'The Handmaid's Tale' Recap: 'Unwomen'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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​I’ve always been extremely appreciative of the fact that Hulu waits a week before releasing a brand-new episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, simply because this show is so heavy and dark and loaded with incredibly poignant plot points that having a week to sit upon all the horrors we’ve seen in Gilead is a good thing. It gives us time to process everything we witnessed and allows for us to steel our nerves before diving back into this awful world head first. But for season two, Hulu offered up quite the treat, by having the second episode of the season, ‘Unwomen’, available on the same night.
 
Which meant we were all left with quite the tough choice. Do we binge away and bathe ourselves further in the darkness or revisit this tale a few days down the line and I know that I chose to immediately dive right in, simply because of the hope the season premiere sent our way and honestly, I’m glad I did. Because this story was incredibly powerful, and worthy of its own individual recap instead of being shoehorned in with the season premiere’s review, and it’s one that also worked to a strength for the series, which is worldbuilding. Because a fair chunk of this episode took us far away from Gilead where we were able to finally see a place that was only mentioned in the novel and the first season of this series; The Colonies. 
 
As it turns out, they’re as awful as we imagined, and this place and the work that women are forced to do out here more or less confirms that a nuclear disaster of some kind struck America before it became Gilead. But while it was fascinating and harrowing to see The Colonies, the characters were still the focus, since we caught up with Emily in this place and she found an opportunity to reflect upon her former life out here, wherein she was subject to violent homophobia at the school she worked at as America came to an end and this led to some devastating moments on screen, the kind that definitely force you to take a moment and ponder, and this, this part of the story was the first time this season we saw the series try and parallel our world again by in essence examining the sudden and newfound fight that LGBTQ people are dealing with in our world thanks to the surge of hate and anger we see in our country today.
 
But, the parallels didn’t end there. After all, resistance and fighting hard for what’s right in the world are common themes today as well, and all of that was present in this tale since Emily found an opportunity to exact a little revenge for how she’s been treated by Gilead as a whole by putting down a Commander’s Wife that was sent to the Colonies for her sins in brutal fashion, and the desire to fight was found in June as well, who despite being in hiding for this entire episode, found herself fired up when she saw what atrocities had taken place in her sanctuary, the former headquarters of The Boston Globe, and it’s wonderful to see that people are starting to steel their nerves and prepare to fight because I know I’m not alone in wanting to see Gilead fall.
 
If anything, I love the fact that this episode returned the show to its brainy roots in bold and brutal fashion, and the character development here was top notch since Emily and June are finally coming into their own since Emily is finding ways to make life in the Colonies tolerable and as an added bonus, she’s standing up for herself now that she knows she can and June, well she’s ready for war and she’s a completely different person now that she’s free and in all honesty, this is everything we could have hoped for June and more. Because she can finally be herself and live her life the way she wants to and the longer she’s away from her garbage commander and his joke of a wife, the stronger she will become, and I cannot wait to see her grow as she finally escapes the evil clutches of Gilead. Until next time. 

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