The Handmaid’s Tale Review: Progress (Season 4 Episode 9)
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 9, “Progress,” brings viewers a slightly different perspective on Gilead.
Being outside of Gilead and looking at how the system works has been a refreshing change over the last season. We have understood that Gilead is bad, but we’re now starting to see that no one is safe and that it may be time for the tower to fall.
June’s confessed to Luke about the last time she saw Hannah, and together they’re determined to find her. This means going to the few “friends” they have in Gilead; including Nick.
Bringing Nick back into the fold feels like an attempt to ignite a love triangle, but it’s unsuccessful. June and Nick have chemistry, but he serves a larger purpose than being June’s love interest. Now that he’s a Commander, Nick is in a position to begin toppling the infrastructure of Gilead, and that is a much more important role.
Personally, I still can’t shake that there’s something the audience isn’t seeing.
On The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 3, “The Crossing,” he met with Commander Lawrence, and even though we only heard dialogue related to June, we know that they have similar interests and motivations. Seeing those interactions where June isn’t present feels like a slow simmer to something bigger.
Plus, June is still married, and Luke has been looking for her for over seven years. While we may not have spent as much time following what Luke went through, that type of bond doesn’t go away.
The scenes between Luke and June where they are looking over his previous work, and trying to piece together what he may know about Hannah, are some of the most emotionally intimate moments we’ve seen between them. There’s a hard armor on June that was born out of the necessity of survival. Now that her cards are on the table, she can let that fall just a little bit.
“Progress” also pulls viewers into the higher workings of The Red Center. The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 has done an exceptional job of showing us the structure in which Aunt Lydia works. The discussion over Esther’s refusal to eat highlights exactly how Lydia is different from the other aunts.
The aunts are cruel, but Aunt Lydia might be the lesser of the two evils because she at least cares enough about Esther to listen to Jeanine.
The actions Lydia takes seem small and insignificant compared to Jeanine’s efforts, but it’s hard to shake the idea that these two may be in a position to make waves and facilitate change.
So much of Jeanine’s talk with Esther feels like a big sister gently trying to lead a misguided younger sister. She’s frank and honest, but at the same time doesn’t sugarcoat Esther’s reality.
JEANINE: You need to stay alive, so you can be here, when things get better.
The conspiratorial look between them as they walk down the hall to see Aunt Lydia feels triumphant and empowering. These are two women who have been dealt a bad hand in Gilead, and they are ready to start resisting the system however they can.
And these two could be the dream team.
Remember, just an episode ago, Jeanine was not looking forward to the task of being a handmaid again. The fact that Aunt Lydia is getting ready to reassign her is her worst nightmare right now.
On The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 5, “Chicago,” we saw Jeanine start to take charge of her own destiny. She’s had a taste of freedom and knows what it’s like to make a choice for herself. Like all women in Gilead, Jeanine lost her agency, but her time in Chicago allowed her to reclaim it.
Going back isn’t something she wants, but if it is her reality, she’s going to do what she can from the inside.
Aligning herself with Aunt Lydia, keeping herself out of service, and perhaps in a position to become an Aunt, could be the best option. It could also make her a spy on the inside.
Plus, Esther could turn out to be a formidable ally. Yes, Esther admired June on The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 1, “Pigs,” but she learned how to survive. She made the night that June took to Jezebel’s, and she slowly poisoned her husband.
If you need someone to help lay the groundwork for a coup, you could do worse than Esther.
The big turning point on “Progress” is Fred and Serena Waterford’s trial. They get unexpected visitors from Gilead that give them some unsettling news.
On Serena’s end, there’s the realization that her baby is all that matters. Naomi talks about Serena returning as if it would be completely frictionless but Serena knows that Gilead wouldn’t just accept her back into society.
More importantly, though, it’s not a society that Serena wants to go back to! Serena was key in creating Gilead, but she’s also suffered in it. Through The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3, viewers saw her start to reckon with this and there isn’t an ounce of her that wants to go back.
Fred, on the other hand, wants to go back to Gilead and seems genuinely shocked that they haven’t been negotiating for his release.
These conversations highlight the two different realities that Fred and Serena have experienced in Gilead. Fred has the power, while Serena’s has been stripped away. Fred’s suggestion that she write a book feels a bit like he’s giving some of her power back and getting a little closer to the partnership they may have had before Gilead.
Now that the shoe is on the other foot, the Waterfords are attempting to survive by fashioning themselves as intelligence assets.
SERENA: What power? What could you possibly do from in here?
This is a move the audience should have seen coming. Fred is a valuable asset. The fact that he’s willing to cooperate would be something that the government would jump on.
As viewers, this feels like we’re cheated out of justice for June and the other handmaids, but that is how we should feel. The fact that we don’t see these negotiations take place adds to that appeal. We don’t see the deal being made, but we do feel the same betrayal that June does, and it stings.
When all is said and done, “Progress” feels like an ironic title for this episode. While it does feel like a lot happens between the characters, we don’t necessarily see the progress. Hannah is still in Colorado Springs, the Waterford’s aren’t being held accountable, and the aunts continue to run The Red Center.
But, slow progress is still progress, and in time these may be the first tiles to fall.
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 Wednesdays on Hulu.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Amanda’s Top 10 Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Horror TV Characters of 2020
Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.
2 comments
Luke and June are clearly headed for a breakup. His looking for her doesn’t change anything she went through, noble as it was. The love she still had for him remains in the part of past-June that still exists, but she’s not the same person anymore and she never will be again so it will never be enough. I don’t think they were trying to ‘ignite’ a love triangle so much as confirm where June (who she is now) is at in terms of her heart and thats with Nick, who is also the father of her child. She’s in love with him. It’s likely not going to work out, but it is what it is. Nick will always have a bigger role to play in terms of his work for the resistance (the higher up he is, the more useful he is).
Oh, I’m sorry, but you couldn’t be more wrong about the June/Luke thing. There’s no love triangle anymore, that’s for sure, but it’s because June’s so clearly in love with Nick that there’s no competition. She and Luke are only connected through Hannah anymore. There’s nothing else there. He loves a woman who doesn’t exist anymore. They’re done.
It doesn’t matter that they’re married or that he waited for her for years. When the connection is gone, it’s gone. June fell in love with another man.
Comments are closed.