'The Handmaid's Tale' Recap: 'Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

It's no secret now that The Handmaid's Tale is a show that takes us to the darkest and most deprived places of the human condition. Cruelty is everywhere in Gilead. There is little value for human life and every episode to date has left the audience in need of a moment to collect their thoughts when the darkness has finally come to a close. 

So as I settled in to watch last night's episode, 'Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum', I expected more of the same; powerfully dark moments that would give me pause, but instead...I was treated to quite the surprise. There's been a slight paradigm shift in the style and design of the storytelling on this show because this particular tale decided to bring forth something that I never thought we would ever see again when it came to Gilead and the awful world it has created...a sense of hope. 

Yes, you read that right. For the first time in the short history of the series, hope and the power that comes with it made a guest appearance, but its arrival on this show did not come without a price. For in order for June/Offred to find it...she had to sink to her lowest point without it. Because for a vast majority of this episode, it was business as usual. June was to be punished for not being pregnant and she was trapped in her boring little room, and well...the cabin fever was more or less driving her mad. It led her to remember what life was like shortly after she was captured and how she and Moira nearly escaped their training center to freedom, and sadly, those memories didn't serve as inspiration to resist, they were instead a fine reminder that she was trapped, there was no escape and it almost broke her. 

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But something magical came together last night, and the disdain that we have seen for Gilead from the Waterford 'family' has apparently started to bubble over. Because after a failed Ceremony, and another 'date' between June and Fred, June spoke of the phrase that serves as the title for this episode, because she discovered it in the closet of her room, and she asked the Commander its meaning. Wherein she learned that not only did her predecessor give up on life, she did so by making her final words a rallying cry when the Commander translated the phrase into English for June, and it means; 'don't let the bastards get you down' and well...the fact that Fred was happy to translate this for June, tells us plenty about the Commander's true feelings about his job.

Because it's slowly becoming clear, that the Commander has no taste for what Gilead stands for and what it drives toward. Take for example a scene earlier in this episode when he was enjoying breakfast with his wife, where he spoke of an Aunt that escaped and exposed the horrible things happening in his nation to the world...and the look of disdain and disgust upon his face when his wife spoke of what had to be done to bury the story spoke volumes to his underlying desire to perhaps see that story persist and thrive. Not to mention, the fact that he shows kindness to his Handmaids, and treats them as the human beings that they are demonstrates that he believes they deserve better than the awful hand they have been dealt. 

His feelings are something that June takes full advantage of to get out of that stuffy room, but his granting of her freedom signifies so much more. Not only does the act give June strength and confidence once again but she now has quite the powerful ally in the Commander and his desire for resistance isn't the only one brewing in the household as well since his wife made a forbidden attempt at intimacy. Granted, this world is still awful and Waterford is not excused for going along with the whole mess, but all of this comes down to one particular thing; for the first time it truly feels as though there is trouble at Gilead's core, that perhaps this perfect theocracy has major cracks in its foundation, and there's hope at last that a respect for humanity may serve as the beginning of Gilead's downfall. Until next time.

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