The Handmaid's Tale 6.8 "Exodus"

Do they manage to blow up the Commanders? No.

But what they do manage is to empty the Red Center and free, for now, all of the unassigned Handmaids.

Oh, and murder Putnam to rescue Janine. That all seems pretty worth it to me. And removing the Handmaids is as crippling a move to the Gilead regime as killing commanders.

Poor Aunt Lydia. They did manage to pet-the-dog her into a somewhat sympathetic figure, and in the end (likely her end) she does the right thing. She's going to end up on the Wall or fleeing for her life.

She can't escape her guilt...she knows what she did. And perhaps she will allow herself to face consequences...but not the right ones.

Really, she should have gone with them.

Two episodes left.

The Handmaid's Tale 6.9 "Execution"

I think the last episode is mostly epilogue, which I suspected from the title. Or at least, entirely denouement.

The ending is messy. Is Gilead defeated? Certainly, Gilead is weakened, with popular uprisings and dead Commanders.

The attempt to make an example of June and the other Handmaids in front of the Econopeople was an unforced error that was bound to backfire. These people were taught Handmaids were sacred, precious vessels not to be touched.

They didn't know, and that's the key core of it. Just as most Germans didn't know what really happened at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

They didn't know, and that matters. We live in a world where people are prone to blame ordinary citizens for the sins of their government.

I think it was a good reminder.

(On the infeasibility front, June being perfectly okay after that...yeah, no, but it IS June).

And people die whom you don't expect, but who, perhaps, deserve it. In one case, at least in their own mind.

The Avengers 2.23 "Conspiracy of Silence"

This involves a circus and the mafia. I don't find clowns particularly creepy, just saying. I suppose I kind of get it, but it doesn't really...impact me.

America is insulted with a comment about junkies. Because the mafia are, of course, dealing drugs. As they do.

We've had a fun fair, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised we then had a circus, and I'm not.

Cathy Gale is now a journalist. That's pretty modern for 1963! Then again, the old spy fi shows tended to be...not exactly feminist, but at least forward thinking in the way they treated the women.

The Handmaid's Tale 6.10 "The Handmaid's Tale"

As I expected, all denouement and really epilogue. I didn't really get to binge this as I suspect the creators intended.

The ending is somewhat satisfying. Luke joins Mayday working on reclaiming the rest of the U.S. June plans on going in deep to retrieve Hannah.

And the narrator is...basically the story is the one June tells to Holly to tell to Holly Nichole. It does make sense.

Serena's ending is unsatisfying. We see her in a homeless shelter/refugee camp, rock bottom, but we don't see more than that. Maybe that will come up in The Testaments.

I've intentionally not looked at that...but I'm guessing it's Hannah's story that will be told next.

Hannah, whom Gilead would turn into a Wife. I think she's tougher than that.

The overall lasting impression though is this show's use of imagery, particularly of clothing, to tell the story. That never budges, even if the plot in a few of the later episodes is just a bit yell at the screen.

We still have those images. Especially the red of blood.

The Avengers 2.24 "A Chorus of Frogs"

The frogs in the title? Frogmen. Venus is on a megayacht in the Mediterranean, on which a scientist is researching breathing mixes that would allow somebody to dive deeper without getting the bends.

The science is a bit iffy, but not as iffy as Venus' continued naivete. At this point, she should have clued in. I know she's supposed to be an airhead, but...

Steed stows away on the yacht to investigate the first death, an accident while testing breathing mixes. The second one is murder, and everyone's involved in some way...well, the ship's owner, the scientist, and a bitch who wants the breathing mix...to build better submarines, of course.

This is another one where the science doesn't stand up, but that's really hard to avoid.

It's been a while, after all.