The Handmaid’s Tale season 2 episode 6 review: First Blood

This episode of The Handmaid’s Tale will probably make you say “Thanks, I hate it,” because simply getting to the end of the hour is a challenge.

For all the discussions of how the baby “needs harmony,” the new episode of The Handmaid’s Tale this week is all about division. Starting in the first scene, we see a screen is set up so that the ultrasound technician mostly speaks to Serena, not June, even though it’s June who’s carrying the baby.

She seems more like June again, thankfully, enough for Nick to call her by that name and for her to respond. However, she breaks it off with him, saying that “we need to be smart.”

But unsurprisingly, the division and attempted unity is strongest with June and Serena. At one point, Aunt Lydia says that they are a “willful pair,” and Serena’s will in this episode is all about making June feel comfortable — putting her up in the sitting room, offering to get a pregnancy pillow, asking what it’s like to be pregnant, inviting Handmaids over to a lunch for June. Seeing Hannah again is one step too far, though, for Serena’s kindness. (It’s not too far for Fred, though, who gives June a Polaroid of Hannah.)

That mix of conciliation and will appears in flashbacks as well, as Serena tries to deliver a speech to a protesting campus. Finally, we get a possible explanation of why Serena and Fred need a Handmaid: as she leaves the campus, she’s shot in the lower abdomen. There’s a deep irony in someone who helped create the policies of childbearing being unable to bear children herself — and being that way because of her speaking out for those same policies.

Fred’s scenes here emphasize that his position remains more precarious than it really should be. He’s up late, doesn’t want to talk to June much, and has other Commanders breathing down his neck. Joseph Fiennes’ performance has been fairly subtle over this season. He’s stepped back and let the women take the lead. It really balances well with the cast. He does get a moment to shine, though, as the Rachel & Leah Center opens.

Meanwhile, Eden’s scenes remain some of the most disturbing in a show that is always disturbing. We and Nick both know that Eden’s little more than a child. The dialogue in “First Blood” really emphasizes that. She talks about her mother often, asks if Nick wants to know how she made such good potatoes and tries to perform what she’s been taught are her wifely duties. All of her scenes make viewers cringe. This is not because she’s a bad character, but because she’s completely bought into it at such a young age. (We learn she’s 15 in a scene between Nick and June.)

The bedroom scene between the two of them is not as graphic as it could be. But this is the first time that I legitimately felt I might not be able to finish an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Getting to the end is worth it, though, if only to see a Handmaid sacrifice herself to cause an explosion in the Rachel & Leah Center, possibly killing Fred in the process. We’ll have to see what happens next week.

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Don’t let the side thoughts get you down:

• Blood shows up a few times — mostly for Serena, interestingly enough.
• “But I don’t have faith in the police,” Serena says in flashback. She urges Fred to be a man, and he responds by finding and killing the girlfriend of the man who shot her.
• Pay close attention to who touches June’s belly and if they have permission or not.
• “You’ve just been issued a woman,” Commander Price tells Nick, as if he’s discussing the weather. Additionally, Nick seems ready to betray Fred.