The Handmaid’s Tale Review: Pigs / Nightshade / The Crossing (Season 4 Episodes 1-3)

The Handmaid’s Tale is back after a long hiatus, and it is time to find out what happened to June after she was carried out of the woods. 

Overall, these three episodes, have strong performances and great direction, but they fall into a narrative we know all too well. The constant escape and capture narrative in Gilead. These episodes just serve to prove the point that it is time for this series to move beyond Gilead and to explore the world out of its walls. 

Yes, the series has done this a little bit, but it has yet to fully immerse itself because we are tied to June’s narrative. If we want to look at what life is like for survivors of Gilead we need to have sustained and thoughtful time there. Season 4 is poised to do it, and quite frankly, it’s time. 

Pigs

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 1, “Pigs,” feels somewhat idyllic. It’s a slow and healing episode that lingers and stews and waits for its perfect moment. 

The handmaids are out of immediate danger, but not entirely safe. They know it, but they’re enjoying the momentary freedom they have. June (Elisabeth Moss) has been out of commission for a while, and while she recovers from her injuries received during The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 Episode 13, “Mayday,” the others have made themselves useful and settled in. 

When June wakes up she’s spooling for a fight and struggling to settle into the relative calm the farm offers. June has been fighting for so long that this reaction makes sense. 

Their time on the Keyes farm is comparatively comforting, save for the young mistress of the house Esther Keyes (Mckenna Grace). Grace delivers one of the strongest performances of the episode with some dynamic scenes. She commands respect and has venom to her words that draw viewers in.

Grace’s performance is reminiscent of early Mrs. Waterford. She’s hard, cold, and yet so hopeful for what June can bring to her home. Esther doesn’t want a baby though, she wants vengeance. The scene between Esther and June in the barn, where she lets her guard down and talks about when she was first married is the kind of scene that punches you in the gut. 

ESTHER: I want to hurt them so badly. Gilead, and then….

The final scene where Esther comes into June’s room covered in blood closes out the episode well. It brings into play Esther’s prediction that she and June would kill people together, but it also shows a shift as this girl loses any innocence she may have had. In their first scene together June laments that Esther shouldn’t need to be this brave at her age. While it’s rewarding to have Esther get some vengeance on a man who attacked her, it is also June’s doing. 

“Pigs” sets up Esther and June’s relationship to be one of a mother and daughter. The way she whispers to Esther, “I love you Hannah Banna,” makes that clear and it provides a bit of insight into June’s motivations. She’s always been a mother, and her desire to protect Hannah, or Nicole, or to get the other child out on that flight has given her motivation. 

The fact is, that June still has Hannah to think about, but in the meantime, she’s trying to help as many women as she can. That’s a huge weight to carry on her shoulders and it’s going to get heavier.

This premiere episode also gives us a status report on the other characters. We see Fred (Joseph Fiennes) and Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) get news of the flight. It feels like it should be a bigger moment than it reads on screen. 

Meanwhile, in Gilead, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) face disciplinary action after Angel’s Flight.

Aunt Lydia has spent over two weeks being “interviewed” by The Eyes. Dowd delivers a stunning performance regardless of what you may think about Aunt Lydia. Her scene in front of the council shows her character’s devotion and care for the handmaids, in her own way. 

Commander Lawrence, on the other hand, seems to be in limbo and believes he’ll be executed. Except he isn’t and instead offered a consulting post. It’s fitting for the man who built Gilead, and a relief for the audience, since returning to this character just to see him die would have been way too heavy.

And, we all know that The Handmaid’s Tale is like a super-weighted blanket that just dishes out the angst and suffering. 

The thing about returning to Gilead is that it perpetuates this cycle that it alludes to this cycle of escape and capture that the handmaids have been in since Season 2 when June almost escaped the first time. This idea of taking us on a narrative arc that starts with presents us with a possible escape and then rips it away continuously is starting to feel tired and old. 

It’s understandable that the writers wouldn’t want to abandon these characters, but they may need to in some capacity for the series to expand. Especially since this series has already been renewed for a fifth season. However, the show has always done its best when it expands outside of Gilead and looks at this the series from the perspective not just of June, but the others going through the trauma that is Gilead. 

While this is a promising first episode to a new episode, it’s worrying that The Handmaid’s Tale may be falling into old traps instead of breaking new ground. If it wants to continue to have an engaging season, it needs to recognize that it has other angles to the story it’s telling. 

Nightshade

Similar to “Pigs,” The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 2, “Nightshade,” also feels like a slower burn. The business of escape is not a simple one and the handmaids are stuck pretending to be Martha’s on the farm. This episode does explore the relationship between June and Mrs. Keyes a little bit more through the thread of nightshade poisoning. 

