The Lawrence household makes preparations to execute June's plan. But things start to go awry, with a Martha having a moment of panic and fleeing the premises, only to be captured later. Despite Commander Lawrence insisting that the plan be aborted, June forges ahead and is successfully able to get over one hundred children on the plane to Canada. June, however, is seriously wounded during the attempt and is cared for by Janine, Alma, Brianna, and several other handmaids. Meanwhile, Mark Tuello has Serena Joy arrested after Fred reveals Serena's role in getting June pregnant via Nick.
This Episode provides examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain: It’s hard not to feel at least some sympathy for Serena when Mark Tuello revokes her legal immunity and visitation rights with Baby Nichole at the end of the episode.
- All for Nothing: Serena's gambit to flee to Canada to reunite with Nichole backfires spectacularly when Fred tells Mark about her true role in Nichole's conception. To make things worse, in the Digging Yourself Deeper conversation that she has with Mark when she is arrested: she doesn't realize that Fred (not a particularly reliable witness) had set her up, and that she accidentally refers to June as Offred, all but cementing her role in forcing Nick and June to have sex to conceive Nichole in the first place.
- Artistic License – Geography:
- 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).
- 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), unless Halifax does not have the resources to handle American Refugees.
- Bait-and-Switch: The all-clear light being switched off is supposed to warn June and the Marthas that something very wrong has just happened and that the plan to extract the kids has likely been compromised. It is not only revealed that Commander Lawrence is actually helping the effort (and had cut the power to allay suspicion during the door-to-door search), but the actual number of kids seeking asylum is far more than what they had planned for.
- Boom, Headshot!: June executes the Gilead Guard in this manner.
- The Cavalry: The Marthas and Handmaids are able to get the children all the way to the airport and are blocked by three armed guards with automatic weapons. June is prepared to use the gun given to her by Commander Lawrence and rocks to get all of their attention- when most of the Marthas and Handmaids arrive and join her in pelting the guards with stones.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- All the way back in the climax of the first season, Serena Joy taunted Fred by revealing he wasn't the father of the baby that would eventually be Nichole. Now Fred uses this knowledge to get Serena Joy ousted from her position of amnesty, by telling Tuello that she threatened June and Nick into having sex.
- The Literal Gun finally gets fired in this episode, not just to intimidate the rogue Martha, but to also kill a guard in the way of the children.
- Continuity Nod: 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).
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The introductory scene to the episode showing June's initial "processing" in Gilead, with numerous women having their hair cut, sorted by whether or not they are disabled or elderly, and the "healthy" individuals stored in meat trucks.
- Everyone Has Standards: Tuello can barely conceal his disgust at Serena when he points out to her that forcing Nick and June to conceive a child still constitutes rape, even if they were in a consenting relationship.
- Freudian Slip: Serena accidentally calls June “Offred” while arguing her case with Mark Tuello.
- Friend to All Children: Despite his going on and on about how he hates kids, when June returns from scouting their route to the airport, it’s to find Lawrence reading Treasure Island to all of the children by candlelight like a happy grandfather.
- Genre Blindness: In the Flashback, Janine, who is in the meat-locker truck next to June, starts babbling on and on about how she's going to sue the armed guards of the new regime processing her like a pack animal. Lady, I think the courts of the new Christian-breeding theocracy won't be on your side...
- Heroic Sacrifice: Two Marthas are gunned down during the We Need a Distraction attempt.
- Hoist by her own Petard: Fred, whom Serena had betrayed to the Americans, sells Her out in revenge.
- Hope Spot:
- Serena’s new life with baby Nichole in Canada did not last long.
- After seeing Rebecca reunited with her father, Luke looks at the plane of children hoping that Hannah is among them. She isn't.
- Idiot Ball: 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 via New Hampshire and Quebec, the Gilead Air Force would have had 45 minutes to intercept the plane). This, combined with Commander Waterford's capture two episodes prior makes you wonder who really is in charge of Gilead's security apparatus.
- Internal Reveal:
- Fred tells Mark Tuello the exact nature of June's relationship with Nick, and Serena's role in that.
