S06.E05: Janine

[paulvdb]

Quote

June and Moira go undercover. Serena and Nick make consequential choices.

Premiere date: April 22, 2025

[kitkat343]

Command Wharton said to Nick, "that young man has shown remarkable signs of improvement...he was shot point blank...he could identify who committed this brazen act."  I'm still not 100% certain of Commander Wharton's motivations, but this sounds exactly like the kind of warning one would give to Nick if they didn't want it known they were on the side of the resistance.

 

And of course Janine would come inches away from freedom and be denied again.  Moira and June can argue whomever had it worse, but Janine always wins (loses?) that awful game.  Even in an episode entitled Janine we see very little of her.

 

Edited April 22 by kitkat343

[Brn2bwild]

10 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

Command Wharton said to Nick, "that young man has shown remarkable signs of improvement...he was shot point blank...he could identify who committed this brazen act."  I'm still not 100% certain of Commander Wharton's motivations, but this sounds exactly like the kind of warning one would give to Nick if they didn't want it known they were on the side of the resistance.

 

And of course Janine would come inches away from freedom and be denied again.  Moira and June can argue whomever had it worse, but Janine always wins (loses?) that awful game.

 

The fact that Commander Wharton set up that library leads one to suspect that he might be a good guy.  Why bother to go to such lengths to win over Serena, when a lesser effort likely would have worked? ETA: But then maybe I'm just being naive.  Everyone else assumes he is going to drop the nice guy act once he and Serena marry.  I guess I'm hoping for a twist.

I was so with Moira during that scene when she accused June of being all about herself.  June being there was so pointless - she nearly risked everything by impulsively trying to get Janine to come with them, and their extended time in that room squabbling led to the guardian entering.  

Why was this episode called "Janine" when she was barely in it?  I thought coming in that this would be Janine's curtain call episode, but thankfully that's been pushed back at least one week.

Not surprising that the Commanders revealed their true intentions, and good that Lawrence overheard them.  Commander Pig can go away forever at any time.

Edited April 22 by Brn2bwild

[aghst]

That argument about who was raped and beaten more was ridiculous.  And because they spent time arguing, the rapey Guardian caught them and they had to kill him.

Moira strangling him to death with telephone wire?  How convenient they don't have wireless or cell phones.

So they have to get rid of the body but the guy not checking in will set off alarms.

Not to mention, he locked away the incriminating letters in that safe.

How do they expect to infiltrate Jezebel's more than once?  I know that they want to save all the women but now they can forget about their plan to kill the Commanders.

IF they all get out, it would be risky to send anyone back in, because now there will be heightened security.

[Helena Dax]

I didn't get if New Bethelem is a real thing that some Commanders want to turn into a trap or everybody knows it's a trap except from Lawrence, Serena and Nick. In any case, now that Lawrence knows I'm curious to see his reaction.

June and Moira arguing in the middle of the mission was stupid and what happened because of it should ruin their chances to kill the Commanders and free the women from Jezabel; however, since things don't make much sense anymore, perhaps they'll manage to do it anyway. 

[paulvdb]

1 hour ago, Helena Dax said:

I didn't get if New Bethelem is a real thing that some Commanders want to turn into a trap or everybody knows it's a trap except from Lawrence, Serena and Nick.

Maybe Wharton also doesn't know because doesn't go to Jezebel with the other commanders. But I'm assuming that all or most of the other commanders know New Bethlehem is a trap. If they want to make the trap work they should at least have a majority of the commanders on their side.

