June and Janine navigate the war-torn Chicago. After June and Steven get into an argument over attacking Gilead soldiers, June and Janine decide to leave Steven's cell to find another. Meanwhile, Lydia finds that she has been relieved of duties as an aunt and goes to Commander Lawrence. They work together to restore each of their positions before an important Commander's meeting. There, Commander Lawrence recommends a ceasefire to allow for international aid to enter Chicago. The other Commanders agree to this request, but preface the ceasefire with a massive attack on Chicago that knocks June out. When June awakens, Janine is missing, however Moira has now entered Chicago as an aid-worker.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Seems to be June's preferred strategy for the resistance in Chicago. Steven spells it out in no uncertain terms that this line of thinking will get them killed. His resistance cell has survived because they try to avoid unnecessary risks after all.
- Bait-and-Switch: It initially looks like the Commander's council has accepted Commander Lawrence's suggestion of a ceasefire to begin at 1400 hours, only for Putnam and Calhoun to reveal that a massive bombing run is to take place slightly before that.
- Blackmail: Lydia tries to blackmail Lawrence to reinstate her as a full Aunt, by threatening to reveal evidence of his prior misdeeds. He instead turns it around and bargains with her: she will give whatever blackmail material she has collected on the other Commanders to restore his position, in return for hers. By the end, both of them are reinstated.
- Cliffhanger: June and Janine are caught in a bombing. June survives, but Janine is nowhere to be found, and then Moira appears as a member of the international aid team.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The lounge for Aunts that Lydia is instructed to rest and "heal" in looks suspiciously like a dour nursing home, which furthers Lydia's certainty that she is being put out to pasture while being replaced by younger Aunts such as Ruth.
- Internal Reveal: Nick learns that June is in Chicago, and informs Lawrence.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Steven may be a scumbag, but he is 100% correct that June's instinct to attack the Guardians while pinned in a cafe is suicidally reckless. They are outmanned, outgunned, and the Guardians have air support.
- Kick the Dog: Commanders Putnam and Calhoun use the impending ceasefire to sneak in a massive bombing run in Chicago.
- Made of Iron: June survives a bomb going off only a few feet away, and while knocked out, is later able to stumble away with minimal visible injuries.
- Oh, Crap!: June has a big one when she realizes the area she and Janine are in are about to be bombed by a pair of airplanes.
- The Reveal: Nick is still in contact with the Martha network, and manages to learn that June is in Chicago through them.
- Remember the New Guy?: Aunt Ruth appears for the first time but Aunt Lydia treats her like a well-known acquaintance. Justified because Ruth belongs to a younger crop of Aunts.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: June is developing a serious case of this. She tries to attack a group of Guardians while on a supply run, despite Steven's orders not to, and later tries to join the Nighthawks because she hears they are more enthusiastic about fighting (which she learns about when she finds the bodies of two Gilead Guards burned and charred by this group).
- Ultimate Job Security: Finally averted with Lydia. After June escapes on her watch, she is stripped of her overseer position, and basically left to stew in what seems to be a retirement home for Aunts. It doesn't last long.
- Uncertain Doom: Near the end, the street June and Janine are walking on is carpet bombed. June is knocked unconscious, and awakens to the NGO aid teams arriving and no sign of Janine.
- We Have Reserves:
- When Nick learns of the planned attack, he protests that only a few hours is hardly enough time to safely evacuate their own troops. Putnam just tells him he better hurry up then.
- This is referenced by Steven. When June criticizes Steven for not ambushing the Gilead guards, Steven points out that if those men do not report in to their superiors, Gilead will send even more troops to flush the resistance out.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Lawrence spends the episode arguing with the high Commanders that they should declare a ceasefire along their contested borders to medical aid to those trapped there, reasoning that it may help persuade the UN to lift the sanctions on Gilead. Nick decides to support him after learning June is in Chicago, but only learns just before hand that Gilead is planning on carpet bombing Chicago just before the aid arrives, to kill as many rebels seeking help as possible. Nick is horrified, but conceals it well, while Commander Lawrence appears to be resigned to agree to the bombing run.
