The Handmaid’s Tale Review: Heroic (Season 3 Episode 9)
On The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 Episode 9, “Heroic,” June mentally unravels as she watches over Ofmatthew, awaiting her baby’s fate.
With nowhere else for the character to go, June is plunked down inside Natalie’s, aka “Offmatthew’s,” hospital room to kneel day and night for months, praying for the baby’s survival. Natalie’s health and well-being is only relevant in how if effects the child in her womb.
June shows no remorse for her role in pushing Natalie over the edge. Her current predicament is punishment for her mean girl behavior. The fact it’s also a great way for Aunt Lydia to break June’s spirit is a happy coincidence.
Inside June’s head is a scary place full of dark homicidal thoughts. Her motive to kill Natalie isn’t clear cut. Is it to end her own misery, ensuring she can finally return home?
Is her anger for Natalie just being fueled by this forced attrition disguised as prayer? Is it because she views death as an act of penance by freeing Natalie and her unborn child from Gilead?
Rattling around inside June’s mind doesn’t offer clarity because she lacks it herself. When Janine is the rational one in the room, you know things have really gone sideways. Madeline Brewer’s performance as the slightly-unhinged but empathetic and oddly-optimistic Handmaid is too often overshadowed by Dowd, Moss, Bledel. Strahovski, and Wiley.
There is a self-centeredness about June, and she’s become increasingly unforgiving of what others have to do to survive. Her torture and manipulation of Natalie is proof of this. June doesn’t exactly take responsibility for her role in the death of the Martha who helps her try to get to Hannah.
Nor does she consider the repercussions (or if she does, she simply doesn’t care) for dragging Mrs. Lawrence into her drama; a woman with good intentions, but who lacks the fortitude, intelligence, and deviousness of Serena.
In Gilead, kindness and mercy come from the most unexpected places, and those things feed the soul and replenish the mind. Men aren’t expected to show kindness, but Dr. Yates performs the same services for June as he would any other. Do no harm.
June’s mother, Holly, and their shared affection for her memory bonds them. It’s a rope he throws her that tethers her back to reality. He’s not a cruel man. Dr. Yates is doing his job.
Those thoughts she’s had rattling around in her head? They aren’t really June. It’s the result of deprivation and isolation. We all go a little mad sometimes.
There are two events that really serve to bring June back from the brink (we think): the birth of Natalie’s baby, and her encounter with a young girl on the precipice of giving over her life to marriage and babies.
June’s going to get as many children out of Gilead as possible because dismantling the system is out of the question. We’ve seen this June before, but she never lasts.
She talks of unseen armies, rebels working from the inside to make things better. She’s going to join the cause, sacrificing her own happiness to accomplish the task. This is greater good stuff. It’s what Dr. Yates talks about when he questions what legacy she’ll leave her children.
It’s a great plan to hit Gilead where it hurts, but June isn’t able to free Hannah, and even Nichole’s future is precarious.
How does she plan to get these children? Transport them? Where will they go? Won’t the government go after them as they have Nichole?
It’s also confusing to hear June say the realization of never seeing her daughters again put this breakdown in motion. She willingly sent Nichole to Canada with Emily because she believed it to be the best play. She could have gone with them.
Her decision to stay back didn’t seem to be solely about Hannah, and her attempts to retrieve her daughter have been erratic, poorly planned, and even half-hearted.
With each passing season of The Handmaid’s Tale, June’s purpose becomes less coherent. Is she a mother who simply wants to reunite with her own children, securing her happiness, or is she a soldier, a martyr, a rebel?
What did you think of this episode of The Handmaid’s Tale? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
The Handmaid’s Tale airs on Wednesdays on Hulu.
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Jennifer Lind-Westbrook
Jennifer has been working as a freelance writer for six years, contributing to BuddyTV, Screen Rant, TVRage, Hidden Remote, Gossip On This, and PopMatters. She prefers binge-watching old episodes of The Office (British and American versions) to long walks on the beach. She's still holding out hope that Happy Endings will get a revival.