[crashdown]

4 hours ago, Helena Dax said:

June and Moira arguing in the middle of the mission was stupid

Indeed, and I think it speaks to the larger problem of pacing in this final season. The showrunners have 10 episodes to play with, and I believe they're probably going to make the final two episodes super-sized, with lots of battles and action. As a result, they've had to shorten all the other episodes and shoehorn in certain Important Conversations where they don't organically belong. June and Moira needed to have this talk--and it was a good, well-written, in-character talk for both of them--but they didn't need to have it in the middle of a covert mission to Jezebels. Luke and June needed to have their talk last week, but it felt awkwardly placed after their argument. I'm sure we'll have a June/Nick talk and a June/Serena talk in the next couple of episodes, and I hope they're not quite as stupidly placed in the overall narrative. I expect that one or both of these "talks" will come in the next episode, the one in which "June hides in an unlikely place." (I'm assuming that she starts out with Nick and ends up with Serena, but that's just a guess. Rose and Wharton are conveniently on a trip to DC--why exactly is Wharton taking his pregnant daughter to DC, anyway?--which gives June the ability to hide in either place.) In any case, I think it'll be mostly a bottle episode with a lot of conversation. Those are my very favorite sorts of episodes, and it's maddening to me that it's only 38 minutes long to make room for extended scenes with shivs and bloodshed, neither of which interest me at all.

[Quickbeam]

Oh Luke. Such a putz. 

[bettername2come]

"My girls suffered greatly in your house." "And in yours." For once, they're both right.

I'm pretending that Lawrence insulting Bell was Josh Lyman insulting Jonah. It did feel like a statement that worked for both sets of characters.

I love that the Jezebels have made shivs and that Janine knows the door code. June is an idiot for trying to get Janine to leave right then. You need your woman on the inside to prepare the others! Thank God Janine had the moral compass not to leave her girls.

I love Moira telling off June, but I liked that June at least diffused the situation with some dark humor and she was right about them not comparing traumas. I enjoyed the conversation but June has to make everything worse with her terrible lack of priorities and poor timing. I was so annoyed when June just kind of tossed the phone at the guy. They could've solved this so much quicker if she hit the guy in head with the very heavy base.

19 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

And of course Janine would come inches away from freedom and be denied again.  Moira and June can argue whomever had it worse, but Janine always wins (loses?) that awful game.  Even in an episode entitled Janine we see very little of her.

Honestly, when she was saying goodbye to them like "One week" I was sure she was gonna die in this episode. So that's an improvement.

[Brn2bwild]

18 minutes ago, bettername2come said:

I love Moira telling off June, but I liked that June at least diffused the situation with some dark humor and she was right about them not comparing traumas. I enjoyed the conversation but June has to make everything worse with her terrible lack of priorities and poor timing. I was so annoyed when June just kind of tossed the phone at the guy. They could've solved this so much quicker if she hit the guy in head with the very heavy base.

Was really annoyed that they did not keep those letters and map secure on their persons at all times, and that they ever took down their mask-veils.

[Anela]

I wouldn't mind if a big twist ended up being that Wharton is a good guy. I still don't expect it, but it would be different. I don't think Serena deserves a good guy, or even a worse guy than her dead husband. I wanted her to dismiss the love bombing, and stay single. 

I did love Aunt Lydia reminding her that a healthy womb shouldn't go to waste, though. Just because it's her. 

June did mess up what they were trying to do. Janine was more with it, giving them relevant information, and going back to the room, before they noticed that she was gone. I love that the girls have all made shivs, too! I did like the June defusing the argument, too. It showed their friendship, and Moira's saying that she loves her *all* the time, was nice. 

I hope Lawrence ruins all of their plans to bring Gilead back. I hope all of those commanders are disposed of. 

Edited April 23 by Anela

[chaifan]

This was my favorite episode this season, but I agree with the comment above re: pacing.  I can't see how they're going to get through what they need in 4 episodes.

My biggest quibble about this episode is, once again, it's all just so damn dark!  Almost every scene, with the exception of Lydia and Serena in front of a giant window, was just so damn dark.  I know it's always been this way, but it is still frustrating.

Yeah, it was really stupid for Moira and June to be having that conversation then and there, but it was a really good scene for both of them.  I loved Janine going into resistance mode and giving them the layout and info they needed.  I wonder if they have regular Marthas who will get letters out for them - Janine seemed to have them all ready to go.

