June Takes Matters Into Her Own Hands in this Week’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Continuing off of last year’s phenomenal first season, The Handmaid’s Tale has already started off with a whirlwind of tense drama, and this week’s episode, “Baggage”, is no exception. Be warned, this recap includes spoilers!
Based off the first two episodes of this season, I was concerned that June’s story this year would just be a marathon of her jumping from safe house to safe house, with some brief respite at each location to break up the action. And while at first this seemed like an exciting departure from the first season’s more prison-like atmosphere, the idea quickly became less palatable when it became clear that June still wasn’t being allowed agency of her own- in leaving the Commander’s household and The Red Center, she had instead put all of her trust and well being into the hopefully good intentions of people like Nick, and what we can only assume is likely the resistance organization Mayday.
In a show that aims to show the horrific dangers of this type of patriarchal dystopian society, it’s no surprise that June’s character has been robbed of a good deal of her character’s agency. That’s not to say that June’s character isn’t defined or even rebellious in her own way, because clearly she’s already shown some resistance in Gilead, particularly against Aunt Lydia. I guess I just found it strikingly poignant that even in her freedom from Gilead’s eye, June was still basically being ordered around with little say in what was going to happen to her.
Parallel to June’s own struggles, “Baggage” manages to show a side of Gilead’s horror that we really hadn’t seen much yet- the Econowives, or the apparently barren wives of the lower class. While not necessarily slaves to Sons of Jacob or the Republic of Gilead like the Handmaids are, the Econowives clearly live drab lives, likely subservient to their husbands. Omar’s family, whose house serves as yet another safe house for June, is still part of this structure, yet it’s clear that they have their own quiet resistances against the societal demands of Gilead. Chief amongst these is likely the secret that Omar practices Islam- and I can imagine that the Sons of Jacob aren’t particularly welcoming of competing faiths.
Perhaps one of my favorite moments in this season so far came when June decided to leave Omar’s house and strike out on her own. Originally, the plan had been for Omar to shuttle June to an airstrip where she would board a plane that would finally get her to Canada and her husband. After Omar left the safe house for a suspiciously long time, though, June recognized a potentially dangerous situation and donned an Econowife outfit to blend in among the crowds in her escape.
To me, this was a brilliant scene, because not only did June’s character really take her fate into her own hands, but she had to make a really difficult choice in doing so. It’s definitely unclear that June took less of a risk in leaving Omar’s house than if she would have stayed, but nevertheless I think it’s truly a testament to her character that she did succeed in getting to the plane in her improvised plan.
Interwoven into this tense series of events are flashbacks to June’s mother. We see the tumultuous bond that the two had as parent and child, with June’s mother a feminist whose ideas in hindsight now maybe don’t seem nearly as radical to June as they did in the days before Gilead’s rise. June, who wanted a comfortable life with her husband Luke, was seen as a disappointment by her mother, who would have preferred that she had involved herself more fully with social activism.
Though June and her mother may have see more eye to eye in the present day story, we find out in a heartbreaking twist that June’s mother was sent to the dreaded irradiated work Colonies, where she likely perished.
Another constant in this episode was June having several cathartic moments in mourning her own daughter. At first, I thought it was a little confusing having two different parent/child relationships highlighted in a single episode, but as June’s plane taxied down the runway we see that she clearly felt a kinship to her mother, while simultaneously feeling guilty to leaving her daughter in America at the mercy of Commander Fred and Serena.
And, in fact, the theme of motherhood may be even more important in the next episode. As June’s plane is shot down before liftoff, her pilot killed, and herself taken into custody by what we can only assume are the Sons of Jacob.
It’s very possible that her only hope for survival is to tell them that she is carrying a child. But I suppose we’ll have to wait until next week to find out!
