As the name implies, The Handmaid's Tale is the story of one woman's struggle to escape servitude. But the person now known as "Offred" isn't the only one forced to adapt in Gilead—one of the masterminds of the republic did too.
Related Stories
The Commander's wife, Mrs. Waterford, has always been a case study in contradictions: subservient to her husband and country, yet calculating enough to disobey both to get what she wants. In the show's sixth episode, it's revealed why. Before Gilead was formed, back when she was still Serena Joy, Mrs. Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski) was a published author and outspoken figure who incited a riot. She was one of the original architects of the coup, but her male co-conspirators shut her out as they took down the US government. She imagined an orderly nation built on traditional values, but she didn’t imagine it would require sacrificing her own livelihood, autonomy, voice.
In "A Woman's Place," Serena Joy got a bit of those things back. Almost. As the episode begins, visitors are coming to Gilead, and the leadership wants to show the Mexican delegation the best side of the republic. Handmaids scrub away blood from the wall where gender-traitors and abortion doctors are hanged, and Mrs. Waterford meticulously plans a visit for the country's ambassador, Mrs. Castillo (Zabryna Guevara). At dinner for the ambassador, the Commander's wife can finally exert her power, making a speech about the values of Gilead and applauding the handmaids. It's her opportunity to show off the world she helped create—even if it's not the one she envisioned.
As the Commanders try to persuade the ambassador to accept a trade deal, Mrs. Castillo asks the wives, silent and arranged in a painterly tableau, about their experiences in Gilead, particularly Serena Joy's. Turns out, the one-time author of A Woman's Place, a "domestic feminism" advocate who once argued men should "never mistake a woman's meekness for weakness," never pictured a society in which women couldn't read her book, or anyone else's. But, she tells the ambassador, an effective society requires sacrifice. In Gilead, it’s the sacrifice of women’s freedom—June’s, clearly, but also Serena Joy’s.
This is the danger of playing with the patriarchy. The house always wins. You can't advocate for domesticity and expect to retain power or control. Serena Joy can advocate for Gilead, but even as she keeps the maimed, disobedient handmaids out of sight ("you don’t put the bruised apples at the top of the crate"), she can't cover up their red dresses, a ubiquitous reminder of the sexual slavery supporting the republic. She and the Commander can trot out Offred (Elisabeth Moss) to tell Mrs. Castillo "I have found happiness," but she still must know Offred's fate is not what she wanted.
But, this being a dystopia, the ambassador isn't interested in the handmaids' contentment anyway. As Serena Joy brings out the children of the colony, all produced by the handmaids, to show the ambassador, Ofsamuel (Jenessa Grant) leans over to tell Offred what’s really going on. The Mexican delegation isn’t there to trade for oranges. It’s there for a much more valuable commodity: handmaids.
Offred, shaken and furious, lets herself into Nick’s apartment. In the last episode, they illicitly slept together; here, she turns to him as a confidante. But even when calling her by her real name, Nick (Max Minghella) can't take her out of the reality of Gilead.
So Offred speaks up. When the ambassador offers her a box of chocolate as a gift for her candor, she tells her what her life is really like. “This is a brutal place,” says Offred. She explains the beatings, the maiming, the monthly rape. And when Mrs. Castillo says she’s sorry, Offred asks for help. “Don’t be sorry,” she says. “Please do something.”
As the ashamed ambassador looks away, she offers a chilling vision of how the dystopia doesn’t end beyond the borders of Gilead. In her hometown in Mexico, a city around the size of Boston, a child hasn’t been born alive in six years—she has no choice but to trade for handmaids to try to save her nation. “My country is dying,” says Mrs. Castillo. “My country is already dead,” Offred replies. The ambassador turns away and leaves with the Commander, to negotiate for the commodity of fertile human beings.
But as Offred wipes her tears, the ambassador’s assistant (Christian Barillas) offers to help her. He can’t find her daughter, but he can get a message to her husband, who Offred thought was dead. He offers her a pad of paper and a pen, and tells her to write quickly: to explain her nightmare, to ask him questions, to beg for help, in 10 ruled lines and a few hurried minutes. She hasn't found happiness in Gilead, but she can keep looking.