Is it just my imagination, or is Janine actually less crazy than she was before?  

Was June able to get the letters?  I thought I saw her go to the safe, but how could she open it?  I wasn't paying close attention, though.  Did the stack of letters also contain the notes Janine was giving them about the layout of Jezebel's?  If so, that will ruin everything.

I loved that Lawrence saw/heard the other commanders plotting about New Bethlehem.  My guess is that they deliberately keep Wharton out of the discussion because he's a goody two shoes type of Commander, and while maybe he likes Gilead as it is, he wouldn't agree with the deception/trap.  And they keep Nick in the dark because of his relationship with Wharton.  Anyways, this gives Lawrence great motivation for helping June & the resistance.  I like June and Lawrence together, so this could be fun.  

I am still on the fence about whether Wharton is playing Serena or not, but I'm leaning towards him being genuine.  If so, he's awfully clueless about Serena going to live in DC or Boston - she'd get a few other fingers chopped off the instant she leaves NB.  

What did the sign on the building in the book say?  Once again, too damn dark!  

I know almost nothing about The Testaments, and am purposely keeping it that way, so I don't know who lives or dies by the end of HT.  I don't know if I want Serena to die, but I certainly don't want her to have a happily ever after ending.  Whatever that would look like with Wharton.  Actually, yeah, I think I do want her to die.  I'd like her to die in the last episode, helping June or Mayday or something like that.  I don't want her story hanging open, unless they plan to use her in The Testaments.  And if they do that, I still don't want a redemption arc or happy ever after for her.  

2 hours ago, bettername2come said:

Honestly, when she was saying goodbye to them like "One week" I was sure she was gonna die in this episode. So that's an improvement.

I didn't expect Janine to die this episode, but I certainly don't expect her to last through the next one.  That whole "one week" comment certainly seems like some bad mojo foreshadowing, that's for sure.

 

[circumvent]

7 hours ago, chaifan said:

Is it just my imagination, or is Janine actually less crazy than she was before? 

Janine was never really "crazy". She is - arguably - the only character that shows what real trauma is

Maybe a book related spoiler

Spoiler

I don't trust that the writers are setting up the last season to fit what Margaret Atwood wrote, which in itself was kind of a way of regain some control of her master piece that she allowed to be destroyed in the series, or if they will, once again, ignore her main premise of the new book and go the way they want, which is the worst possible. 

So far, in this whole run, I enjoyed fairly well the first season - which was the book - and the first episode of this season. The rest, to me, was crap

 

[marinw]

13 hours ago, bettername2come said:

love Moira telling off June, but I liked that June at least diffused the situation with some dark humor and she was right about them not comparing traumas.

I liked that too, that both Moira and June acknowledged how toxic and silly the Suffering Olympics are.

Edited April 23 by marinw

[Brn2bwild]

12 hours ago, chaifan said:

Was June able to get the letters?  I thought I saw her go to the safe, but how could she open it? 

She tried to access the safe, but the combo she entered wouldn't open it.

[txhorns79]

On 4/22/2025 at 7:56 AM, Helena Dax said:

I didn't get if New Bethelem is a real thing that some Commanders want to turn into a trap or everybody knows it's a trap except from Lawrence, Serena and Nick. In any case, now that Lawrence knows I'm curious to see his reaction.

I think New Bethlehem is real, but the Commanders want to turn it into a trap.  I'm not entirely sure why they would want that, as enslaving the people inside New Bethlehem would presumably cause a diplomatic crisis for Gilead, and destroy whatever goodwill they got from creating New Bethlehem in the first place.  

 

[AngelaHunter]

On 4/22/2025 at 4:40 PM, Quickbeam said:

Oh Luke. Such a putz. 

No kidding. He's heading this covert operation. He insisted on finally doing something besides complaining to get his daughter back. Then 10 minutes in, he folds like a cheap suit, so discombobulated and terrified he couldn't speak.

