in the early 20th century, except that at least those wives got to read their schedules. Serena, previously the star of the marriage, stands in the background as oily Fred charms the delegation with his French skills and disingenuously parries the minister for immigration, Kevin McCullough, who tells him, “I was very fond of visiting the States before. With my husband.” It’s the first time we’ve seen Waterford confronted by an LGBTQ person in a position of power. Waterford thinks gay people are degenerate and would string McCullough up at the wall back home in Gilead. But here, Fred has to make some hollow remarks about hoping that they’ll both return once tourism is running again, and McCullough replies, “When we feel welcome.” It feels good to see Waterford forced to treat a gay person with respect. Rita’s Godparent Audition. Offred doesn’t have many cards left to play, and seems to be drifting toward breaking the vow she made to her child at the end of this season’s fifth episode, accepting that she will inevitably lose this baby. She’s looking for someone to do what she can’t. In a moment alone with Rita, Offred asks her to act as a godparent, telling her, “I want my baby to know kindness. I need her to have someone kind in her life.” Rita says she’ll do what she can, but she’s just plain scared. It isn’t enough. Nobody but June is going to put this baby first. The Last (?) Temptation of Serena Joy Waterford. The Canadians at her hotel treat Serena Joy like a spectre of doom, staring and refusing to share an elevator with her. Serena goes to the bar and exercises a freedom she no longer has back home: ordering Riesling by the glass and sitting down with a handsome smoker, whom she assumes is with the press. His name is Mark Tuello, and he knows exactly who she is. He’s done his homework. Serena deduces, correctly, that he didn’t run into her by chance. But he’s not a reporter. He works for the government, “helping people.” Mr. Tuello offers her a cigarette, then a plane to Hawaii, then the opportunity to publish in her own name. But Serena is not tempted: “So far all you’ve offered me is treason and coconuts.” Her value to the reduced, legitimate U.S. government is symbolic too, “A Commander’s wife would be excellent propaganda.” For all she knows, they could subject her to interrogation, and she already disrespected the state when she plotted its overthrow. Then Tuello offers up the pay dirt: a biological baby of her own. It turns out that the real Americans have been working on fertility. They may not have the military resources to successfully wage an all-out war on Gilead from Alaska and Hawaii at the moment, but they’ve figured out that, if they can solve the fertility problem by scientific means, they will undermine Gilead’s reason for existing in the first place. He tells her, “Gilead blames the fertility crisis on women. On their sinfulness. We see the problem often originating with the men.” (I was right! It’s been the men causing the fertility crisis all along!) Serena turns him down again, but her hand trembles following their goodbyes. He’s gotten through to her. Luke vs. Commander. Luke and the Commander have an explosive confrontation outside the hotel, when Luke breaks through the police barrier. This scene contains three unexpected confrontations: Serena with the evidence that a real family was ripped apart, Nick with the fact that the woman he loves is still already married, and Commander Waterford with the husband of the woman he raped. Luke, like Tuello, has a conception of a world after Gilead, one where Waterford will have to pay for what he’s done. “You can remember my face because I’m gonna remember yours. And this is all gonna be over someday.” Waterford sanctimoniously plays at turning the other cheek. The Commander takes a line from the Trump playbook: blame the media and claim that they are the liars. His “lying media” tactics made my blood boil. The international arms of multinational news organizations would have remained mostly intact but powerless after Gilead slaughtered their American colleagues. They are doing their best to bring the truth to the people, while Gilead paints an erroneous picture. If anything, people are suffering due to failure to trust the press. Luke meets Nick. Nick tends to put others first. He feels responsible for Eden even though her presence is a bore and an annoyance, and he left work that he badly needed to look after with his alcoholic brother. So it’s in character when Nick tracks Luke down at a Toronto bar, where he tells Luke that he’s a friend of June’s, that June is pregnant, and that the baby is Waterford’s. Nick does a fundamentally decent thing in lying about the baby’s paternity; what kind of man would tell a distraught refugee that he knocked up their captive wife?<doc-sep>The Handmaid's Tale season 2 FREE now for the biggest moments from morning TV SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow for the biggest moments from morning TV When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. The Handmaid's Tale: First look at episode nine WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale season 2 This week’s episode of The Handmaid’s Tale was perhaps the season’s best yet. In what can only be described as an hour of complete catharsis, the script was flipped leaving The Waterfords floundering on their Canada trip, exposed as the monsters that they are. One of the most beautifully ironic things about this show is the character of Serena Joy herself, and Yvonne Strahovski’s nuanced performance has revealed so many layers to her. An instrumental force in the creation of Gilead, Serena Joy is now trapped by her own archaic policies. Thinking that she would be above such laws, she actively conspired towards trapping herself in a miserable cage of her own creation. THE HANDMAID'S TALE SEASON 2, EPISODE 10 PROMO The previous episode saw her husband Fred (played by Joseph Fiennes) beat her for going above him and arranging a doctor for the sick baby Angela/Charlotte and for working in his absence. That might have been the final nail in the coffin for their marriage. Driving through Toronto, Serena Joy appeared overwhelmed at the normality of it all. The Canadian Government, respecting Gilead’s laws that state women are forbidden from reading, provided her with an itinerary composed of