The Handmaid's Tale, Episode 9
THE BRIDGE
The episode starts with a send-off for Janine, who’s leaving for a new home as her posting with the Putnams is complete. It involves a prayer by Commander Putnam, a curtsey from his Handmaids-are-all-beneath-me Wife, and Janine's Handmaid friends lining up in front of the house, saying goodbye or something.
“Don’t be sad,” Janine says to June.
“He’s coming for me,” she adds, grinning.
So. Janine needs help.
But Aunt Lydia insists that Janine is tougher than they think and wants her to be an example to everyone.
Good line:
“I’m very proud of you. Go to them and be blessed. Go like an open flower.” -- Aunt Lydia to Janine when they arrive at Janine's new home.
June approaches Alma and says she wants to help with Mayday, the resistance group she first heard from Emily. Alma asks June to go back to Jezebel's and retrieve a package at the bar, and it has to be that night.
So it’s time to emergency-flirt with the Commander and tell him how exciting their adventure was. They go back to Jezebel's, and the Commander, full of surprises, gets Moira to see June because he thinks she is the reason June wants to return. June asks Moira to help her get the package, but Moira isn’t having it. So, it's one night wasted, with two friends end up being angry with each other.
The next morning, Serena wakes June up because Janine is about to jump off the bridge with her child. And the next 10 minutes is heart-wrenching. You are familiar with anger watching the show, but not this cold, tugging feeling. June tries to get Janine to come down, telling her that change is coming and they are going to go out drinking and dancing and karaoke-ing and watch the sun come out, soon, when this is over (but 👎🏼 Janine, not karaoke).
The irony is, during this 10 minutes before Janine is about to jump, she has never made this much sense: she curses Commander Putnam to her heart’s content and asks June to jump with her (ok, maybe not the latter). In the end, Janine hands June her daughter, says goodbye and jumps. Oh-kay.
Janine survives. She's being treated in a hospital, although unconscious.
On her next shopping trip, while looking gloomy ie more than usual, June receives the package from Jezebel's, handed to her by the butcher at the market. So, Moira did get the package for her after all.
Even better, back at Jezebel's, Moira kills a client and is seen escaping the brothel.
Good line, by Rita, the Waterfords’ Martha:
“Ma’am, may I suggest something with a little bit of flavour? To settle the soul?” -- when she finds Serena in the kitchen in the middle of the night, searching for “camomile” in the liquor cabinet.
And this is before Naomi Putnam reminds Serena that “men don’t change”, and they all knew about Fred’s ‘affair’ with their previous Handmaid. That is the best line.
Image: twitter.com/HandmaidsOnHulu
The episode starts with a send-off for Janine, who’s leaving for a new home as her posting with the Putnams is complete. It involves a prayer by Commander Putnam, a curtsey from his Handmaids-are-all-beneath-me Wife, and Janine's Handmaid friends lining up in front of the house, saying goodbye or something.
“Don’t be sad,” Janine says to June.
“He’s coming for me,” she adds, grinning.
So. Janine needs help.
But Aunt Lydia insists that Janine is tougher than they think and wants her to be an example to everyone.
Good line:
“I’m very proud of you. Go to them and be blessed. Go like an open flower.” -- Aunt Lydia to Janine when they arrive at Janine's new home.
June approaches Alma and says she wants to help with Mayday, the resistance group she first heard from Emily. Alma asks June to go back to Jezebel's and retrieve a package at the bar, and it has to be that night.
So it’s time to emergency-flirt with the Commander and tell him how exciting their adventure was. They go back to Jezebel's, and the Commander, full of surprises, gets Moira to see June because he thinks she is the reason June wants to return. June asks Moira to help her get the package, but Moira isn’t having it. So, it's one night wasted, with two friends end up being angry with each other.
The next morning, Serena wakes June up because Janine is about to jump off the bridge with her child. And the next 10 minutes is heart-wrenching. You are familiar with anger watching the show, but not this cold, tugging feeling. June tries to get Janine to come down, telling her that change is coming and they are going to go out drinking and dancing and karaoke-ing and watch the sun come out, soon, when this is over (but 👎🏼 Janine, not karaoke).
The irony is, during this 10 minutes before Janine is about to jump, she has never made this much sense: she curses Commander Putnam to her heart’s content and asks June to jump with her (ok, maybe not the latter). In the end, Janine hands June her daughter, says goodbye and jumps. Oh-kay.
Janine survives. She's being treated in a hospital, although unconscious.
On her next shopping trip, while looking gloomy ie more than usual, June receives the package from Jezebel's, handed to her by the butcher at the market. So, Moira did get the package for her after all.
Even better, back at Jezebel's, Moira kills a client and is seen escaping the brothel.
Good line, by Rita, the Waterfords’ Martha:
“Ma’am, may I suggest something with a little bit of flavour? To settle the soul?” -- when she finds Serena in the kitchen in the middle of the night, searching for “camomile” in the liquor cabinet.
And this is before Naomi Putnam reminds Serena that “men don’t change”, and they all knew about Fred’s ‘affair’ with their previous Handmaid. That is the best line.
Image: twitter.com/HandmaidsOnHulu
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