Commander Waterford and High Commander Winslow return to Boston to inspect the district handmaids; Waterford expresses to Winslow his concerns about Commander Lawrence and both enforce a ceremony on the Lawrence household. June searches for information on the children of Handmaids in the district and comes up with a plan to extract the Handmaids' children from Gilead.
Tropes
- Awful Truth: June discovers that Janine's son Caleb died in a car accident four years previously. When Janine realizes June has information about him, June lies, telling her that his "family" have moved to California.
- Book Ends: Pastries are used by the Marthas network as code to define "Yes" and "No". At the beginning of the episode, we see Scones which is seen as a negative response to an inquiry. At the end of the episode, we see Muffins, which is seen as a positive response.
- Call-Back: June refers to the ceremony as a "transaction", echoing Commander Lawrence's use of the word in Episode 3.
- Chekhov's Gun: The phone seen in "Unknown Caller" returns here when Serena suggests to Fred to contact someone who can help with recovering Nichole.
- Crazy-Prepared: The supervised Ceremony comes complete with a physician to confirm sexual intercourse has taken place. June knows this and has to convince Commander Lawrence to go through with the Ceremony.
- Evil Is Petty: Fred's vendetta on the Lawrence household is seemingly fueled by his frustration that June is now beyond his reach.
- Foreshadowing:
- Lydia's talk about the "next Ceremony" foreshadows that for once in the Lawrence household, the Ceremony will happen.
- Eleanor’s statement, “at least, it would all be over” foreshadows Eleanor’s suicide.
- Heel–Face Turn: Suffering himself and seeing Eleanor suffer from having to perform the Ceremony seemingly finally convinces Lawrence to let her out and go bigger scale against Gilead.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Joseph Lawrence is finally forced to participate in the Ceremony - receiving an unpleasant reminder that if you help creating a dystopian regime, it's going to bite you in the ass as well eventually.
- Mama Bear:
- June is counting on that instinct in the other Handmaids when planning getting their children out of Gilead. Turns out that the Marthas have it as well, as all asked by Beth for help declare being on-board.
- Serena is this in making clear that Nichole is her only motivation and she has no patience for Fred's power games. Of course, trying to bring Nichole to Gilead in itself puts her in the Evil Matriarch category.
- Rape by Proxy: What Fred and Winslow decide to do to Lawrence, Eleanor and June by making sure they perform the Ceremony. Even Serena thinks it's extreme. Despite Commander Lawrence's assurances that everything will be fine and that they will avoid the Ceremony by playing cards, June rightly points out that the people in his household are here to enforce it and that everyone will die if the ceremony is not completed to Aunt Lydia's satisfaction.
- Rape Discretion Shot: We don't see the actual act of the forced Ceremony between Commander Lawrence and June as the episode cuts to the aftermath.
- The Reveal:
- Commander Waterford is responsible for rolling out several regulations based on Washington DC's rules. Amongst these regulations includes decorations consistent with DC standards, and a rollout of the "ring and veil", also known as the muzzling of Handmaids.
- The supervised Ceremony actually had precedent: some households were supervised in the early Gilead days to ensure the participation of all involved.
- Janine's last name is revealed to be Lindo, and that her son Caleb had died 4 years earlier in a car accident in California.
- Shout-Out: After Lawrence allows use of his truck for June's extraction scheme she sees the boatload of muffins from Marthas willing to participate.June: We're going to need a bigger boat.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The Rape by Proxy affects not only June, but both Joseph and Eleanor, showing that this form of forced sexual intercourse really is an evil act regardless of who is doing what.
- Swapped Roles: This is the first time we see a Commander's Wife being held down and forced to participate in the Ceremony against her will.
