The Handmaids Tale
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At political marches worldwide, protesters adopted burnt-red cloaks and snow-white bonnets, like Elisabeth Mosss Offred then wore.
Too salient, too soon.
The more the series (inevitably) deviated from Margaret Atwoods 30-year-old novel, the more it sagged.
On TV and in real life,the bastards were grinding us down.
For book people and I think were almost all book people these ten episodes represent the promise of convergence.
Dots will get connected, even if the picture remains incomplete.
What new shapes can the relationship between these two women possibly take?
Theyve always been enemies, yet theyve been allies, too.
Theyve ruined each others lives and cared for each others children.
Now, theyre on the same one-way train headed for the same safe haven.
The picture shes painting sounds hopelessly naive.
But Serena mistakes the symmetry of her and Junes situations.
June cant forget the past, because she still has Hannah waiting for her.
Serena doesnt stop at finding a doctor to treat June.
She wants the doctor to triage every pregnant woman on the train.
Before long, shes organizing a women-only cabin.
Once a family-values theocrat, always a family-values theocrat, I suppose.
This isnt Gilead or Canada.
(Ive cried at the same exact scene too many times across six seasons.)
Wherever this train is headed, June cant stay there for long.Mommies always come back.
And wherever this train is headed, Serena wont fit in.
She has no talent for lying low.
The doctor she commandeers to treat the newfound sorority section is also a Gilead refugee.
The cop is a victim of Gilead, too.
But soon its clear that Noahs no safer than his mother.
When morning breaks, the train has reached its final destination.
Moira is in Toronto, pledging herself to Mark Tuellos shadow resistance and to Mayday.
Lukes in jail for killing Junes attacker.
Nicks in New Bethlehem with his pregnant wife.
Canadas shutting down the American Embassy in hopes of normalizing relations with Gilead.
Junes the most alone shes ever been.
Shes as crushingly far from Hannah as shes ever been.
Judiciously, the series resists the temptation to wallow in abject darkness.
Shes an aid worker doing the medical intakes at the Alaska refugee camp.
Some of what Gilead has taken may yet be restored.Mommies always come back.
