We Can Be Useful
The Handmaid's Tale 3.8 "Unfit"
This episode focuses on Aunt Lydia. We find that she was a teacher before...in an environment that was already showing signs of theocracy.
She is much easier to understand if you realize that she sees the Handmaids as children. Her children. She genuinely wants to protect them, but she also infantilizes them.
And she was very quick to report "unfit" parents.
Now, she's talking about reassigning June because she's decided the Lawrence household is no place for a child. Or, perhaps, she knows the truth...that there will be no child in that household.
But all of that is interrupted when Ofmatthew snaps, beats up Janine, and manages to get a gun...
And it's June's fault she snapped, although...that one was clearly even more fragile than Janine, so...
The Avengers 2.6 "The Removal Men"
Another sex symbol actress? Apparently! This is a Venus episode, which means multiple excuses to hear Julie Stevens sing.
The episode title is a bit of a pun in British English on movers and assassins. Steed infiltrates a clique of French assassins, trying to find out what they're up to and nearly getting killed...as well as being expected to murder said sex symbol actress as a test.
It's Steed, so he wriggles out of it, but "don't trust Steed" is a pretty good model.
"Why don't you have any money?" "Because you shot my boss." "Oh."
Yup, typical campy yet violent fun.
The Handmaid's Tale 3.9 "Heroic"
This is a bottle episode, taking place almost entirely in a single room in what appears to be the women's hospital for that district of Gilead.
Ofmatthew is brain dead, but Gilead being Gilead they are using her as an incubator for the baby. And Aunt Lydia, I suspect in a plot to get her away from Commander Lawrence, has ordered June to stay in the room praying.
For weeks.
For months.
She snaps and tries to kill Serena, but isn't reported for it...the doctors believe she's suicidal, which she likely is.
We find out that adolescent girls are getting "menarche exams," which appears to be an attempt to start to assess fertility. And that they're getting pelvic development exams (this was a thing in Medieval Europe, btw) to see if they're physically able to carry children.
Poor kids.
Ofmatthew's premature son seems likely to live, at least, but even being a boy in Gilead (we have seen nothing about boyhood in Gilead) is likely to be pretty shitty.
Being raised to be misogynistic little shits? That's abuse too.
The Handmaid's Tale 3.10 "Witness"
Waterford is suspecting that Lawrence isn't doing his stud duty. He's right, of course, but he invokes an "old" Gilead tradition...a form of shivaree where the Ceremony is witnessed.
Turns out the reason Lawrence won't do the ceremony is because it triggers Eleanor badly. Her bipolar (which isn't being properly treated because, apparently, Gilead has banned psych meds) gets set off and she goes into a full blown panic attack. June talks Joseph into doing the ceremony. He then tries to give her contraception.
But now he's flipped. And there's a plan to get the Lawrences...and a bunch of kids...out.
What is June willing to do for those children? For Eleanor, who really needs to be hospitalized for a bit to get her brain back in balance?
We'll find out...
The Avengers 2.7 "The Mauritius Penny"
Stamp collecting neo-Nazis. Or rather, neo-Nazis communicating through stamp catalogues. It's the kind of ridiculous thing only this show could come up with. A "Mauritius penny" is an extremely valuable stamp, but it was also the codename of the neo Fuhrer.
I could have done without the torture in the dentist's chair scene, just saying.
You don't need to know much about stamps, but I do wonder if the stamps they listed were all real. Seems likely.
Cathy knows about all kinds of different things...handy in a spy!
It's always good to see some Nazi-punching going on...