Let’s break down the biggest moments of the episode,which dropped Wednesday.
The men eventually leave the room, leaving Fred and Serena alone.
The former is puzzled by the latter’s sudden interest in a “rescue operation.”
Credit: Sophie Giraud/Hulu
He thought he wanted Nichole safe and far away.
So he asks her what she wants.
“I want to be with her, but that’s impossible,” she says.
Fred assures everyone will be protected.
But June says noprompting Serena to ask the men to leave the room.
“I just want to be something to her,” she says.
(The revelation about Hannah’s school certainly helps in that regard.)
And so June agreeson one condition.
“I want you to owe me.”
It’d also help in convincing Luke to go through with it.
He is, of course, skeptical, but eventually agreeson one condition.
“Not him,” he says.
“Just her.”
June says “I love you” just as she gets cut off.
And she sits, still.
Serena thanks Luke upon meeting.
He responds, “F you.”
She beams at the baby.
He asks if June is OK, and she says yesthat she’s been reassigned.
Pressed, she even gives up Commander Lawerence’s name.
But despite Serena’s efforts, Luke doesn’t buy anything she’s selling.
Reluctantly, he takes the gift Serena brought.
A little resentment creeps in when she tells him, “I protected your wife.”
But as he’s walking away the iciness between them thaws, if only briefly and slightly.
He lets her hold Nichole and really say goodbye.
“Every child has a right to their own storyeven if it’s complicated,” Serena says.
She’s eventually escorted out where, when finally left alone, she just completely loses it.
You see how heavily this weighs on her, how much she’s struggling.
You see she won’t be able to let that feeling of agony go.
Live from Gilead, its Fred and Serena… and June
And indeed she does not.
Finally we return to Gilead after that long journey to Toronto.
June is in a grocery store, just learning that her new walking partner, Ofmatthew, is pregnantagain.
It’s a painful moment, where suddenly she seems less sure of herself.
But then June is found by an Eye and walked out of the store.
She’s put into a vansomething we’ve seen repeatedly.
Once more, she doesn’t know where she’s going.
She walks June into a dressing room and instructs her to change in a more formal handmaid uniform.
What is going on?
It’s hard not to sense Serena and Fred are involved.
She’s walked out of the room and into what gives the impression of a television studio.
Suddenly she’s on a stage and bright lights are on her, blinding.
Serena will not look at her.
And through tears, she tells him to find love himself.
“We expect the government’s full cooperation,” Fred says.
“This is a family matter.”