simple pictures in what was a humiliating and utterly degrading moment for a woman who used to be an author and public figure. She is then approached by a man who says he is from the American Government and offers her a way out. WHAT IS THE SONG AT THE START OF EPISODE 7? Mark Tuello approached Serena Joy Who is Mark Tuello on The Handmaid's Tale season 2, episode 10? The character of Mark Tuello in episode 10 is a representative from the American Government. Played by actor Sam Jaeger, Tuello approaches Serena Joy own the hotel bar where the Waterfords are staying in Toronto. At first, it looks like he is just another patron of the bar but it then becomes clear that he knows exactly who Serena Joy is. Offering her a cigarette, she believes he is a journalist looking for a story. WHAT ARE THE WOMEN DOING AT THE COLONIES IN THE HANDMAID'S TALE? Serena Joy refuses his offer Tuello tells her he is not a member of the press but a government official whose job is to “help people”. He then offers her sanctuary in Hawaii and the chance to sell her story. “So far all you’ve offered me is treason and coconuts. A Commander’s wife would be excellent propaganda,” she says. She doesn’t know how she would actually be treated upon accepting his offer and scoffs at the notion that she would betray her country. THE HANDMAID'S TALE SEASON 2: IS JUNE STILL PREGNANT? Same Jaeger plays Mark Tuello Tuello however, points out that she already did with America. He makes a revelation which could potentially be enough to sway Serena, whose main motivation is to have a baby. It turns out that it is the men who are the cause of the fertility crisis, not women, which completely undermines the whole premise of which Gilead was founded. So if she were to leave Gilead she would potentially be able to have a baby of her own, and Tuello reminds her that her Handmaid’s baby is not her’s. WHO IS NICK'S WIFE EDEN IN THE HANDMAID'S TALE? The Handmaid's Tale: season one recap Wed, April 25, 2018 Handmaid's Tale: season one recap. Play slideshow Hulu 1 of 18 Offred is a Handmaid, one of the few fertile women in the oppressive Republic of Gilead<doc-sep>
The Handmaid's Tale season 2 The Handmaid's Tale: First look at episode ten WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale season 2 This week’s episode of The Handmaid’s Tale season two was arguably the best of the season so far. It was a hugely satisfying watch as for once the Waterfords were not in control of their environment. Seeing Fred (played by Joseph Fiennes) and Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) viewed as the monsters they are while on a “diplomatic” trip to Canada was an intensely cathartic hour of television. It was frustrating however as the Canadian government were not able to arrest them, much to Moira’s (Samira Wiley) exasperation. How sweet it was to see Serena Joy humiliated and infantilised - her expression when she was handed an itinerary with simple pictures in place of words. WHAT IS THE SONG AT THE START OF EPISODE 7? What a delightfully sly dig from the Canadians, respecting Gilead’s traditions whilst managing to politely remind Serena Joy that she had created her own gilded cage. Yvonne Strahovski deserves extreme kudos for her nuanced performance this season and viewers are slowly seeing her mind being changed. Her encounter with American government official Mark Tuello (Sam Jaeger) will see her seriously reconsider her path. Another key moment in the episode, which was called Smart Power, saw June’s (Elisabeth Moss) two loves, Luke (OT Fagbenle) and Nick (Max Minghella) meet. WHAT ARE THE WOMEN DOING AT THE COLONIES IN THE HANDMAID'S TALE? The Waterfords visited Canada in the last episode Luke’s attempted attack on Fred was another cathartic moment and Serena Joy got to witness a man who cared about his wife - unlike her own abusive husband. The letters from Jezebels brothel, leaked by Nick to Luke, then proved to be extremely beneficial in terms of bringing about the hopeful and eventual fall of Gilead as the Waterfords were asked to leave the country immediately. How fantastic it was to watch them squirm in the back seat of the car as protesters raged all around them. Fred’s face when he clocked Moira at the window and realised that she managed to escape was a gratifying sight. THE HANDMAID'S TALE SEASON 2: IS JUNE STILL PREGNANT? June goes into labour in next week's episode What will happen in The Handmaid's Tale season 2, episode 10? What goes up must come down and this is always the case with this show and the trailer for next week’s episode hints at some more tough times ahead for June and Nick. Titled Last Ceremony, the clip opens with June speaking to the Commander in his study. “You’re going to be a father yourself soon,” she says as he strokes her bump. “I need your help.” The next segment is a worrying argument between Nick and his pious teen wife Eden (Sydney Sweeney). WHO IS NICK'S WIFE EDEN IN THE HANDMAID'S TALE? There's trouble brewing between Nick and Eden She cries in anger: “You don’t look at me, you don’t touch me unless you have to.” His cold reply: “You’re not making any sense,” prompts the teen to accuse him of having feelings for June. “It’s the Handmaid,” she exclaims. Oh no - who knows what trouble Eden will cause. Having grown up in Gilead, it’s all she knows. It is frustrating for viewers that Nick hasn’t once feigned some affection for Eden to keep something like this from happening and putting himself and June at risk of punishment. THE HANDMAID'S TALE SEASON 2, EPISODE 9 PROMO Serena Joy's Gilead birthing ceremony in episode 10 Then back to Fred who reprimands June and says he has “spoiled” her and been “too lenient”. He has to take out his humiliating experience in Canada out on someone, why not June? Then the moment everyone has either been waiting for or dreading as June goes into labour. “Oh blessed and glorious day,” Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) says. Viewers will remember Janine’s (Madeleine Brewer) creepy birthing ritual in season one where the wife acts like she is the one actually giving birth. WHAT IS THE SONG AT THE END OF EPISODE 4? The Handmaid's Tale: season one recap Wed, April 25, 2018 Handmaid's Tale: season one recap. Play slideshow Hulu 1 of 18 Offred is a Handmaid, one of the few fertile women in the oppressive Republic of Gilead