Hulu’s The Handmaid Tale season 5 dropped episode 2 on the streaming service today, September 14th. The first episode ended with some big reveals, such as June confessing to killing Commander Waterford with no charges by Canadian police since it was not done on the country’s soil. Episode 2 dropped along with the first, and we will be bringing you all the recap and review. Check out The Handmaid’s Tale season 5 episode 2 recap and review.
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The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Quotes
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 2 Recap & Review
Disclaimer: The following consists of many spoilers from The Handmaid’s Tale season 5 episode 2. If you only wish to read the review, please skip this recap and scroll to the next section.
Episode 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 we see Serena back in Gilead for Fred’s funeral. Mark is there, promising to be by her side the whole time. “Like you were for Fred?” she quips. Valid point. Lawrence and Nick greet her at the airport, but Serena would rather skip the formalities. She is more concerned with picking a church picked out for Fred to hold Fred’s funeral in. Serena is not happy with the choice of church and demands a proper burial and funeral for her husband.
Serena knows someone helped June kill her husband and she has her eyes on Lawrence. Lawerence isn’t concerned though, even pointing out at the wake that women are not above men in this society, so there’s no chance she’d try and sway the council to think otherwise. Serena asks the men of Gilead to make Fred’s funeral an international event and broadcast it across the world. Lawrence is all for it, as is Nick, who believes it would help make Gilead look merciful to the public. Serena decides to invite commanders from outside town to try and make this a big event.
Aunt Lydia makes an appearance, as she grooms the new batch of Handmaids, with Janine working by her side. Lydia tasks Janine with preparing Esther to get ready for the Putnam family. Janine tells Ester to play by the rules in order to stay alive, but Ester doesn’t seem convinced. When Janine and Esther return from their visit to the Putnams, Esther tells Janine that she despises her and only went to see her own daughter. Ester poisoned herself and Janine, without Janine’s knowing.
Nick meets Mark in confidence and offers him a chance to see his daughter and work for the state as an inside mole.
June finds out that Serena has returned to Gilead and suggests that Serena should be made a handmaid or put on the wall. June reveals to Luke that Serena knows she killed Fred and admits to sending her Fred’s finger. He’s shocked that June put their family in danger and hurt their chances of getting Hannah back.
June attends a ballet with Luke, while Serena begins her walk through the Gilead streets for Fred Waterford’s funeral. Glimpses of the ballet and Serena are shown in connection with one another. When it’s over, June and Luke kiss out in the streets. As they kiss, she notices Fred’s death is streaming on a huge billboard above them. The funeral is on every monitor, and even worse, they watch as a young girl hands Serena a bouquet of flowers. June and Luke are horrified when they recognize the young girl to be Hannah.
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 2 Review
The Handmaid’s Tale season 5 episode 2 is getting into the nitty gritty of it all and revenge seems to be the theme. As June is trying to put her hatred aside, work on her relationship with Luke, and focus on getting her family back, Serena decides to hold a grand funeral for Commander Waterford, for what many believe is a psychological move to get into June’s head. To make matters worse, with Serena being back in Gilead, it is a constant reminder that she still has one thing to hang over June’s head and that is her daughter Hannah. It comes as no surprise that Serena will pull out all the stops to do so.
In this episode, we get to see Aunt Lydia, who has taken Janine under her wing to help prep the new Handmaid’s. Janine seems willing to do so, only to protect the girls and pass on a bit of knowledge that may have helped her early on to do as they say in order to stay safe. However, the new Handmaid assigned to her has other plans, which is refusing to comply so easily. Poor Janine always seems to be left with the short end of the stick, and this is proving true again in the new season.
The first few episodes of any new season take some time to settle into themselves, but it seems that by the end of episode 2, things are already starting to pick up in The Handmaid’s Tale. The hatred June feels toward Gilead and Serena only intensifies, and Serena’s vow of revenge is more brutal than ever. Will their rivalry come between June and Luke reconciling, or even worse, her getting Hannah back?