Episode 608 – Exodus
June and Moira execute their dangerous plan. Serena makes a big commitment.
Writer: Yahlin Chang
Director: Daina Reid
We open on a stunning montage of the making of handmaid dresses. June and Moira sew knives into new dresses that Aunt Phoebe then distributes to all of the Handmaids in the Red Center. With their faces covered, June and Moira rejoin the ranks of the Handmaids army. June reminds us that red is “also the color of rage”. The Handmaids arrive at the church for Serena Joy’s wedding, filing into the pews two by two. We now know that they are armed, but when will they use their weapons?
There are a massive number of guests at Serena’s wedding, including a camera crew. June sees Nick walking down the aisle with Rose, which is the first time she’s seen him since their fight. And apparently Nick is officiating the wedding? After Commander Wharton makes his way to the altar, the grand double doors open to Serena walking solo down the aisle in a stunning pale blue wedding gown, by costume designer, Leslie Kavanagh. Serena is beaming as she arrives at the altar to marry her new husband. Something to keep in mind as we go forward is that his first name is Gabriel, which means “man of God” and is also an angel who delivers important messages. What message do you think he is here to deliver? As Nick leads a prayer, June removes her knife hidden in her sleeve and starts to pass it down the row of Handmaids. They all sneakily begin to pass theirs down, until one drops hers which loudly clatters on the floor. The Handmaid very carefully hides it under her boot, keeping it hidden from a watchful Guardian.
After the ceremony, the Handmaids file into the extravagant reception venue, where Commanders and Wives are mingling. The newly married Mr. and Mrs. Wharton enter their reception to begin their first dance. We are meant to see this as a direct parallel to Serena’s dance with Fred in Washington D.C. in season 3. As Commanders and Wives join them on the dancefloor, the Handmaids continue to pass down their knives. There has been a lot of speculation that this episode will be a Game of Thrones Red Wedding-esque bloodbath, we shall see! Lawrence is visibly nervous about the plan for the day, and Serena notices. She assures him that she is committed to their plans for reforming Gilead, emphasizing her goal of power for Gilead women. She excuses herself to greet her “most important guests” and shockingly heads over to the Handmaids. But not before we get a gross Handmaid “joke” from Commander Bell. Here’s hoping a knife is reserved for that one with his name on it, good lord.
June and Moira begin to panic as Serena gets closer. They move to the back to avoid being recognized. Serena expresses her gratitude to the Handmaids and tells them that she is working on reforms. She then goes into a story about her “former Handmaid” and says she believes that June has forgiven her. Rita walks up and Serena asks Rita to share how she has managed to forgive. (Remember that poison we saw her with last episode? Major side eye.) Rita answers, “You set a goal, and you work towards it. Keeps your eyes on the prize, ladies” with a very pointed look at June. Rita says that it’s time to cut the cake, and before she walks away, Serena says that she’ll be back for a group portrait with the Handmaids and that she wants them all to be unveiled. Serena thinks she is honoring them by seeing them as individual people. Yikes.
A massive red cake is wheeled out. Rita smiles as Serena and Wharton cut the cake. June and Moira whisper that the poison should kick in after 1-2 hours, they’ll go home, and they’ll just fall asleep. So, we know they don’t intend to kill them here at the wedding. Everyone but Lawrence and Rita are enjoying their wedding cake. The Handmaids very carefully wrap their uneaten slices of cake in napkins and hide them beneath their chairs before standing to exit. Before walking out, Aunt Phoebe says, “I’ll meet you at the Red Center, Godspeed.” June starts to walk towards the door, when Serena unexpectedly greets Aunt Lydia who stops by before heading to DC. Lydia sees June and starts to yell after her. June sneaks into the crowd, as Lydia grabs a Handmaid’s arm and spins her around to see someone else. Aunt Phoebe thankfully steps in to distract her. June rushes off to sneak out in a different direction, but stops to stare at Nick for a moment, before slipping past him. Aunt Lydia tells Lawrence that she saw June, but he assures her that June is in Alaska. Aunt Phoebe appears to say that she must be tired from her travel and that they will have to “get her to sleep before she passes out”. She has someone get Aunt Lydia to take her to get a big steak, some red wine, and a big piece of cake.
Cut to Wharton and Serena arriving at their massive new home. Serena appears to be wearing a light gray or blue outfit (hard to tell in my screener), as Wharton carries her across the threshold. Serena says the house is perfect, until she sees a Handmaid kneeling on a red pillow in the next room. Wharton introduces the Handmaid to Serena who replies with “but I’m fertile”. Exactly, why would Serena need a Handmaid if she has proven that she can have children? Asserting the power she believes she has, Serena says that she will not have a Handmaid in her house, but Wharton insists they need a Handmaid if they are going to have a large family. When he refers to the Handmaid as Ofgabriel, Serena snaps and tells him not to call her that. “She’s not a vessel; she’s a human being.” Although Serena helped to build this horrific system, her eyes were opened by June. Serena rushes to the Handmaid and asks her real name, which is Christina. Serena tells her to “leave this house, run, and don’t ever come back.” Wharton escorts her out of the room, before asking Serena what’s wrong with her.
