This season, The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of a woman who is willing to do everything to get her daughter back.
And no, I’m not talking about Serena.
When Hulu first revealed that it was adapting Atwood’s novel, I was both excited and wary. The way you always are when a beloved book is being adapted. I enjoyed the first season, and while the second season wasn’t bad, it wasn’t that good. In part, it is the first season where it radically separates from the book. I found myself more interested in Moira and Nick, and Emily then June (Offred). And it wasn’t as good as the first season. The problems in the show were more obvious.
But this season.
This season starts with June, after she has determined to stay in Gilead to find and rescue her daughter, Hanna. The rescue that was to take her to Canada, takes her daughter, Holly, (fathered by Nick, carried to be handed over to Waterfords) and another Handmaid, Emily. June goes back is and eventually assigned to another Commander.
Part of the season has been focusing on the dual plot lines of June trying to get and reconnect with Hanna as Serena Joy regrets her decision to let Holly/Nicole be spirited to Canada. Both mothers are suffering from the loss of one or two children. Serena Joy ends her rebellion, such as it was, and re-endorses Gilead, ending her quasi alliance with June, just to get her baby back.
June is no different.
In fact, the risk to June this season is to her morality as opposed to her physical wellbeing. To her interior self.
In her quest to get her daughter Hanna, June has directly caused the deaths of two black women. She did this by bullying and deploying tactics that are basically those of Gilead’s. In the beginning to the season, she does this by pressing and manipulating the Martha who works in the household of the family that has taken Hanna. She risks the Martha’s life and safety for a chance to see her daughter. Understandable. But moral? The question even becomes harder when Hannah’s adopted mother warns and pleads June to stay away. The woman doesn’t seem bad (the society is bad) and she even seems somewhat sympathetic to June. It even seems that the reason why June and the Martha are still alive is because this wife understands the emotions behind the actions. The also points out the emotional harm that the visits due to Hannah. But June, understandably, does not stop. Her behavior is exactly like that of Serena Joy towards Holly/Nicole. Regardless of why each woman wants her daughter back, each woman is also putting the child in danger.
The Martha who is helping June is eventually discovered, and June (and the other Handmaids) must pull the rope that hangs her.
One of the things that stands out in Gilead is how it does corrupt. For instance, the Handmaids are made complicit in murder when they are used for executions. June is showing more signs of being part of Gilead, as not much different than Aunt Lydia.
And that’s the point.
This is driven home when it is revealed that the betrayal of the Martha was in fact June’s walking partner – Ofmathew (Natalie). June first attacks her, then, along with the majority of the rest of the Handmaids (majority white or could pass as white), shuns her. Understandable, perhaps. Ofmathew betrayed the Handmaid code. But she didn’t really. The Handmaids walk in pairs to report on each other. June knows this. She knows that she can’t fully trust Ofmathew, yet she persistently in not very subtle ways to publicly talk to the Martha where Ofmathew could see her. It isn’t a surprise that she was betrayed, it was only a matter of when.
And let’s be honest, if June had snatched Hannah or had contact with Hannah, who would be punished besides the Martha and June? Ofmathew of course. If your partner does something wrong and didn’t report it, you face punishment. Ofmatthew is simply trying to keep herself safe. And let’s be honest, the meetings between June and the Martha were in public places. It is entirely possible; pressure was brought to bear on Ofmatthew.
In the latest episode, June is placed in shaming circle by the Aunts as a punishment (and an attempt to control her). She strikes back by revealing that Ofmatthew voiced uncertainty/fear over her new pregnancy. Of course, the Aunt’s can’t let that go. So Ofmatthew takes June’s place in the circle. And as the handmaid’s leave the Red Centre, June is thanked by aunt Lydia for bringing this to her attention.
Now, this is hardly the first two times that June has shown a lack of interest in those around her, even as she uses them. Take, for instance, Nick who she uses in a variety of ways – for emotional support, for sex, for escape, to protect her daughter- but who she really knows nothing about because she never really asked. The same is true for a large number of Marathas that she has interacted with – Rita at the Waterfords, and somewhat the Marthas at Joseph’s house.
And June’s treatment of Ofmathew has consequences. The shunning and the shame circle take their tour, and Ofmatthew breaks. She goes crazy in a store, attacks Janine (who was the only Handmaid being nice to her), attacks and kills a guard who tries to stop her, seizes a gun, wavers between aiming at June or Aunt Lydia (shot them both!) and before she can fire is shot by another guard. It is revealed that she is brain dead but the power structure is keeping her body alive to deliver the baby.
June did that. June doesn’t even seem sorry.
June is Gilead, even as she struggles against it. She has to be to survive. This is true of the other characters -Emily, Moira – who became killers before their escape to Canada – where they come to terms with their actions.
June didn’t escape. June stayed. And in staying June has harmed people, and she doesn’t seem sorry.
We also can’t ignore the role of race in this. In an effort to see her daughter, June basically forces Madeline Joseph (the wife of the commander, and who has mental health issues) to walk with her outside. Once outside and after a conversation, June apologizes and comes clean to Madeline, who is white. Something she does not do with Hannah’s Martha or Ofmathew. The closest we get is when June apologizes to Alma in season two.
Not only is Gilead responsible for June becoming cruel, it is also either showing her own racism (something that she would not consider herself to be) and/or showing how a society that works on few uses’ racism as a tool of culture – to keep groups separated. It is showcasing how white women are not always allies, the allies they should be, to women of color. There were hints at this in regards to Moira as well.
To stop them from forming alliances in the same way they try to separate the Wives, Marthas, and Handmaids.
What the tv series is doing is subtle but realistic. The first couple seasons were meant to be worried about June in terms of physical, but they also set the stage for a more important worry – her inner self. Her moral self. We’re not really suppose to like June over these last few episodes. Worry about her perhaps, mourn her perhaps. But not like. We are supposed to view her treatment of Ofmathew and the Martha with horror. And if you support June in her actions then, you should support Serena. There is little difference in the actions of the two women, and the show has repeatedly shown that birth and adopted parents care about the children.
Repressive societies force us to confront uncomfortable truths about ourselves that we either overcome, or we succumb and join the repression. Morality is complex. Keeping to your morality is hard. The Handmaid’s Tale is showing this.
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