What I’m Watching: The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale: Season 3, Episode 8 “Unfit” (B+)

There really is a cultish nature to the behavior forced upon the handmaids that hasn’t been spotlighted lately as the oppressive figures ruling over them have been raining down horror. It’s both chilling and comforting at times, that the handmaids are supposed to be part of a unit that possesses a special bond. June used that to her advantage to have all the other handmaids shun Ofmatthew, which then resulted in her being shamed at the “testifying session” before ultimately grabbing a gun in the supermarket which she didn’t point quite confidently enough at Lydia. June knows what she can get away with now since she may be needed to make a public appeal for Nichole, but Lydia is still doing everything in her power to keep June from making more trouble. I was extremely excited to see a flashback to Lydia’s past, though, in keeping with this show’s tendencies, it wasn’t quite as enlightening or far-reaching as I would have hoped. Instead, it showed Lydia as a religious woman committed to keeping children safe, even if it was far beyond her purview to determine that. Two memorable guest stars from “Togetherness,” John Ortiz and Emily Althaus, were very effective as the doting principal and absent mother who represented most of her world as an elementary school teacher. Lydia, possibly even more than people like Fred and Serena, was someone set for the rise of Gilead, who believes in the purity of people as the surest way of serving God, whose wishes she can’t hope to question.