SERENA: I was so stupid to do this again. I was wrong about you. I thought you were a better man, but you’re just like the rest of them.
WHARTON: ENOUGH!!! I have continually indulged you, compromised, accommodated; I have made radical changes to my life. I have bent to your liberal attitudes, but I will not turn my back on God.
SERENA: You think God wants this abomination of a marriage?!?!
WHARTON: You have deceived me.
Noah begins to cry, and Serena picks him up and starts to leave the house. Wharton has a Guardian stop her and forbids her to leave. “You are my wife now; your place is in this house. You have nowhere to go. You are under my…” Serena finishes his sentence: “rule?” She lists the things Fred has done to her and says that she has survived all of it and she will survive Wharton. He insists that he is a good man and husband, to which Serena says, “You can’t be, you’re a Commander.” I don’t know what she really expected when she agreed to marry a High Commander, to be honest. He finally allows her to leave the house with Noah. She runs outside, but where the hell can she go now?
Aunt Lydia is about to eat her cake as a crew is cleaning up the reception. Before taking a bite, she spies the leftover cake the Handmaids hid under their seats. She knows something is up now. The Handmaids are walking down the street through the snow with June leading the pack, peeling off one at a time into their respective houses, presumably. Aunt Lydia arrives at the Red Center to see other Aunts passed out, except for Aunt Phoebe. Lydia insists on checking on the Handmaids, as Phoebe whips out her own blade following her. A Guardian intercepts her, and she demands that Aunt Phoebe open the locked door to the room where the Handmaids sleep. She stalls as much as possible but eventually opens the doors. Handmaids are there, tucked into bed, but Aunt Lydia smells a plan. She whips back one of the sheets to find the Handmaids are fully dressed, boots and all, knowing Aunt Phoebe must be in on the plot.
June arrives at the Bell household where Janine is being held captive. She hears a phone ringing and follows the sound to find Commander Bell groggy from the poisoned cake. He answers the phone, and June makes her presence known. He recognizes her instantly, stating her full name. She says, “nice to meet you” and immediately stabs him directly in the eye and he falls to the floor. We get an incredible shot of June standing right below a light fixture that resembles an angel’s halo. Oh, the symbolism. Bells writhes around on the floor and June takes his place in his chair and finishes his drink. She takes a moment to catch her breath, and Janine appears, thanking June for killing her rapist.
Back at the Red Center, Aunt Lydia has all of the Handmaids (including Moira) on their knees as she lectures at them. She has a Guardian grab Aunt Phoebe, who puts her on her knees with a gun aimed at her. Moira can’t take it and yells to reveal herself, but Aunt Lydia doesn’t even recognize her. She asks Moira’s name, who responds with “Why do you care, when you stole it from me? My name is Moira, you fucking bitch.” Aunt Lydia knows that June is back and demands that the Handmaids tell her where she is. Just then, June arrives. In typical Aunt Lydia fashion, she tells June “you did this”, but June comes back with a stunning monologue:
“No Aunt Lydia. You did it. You trained us to be like this, after you beat us, after you mutilated us, after you tortured us, after you took our children away. You did this. But I think that you’ve seen things that you can’t unsee. And I think that you’ve learned things that you can’t unlearn. And I know that in your heart of hearts; you know that rape is rape. And you know it wasn’t our fault, and we don’t deserve this. And we’re not fallen women. We’re rising up because in each and every one of us is this immaculate soul that was given to us by God that’s just crying out for dignity and freedom…I would like you to ask yourself if you think that God wants this for us, for your girls. That God would allow all of this or is there a God that would empower a woman like you to stand up for us to arc toward the light and to finally declare enough? Because we…all of us together, we’ve had enough.”
Janine arrives next and articulates to Lydia exactly what she has done to them: “You gave us to them.” Lydia says that she only meant to save them, and Janine says that if she wants to save them, then let them go. She looks around at all the Handmaids and makes the Guardian put his gun down. The score comes in with the same score from several moments when members of the Gilead power structure are forced to reckon with their part in the theocratic regime. Aunt Lydia apologizes to Janine and embraces her and allows all of the Handmaids to flee from the Red Center. How much power does she have over the Guardians for them to allow the women to leave? June and Lydia share one last knowing look before June leaves. Aunt Lydia drops to her knees, begging God to help her.
As the Handmaids run down the street, we get one more June monologue about who the women are and who they could be. “The dress became our uniform, and we became an army. An army to free ourselves from the prison of the dress, to free ourselves to become who we were meant to be, who we deserve to be.” Harkening back to a line in season 1: “They should have never given us uniforms if they didn’t want us to be an army.” As the Handmaids continue their Commander killing spree, we end the episode with a twist on the last line of season one and the novel: “And so we fled away from the darkness within and without, and into the light.”
Where do we even go from here?? I am still waiting for screeners for episodes 9 and 10, so I am now as caught up as you all are and can finally speculate. How many Commanders are left in Boston, and how will Commander Wharton bring that inevitable hammer down on the Handmaids? I terrified to find out, but I cannot wait!
