'The Handmaid's Tale' Recap: 'The Last Ceremony'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Well, it’s time to outright admit it; I’m simply not sure what to feel anymore when it comes to The Handmaid’s Tale, and I say that, simply because…this series is about as brutal and as savage as it gets. Every single week, the show finds new ways to horrify us and I really don’t know any more if that’s a good thing or a bad thing and perhaps that’s the point, I’m simply not supposed to know one way or the other and really, my confusion here stems from the fact that I had a little hope in my heart after last week’s episode.
 
After all, the all-important letters were now in the public’s hands, the Waterford’s were humiliated at last and it seemed as though June was formulating a plan to get the hell out of there and then comes this week’s episode, ‘The Last Ceremony, a tale that quite frankly, robbed the audience of that hope I mentioned a moment ago by way of all kinds of wild and horrible surprises, the first one being…that none of the important plot elements that I just made mention of show up in this tale. It’s just business as usual in Gilead and that was incredibly off putting, as was the eeriness that came with the next surprise…an apparent birth in the Waterford household.
 
Because seeing the top level garbage assemble in the Waterford home when June had contractions was in fact a mockery of the entire childbirth process, especially when one considers that in essence these idiots were congratulating themselves for assaulting innocent women and the awkwardness of this, was merely the preamble to a downward spiral of horrible moments because June wasn’t going into labor just yet and after pressing the Commander to be transferred to her daughter’s district after the baby was born, both Fred and Serena made the decision together to try and induce labor in a ‘natural’ way and well…what they did to June was simply disgusting and truly signified a low point for their already despicable characters and all I can hope for at this point is that they suffer and suffer hard for what they did in this episode.
 
Yet while that was rough to watch and uncomfortable in its own right, this episode wasn’t quite done with the cruelty just yet. Because in an effort to ‘atone’ for his actions, Fred gave June a ‘gift’ so to speak, he sent her out into the middle of nowhere with Nick to see Hannah and while at first this seemed like a lovely idea, it ended up being a screwed up and twisted reunion in so many ways because…they were only allowed ten minutes of mother/daughter time before Hannah was ripped away from her mother’s arms yet again and to make matters worse, Nick was caught by a few Guardians in this forbidden place and dragged away himself, leaving June alone and in labor. 
 
So, yeah, this was just…a rough episode through and through and well, I get it. This story is trying to take us on quite an experience and quite a ride and well, it’s definitely accomplishing that. I was uncomfortable for most of this episode, and obviously there was some incredible poignancy in this tale when it comes to our everyday lives, but one has to wonder…is this kind of cruelty ever going to end? The series just keeps the dark moments coming and at some point, I would imagine some viewers are going to turn away because it’s simply too much to handle. But at the same time, while I fuss, I also have to praise because this is a bold way to tell a story, and for me…I’m going to continue watching in the hopes of watching the Waterford’s get their just desserts and I suppose until that happens, I’ll remain in that grey area with all of you, wondering time and time again, when we might see some semblance of happiness…until next time… 

---