While I agreed with June that it's stupid to compare who suffered the most, who has the worst PTSD, and all that, it was hardly the time or the place for Moira's airing of grievances. She couldn't have held it in until they weren't in mortal danger? Reminded me of The Walking Dead, when a horde of zombies is closing in and they stop to bicker and speechify instead of saying shut up and GTFOutta here!

 

On 4/22/2025 at 10:50 PM, chaifan said:

I don't know if I want Serena to die, but I certainly don't want her to have a happily ever after ending. 

It seems no matter what Serena does, or has done, she always lands on her feet and ends up rewarded one way or another. I don't know if she deserves death, but it really bugs me, and a "Happy ever after" with her baby and her new adoring hubby would be frustrating in the extreme. And here's Janine, who never did anything wrong, yet Show is determined to viciously mistreat her in every way possible, and has done so ceaselessly right from the beginning. In the 'Suffering Olympics', she'd get Gold.

On 4/22/2025 at 10:50 PM, chaifan said:

am still on the fence about whether Wharton is playing Serena or not, but I'm leaning towards him being genuine.

Serena certainly thinks he's genuine (and I think she's a little dumb putting her trust in a man so quickly), but I just can't tell. He does seem to be starry-eyed and lovesick, and with so many other things being so eye-rollingly easy to predict in this show, that's at least one little mystery. I have an image of him doing a 180 as soon as the wedding is over.

 

[circumvent]

Peeve:

No June "Her and I" didn't go through a lot together.

Janine and you did. She and you did. 

 

[Black Knight]

14 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

I think New Bethlehem is real, but the Commanders want to turn it into a trap.  I'm not entirely sure why they would want that, as enslaving the people inside New Bethlehem would presumably cause a diplomatic crisis for Gilead, and destroy whatever goodwill they got from creating New Bethlehem in the first place.  

Lawrence said it himself in an earlier episode: It wouldn't stop with one New Bethlehem. And the reason he and Serena are pushing for that is because they know it would result in moderating Gilead as a whole. People would move to the New Bethlehems until the rest of Gilead ended up having to become like the New Bethlehems in order to avoid the workforce/brain drain, or if they prevented people from moving to the New Bethlehems, eventually they'd have rebellion on their hands.

That's a bigger deal to the Commanders than the PR cost of New Bethlehem being a trap. Look at all the previous PR/diplomatic disasters the regime has had. This wouldn't even be the worst one. They think they can ride it out, and all available evidence suggests they're right.

I totally believe New Gilead has always been in a trap in the minds of most of the Commanders. I don't see Lawrence ever having gotten approval for the scheme in the first place otherwise. A dictatorship like Gilead just can't have a city like New Bethlehem.

[circumvent]

Why do women in 99% of shows cry when a man proposes. Such a cliche, so boring. Are these people even adults. Such a low self esteem message it sends, like OMG, someone loves me and wants to marry me! 

The show messed up so much with the original premise of the book, anything goes as far as New Bethlehem is concerned. They also messed up with the privileges versus how people might feel. The mother of the guy in the hospital, she is old enough to have had a life before Gilead, and I get it that she relies on whatever privileges she might have, but I little nuance would go a long way to make things a little less awful. She could be shown as conflicted, despite the privileges, it is because of the need to quash dissent that almost killed her son, and this is a result of the authoritarianism of the place. But no. She still praises the system. 

The writers don't understand nuance, they are not capable of write anything good, really. It is like their dream job is to write for Marvel or whatever hero comics studio, but they never got the job. So they turned June into this impossibly annoying super hero who leaves corpses behind wherever she goes, and not really enemies corpses.

The Testaments possible spoiler

Spoiler

I wish they were setting up Aunt Lydia's arc for The Testaments, why she turns against the system 

 

[chaifan]

2 hours ago, Black Knight said:

A dictatorship like Gilead just can't have a city like New Bethlehem.

