'The Handmaid's Tale' Recap: 'Faithful'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

After four episodes that take us to some incredibly dark and powerful places, the kind where you need a few moments to process the horrors that you have just seen, leave it to The Handmaid's Tale to completely and utterly surprise the audience and take the story in a stunningly different direction, if only for a moment by delivering an episode of this powerful story that manages to be a bittersweet affair.

Yes, you read that right. 'Faithful' was not the usual quality gloom and doom that the show puts forth, this story actually managed to explore the wonder of love and our need to experience it in life, and as an added bonus, it truly took us into the hearts and minds of the people of Gilead, giving us powerful insight into the fact that not everything is quite what it seems here, along with insight into what several of the characters believe about the world they inhabit, and how few truly believe in what this twisted place stands for and because of that, resistance is continuing to gain momentum in this world in the most unexpected ways possible.

Take for example the whole notion of the ceremony. It is sacred in this world, it is necessity to procreate the species and...it would seem few truly believe in it's deeper meaning outside of men like the Commander. Because Mrs. Waterford takes a moment to propose something incredible and downright stunning to June; that Fred may in fact be sterile and that there is another way...they can enlist the help of Nick to get June pregnant. Which means it's clear that some of the most powerful women in Gilead have zero stock put into the ceremony and well, to know that one of the fundamental foundations of this new society is successful thanks to the help of men besides the Commanders, is quite the revelation and embarrassment for this way of life, and it didn't end there.

Because for weeks now, it seemed as though the Commander was going to be June's way out, that he despised the world he helped build and as it turns out, following a brief confrontation with June in his office after a lustful moment during the Ceremony, that I was wrong about the man, he will provide no salvation because the dear Commander is nothing but a coward and a strange representative of this disgusting new world. He has no machinations to see Gilead fall, in fact he does support it and what it stands for, but he's the type of man who enjoys the best of both worlds. He prefers to pretend there is disdain for Gilead in his heart by toying around with things that are taboo so he can bury himself in the cleansing vitriol the government provides. He is in many ways a parallel to active elements in modern day religion wherein some of these folks are happy to sin, but it's okay because they ask for forgiveness.

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Yet while the Commander turned out to be a pathetic disappointment, the resistance building within the hearts of people like Mrs. Waterford and Nick, since he was happy to help in getting June pregnant, is popping up everywhere. The wife of the new Commander where Emily (now Ofsteven) is posted seems to be happy to avoid the Ceremony at all costs and Emily even found a unique opportunity to stick it to Gilead by commandeering a car and wiping out a member of the Eye. Granted, she'll no doubt face some terrifying consequences for her actions, but she clearly believes she has nothing to lose...and her actions served as an inspiration as well.

Because a little earlier on I made mention of love, and how much it matters to us and how much we need to feel it at any level, and Emily's bold moment reminded June of that fact and what made her story so interesting this week, is how much love and well...feeling alive was on her mind. We spent a lot of time exploring her past, how she met Luke, how they fell in love in quick and powerful fashion but tried to play their feelings off as nothing special since Luke was married at the time, and how that love eventually led to an affair and Luke leaving his wife because he knew what he had in June and he was far happier with her. 

But June's quest to feel desire or love goes beyond such simplicity, because the show was trying to tell us something far more powerful. That Gilead is an awful place because it robs human beings of their ability to feel...anything. There is no joy, no sorrow, no love, no desire to be found in this place. Heck there's not even fear at this point because everyone knows the Eyes are watching and have resigned themselves to what punishment awaits if they slip up so everyone just goes through the motions. They exist and they're miserable and we as a species need to feel something in order to find life worth living and that understanding, combined with Emily's heroism...led June to Nick to feel passion for the first time in years.

When all is said and done however, this episode was a welcome change of pace. An audience can only take incredible punishment for so long and the writer's room clearly delivered everyone a gift for enduring some serious suffering with this refreshing and slightly uplifting episode. I can't call it anything more than 'slight' because hey, Gilead still exists and it's still an awful place, but it's refreshing to know that people are finding a way to keep the old world alive, to respect one another and find joy in a world devoid of it. Either way, the cracks continue to grow in Gilead's foundation and it should be interesting to see where June and Nick's relationship goes from here, especially considering that Nick admitted to being a member of the Eyes...until next time...

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