Misadventures in Blissville

Unintended consequences. Let’s let that one sink through just a little until it creates a bruise. Unintended consequences. 31 handmaids died in Ofglen the Second’s attack. 26 Commanders died as well, but 31 handmaids died. I admit I don’t fully grasp the physics of explosions, but Ofglen the Second did manage to bury herself deep in a clutch of bearded Commanders. In the final wide shot showing the explosion, we do see handmaids on the second level of the Rachel and Leah Center blown backward against the glass from the effects of the explosion, but the majority of them fled when they saw what was about to happen. So how did fewer Commanders die? Unless these numbers were falsified. Hmm. Now why would they want to falsify numbers? Hmm. Even Fred managed to survive and Ofglen the Second was running straight toward him! Was it not a very good bomb? Was it hastily or shabbily made? The handmaids gather for a funeral service, and again we have the push-pull of treating them as though they are special, fragile vessels of God, and then in the same breath, assaulting the endless “parade of sluts” with cattle prods. Several high-ranking Commanders were killed. Fred looks like he was barely singed from a barbecue grill mishap. Because so many handmaids were killed, demand for them increases, so one-eyed batshit-crazy Janine and Emily are taken away from the “Colonies” and returned to Gilead-proper.

In Canada, a crowd gathers to hear the death estimates of the bombing. How would this information get to Canada so fast? You’d think Gilead would keep a tight lid on any news of insurrection and rebellion. Moira flashes on a bit of lazy ret-conning. Because of the shortage of live births, childless couples are paying top dollar for surrogacy. Moira agrees to become a surrogate mother. In the present, Moira is led to a room of black file cabinets filled with the names of the people who died after Gilead seized power. It’s obvious she’s looking for someone in particular. A woman named Odette. Odette was an obstetrician who monitored Moira’s pregnancy. She was more than that, though. She was also Moira’s fiancée. I don’t know how or when that happened, but she was never seen in previous episodes, nor was she ever referenced. Remember Nikki and Paulo from the third season of Lost? They were among the crash survivors, but they were never seen or referenced until they were introduced in one episode and then killed off ten episodes later. Offred is summoned for an interview with a Commander Cushing, who has taken over for the slain Commander Pryce. He questions her with regard to her knowledge of Ofglen the Second, who she describes as “pious.” Cushing wants to know if Waterford was somehow involved in the bombing. He even has the nerve to refer to the Mayday movement as terrorists. I guess it takes one to know one. Offred looks out the window to see two Marthas shot dead in the street. This is a great place, huh?

This is when June puts on her game-face. With Fred enduring a very slow recovery, June decides to manipulate this system from the inside. She’s aware that Serena has seen her “power” (what power she believes she had) erode in the wake of the bombing and she outlines ways in which Cushing is pushing (hey!) for a power-grab. It isn’t just Marthas being executed. It’s any Commander or underling he suspects of some form of treason against Gilead. This might be a smart move on his part, but Offred’s revelations alarm Serena, so she gets “pro-active,” forging orders to have Cushing arrested. In effect, Serena seizes power in Fred’s absence. I would ordinarily applaud this, but Serena is a monster, and I have no sympathy for a monster taking power from another monster. Gilead is in lock-down after the bombing and Guardians patrol the streets nightly. Think of it as a kind of Gilead “Patriot Act.” In the flashback, Moira gives up her baby to the people who paid her for the use of her uterus. She meets up with Odette later and the two strike up a friendship leading to what I presume is a romance. I have to wonder what happened to her money. You’ll remember in the first episodes all the money was taken away from the women. What happened to that money? She didn’t grab as much cash as she could carry? She arrived in Canada penniless and was immediately put on the government dole. In the present, Moira looks through a catalog of dead people and finds Odette. I guess her name is “O-dead” now! Poom! Sorry. I know the show wants me to care, but I don’t, because this character’s birth and death was thrown into an already-padded episode to increase the running time and make Moira feel worse than she already does. So it goes.