Exactly.  The scene with Wharton & Serena highlighted that for me.  It was stupid of Wharton to suggest that they split their time between NB and DC or Boston.  As soon as Serena steps outside the border of NB, the old rules are still in place.  Could they punish her for reading in NB?  Maybe not.  But I have to assume she'd be expected to not read, write (and she said she has to write), work, etc. let alone have an opinion about something, while outside NB.  So she's essentially trapped there.  

2 hours ago, Black Knight said:

if they prevented people from moving to the New Bethlehems, eventually they'd have rebellion on their hands.

The biggest thing preventing people from moving to NB would be space.  There's only housing for so many people, only so much space.  I can't imagine NB would allow a refugee tent city to pop up so they could take anyone who wanted to come in.  The second biggest thing is money.  Income has really never been mentioned in this show.  I have no idea of how much money anyone makes, and if anyone other than Commanders are allowed to own property, move freely from one space to another.  You can't have an entire city/economy if only Commanders live there.  Also, are some positions, like Marthas, even allowed to just quit their job to move somewhere else?  And what would a former Martha do in Gilead if there aren't families to Martha for?  I always got the impression Gilead assigns you a job, and that's your job.  

Sorry, I'm following @Black Knight down a tangent on how this all would work, and the more I think about it, the more I cannot make it work.  For those watching Paradise,

Spoiler

I also spent waaaay too much time on the "how does an underground city of 25,000 work", what would it take to build it, how many people does it take to run it, etc.  This is like Paradise for me, just above ground and a different type of post-apocalyptic world building.  

 

[AngelaHunter]

32 minutes ago, circumvent said:

So they turned June into this impossibly annoying super hero who leaves corpses behind wherever she goes, and not really enemies corpses.

Super June and her plot armour of titanium have annoyed me for quite some time.  So now, which cape will she don to rescue her problematic ditz of a husband?

42 minutes ago, circumvent said:

Why do women in 99% of shows cry when a man proposes. Such a cliche, so boring. Are these people even adults. Such a low self esteem message it sends, like OMG, someone loves me and wants to marry me!

JMO, but in general, it can be an emotional moment for reasons not related to low self-esteem, and was just that for Serena, who probably hadn't considered ever marrying again since she just got rid of that creepy weasel, Fred. She displayed no flirtatiousness with Wharton, was surprised and flattered at his attentiveness, and then was swept off her feet at the romantic, old-fashioned bended knee and presentation of the ring. Not speaking from experience. The proposal I got was, "Hey, I guess we should get married." Zero tears or loss of self-esteem. 

47 minutes ago, circumvent said:

The writers don't understand nuance

No, they don't, and seem to think we might not "get it" if they don't hammer us over the head. They underestimate their audience, bombarding us with constant, intrusive, loud music with crescendos and heavenly choirs to tell us how we should feel during any particular scene, just in case we can't figure it out.

[circumvent]

11 hours ago, AngelaHunter said:

JMO, but in general, it can be an emotional moment for reasons not related to low self-esteem

I get it. It is not my temperament but I get someone crying in this situation  - although I wonder why one side, usually the male figure, has to "surprise" the other, instead of this being a mutually agreed upon decision. What I criticize is that the vast majority of the TV proposals has to be this way, instead of a normal mutual decision between two adults. Grand gestures ring a bit untrue to me. But that's just me

[Baltimore Betty]

So Luke comes up with this big plan, his intent is so he can feel like he is fighting to get his daughter back so naturally June horns in on the plan and, insisting she go in to Gilead/Jezebel's but for what? Were they planning on taking Janine with her? It comes down to both June and Moira going into Gilead as Martha's to do nothing except lay eyes on Janine and kill some guard (unplanned but if someone does not die then June has not been there).

Since when did Martha's wear a scarf covering their faces?

