The Handmaids Tale
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If Im going to survive this, she points out, Ill need allies.
Alma and Janine are friends, and certainly allies of some sort.
As are Cora (wherever she may be) and Beth.
She needs Lawrence or Serena, or if possible, both.
June has worked Serena since her pregnancy.
Then again when baby Nichole was born and they shared an unexpected common bond.
The taste of what Serenas upbringing may have done to her psyche is revealing.
But shes stronger than she thinks.
June is also prowling about Commander Waterford, hoping she can unlock some of his furthest moral reaches.
The will of God and all that b.s.
Hes obviously a jerk, barking at his Marthas (Beth, refill!)
and taking the already lowly Sienna down to new depths of degradation.
His nonchalance about the rules of Gilead (Whats the penalty for a handmaid opening the front door?
Really, I dont know.)
The meeting he invites June into can be read two ways.
He ixnays the upcoming Salvaging, which could be merciful (or merely utilitarian).
The less charitable way to read the scene is that Lawrence is making a power play.
Which makes me wonder about how we, the viewers, see men like Lawrence.
But why imagine such things?
He makes that gross knowing joke about binders full of women.
Maybe Lawrence knew all along that he was empowering her.
Mother, June says in her voice-over, you wanted a womens culture.
Well, now there is one.
Women have been oppressed for millennia.
And like millions before her, June is now figuring out how to turn that oppression into a weapon.
