'The Handmaid's Tale' Recap: 'Baggage'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK..

It doesn’t take much to motivate me to watch The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu. After all, it’s filled to the brim with quality writing and performances and a story that completely and utterly sucks you in. But when it comes to season two, I have to admit that I’m a touch more eager to settle in and see where this story is heading simply because it’s taking us to bold and exciting new places, especially when one considers that June is finally free of her Handmaid duties and the horrors that Gilead provides to its citizens.
 
The possibilities are simply endless at this point, which gave the next episode in this series, ‘Baggage’, a strong sense of hope because…after spending two months in the former headquarters of the Boston Globe, June received some wonderful news from Nick. He had made contact with Mayday, and the time had come to move her to a safe house and shortly after that she would find herself smuggled out of the country and this was just wonderful to hear. Because she could finally be truly free of this horrible, horrible place and the prospect of genuine freedom…gave June pause and rightfully so. 
 
Because leaving Gilead meant leaving Hannah behind, and that allowed for June to reflect upon her strained relationship with her own mother and how in essence, June’s life has come about full circle. For years ago her mother was displeased with the fact that June ‘settled’ and didn’t spend her life fighting, yet…here she is now, doing just that and she had plenty of time to ponder on such matters simply because, there was a lot of waiting for June in this episode as she traveled about the countryside and spent time with other social classes and a delay in getting June to an airfield, where a plane would whisk her away to safety, left her worried and forced her to escape on her own.
 
Thankfully, she knew where she was going, she simply had to get there, and along the way she mentally bid farewell to Hannah as well and after coming to terms with the fact that perhaps someday her daughter would forgive her as she forgave her own mother, she made her way to the airfield and boarded the plane and that’s when the story pulled its cruelest trick upon the audience to date. Because mere moments before escaping to Canada, and freedom, the Guardians opened fire on the plane and stopped it from taking off before removing June forcibly from the aircraft, and I have no doubt that June will be returned to the training center post haste and while she won’t be harmed because she’s with child…it’s just heartbreaking to know she was that close to finally being free from this disgusting place.
 
So, just like that, we are in a way, back where we started, with June once more in captivity in a world that sees her as nothing more than a breeding vessel and it’s infuriating to say the least. Because after spending a solid hour holding in our breath and hoping to high heaven that she would manage to escape, that ending happens and well…it’s a bold twist to say the least and it should be interesting to see how a newly emboldened June will handle being returned to a B.S. life of servitude. In the end however, this was another solid episode. It was intense, and I did appreciate the world building and character development that went into this one, and I guess, if there’s any positive to be found in this tale, it’s the implication that war is coming to Gilead, since we learned that military exercises are happening on the Canadian border, and well, I don’t think any of us will be sad if other nations do their best to rid the world, of this awful, awful place…

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