Offred is taken along with the other defiant Handmaids to the remains of Fenway Park where they are subject to a mass hanging... except that the hanging doesn't go all the way through, as Aunt Lydia uses it to scare the Handmaids into submission for their defiance in their command to stone Janine. Offred is taken elsewhere to show another Handmaid who is chained to a bed to carry someone else's child against her will to show what will be done to her if she doesn't comply. After being taken to the hospital to be examined for the child that she is carrying for the Waterfords, Offred is secretly given a key that allows her to escape and to go underground to escape Gilead. In one of the hideouts, Offred strips off all her Handmaid clothes and removes the tag from her ear and burns them to signify that she is no longer identifying herself as a Handmaid or as Offred, but as June Osbourne, a free woman.
This episode provides examples of:
- Burn Baby Burn: June burns all her Handmaid clothes and her eartag to make a break from her past as a Handmaid.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The reason why the Eyes and Aunt Lydia don't go through with the mass execution of the Handmaids: fertile women are rare enough as it is.
- Chained to a Bed: Ofwyatt is kept chained close to a bed while pregnant.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Alma has her left hand burned in a stove by Aunt Lydia and another Aunt for going along with June's deffiance.
- Ear Ache: June cuts off a tag from her ear with a pair of scissors.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The wooden entrance to the field in Fenway Park looks like the interior of a cattle car from the time of the Shoah.
- I Never Told You My Name: When the male orderly refers to June by her actual name, she becomes suspicious as to what may be happening. Her suspicions are only confirmed when she finds the key to her freedom in her shoe.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Aunt Lydia decides that June led the rebellion, knowing that she was pregnant (and thus immune from punishment). This, typical of Lydia's selective ignorance, ignores the fact that June said nothing of said pregnancy herself and was suffering her punishment together with the other Handmaids. She then decides to have the rest of the Handmaids hands burned.
- The Maiden Name Debate: In flashbacks, June is referred to as "Mrs. Bankole" by Hannah's teacher and a nurse, despite her name being June Osborne. She corrects them but they continue, and this is a sign of the Gilead regime to come.
- The Mole: An orderly in the hospital is a member of Mayday
- Parental Neglect: The nurse talking to June during the flashback accuses of her of neglecting her duty as a mother. June just sent Hannah to school when she was a little warm and gave her some Tylenol to lower her minor fever.Nurse: Children are so precious, we have to make certain that they are in a safe home environment with fit parents.
