Anika Begay
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale.For the duration of its five seasons so far, the dystopian drama The Handmaid’s Tale presented a harrowing look at a disturbing dystopia in which women are forced to bear children for the ruling class in an attempt to remedy the country’s plummeting birth rate, now called Gilead. The series debuted in 2017 and is based on the novel of the same name by The Life of Margaret AtwoodSeason 6 will be TThe Handmaid’s Taleis the last one and should air in 2025, three years after the fifth season. Its sequel, The TestamentsIt’s also in development for Hulu.
The Handmaid’s Tale has produced a series of exceptional episodes that detail the harsh realities of life in Gilead, especially for June. But for every episode that receives critical acclaim and top scores, there is another that gets overlooked, despite being just as intense and emotional. Like the best episodes of the series, the more underrated ones offer an illuminating look at the characters..
10 “Heroic”
Season 3, Episode 9
In “Heroic”, June (Elizabeth Moss) her mental state became fragile when she was confined and forced to kneel on the floor of her walking companion, Natalie’s (Ashleigh LaThrop), also known as Ofmatthew, who was brain dead but had been kept alive to carry the pregnancy to term. June’s punishment was meant to last until the baby was born, which had already been underway for a month at the start of the episode. After an encounter with Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski), June reconsidered her actions.
Much of what Gilead put people through amounted to psychological torture, like June’s confinement in “Heroic.” Star Elisabeth Moss has consistently delivered fantastic performances in The Handmaid’s Taleand this was a great example of that as June was unfolding. It was also a pivotal episode for June’s character.But despite its emotional impact, it is among the lowest-rated episodes of the series on IMDb, perhaps in part due to fan reaction to the deaths of two black women.
9 “The Word”
Season 2, Episode 13
After Eden (played by Sydney’s World) death, June went through her things in the season two finale “The Word” and found a Bible with notes written in the margins, indicating that Eden could read and write, despite Gilead’s laws prohibiting women from doing so. The incident prompted Serena and the other wives to try to make a change. Meanwhile, Emily (Alexis Bledel) got to know his new Commander, who turned out not to be as cruel as his peers.
“The Word” was a reminder of what the women of Gilead had missed. – all the women, not just the handmaids. It was also a gripping episode about a mother’s love and willingness to do anything for her daughter – when in the midst of an escape, June entrusted baby Nichole to others and chose to stay behind to find and free her other daughter, Hannah, while Serena accepted what life in Gilead would be like for Nichole and willingly abandoned her.
8 “A Woman’s Place”
Season 1, Episode 6
The ambassador to Mexico visited Gilead in “A Woman’s Place” and Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) hoped to arrange a trade agreement between the two countries. During the visit, the ambassador questioned the handmaids. Meanwhile, through flashbacks, the episode revealed Serena’s role in the creation of Gilead and showed a very different version of her: she was an outspoken activist and writer, a far cry from the submissive housewife she had become in Gilead.
“A Woman’s Place” is an essential episode of The Handmaid’s Tale – showed how other countries viewed Gilead and the lengths those in power would go to put on Gilead’s best image, showing that they were aware of how cruel they actually were. And for the first time in the series, it focused on a character other than June, with a glimpse into Serena’s earlier life. His understanding of his character made the episode a must-see..
7 “House”
Season 4, Episode 7
In “Home”, June has finally arrived in Canada, where Luke (OT Fagbenle) and Moira (Samira Wiley) lived and raised Nichole, and officially sought asylum for her safety, and she began to adjust to her new life and experience a variety of mixed feelings about the change. She reunited with Luke, and after some initial awkwardness, he apologized for not being able to get her and Hannah out while June expressed her guilt over Hannah not being with her. Later, June confronted Serena.
After seeing June come so close to escaping Gilead so many times, It was great to see it finally succeed – and dealing with Serena on top of it all. “Home” helped illustrate how different life in Gilead was compared to life outside, as well as the impact it had on June and Luke both individually and as a couple. The emotional moments between the two were some of the episode’s best and helped make it a compelling episode overall.
6 “Loyal”
Season 1, Episode 5
Serena suspected Fred was sterile in “Faithful” and hatched a plan for Nick (Max Minghella) to sleep with June in the hopes of impregnating her. Meanwhile, June and Fred spent more and more time together in his office, mostly playing Scrabble, and June was inspired by Emily’s act of rebellion. Additionally, flashbacks showed the beginning of June’s relationship with Luke: he was married to another woman when they first met.