I think Joseph knows that anyone that rises to the top of Gilead is almost assuredly to be killed, hearing it first hand might have been too much reality for him.

Serena marrying Wharton (Josh Charles from Baltimore!), is just a political move for him, there is an ulterior motive beneath the surface. If Serena thinks this guy will keep her word about making it possible for her to do her thing anywhere she is in for a rude awakening. 

 

 

[AngelaHunter]

4 hours ago, Baltimore Betty said:

If Serena thinks this guy will keep her word about making it possible for her to do her thing anywhere she is in for a rude awakening. 

I mentioned that is kind of the way I see it playing out.

9 hours ago, circumvent said:

although I wonder why one side, usually the male figure, has to "surprise" the other, instead of this being a mutually agreed upon decision

When it's truly a surprise, I do wonder what happens when the woman doesn't want to marry him, especially if they do the elaborate proposal at some social gathering. If Serena had refused, Wharton would have been left on one knee, holding up the ring. "Oh. Well. Um..." Awkward!

[Kel Varnsen]

This episode reminded me of something I haven't thought of in awhile. If it's that easy to get across the border and drive around freely with fake Martha uniforms, why aren't there resistance attacks happening all the time? They don't all need to be murdering commanders since they can also be doing things like robbing banks and blowing up infrastructure. 

And sure there are guardians and eyes and whatnot. But women aren't allowed to work anymore. So all of your workers in every industry would be men. Plus Gilead is fighting an actual war with the US so it would need a ton of soldiers. There is no way there would be enough men to do those two things and have a security force to completely lock down and secure every public place.

[AngelaHunter]

On 4/25/2025 at 11:26 AM, Baltimore Betty said:

Since when did Martha's wear a scarf covering their faces?

Never, until Plot called for it (since it seems every person in Gilead, down to each and every guard, would instantly recognize the face of the notorious June Osborne), although you'd think that could be a tipoff to the guards: "Hey, what's with the masks? Perhaps there's something nefarious afoot here."

On 4/24/2025 at 2:51 PM, circumvent said:

Peeve:

No June "Her and I" didn't go through a lot together.

Janine and you did. She and you did. 

 

Wasn't she an editor?

[crashdown]

On 4/25/2025 at 11:26 AM, Baltimore Betty said:

Serena marrying Wharton (Josh Charles from Baltimore!), is just a political move for him, there is an ulterior motive beneath the surface. If Serena thinks this guy will keep her word about making it possible for her to do her thing anywhere she is in for a rude awakening. 

Yet again, the whole Wharton subplot shows just how problematic 10 episodes in a season actually is. It would have been much more effective if, over the course of a 22 episode season, Wharton started out as a great guy and then, little by little, viewers saw small signs that he's actually a misogynistic jerk, before he goes full-on supernova Gilead. I think we're going to see some whiplash Jekyll/Hyde change, which isn't close to as interesting, satisfying, or realistic. However, if you have to wrap up a complicated series in 10 episodes, that's pretty much your only option.

[Kel Varnsen]

1 hour ago, AngelaHunter said:

Never, until Plot called for it (since it seems every person in Gilead, down to each and every guard, would instantly recognize the face of the notorious June Osborne), although you'd think that could be a tipoff to the guards: "Hey, what's with the masks?

But even the guard that June and Moira killed didn't seem to recognize June even though after taking all those kids out of Gilead she should be public enemy number one with like posters up of her in post offices and such.

As for why Gilead does stupid stuff like that, I imagine it is just a massive level of over confidence.

[Black Knight]

6 hours ago, crashdown said:

It would have been much more effective if, over the course of a 22 episode season, Wharton started out as a great guy and then, little by little, viewers saw small signs that he's actually a misogynistic jerk, before he goes full-on supernova Gilead.

