Their dynamic is easily the series' most engrossing and twisted, and that’s only highlighted here.
When June is brought back to the Waterford home, Serena again strives to make her handmaid comfortable.
Serena is craving some connection to a pregnancy that is fundamentally not hers.
Credit: Sabrina Lantos/Hulu
It’s interesting too the way Serena’s new life is juxtaposed with her old one.
She’s escorted out.
Her ideas are dangerous, but we see how they (and the dramatics they create) fuel her.
It’s a marked contrast to her dull, voiceless existence.
She’s gunned down before leaving the school, nearly killed.
She scolds Fred too, to “be a man.”
It’s a boy and a girl, students.
He forces the boy to watch the girl shot dead before dragging him off to meet his own fate.
It offers new, disturbing insight into who Fred is.
That can manifest, evidently, in destructive ways.
Serena has been cornered into bonding with women below her in status, rights, and agency.
And her bitterness cannot be discounted.
In a stirring scene, she starts giving June commands again while tears stream down her face.
It’s a window into just how damaged she’s become.
Waterford takes it upon himself to step in.
He then tries to take it one step further.
“I miss you,” he says, groping her.
He scatters off, and she thanks him again.
Most agonizing to watch, though, is when Serena pulls Eden into her petty control games.
She pulls out a ticker.
Fred takes notice, slowly.
She charges the stage and detonates a bomb.
The episode cuts to black, leaving us on a shocker of a cliffhanger.
It raises too many questions to count: Who was involved?
Was Nick referencing this impending attack?
Who died in the explosion?
What will come next?