“Faithful” was the beginning of June’s relationship with Nick, which would ultimately have a huge impact on the series going forwardand also showed a softer, more human side to Fred. While the series focuses primarily on June, it does occasionally offer glimpses into the lives of other handmaids, among the most interesting of which was Emily, who had some great moments in this episode, particularly her violent rebellion.
5 “Holly”
Season 2, Episode 11
In “Holly”, after a brief meeting with Hannah arranged by Fred, June was left alone in an abandoned house: despite being accompanied by Nick, he was shot and taken away by the guards, leaving June alone, pregnant, with apparently no one to come and get her. After spending some time searching the house, she eventually went into labor and gave birth to a daughter she named Holly.
“Holly” was a gripping episode that compared the births of June’s two daughters.Hannah and Holly, named for June’s mother and later renamed Nichole by Serena, show the very different circumstances in which they came into the world. And since childbirth in Gilead included a ceremony for the wives, it was great for June that Serena was robbed of that experience. Moss gave one of her best performances of the series in this episode.
4 “The Crossing”
Season 4, Episode 3
After being captured by Gilead, in “The Crossing”, June was brought in and interrogated about the location of the escaped handmaids by a furious Aunt Lydia (Anna Dowd). Meanwhile, Nick and Lawrence (Patrick Bradley) worked together to do what they could to help June. In the final moments of the episode, the handmaids headed for escape across the train tracks, only to see some of them get hit and killed by an oncoming train. The episode was also notable for being Moss’s directorial debut.
Aunt Lydia is one of the cruelest characters in the series, if not the cruelest – but Dowd is fantastic in the role, and “The Crossing” presented Dowd at her best and Lydia at her worst.or almost, from executing other handmaids to using Hannah to get June to cooperate. And after all the trauma Janine had endured, it was hard to watch her after the death of the handmaids.
3 “Late”
Season 1, Episode 3
In “Late”, June visited Janine (Madeline Brewer) child. Meanwhile, Emily was arrested and faced the horrific punishment of genital mutilation for having an affair with Martha, who was executed. Elsewhere, June met the new Ofglen, who acted as if Emily had never existed. June’s flashbacks showed the early days of the revolution that led to the creation of Gilead, which included women being denied employment in corporations because of the way they dressed—in Moira and June’s case, gym clothes.
“Late”, especially Emily’s storyline, is among the most disturbing episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale and it can be hard to watchBut that’s also what makes it so compelling. The episode didn’t just depict an unthinkable punishment, it also depicted the bizarre way in which the handmaids, particularly the more compliant ones, were stripped of their identities and downplayed some of Gilead’s most egregious crimes. But some of the episode’s best scenes were the flashbacks, which showed how the changes in what became Gilead started small.
2 “Domestic”
Season 3, Episode 6
In “Household”, June traveled to Washington with Serena and Fred to attend a public prayer ceremony, with the goal of pressuring the Canadian government to return little Nichole to Gilead. While there, they stayed at the large and beautiful home of the powerful Winslow family, a large family with six children, presumably kidnapped from their real parents, led by Commander George (Christopher Meloni), who was thought to be gay, another crime in Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale was almost exclusively focused on one specific location, but in “Household,” the show offered a glimpse into how other parts of Gilead, particularly DC, functioned. and in some ways, it was even worse than what had been shown previously. It was shocking to see how completely Gilead’s government had taken control of the city, from turning the Washington Monument into a cross to the much more disturbing handmaids with their mouths sewn shut.
1 “Votes”
Season 4, Episode 6
After June emerged from the rubble of a Gilead-sponsored airstrike on Chicago, she was almost immediately reunited with Moira in “Vows,” who was working as an aid worker and who offered June a chance at freedom. As a result, June arrived in Canada and was also reunited with Luke, and she was worried that he would never forgive her for failing to get Hannah out of Gilead.
“Vows” was a turning point for The Handmaid’s Tale. Moira’s return was a welcome one: she’s a fantastic character and a joy to watch no matter what she’s doing. Her reunion with June was understandably emotional, and the episode offered a touching focus on their friendship, which somehow managed to withstand the test of America’s descent into Gilead and the horrors it brought upon them. But one of the best and most emotional moments was June’s tearful declaration to Luke that Hannah wasn’t with her..