While the poison storyline feels easy, it also feels right. If Mrs. Keyes has been in her house alone with the commander, she would have found ways to cope, and slowly poisoning him is likely the best way she knew how. 

It’s worth noting here that by helping June make the nightshade poison for the local Jezebel’s she has essentially fulfilled Esther’s vision. They have killed together. Maybe not in a blaze of glory like Esther may have been picturing, but they did collaborate on this mass murder of the commanders. 

The farm shares the screen just about equally though with the Canadian storylines. Both the Waterfords and Angel’s Flight get ample mention and prove that this show truly shines when it’s able to leave Gilead and focus on recovery and hope.

It’s a breath of fresh air to see Moira (Samira Wiley) and Emily (Alexis Bledel) find some meaning after their respective escapes. Seeing them get involved with trying to place the kids from Angel’s Flight a good storyline for them, but it’s also a heartbreaking one. 

For example, when Moira visits Asher and he says that he misses home it is a shocking reminder that these kids have acclimated to Gilead. If they weren’t born there they’ve been conditioned into those beliefs and that society. This seems like the first time Moira and Emily considered this might be a problem, and they blame it on June. 

Yes, that’s a fair analysis, but the scene ultimately feels like all they’re doing is recognizing that maybe June’s judgment isn’t all there. Emily plainly recounting when she was handed Nicole and asking “who does that?” is an almost absurd moment. Simply because it encapsulates what we know about June’s character. She’s not virtuous she’s just making it up, and not thinking it all through. 

Where this storyline finds some hope though, is when they bring Rita over and she says she’ll cook some dishes from home for Asher. Rita felt like a reluctant participant at the start of the episode, but this gives her skills some purpose and it seems like she enjoys that. 

Meanwhile, Serena Joy is scrambling to find a defense that the jury will believe. It’s been hard to find sympathy for Serena Joy for the last season, and while Strahovski’s performance is captivating, it’s still a feat. It’s especially hard, when Serena has no legal right to Nicole, even though she insists that she does. 

There’s going to have to be some sort of movement on the part of the Waterfords trial otherwise it will continue to be a stale plotline that doesn’t give us any new information. 

The Crossing

The last of the premiere day episodes, The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 3, “The Crossing,” is the most intense. After being captured and taken back to Gilead, June faces an interrogation. It’s a harrowing episode full of shocking visuals and treatments as well as emotionally heavy. We are with June most of the time as she experiences each new trial and tribulation. 

The camera work and performances from the cast and crew really play up the psychological aspects of the interrogation. These same effects may make it hard to watch for some viewers. 

It isn’t terribly exciting to watch this episode. We’ve seen June get captured before. We know somehow they’ll ultimately release her because they can’t kill handmaids, they need them. There’s no tension there. The tension is in the spectacle the camera can create and it’s a haunting one, but not one we need. 

What “The Crossing” does give us is some type of closure to the Hannah factor of June’s character. Commander Lawrence threatens Hannah and shows June Hannah in a room with a box. It’s a cruel psychological trick, but once again, a reminder of how these children were conditioned. Hannah doesn’t see June as her mother just like Asher didn’t see Canada as home. 

June wants to save her, but maybe Hannah doesn’t want to be saved. 

As much as we might lament about spending another episode in Gilead, “The Crossing” does end with another escape. It feels soon and rushed, and like this plan should absolutely not work. However, it does, to a degree. In the end, two handmaids make it to the other side of the train tracks.

When June and Jeanine watch as the others are run over by the train it feels absolutely devastating. There’s no time to mourn, but a quick flashback to the red center gives us all we need to know. These women were bonded. The voice-over about how they learned to lip-read and would whisper their names is reminiscent of the opening lines of Atwood’s novel, and it’s a fitting tribute to the characters we’ve just lost. 

As much as I want to be angry at June for the deaths of those handmaids, I can’t be. Make no mistake, this is kind of June’s fault, if she hadn’t given them the name they wouldn’t have been on the tracks.

However, I want to believe that if June and Jeanine can actually escape this time it means leaving behind a significant portion of Gilead. While Gilead is still there and needs to topple, it doesn’t need to be a course of trauma porn. 

Stray Thoughts

• So, did we just leave Mrs. Keyes in the holding cell? Were those two episodes it for McKenna Grace’s run?
• Does anyone else not see Nick and June as endgame? I am having a hard time seeing it.
• Serena Joy is pregnant. There’s a plot twist. 
• Have to say, the music feels a little acrimonious. “Fade Out (Sreet Spirit)” by Radiohead over the last escape is probably the most fitting song, but it may have been better with a score. 

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 on Hulu.

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