There are certainly issues with 10-episode seasons. However, I don't really think this is one of them. 22 episodes is way too long to play out a "twist" of Wharton being bad that is so obvious from the start. He's a Commander, after all, and you don't get that without having blood on your hands, whether literal or figurative. What you want to do in these situations where you're not going to surprise viewers is play up the suspense: the audience knows that ticking bomb is under the table, but when will the characters find out? And suspense is highly effective, but it can't be drawn out too long.

It may be that THT is hoping to surprise us all even though they essentially gave the game away with how they shot Wharton's introduction - that's either the hero or a big villain, and you don't introduce the hero in the final season. I was like, "Oh, Final Boss is here" as soon as I saw his intro. But I'm relieved I don't have to sit through 22 episodes of the most predictable twist ever. Perhaps THT is giving viewers credit and understands this is more about the suspense of when Wharton's mask comes off than about the surprise that he's wearing a mask, but with these writers I really couldn't say since there's very little that they've done right since they moved beyond the book. This show has long been carried by strong acting and the compelling nature of the premise.

What would be genuinely shocking would be if Wharton turns out to be the one Commander who's not done anything evil and doesn't have misogynistic attitudes.

On 4/24/2025 at 3:12 PM, AngelaHunter said:

JMO, but in general, it can be an emotional moment for reasons not related to low self-esteem, and was just that for Serena, who probably hadn't considered ever marrying again since she just got rid of that creepy weasel, Fred.

Serena was angling for a marriage to Lawrence last season. Obviously that didn't happen for her and Naomi ended up landing where Serena wanted to be.

[AngelaHunter]

4 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Serena was angling for a marriage to Lawrence last season.

You know, it's been so long I actually forgot that, along with many other things, no doubt. I can see a marriage that would be advantageous to her, more of a business deal to get a leg up,  and she knew there would be no sex involved. I don't think she ever expected romance to enter her life.

[chaifan]

13 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Serena was angling for a marriage to Lawrence last season. Obviously that didn't happen for her and Naomi ended up landing where Serena wanted to be.

Correct, but (correct me if I'm wrong here) that was before any discussion about New Bethlehem, no knowledge NB even existed.  Serena knew she would be pressured to remarry, and Lawrence seemed like the least odious choice.  Then she got her taste of freedom in Canada, and again at the women's commune in Alaska.

It seems like there isn't the pressure for her to remarry in NB, and that she could stay there as a single widow.  So I'm not sure why she's moving so fast with Wharton.  She has more power if she's single in NB.  Once married, if Wharton says "we're moving to Boston", or "I don't want you to work any more", what are her choices?  On the other hand, if NB implodes, she's safer being married to a powerful Commander.  But I don't think she's anticipating that.

 

[tennisgurl]

I cannot believe that Serena of all people gets a Beauty and the Beast style library romantic gesture, she does not deserve that at all. I just cannot with Serena, every time I think she might get closer to self awareness she just doubles down on how none of this is her fault. I did at least like how she and Aunt Lydia both called each other out on trying to pretend they didn't get what was happening to the Handmaids, they're both right. 

I spent the whole episode afraid that Janine was going to die, with the episode being named after her, and while I was annoyed that we didn't get more of her, I am so glad that she's alive, still doing her best in horrible circumstances. Comparing hardships is ultimately pointless, but I think Janine might win the misery contest. She seriously gets the worst of everything. 

Classic June to make literally everything, even Moira's trauma, about her. That being said, I was annoyed with both of them when they started to fight in the middle of their important mission, its shear luck that they didn't get killed and screw everything up. Backburner! 

Commander Jonah can blow up in an explosion any time now. 

[MamaMax]

Serena deciding to trust another commander who is telling her that she wont be treated like all the other women of Gilead seems pretty timely to me. You know, in light of current events.  Women who participate in the suppression of women under the delusion that they will be the exception are necessary to extremist right wing religious movements. She's so full of herself that she TRULY thinks that she is so clearly superior that the men will see that and give her a seat at the table.  They fooled her once, and it looks like they're fooling her again.  

Edited April 30 by MamaMax