The Handmaid’s Tale Review: The Wilderness (Season 4 Episode 10)

After a tense fourth season, The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 10, “The Wilderness,” concludes with a bloody comeuppance. 

Fans of The Handmaid’s Tale, either the book or the 1990 movie adaptation, know that Commander Waterford was always going to meet his end. Much of “The Wilderness” builds towards that climatic scene in the woods and the tension is so ripe that it pays off. 

The knowledge that Fred Waterford would walk free, that they could leave custody as a family is sickening and feels all too familiar.

The limited voice over used on “The Wilderness” is an interesting tool to take us through June’s thought process. Internal monologue has always shown up in big moments on the show, but it’s also tended to be when June is present and in the moment.

Using it over clips of Season 1 and particularly the the ceremony and the scenes at Jezebel’s show just how viscerally those moment affected June. It’s been four years since The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1 aired, and these flashbacks were a not-so-gentle reminder of how close and uncomfortable the violations that June recounts on The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1 Episode 8, “Testimony,” were.

That stark contrast illustrates a divide. June can testify and cooperate all she wants but the desire for justice is never going to be as personal for those in charge as her. She recognizes this. 

We’ve seen justice fail on television before, and this is The Handmaid’s Tale where it feels like nothing good will ever happen. However, June is in a unique position to help create her own justice and move the cogs so that Fred gets what he deserves. 

Jason Fiennes delivers an amazing performance as Fred. He’s stoic and calculated, and excited to be a father. When the tables turn, and he finds out he’s going back to Gilead, he embodies the fear. 

After seeing that kind of fear from the perspective of so many handmaids and marthas, it’s satisfying to see the tables turn against Fred Waterford.

Knowing that he was in power and that he helped write the laws that caused so much suffering and seeing him panic about being subjected to those same laws feels like a payoff in itself. 

However, the climactic scene, where June surrounds Fred with two dozen other handmaid’s feels even more appropriate. It completes the journey that the series set up on The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 1, “Pigs,” setting June up to start dealing out her own justice. Season 4 continued to make that June’s narrative, with “The Wilderness” being the climactic moment. 

While watching Fred Waterford’s salvaging, so many scenes from the rest of the series come to mind.

There’s the salvaging on The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1 Episode 1, “Offred,” where Offred is seen kicking someone she is told is guilty. Then there’s the opening scene from The Handmaid’s Tale Season 2 Episode 1, “June,” where the handmaids are led to an arena and thought they’d be executed en masse. Then there’s also the scene where June is pulled out of the plane, in Season 2. 

The Handmaid’s Tale mellows in a well of suffering centered on women and female bodies, and while this vigilante justice isn’t advised or good for June it’s hard to dispute that it doesn’t feel somewhat satisfying as a viewer to see these women take back their power.

This does bring into question what this means for June. “The Wilderness” leaves it up in the air whether this means prison or being on the run again, but the fact remains that June chose revenge over her family.

When Luke walks in and sees a bloody June holding Nichole, his face reminds me of so many characters in Revenge when they found out that Emily Thorne was really Amanda Clarke: “You chose revenge over me.”

It’s going to be interesting to see how June navigates this decision. She’s essentially come full-circle from a woman who thought she’d lost everything and was just letting things happen to her to someone who had something to fight for. Now, she’s lost everything again, but has found some agency and become the stuff of legend as she saved all those kids and now 22 prisoners. 

I think as long as the show manages to keep June on the fringes of Gilead for the time being, it has the chance to deliver an exciting character journey.

Stray Thoughts

• When Fred’s finger fell out of the envelop, I thought to myself, “That’s screwed up.” Then when I actually thought about, it feels poetic that a finger would be sent to Serena echoing her punishment under Gilead law. We don’t see Serena’s reaction to the news, but given how she’s shifted from Fred over Season 4, I would think there might be some relief. 
• The moment where June calls out Rita for serving and cleaning constantly, essentially still being a martha, is a little moment of levity that the episode needed. Rita’s response that she’s working on it with her therapist is also appropriate.
• Season 4 didn’t explore Moira’s connection to June in the depth that I would have liked, but now that June has thrown away a chance to reconnect with her family I hope that’s a throughline in Season 5.
• I am very glad “The Wilderness” did not go back to Gilead at all and decided to stick with June for the finale. However, I am going to need to know what Aunt Lydia is up to at The Red Center in Season 5. 

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

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All four seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale are now available on Hulu. 

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