Misadventures in Blissville

“The Bridge”

It’s nice that we have these little rituals, isn’t it? All the handmaids gather outside another palatial, stolen home. We have a prisoner–sorry–baby exchange between Janine (“Ofwarren”) for our little role-play, and the thieves of her baby, a Commander and his wife (not worthy of names in my book) and it becomes apparent the handmaids are to be regarded as nothing more than objects, to be dispensed with when their jobs are finished. Ofwarren, now Ofdaniel, is on her merry way to a new home … to be raped. As they depart, June tells her traveling companion she wants to help with Mayday activities. Janine meets her new masters. You would think what with her lack of an eye, she’d be sent to Commanders on the low end of the pecking order, but the Sons of Jacob are willing to look past that for the sake of her fertility. On their way to Loaves & Fishes, another handmaid takes June aside and tells she has to get her ass back to Jezebels to grab a package. I guess if June wants to be in the Resistance, she’ll have to do some grunt work for the cause. She tells Fred she wants to go back to Jezebels. It’s amazing that he buys this. I thought Fred was one of Gilead’s chief architects. Either that, or it is the show’s central conceit that all of the men represented, regardless of their experience and education, are absolute, drooling morons. Perhaps the women of this world do have special, supernatural powers over men.

We go to Serena, quietly sewing by the fire. In the kitchen, she roots around for booze, I’m sure, but she covers when Rita enters. Serena was led to believe the Commander is in his office, but Rita lets slip that he left the house. Rita finds her the booze, but Serena doesn’t want to drink alone. So she caught up with her pal, Jack Daniels, and his partner, Jimmy Beam! Rita talks of her son who died during the war, but I’m not sure at this point what side he was on. Janine prepares for the Ceremony with her new masters. Janine is nervous, and I’m nervous for her. This scene plays more like rape than any of the other Ceremonies we’ve been treated to with Janine resisting and somehow convinced that her previous Commander will come for her. Fred makes it with June at Jezebels, all the while June has that package on her mind. Idiot Fred knows something’s up, so he arranges for an “encounter” with Moira/Ruby. His gay-dar is a little wonky so he leaves them alone to talk while he washes up. She argues with June about this cloak-and-dagger shit. Moira doesn’t want to do anything to endanger her life, seemingly unaware that her life is danger all the time in this place. June accuses her of already being dead, which she might as well be if she refuses to help. June is certainly learning how to manipulate people. When they arrive home, Fred gets caught by Serena, and by the look on her face, she knows damn well where he’s been.

Early morning, amid flashes of happier times smoking cigarettes with Moira, at the beach with hubby and child, Serena wakes June up and takes her to the bridge of the title. Janine is holding the baby and threatening to jump into the water. How did she manage that? Guys with machine guns! Janine screams at her previous Commander about all the “freaky” sex stuff they did that his wife wouldn’t do. Out in the open air, this pretty much destroys the Commander’s reputation. June offers to talk her down off the ledge. She tells her, “Change is coming. There’s hope.” She tells her they’re gonna go out drinking one day. Janine asks if they can do karaoke. She gives the baby to June and then jumps off the bridge. She’s quickly fished out of the water, but I do wonder if she could survive the impact. Aunt Lydia keeps vigil by her bedside in the hospital and calls her a “stupid girl.” The Commander is brought up on charges because of Janine’s claims. Serena is humiliated when the Commander’s wife tells her everybody knows why the previous Offred killed herself. That’s all very well and good, but we don’t know why she killed herself. At least, we have our theories. At the supermarket, a butcher hands off the package to June, courtesy of Moira and her ridiculous note: “Praised be, bitch. Here’s your damn package.” At Jezebels, Moira/Ruby decides to grow a pair. She grabs a shiv she made out of plumbing parts, presumably kills her client, hops into a car and drives off. I seriously hope we never go back to Jezebels.