But Lydia proves to be adept in other ways.
June eventually agrees to play along, if only because the alternativeimprisonment, and then deathis hardly preferable.
Really, it’s to abandon the chaos and despair he’s helped sow in his own home.
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She tries to keep the peace as the cold war between Serena and June escalates.
June interrupts, speaking for the first time and stunning the crowd.
“I felt the baby kick for the first time last night,” she blurts out.
Here, finally, they meet one another’s gaze.
She learns that Mayday has gone silent, no longer helping handmaids, after the failure.
“You chose for them,” Lydia says.
“Such a selfish girl.”
Lydia’s manipulative power is showcased here, as is the impossibility of truly living in Gilead.
She feels the guilt intimately.
We hear Luke berating her on the phone in the immediate aftermath.
The baby shower’s religious focus probed crucial questions not just about atonement and guilt, but faith.
What does June believe inand what did she believe in?
Her mission has always felt atheistic, but here we see the weight of that.
She suddenly doubts her sarcastic act, her refusal to act politely in Serena Joy’s presence.
People can be complicated and selfish.
June is a heroic character, and one whose desire to find the freedom we desperately support.
But it left a trail of destruction.
How does Gilead strip a person down?
“Other Women” documents how, with brutal clarity.
Lydia instills in June enormous remorse.
She forces June to reconsider her “Offred” identity as a pure one, free from blame.
“I am not worthy yet.”
As she says these words, you feel the last ounce of self-worth being squeezed out of her.
She’s not beaten into submission here; not tortured or abused.
She’s compelled, again, to operate in a system that rewards submission and punishes anything else.
“I am inadequate and stupid, without worth,” she says.
“I might as well be dead.
kindly, God, let Hannah forget me.
Let me forget me.”
She puts her uniform back on.
She heads outside for her morning walk, running into Nick (Max Minghella).
He screams her name, waiting for a response.
