I wish we had gotten more with Emily, Sylvia, and Oliver, even if less is more especially for a slow reconciliation. I was much more interested in every second of those scenes (tears and all) than I was with June Osborne: Gilead Marriage Counselor. I get the hows and whys of June's subtle maneuvering between Serena and Joseph and June's long game, but I was simply so much more engaged with Emily trying to adjust to the mundanity of a "normal" life and trying to reconnect with Sylvia and Oliver. Gods, I was flooding in tears every time Oliver positively connected with Emily.
My heart broke at an unexpected moment: When June's walking partner (Do we even know her name? Hell, I can't find her listed on IMDb...) said "Handmaids shouldn't be here. It's not how it works." She's brainwashed in a way not like Janine, who is lost a twisted madness that doesn't make sense for anyone no matter what she does. Instead, June's walking partner seemingly embraces all of Gilead for what it is, not just out of necessity as suggested by her comment about trying to survive without making trouble, but she seems to genuine accept and maybe even enjoy the role she's been enforced into when she beamed gleefully that she has given Gilead three children.
But of course, my breaks even more for Janine, who can't seem to ever catch a break. All she wants to do is love and cherish her baby, regardless the nature of that children's conception, regardless of all of the shit they've put her through, regardless the cruel things Lydia aggressively and passive aggressively has said and done to her. As Amaris noted, she tries to work within the mad rules of the Gilead system and she's beaten for it simply because she broke protocol and the thin illusion of the cruel and real world they're all living in. If it weren't for the room quietly turning on Lydia after the beating, I fear Janine has gone a step too far again and there would be no saving her this time.
Which leads to an interesting prospect: I've wondered since Emily pushed Lydia down the stairs if Lydia might begin to have a turn of heart, but this season has made it clear that she's doubled down on her resolve. And yet, she may have gone too far in that resolve with her open beating of Janine during the house party. Her stature might suffer some, but I don't think she'll be directly punished. But I wonder if that situation will shape her resolve in a new matter?
I think ofMatthew is playing the long game. It might be nothing, and I could be off base, but I think she's not as big a believer as she appears. The best way to hide, though, is right out in the open, and if you want the authorities to stay off your ass, you assume you're being watched everywhere. June doesn't care because she knows her time is limited, that she'll probably die, but she's going to save her other daughter and try to tear the place down.
I'm also hoping Emily is able to heal. I look at her, and my heart keeps breaking because I think she's just so overwhelmed. For years she was beaten and abused, tortured at the hands of a sick society that treats women like cattle to be bred. Now she's free, she has free agency, and she is with Sylvia and their son again, and I think she's just trying to make it all fit. I would imagine it's like being imprisoned for years, and then finding yourself back where you started, with the people you love, but you cannot erase your experiences in captivity, and you don't really know how to proceed. You're kind of frozen. Just my two bits on that one.
I also love the mundanity of Sylvia apologizing for not finding a decent place to park the car. I mean, for her (and us), it's just a minor thing you complain about, it's almost surreal from Emily's point of view.
As for Aunt Lydia, yeah, I was hoping a change of heart, but the moment she growled at June (during the visit to the Lawrence house) I knew she hadn't learned a thing, except maybe to hate "her girls" even more, to distrust them more, and to separate herself from them more. Lydia's all in, and she's riding it as far as it will go. She's either a true believer, or is so dedicated to power that she might as well be one. Either way, she is a menace, and either the girls will turn on her Julius Caesar style, or something else will happen, maybe by her own hand, to bring her death by the state. Either one will be a grisly fate.
And yes, they really are that helpful in RL. They will help "irregular crossers" (aka asylum seekers doing it the illegal way) if they're having trouble, such as if they have to cross a ditch and they have children or if they have medical problems and it's winter (saw that on TV). They'll rescue people who cross accidentally (or on purpose) via river and are in distress. That said, it's not an automatic welcome-to-Canada-you-can-stay thing.
The U.S. border agents/cops are sometimes standing on the other side, not trying to force them to stay, although they obviously would have preferred them to stay.
What nobody wants to happen is for the American side to get twitchy with their guns. And Canada has signs up at the commonest illegal crossing places warning that it's illegal to cross there, and anyone who does will be arrested.
But since the people who cross there have absolutely no faith in the current U.S. government, they come anyway.
At least we don't hear any more about people dying in farmers' fields in Manitoba due to hypothermia (the body was found in spring; the hell of that situation was the woman actually had legal documents that would have let her cross safely at an official crossing place).
Some of the asylum seekers have lost body parts (fingers, toes) due to frostbite, when they got lost in the woods, fell into a creek, etc. This is why I found the scenes of Moira's crossing absolutely realistic (remember, she was staggering through a farmer's field, half-frozen by that point), and pointed out numerous times on the YouTube reviewers' pages that if Moira - reasonably healthy and NOT pregnant - had that much trouble during a winter crossing, it would have been suicide for June - about to give birth - to even consider a run for the border.
Sometimes I think some of those commenters must never have seen snow or experienced freezing temperatures and have no clue at all...
True, and Canada's not perfect, it was just a relief to see that scene, because I knew she was in good hands. It had already been established that Canada gave a damn and was determined to rescue as many people as they could (unlike the current United States who seems to enjoy letting refugees suffer and die in either captivity or just by outright murdering them). I have no faith in the U.S. government
now, let alone a near future where religious zealots have managed to secure much of its former territories as their own.
It just speaks poorly of any nation that would let people die because they just want to escape whatever hell they're running from. Right now, the U.S. looks horrible, and it's a reputation well deserved.
