The Handmaid’s Tale season 2 episode 8 review: Women’s Work

“Women’s Work” doesn’t really let men invade too much for The Handmaid’s Tale, but when they do, they make bigger impacts than usual.

There’s something deeply ironic about using “Easy Like Sunday Morning” as the background to the first scene of this week’s episode of The Handmaid’s Tale. Much as Sunday might be the traditional day for worship services, there’s room in a non-Gilead for those kinds of days. But there’s room in Gilead for days like the ones where Serena and June sit and draft new orders.

That easiness flees as soon as Fred comes home, still using a cane. He shuts Serena out of his office, despite her presenting him with the work she’s done while he’s been away.

But more returns mean there are more changes. One of the big plot points of this episode is that Angela is sick, and that brings tension into every single character’s storyline. After all, she’s a baby; she’s also Janine’s baby. Serena tries to convince Fred to transfer a Martha who used to be a doctor to the Putnams’ house for one day. He doesn’t allow it.

So Serena pulls a pair of end runs, bringing the doctor in any way and calling in Janine, too. For all of this, though, nothing medical works. Janine gets a moment to hold her child. Although the shots of everyone’s somber faces only serve to underscore how poignant this scene is, it’s Madeline Brewer’s acting that brings it all home. She doesn’t get many lines in this scene, but it’s still a strong acting moment in general. She also gets to close the episode out by keeping Angela alive through the night. In fact, the baby seems to have turned around completely.

It all comes crashing down for June and Serena, though, because Fred figures everything out. Of course, June cannot be physically punished in her condition. Serena can, though, and June’s punishment is to watch Serena get hit with a belt and hear her cries. The show doesn’t revel in this, but it doesn’t make it any less horrifying to hear this happen.

The worse part, frankly, is seeing Serena in the aftermath. We do not usually see Serena in any state of undress. It’s part of her character for her to mostly be poised and in control. For The Handmaid’s Tale to change that now tells us a lot about where she is. There are welts on her and tears in her eyes.

June goes to apologize to Waterford, and the shots of her coif just under his face, only half-shown, have some strong, wonderful contrast to them. Ditto with the shot of June on her hands and knees.

This episode feels like what “After” was trying to be — nothing quite as shocking as “First Blood,” but a softer tension — and it does a better job of having stronger scenes throughout. The music certainly helps.

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Don’t let the side thoughts grind you down:

• “My mother says ‘happy home, happy husband,'” Eden says. The fact that she’s still getting screentime suggests she’ll play a bigger role as she gets more and more dissatisfied.
• The top doctor who gets the call in is not only a woman, but she is a black woman. This seems like at least some response to the criticism of The Handmaid’s Tale‘s issues with race. “I am the best. I was,” she says at one point.
• “Someone once said men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them,” Offred notes in voiceover towards the end of the episode, before adding, “We should have known better.”