‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Recap: ‘Under His Eye’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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It is quite rare in this day and age, to settle in and watch and a television series and have no idea where it is headed. For this era of peak television, allows for the audience to have some notion of what the story in question is trying to accomplish so that everything comes together beautifully in the season finale, allowing for one grand payoff for the fans, and that’s a direct result of the fact that showrunners and writer’s rooms are able to assemble their ideas far in advance. Which is why I’m outright stunned when a show seemingly enters undiscovered and uncertain territory, especially one as well-crafted as The Handmaid’s Tale.
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Because this is a series where every dark moment is carefully pondered upon, and where ideas and plot threads are gently woven together. But for the first time in the show’s short history, it seems as though everything that season three was going to stand for has been blow to pieces. For the revolution we were hoping for, seems so far away. Because June is truly on her own now, without an ally in her corner in Gilead, since her darling Nick has betrayed her and gone off to fight Gilead’s ridiculous holy war and Serena has more or less lost her mind as she desperately attempts to get baby Nichole back into her arms and really, all of this chaos now begs the question, where the heck do we go from here?

Well it seems that even the series isn’t quite ready to answer that particular question at this point, since ‘Under His Eye’, really didn’t do a whole lot to move the plot forward, instead opting to dive the audience into a little bit of world building once again since we spent a lot of time in Washington, D.C., wherein we learned that Gilead, a nation that prizes its children over anything else, isn’t above using them as pawns for political and monetary gain. For Commander Winslow expressed a desire for Fred to take his time when it comes to the forthcoming extradition negotiations, to see what other leverage they can gain from baby Nichole, and not let Serena know much more than ‘they’re working on it’. Which is twisted and out of touch, but considering how the D.C. storyline showed us the decadence and aloofness present in the capital, that should come as no surprise since this predominately white and incredibly rich segment of Gilead is clearly obsessed with patting themselves on their backs for creating a nation full of lies and atrocities.

Yet, while it is always fascinating to learn more about this chilling place, June is of course our heroine and the focal point of this tale and now that she was faced with no hope or direction once again, she opted to get close to the only thing she has left in this place, her daughter. Which means she worked the system and used Elanor Lawrence’s desire to do more than just exist, in order to get close to Hannah and sadly, her efforts were all for naught. For she didn’t get into the facility to see her baby, and the always annoying Ofmatthew ratted her out to Aunt Lydia and anyone that would listen, prompting Gilead to move the McKenzine’s to who knows where, and manipulate June into believing that the McKenzie’s Martha had harmed her baby to try and get her to comply, a revelation that pushed June to edge of killing Ofmatthew.

So, that’s where this chapter ends, with June full of fury and Serena being lied to and well, this episode really did feel lost when all is said and done. Because there was just no focus to be found here, and at times some of the stuff felt like filler and well, I cannot help but wonder if this is all part of the plan. For as I said earlier, this is a carefully crafted series, one that rarely wastes a moment, which means that June’s anger here and Fred’s continued manipulation of Serena to get what he wants could backfire when Serena learns the truth. So, in the here and the now, the jury is still out when it comes to this particular tale, and I’ll wait to see where it goes because dang it, the time really is right for revolution. Because June and so many other characters in this tale deserve better and it should be interesting to see what awaits us in this story going forward since anything can happen at this point. Until next time.

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