The Wheels Of Motion
Season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale has been quite the tumultuous ride. The pacing has been uneven to say the least and the various episodes have jumped between being some of the best of the season down to the worst. With less than a handful of episodes to go, The Handmaid’s Tale finally injects some urgency into its plot line, delivering a narrative that ties the entire season together and gets us closer to saving the children. We begin with a reminder that the Marthas are going to help June get 52 kids out of Gilead. Given the deteriorating state of Eleanor, Lawrence agrees to help June get extra trucks for the escape. However, June runs into problems as the other Marthas question her plan, telling her she’s interfering with their plan involving a man named Billy. Given what she’s done during the early parts of the season, the Marthas do eventually agree to allow her to try and rescue the kids but remind her they want no part of this. Lawrence covers his tracks too, shredding mountains of paper and leaving her a note on the table that throws a serious spanner in the works, one word that throws the entire operation into jeopardy – “Sorry”. Serena, meanwhile, remains optimistic about getting Nichole back. Along with Waterford, they head off on the open road where he allows Serena to drive and the two enjoy their fleeting sense of freedom. Outside the totalitarian walls of Gilead we see these two grow closer together in their quest to get Nichole back. The Canadian informant meets them way out next to an abandoned petrol station and they drive with him to a safe location. They drive a long time, long enough to cross the border into Canada where he and Serena are both imprisoned on the count of war crimes. Thankfully, Lawrence does show back up again after having a change of heart. Dressed in normal clothes, June heads out to meet Billy – the man the Marthas are in collusion with. June asks him to land the plane to get the kids out and after some deliberation, he agrees to help. Unfortunately, on the way out she spots Commander Winslow and she’s forced to have a drink with him. Trapped and unable to say no to the high-powered official, she complies and listens to his demands to sleep with him. However, just as they begin June grabs a pen and stabs him repeatedly, following it up with a heavy blow to the face, killing him. Working together with the Marthas, Commander Winslow is then burned in the incinerator and all evidence of him being at the room extinguished as June wakes up and dons her robes, ready for another day that brings her closer to saving the children. The episode then ends with Lawrence handing June a gun and telling her the authorities will be coming for her now. The episode itself works really well here to add some urgency to both storylines that play out. With Serena and Waterford both seemingly out of the picture, and Winslow now dead too, the window of opportunity for June and the others has well and truly opened. Although the show has ditched its slick, artistic persona, if it’s for the sake of a narrative like this, I can’t have too many complaints. The Handmaid’s Tale delivers another really good episode here and as we’ve seen before, the one thing this show absolutely nails are the season finales. Quite what’s in store for us during the final two episodes remains to be seen but for now, The Handmaid’s Tale feels like it’s back on track again.
