What I’m Watching: The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale: Season 3, Episode 4 “God Bless the Child” (B+)

I wasn’t sure about this episode in the middle of it because it seemed to be proceeding along a bit slowly with June meddling in the lives of her former commander and his wife, but, by its end, I appreciated its ability to demonstrate the subtle changes taking place within and among all the characters. Flashing back to a time where June was able to positively celebrate an event in the life of a (her) child and contrasting it with this event they were all forced to attend to celebrate the miracle of birth via the handmaids was very effective, especially in how it demonstrated how much June has transformed. Explaining to Fred why Serena wasn’t happy after he sent the handmaids to the buffet showed how honest she’s now willing to be, and she’s reached a whole new level with Serena, one which she’s working to her advantage and which netted her precious information about the daughter she still needs to rescue. She was perfectly fine to identify her husband when she saw the video, and I’m curious to see what happens with that since maybe Gilead will try to head to Canada to get the child back, which would be extremely interesting. Janine thanking Lydia and telling her she was happy she recovered elicited a surprisingly self-aware reaction from the typically tyrannical taskmaster, who later demonstrated her distaste for people speaking out of turn by delivering a brutal beating after Janine tried to return to her old house. Emily’s reunion with her family was far from smooth, but analyzing the difficulty of acclimating back to normalcy has always been one of this show’s strongest assets.