The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 Premiere Review: Night (Season 3 Episode 1)

On The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 Episode 1, “Night,” as Emily flees Gilead with Nichole, June returns to face the consequences of her actions.

Many viewers were dissatisfied by The Handmaid’s Tale Season 2 finale which concludes with June choosing to stay in Gilead and handing over her baby daughter to a traumatized Emily. There’s an inherent frustration that June continues to squander what are supposed to be limited opportunities to escape the dystopian hellhole. 

“Night” picks up right where Season 2 leaves off, and June’s not fleeing Gilead without Hannah. This is, of course, impossible, but her face-to-face meeting with Hannah’s, aka “Agnes’,” new “mother,” Mrs. Mackenzie, leaves June with a new purpose. 

Mrs. Mackenzie and June find common ground; connected by their love for Hannah, and their shared experiences raising her. But there’s still such a disturbing sense of entitlement where the Wives of Gilead are concerned.

Mrs. Mackenzie fails to grasp that Hannah was kidnapped from her biological, loving parents. In her mind, June is still an undeserving interloper; just a vessel who brought Agnes into the world.

Mrs. Mackenzie: She has your eyes. It truly is a miracle.

June: I’m her mother. 

Where The Handmaid’s Tale continues to falter is the constant reprieves June receives in spite of living in a place where the slightest transgressions are met with disproportionate responses. She returns once again to the Waterford’s home where Fred is the last to learn he has no idea what is going on under his own roof. 

This is the one thin thread that keeps the entire story from unraveling. Fred’s desperation to be in control or at least bask in the perception that he’s the masculine ideal forces him to protect those who defy him. Viewers know Fred is weak, and his biggest fear is his failings as a man will leave him dangling from a noose. 

Our frustrations with June’s actions are voiced by Nick who reminds her how many people put themselves at risk to get her and Nichole out. But June has no intention of leaving Gilead. She’s given up all hope of raising her daughters, so all she can do now as a mother is dismantle this patriarchal society. 

Nick: You’re never getting out. You’re gonna f***ing die here.

June: I know that. 

There’s some effective misdirection in terms of some of the character’s fates. At one point, it seems certain Emily faces a Sisyphean task of crossing a river, washing up on what is certainly Gilead’s shores only to learn she’s made it to Canada. 

A despondent Serena holds a bottle of antiseptic in her hand, but instead of pouring it down her throat, she uses it to burn her house to the ground, starting with the marital-ceremonial bed. The symbolism isn’t very subtle. We know that from these ashes, a new Serena will arise. 

June’s only too happy to see the place burn to the ground, and as she heads off to the Red Center, we know she’s heading down a very different pat (the floor scrubbing feels a bit Annie meets Private Benjamin).

So now she’s crossing paths once again with Commander Lawrence who is neither sinner nor a saint. He greets her in almost the exact same way Serena did upon their first meeting.

Commander Lawrence: You’re not gonna be any trouble, are you?

June: No, sir.

But this time, June doesn’t keep her eyes to the ground and her hands clenched at her side. There’s no mistaking that she plans on making sure this house burns to the ground as well.

What did you think of this episode of The Handmaid’s Tale? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Handmaid’s Tale airs Wednesdays at on Hulu.

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