How to survive another season
It’s time to reward all that suffering, writes Hank Stuever, revealing his wish list for Season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Spoiler alert: This article discusses plot points of Season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale.
The Handmaid’s Tale, which airs in Canada on Bravo and streams on CraveTV, ended its emotionally exhausting second season with a thrilling (yet baffling) finale. A shortlist of the horrors we’ve vicariously endured in the fictional, post-American, fascist theocracy called Gilead includes a prolonged visit to a toxic wasteland (a.k.a. “the Colonies”), where infertile and/or rebellious women, including Emily (Alexis Bledel), are forced to shovel radioactive dirt; a deadly resistance bombing; various beatings and tortures and executions; the public drowning of child-bride Eden (Sydney Sweeney).
Add the rape of Offred/June (Elisabeth Moss) by her keeper, Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) at the suggestion of his wife, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), who held Offred down during the act.
June sacrificed her last, best chance to escape Gilead in the season’s final moments, handing her newborn to Emily and opting to stay behind as a secret getaway truck drove off. Has she lost her mind? We’ll have to wait for Season 3.
We are owed something for our endurance. I’ve come up with a wish list of three aspects of this show that fans deserve to see.
AUNT LYDIA’S BACKSTORY
Even though Emily stabbed her in the shoulder and kicked her down a flight of stairs in Season 2’s finale, surely this is not the end for Ann Dowd’s fearsome (and Emmy-winning) portrayal of the matronly enforcer Aunt Lydia. We’ve simply gone too long without seeing the show’s customary flashback/origin structure turn its gaze to Aunt Lydia.
Who is this woman? What in her past life turned her into such a dedicated Gileadean, willing to tear down and psychologically/ physically abuse the women who are forced to become Handmaids, only to build them back up with her twisted sense of care and discipline?
Aunt Lydia has much to tell us about the core nature of Gilead’s social architecture and The Handmaid’s Tale’s central theme, going back to Margaret Atwood’s novel. It’s about the complicity of women who would, on orders from men, take away the rights of other women.
The best thread of this season’s story arc involved the extra-complicated relationship between Offred/June and Serena Waterford, which is conspiratorial at its best and spiteful at its worst. The time it took to play out their give-and-take was time well spent. June has become Serena’s nagging conscience. Whatever happens next between these two women will define the rest of the series.
WHAT IS GILEAD?
The Season 2 finale includes a scene of Commander Waterford in deep concentration over the papers on his desk, which included a map of Gilead. Pausing the picture, the map shows the former United States divvied up into large territories. Areas in red along the Canadian border, West Coast and Gulf Coast seem to indicate Gilead’s war front. A large chunk of the southwest and lower midwest are shaded yellow with what appear to be radioactive symbols — the Colonies, perhaps.
In a story so effectively told as a women’s narrative, the series metes out only scant details about the origin and establishment of this nightmare government only as it serves the overall story. We’ve seen horrific flashbacks of women losing their jobs, rights and access to their money; we’ve seen glimpses of events and takeovers that led to the larger dystopian vision. An entire episode or two of the dawn of Gilead would be — something, wouldn’t it?
The danger here is that you don’t want to turn a feminist classic into a civil-war documentary about strategy and military science. This isn’t a guy’s story. But a little more context about the structure and practical realities of Gilead would be welcome. Who lived in the Waterfords’ house before them?
Understanding Gilead’s rise primes the show’s audience for its eventual fall.
MORE SCENES FROM THE NORTH
Aside from June’s rebelliousness against the Waterfords, the only hopeful parts of The Handmaid’s Tale take place in Canada, where June’s husband, Luke (O -T Fagbenle), and best friend, Moira (Samira Wiley), live as refugees.
June hears part of an underground radio broadcast hosted by the unmistakable voice of Oprah Winfrey, who delivers news of international aid for a U.S. government-in-exile in Anchorage and further sanctions against Gilead. Winfrey plays Bruce Springsteen’s Hungry Heart as a reminder to “everyone who’s listening — American patriot or Gilead traitor — that we are still here. Stars and Stripes forever, baby.”
The Handmaid’s Tale creates an unflinchingly dark portrait of America gone horribly wrong. It’s time for hope, in the form of a thriving rebellion up north or organized resistance at home, like all those Marthas helping June and her baby escape.
Season 3 ought to shift to a tone of uprising.