What I’m Watching: The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale: Season 3, Episode 7 “Under His Eye” (B+)

Somehow, this show has managed to become even more disturbing, a feat I didn’t think possible. These executions that the handmaids are forced to carry out are much more about keeping the living in line than punishing those who have erred, and it seems to be working. Being complicit was unsettling enough until June saw the kindly Martha who had helped her with information about where Hannah would be, and then she found out that Ofmatthew had turned her in as a way of relieving her of the temptation to sin. June’s reaction was wholly appropriate since this is real life and has irreversible consequences, and while she’s acting recklessly by bringing her commander’s wife out on a mission to try to see her biological child, she can only get away with so much in this horrific world around her. It was unnerving to hear Emily’s crimes in Gilead recounted to her as facts given to other governments, and that they were documented and compiled in this way make it clearer why totalitarian regimes like this exist in the world today, since the unbearable nature of a place and its terrible laws are seen as somehow legitimate by outside observes. Getting arrested with Moira was mildly refreshing, though the notion that she might be deported back to Gilead, even if it hasn’t been presented and is almost certain not to happen, represents a terrifying possibility. Serena and Fred are really living in a different world separated from this horror, and though he indicated to Serena that he was doing his best to get Nichole back, he’s very likely going to adhere to George’s direction to keep the baby in Canada to use to Gilead’s advantage.