Anna Green
The following contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale S5E8, “Motherland”
S5E8 of The Handmaid’s Tale is as hopeful as it is devastating. In a particularly satisfying scene, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) is telling Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) that she won’t live in the same house as her baby’s “kidnapper”. He is unsympathetic, and asks her in quite possibly my favourite line this show has ever had, “Serena, do you have an irony deficiency?”.
This episode really brings Commander Lawrence’s character into his own. The architect of Gilead, Lawrence has a history of helping its resistance. He was disappointed with how the system turned out, and was unprepared for its cruelty. He says to June (Elisabeth Moss), “I was trying to save humanity”, and, “I did”. He describes how his ecofascism and want to overhaul the consumerist society that poisoned America had consequences he had not foreseen, and that he thought the only way to make positive change was to first drastically alter everything in an authoritarian takeover. He goes on to describe how the system went “septic” and that, if he were able to take it back, he would. He goes on to say he wishes he had just let the entire human race die out. This profound sense of regret is rare in this regime, and Lawrence’s ability to acknowledge his mistakes make him someone with a lot of potential to bring about change
Speaking of, he has a bold new suggestion for June: Lawrence is creating a new part of Gilead, a New Bethlehem. He says this will bridge the gap between Gilead and the rest of the world. It will be a place for ‘refugees’, aka those who left Gilead but wish to return, and Lawrence wants June to live there in order to create the illusion of freedom. He knows her endorsement would mean more than anyone else’s. He describes it as a version of Gilead with less restriction, less cruelty, and fewer acts of violence.
The draw for June? Hannah (Jordana Blake).
As June and Luke (O-T Fagbenle) learn from Mark (Sam Jaeger), the USB they recovered from Gilead contained a video of Hannah. It shows her on a bridge in a school building before she looks right at the camera. This reassurance that their daughter is not only alive but can be found only revitalises their discussion about getting to her.
June, who stayed in Gilead many times when she could have escaped in order to be nearer to her children, will no doubt make this return at some point. The question, really, is whether Luke will join her.
With Nichole in Canada and living freely, Luke’s decision will affect where June’s other child is and how far apart they are. If Luke remains insistent that his life cannot be moved unless it is further away, something June absolutely rejected in a previous episode, she may well be torn between not only her independence and her marriage, but also a conflict between proximity to her two children. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.
June and Luke discuss this at length, with Luke adamant that they cannot live in Gilead. Some of this may be lingering animosity from their disagreement in the hospital in the previous episode, but it seems that the two of them, while keen to stay united, do not see eye-to-eye on most the the issues Gilead has given them. I wonder if they have considered only Luke returning. As a man, the abuse he may potentially suffer is lesser than the fate that may await June, and surely they would not leave behind one daughter to be with another? Luke is not Nichole’s real father and the circumstances of her birth are likely still painful for him, so his absence, whilst sad, is not likely to emotionally affect him as it would June.
June asks Rita (Amanda Brugel) for advice, who repeats her earlier sentiments, “I’m moving forward with my life here, I would never go back there”. However, she also tells June that things would be different for her if she had children. June takes this to heart, as well as her insistence that she would do anything for her daughter, and seems keen on taking up the challenge.
My favourite scene from this episode is that of June singing a song to Nichole. It is the same song that she used to sing to Hannah, and the comparison.
This comparison between June with her two children has taken the place of the usual parallels we see between her and Serena. However, we do have our two female leads both struggling in parallel with choices surrounding their personal freedoms and their need to be with their children in the present day. June is deciding whether or not to give up her political freedom in order to be near Hannah, and Serena is deciding how much of her social freedom to give up in order to be near her new baby, in the Wheeler’s/Gilead’s custody.
They both come up with similar answers, showing us that, while there are oceans between the motivations of the two vastly different women, they share a strong maternal instinct that triumphs above all else. June seems set on a return to Gilead, albeit Gilead-lite, and Serena steps back over the Wheeler’s threshold.
