History Recap / TheHandmaidsTaleS3E13Mayday

** The plane flies the refugees to Toronto and has to traverse a good chunk of Gilead airspace. Given that Boston is at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, the plane could have easily exited Gilead airspace into international territory while flying the children to ''Halifax, Nova Scotia'' which is also in Canada (and is the same travel time as to Toronto).

** The plane flies the refugees to Toronto, when Boston is at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. The plane could have easily exited Gilead airspace and into international airspace and flew through the children to ''Halifax, Nova Scotia'' which is also in Canada (and is the same travel time as to Toronto).

** The plane flies the refugees to Toronto, when Boston is at the edge of the Ocean. The plane could have easily accessed international waters and flew through the children to ''Halifax, Nova Scotia'' which is also in Canada (and is the same travel time as to Toronto).

** The plane flies the refugees to Toronto, when Montreal (in Quebec) is a lot closer to Boston (and any route to Montreal takes it out of Gilead airspace a lot faster).

* FreudianSlip: Serena accidentallyu calls June “Offred” while arguing her case with Mark Tuello.

* HarsherInHindsight: When June tells him that Beth has nerves, [[spoiler:Joseph responds that it’s almost as though she were worried about dying (during the execution of June’s audacious plan.) Beth is killed only three episodes from now.]]

* HarsherinHindsight: When June tells him that Beth has nerves, [[spoiler:Joseph responds that it’s almost as though she were worried about dying (during the execution of June’s audacious plan.) Beth is killed only three episodes from now.]]

* FreudianSlip: Serena accidentally calls June “Offred” while arguing her case with Mark Tuello.

* FriendToAllChildren: Despite going on and on about how he hates kids, June returns from scouting their route to the airport to find Lawrence reading Literature/TreasureIsland to all of the children by candlelight like a happy grandfather.

** The plane flies the refugees to Toronto, when Montreal is a lot closer to Boston (and any route to Montreal takes it out of Gilead airspace a lot faster).

* ContinuityNod: The plane used to transport the children is a Boeing 737-200 which is an older plane and flew around the same time as the Airbus A300 which was referred to in "Unknown Caller". If anything, this solidifies the evidence of sanctions preventing Gilead from using any modern planes (and that likely Boeing pulled out of the Continental U.S. before Gilead took over).

* IdiotBall: Gilead should have known about the child-smuggling plot the moment the Martha was captured and interrogated. Given such information, it would have been very likely that major transportation terminals such as Logan Airport would have been completely shut down. Even if the plane did take off, Gilead would have compelled the flight to turn around under threat of force (assuming that the plane took the quickest way out of Gilead airspace, the Gilead Air Force would have had 45 minutes to intercept the plane). This, combined with Commander Waterford's capture [[SwissCheeseSecurity two episodes prior]] makes you wonder [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy who really is in charge of Gilead's security apparatus]].

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Boston residents will consider the location of the standoff with the Guardians as literally impossible. Logan Airport is actually surrounded by water on three sides (being located close to the ocean), and while there is a residential area on the northwest side of the airport, it is complicated by two issues. First, if June is able to "see" the plane taking off overhead, it would mean that the forest that June was hiding in is in the flight path. Only one runway satisfies this criteria (running northwest), but there is no forested area northwest of the airport. The second issue is the location of the surface-level Subway line which runs on the northwest boundary of the airport, and is between this residential area and the airport. Other than a subway station and a few street crossings, it is literally impossible to cross this subway line out of sight, and using any one of these crossings risks an unwanted sighting. Furthermore, no other airport is possible considering that the Lawrences live near one of the subway lines (June and Eleanor having used the "T" to get to Brookline in Episode 7) and no other airport (large enough to support a Boeing 737) other than Logan is within plausible walking distance of any subway line (even if the group had to walk for hours to reach the airport).

* IdiotBall: Gilead should have known about the child-smuggling plot the moment the Martha was captured and interrogated. Given such information, it would have been very likely that major transportation terminals such as Logan Airport would have been completely shut down. Even if the plane did take off, Gilead would have compelled the flight to turn around under threat of force (a flight from Boston to Toronto takes around 90 minutes of flying time, most of it in Gilead airspace). This, combined with Commander Waterford's capture [[SwissCheeseSecurity two episodes prior]] makes you wonder [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy who really is in charge of Gilead's security apparatus]].
** This is arguably passed back and forth: Why fly to Toronto when the fastest routes out of Gilead's airspace would either cross over Montreal (heading north over New Hampshire/Vermont) or Halifax? A reasonably direct path to Montreal gets you out of Gilead's airspace in about 180-200 miles (via the border between NH/VT and QC), while Halifax is around 150-160 miles (at sea about halfway to Nova Scotia). Going directly to Toronto would cover 275-300 miles before hitting the border.