The Handmaid’s Tale season 2 episode 4 review: Other Women

This week’s episode of The Handmaid’s Tale feels grim without much in the way of physical violence or torture, and that may be the scariest of all.

Well, that ended badly. There’s no better way to summarize “Other Women,” this week’s episode of The Handmaid’s Tale. Back with the Aunts, June’s first internal monologue is about pigs given balls to play with and how many flowers are on the comforter in her prison. This scene has a lot of slow, lingering shots on the shackle around June’s ankle.

But for all that June insists that Aunt Lydia knows her name, Lydia reminds us all that June and Offred are not the same. And so it’s Offred that puts the Handmaid outfit back on to return to the Waterfords’.

In some way, this always seemed destined to happen. The Handmaid’s Tale has gotten through only a portion of its second season. The story has to snap back to stretch everything out. It almost seems as if the writers are aware of this, because in-universe, the story is overwritten, too: officially, June was rescued from a kidnapping.

Even so, this doesn’t seem to be the same Offred we knew before. The idea of defiance seems paramount here, even as everyone around June wants to impose the order of Gilead back on her: Lydia stays around, basically giving Ann Dowd more opportunities to show why she won an Emmy; there’s a baby shower; Serena even chokes June at one point. But in return, June spits out the vitamin smoothie; she announces that she felt the baby kick; she also returns with a threat to Serena.

Defiance comes with a price, though. It always has. In flashbacks, Luke’s wife confronts June, saying things like “He’ll come back home to me” and referring to the importance of their vows. The second one shows that his ex-wife is stalking them. In the present, June also can’t avoid the ritual of being literally bound to Serena by red and green thread … or being shown the man who helped her hanging on the wall.

Things get particularly dark as Lydia takes advantage of her to say very psychologically manipulative things like how “Offred does not have to bear June’s guilt.” For all that this show is horrifying, this manipulation disguised as mercy, may be the scariest thing yet. Our heroine is openly weeping, and Lydia kisses her forehead and reassures her that it’s June’s fault, not Offred’s. So June puts Offred’s face back on and begs to stay at the Waterfords’.

However that it might seem like a face, though, the last internal monologue makes it sound as though it may become permanent, starting with her repeating “My fault” over and over again, then, as eerie music plays, putting on her bonnet and going outside.

“We’ve been sent good weather,” she says to Nick, then repeats it to us in internal monologue as Elisabeth Moss stares down into a camera.

Even though this episode is nothing less than bleak, there are some particularly strong performances here. Yvonne Strahovski could submit this for Emmy consideration; Ann Dowd is, of course, strong; Elisabeth Moss continues to work well through her emotional range. The blank stare at the end? That’s chilling.

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Don’t let the side thoughts grind you down:

• Just in case we had all forgotten how gender-normative things are, Fred goes out shooting with other Commanders, playing politics. They’re all shooting pigeons made of red clay. The symbolism shouldn’t be lost on us all.
• For all that June is the main character, though, this is an episode for Serena Joy, too: from defying Lydia by smoking to creeping into June’s bedroom and cradling her belly, things seem to be falling apart for her. Watch the two of them. Even if June is truly back to being Offred, Serena seems on edge.