The Handmaid’s Tale Returns With Hilarious Twist

As the fifth season of The Handmaid’s Tale begins, I’d like to take a moment to look back on a part of the previous season I felt especially gratifying. It makes my day when Fred Waterford thinks he’s going to Geneva, but there are different plans for him.

When they handcuff him and put him in the back of a van, he yells that he’s a man and he has rights. I wanted to be there in that moment and yell back that he was responsible for stripping June of hers and what about all the other handmaids?

Then they have him in the forest and he starts pleading with her, “I have a son.” I wanted to ask him, “What about her daughter?”

I’m sure you get where I’m going with all this. But before I move on, shows don’t normally give us the satisfaction of revenge. They make us go through all the frustration and hardship, the struggle and the pain, then they get the guy and roll credits. Shows over. Next.

The Handmaid’s Tale seems to be going there and it feels good to see something happen to someone for a change.

And now let’s talk about Season 5 Episodes 1 and 2 – Stop reading here if you haven’t watched yet.

Was I the only one laughing when June, played by the remarkable Elisabeth Moss, tried to turn herself in at Toronto? She spills it all out and gets it off her chest to find out that the crime didn’t happen in Canada’s territory, so she was free to go. The look on her face is priceless.

She’s trying to get punished for her crimes and Canada doesn’t care. There’s nothing they can nor want to do.

When the police officer tells her about the crime she did commit, sending Waterford’s finger in the mail, she can pay the fine in the lobby on the way out. I’m sorry. I laughed.

She walks out of the Toronto Police station in shock and wonder. She walks up to Luke who is always understanding and then she says, “I have to pay a fine online.” It was hilarious to me. If you didn’t laugh, we are not the same.

When the news is broken to Serena that June will be charged with no crimes, the look of shock on her face is incredulous. When she asks Mark if he knows what June is capable of, all I can hear is the hypocrisy. It keeps coming up over and over. These people hold themselves blameless while committing heinous acts and expect others to be held accountable for what they do in return.

I know that this whole show is a comment. It’s a comment on something that is disgusting and intolerable that actually does exist. This setting in the show does not. But what it comments on does.

I see the subjugation of women, not just the handmaids themselves, but also the wives of the commanders.

I see the fake lines that are supposed to be said in certain exchanges. As long as everyone sticks to the script, life in Gilead runs smoothly.

I see the comment on religion, and Christianity more specifically. This is the way the church is viewed by some people, whether they have been mistreated within the institution itself or their lives have been affected by it regardless that they don’t belong to it.

It’s a strong statement and deserving of reflection. The same kind of reflection these characters in The Handmaid’s Tale should be engaging when they are spouting their hypocrisies. When Serena, played by Yvonne Strahovski, is condemning June’s actions or when Fred, played by Joseph Fiennes, is screaming that he has rights, those are the times they could really use a mirror so that they can see themselves.

But in a much deeper sense, it shows how twisted the world has become. A trader gets a hero’s funeral. The lies are what people believe. The truth becomes hard to comprehend. And the world keeps spinning just as it always has no matter how much you try to bring justice into it.

Watch The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu…

The post The Handmaid’s Tale Returns With Hilarious Twist appeared first on Michael Allen.