- Rita tells Luke that June arranged the planeload of children to be transported to Canada.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Serena Joy gets hers after thinking she was going to get away scot free in the previous episode. And, just like so many women at the beginning of Gilead's rise, the baby she believes is hers is taken away from her while she cries and protests.
- Loophole Abuse: Tuello can't arrest Serena Joy for aiding the rise of Gilead and all her related crimes, including the multiple times she aided in June being raped, due to the deal she cut by turning in Fred. He can arrest her for forcing June and Nick to have sex in order to produce a baby for her — thereby engaging in slavery and organising another rape — since that only came to light after the deal was struck and naturally wasn't part of it.
- Man Scorned: Fred repays Serena’s betrayal by turning her in to Mark Tuello for her own crimes.
- Morton's Fork: Serena deliberately did not tell the Americans about Nichole's true parentage for good reason: by letting the Americans assume that Nichole is the child of Fred Waterford, Serena would have some legal claim to Nichole as his wife. This omission however ultimately left her vulnerable to Fred's betrayal when he tells Mark Tuello about Nichole's true parentage. On the other hand, telling Mark Tuello about Nichole's true parentage would have diminished her claim to Nichole herself.
- It should be pointed out that the Americans likely already knew about Nichole's true parentage given that the tape given to Luke in "Unknown Caller" was likely given to Mark Tuello as evidence, which meant that Mark likely allowed Serena's visits with Nichole as part of her plea deal.
- My God, What Have I Done?: June has a huge one when she pulls the gun on Rebecca while trying to chase down her Martha trying to take her back.
- Not Helping Your Case: When Tuello has Serena arrested for organising June's rape outside of the Handmaid arrangement (the latter being absolved by her plea deal) Serena snaps that June was in a relationship with Nick — while referring to June as 'Offred', emphasising how she still thinks of June as a slave.
- Oh, Crap!:
- June has one when Rebecca and her Martha show up hours early before the plan was to go into effect. And another one when said Martha tries to leave with Rebecca.
- Serena Joy tries to downplay her ordering Nick to rape June by claiming it was consensual: "Nick and Offred had a relationship!" As soon as the words are out, she realises that she's thoroughly shot herself in the foot; she's made it clear she considered June a slave, and still does, and thus has lost any sympathy Tuello might still have had for her.
- June and the Marthas have a huge one when the light that was supposed to indicate the all-clear is off. Subverted when it is revealed that Commander Lawrence had cut the power and already has the situation under control.
- The Reveal: Serena apparently neglected to tell the Americans the exact nature of Nichole's conception, namely that Nick and June were essentially forced to have sex to conceive her in the first place.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Fred makes sure Serena doesn’t get away scot-free after selling him out to the American Government in Exile and their Canadian allies.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Tuello shuts up Serena's attempts to defend her forcing Nick and June to have sex by claiming they were in a relationship by pointing out her actions still constitute rape.
- Spanner in the Works: June's entire plan to extract the children nearly fails when a Martha has a panic episode and wants to take her charge back to her Gileadan residence. And when the Martha escapes, June knows that her plan is very much in danger should said Martha get arrested. Commander Lawrence even tells June that the plan now carries extreme risk since the Martha escaped.
- Serena didn't count on Fred using her knowledge of Nichole's true background against her.
- Unperson: Serena Joy surely didn't help her case by referring to June as Offred.
- We Need a Distraction: With the path to the airplane blocked by several Gilead guardians, June decides to go in alone to draw the guards to her position so the children can access the plane. She is soon joined by other handmaids and Marthas in throwing stones at the guards. This allows the children and the remaining Marthas (including Rita) to easily cross the road to access the plane.
- Wham Episode: 86 children and several Marthas (including Rita) are extracted via plane from Gilead to Canada. June is seriously wounded in the process. Meanwhile in Canada, Serena gets arrested and loses her visitation rights with regard to Nichole.
- Wham Line: Mark's first line before arresting Serena: "Take the child".
- Wham Shot:
- June and the Marthas return to the house, to find that the red light has been turned off. They creep into the house and enter the living room... only to see Commander Lawrence reading a book to easily over a hundred children, Marthas and Handmaids.
- After June shoots the Guardian, she lies down on her back, staring up at the sky, just in time to see the plane taking off, with the kids on board, on its way to Canada.
