On this week’s The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu, the Commander’s cruel wife Serena Joy has a bizarre proposal for Offred.
Offred is finally out of the fetal position inside her bedroom closet and ready to honor the fighting spirit of her missing-in-action-pal Moira, who successfully escaped dressed as a guardian of the Handmaids.
But the episode, titled Faithful, is highlighted by a strange encounter and unusual offer from the Commander’s cruel wife, Serena. No spoilers but given Serena’s baby fever, we have a strong suspicion of what that might be!
Energetically there has been a major shift for Offred.
Last we saw of her friend Moira, she had slipped on to a train heading to Boston in disguise.
On last week’s fourth episode, Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum, Commander Waterford had an unsuccessful (read: he was unable to perform coitus) ceremony night with Offred.
This week we are empowered knowing that the Commander carries extreme guilt for the previous Handmaid’s suicide in his home, and he doesn’t want a replay with the “new” Offred.
There’s hope she will have it easier, enabling her to plot her escape.
This week’s episode also includes more of the backstory of how Offred met her now-deceased husband.
What we can count on is the dangerous game of how much one can reveal in confidence in the dystopian new country of Gilead, where one wrong remark will have you hanging off the wall as a lesson to others who defy the totalitarian government.
Never has the term “traditional values” inspired such a chill. How far off is it to imagine state-sponsored sexual servitude?
The Handmaid’s Tale streams new episodes every Wednesday on Hulu.