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This review contains spoilers.
3.11 Liars
"Ice Queen". Negotiator of the hostages. "I trust June, she keeps it cool." This episode has regularly prompted us to give us a picture of unfazed June, someone who can keep his head when everyone loses theirs. When Eleanor held Joseph under the threat of a revolver, June stressed the need for self-control. When Lawrences left her in embarrassment, June kept her shit together and came up with a new plan. Everything that happened before the events of Jezebels assured us that when she lay down on the bed, June would hurt herself and endure Winslow's ill punishment.
All the better to surprise us.
liars was built to general surprise: Eleanor's rifle, escape and return of Lawrences, appearance of High Commander Winslow and Louboutin's kick that June put in the face … the plot forward.
The episode also ends with one of the most stimulating sequences in the series. As Kate Bush made her comeback in the soundtrack, director Deniz Gamze Ergun (Mustangs) offered us a rousing montage that transformed domestic work into an act of resistance. Ranger, scourer, make beds … the Mart did their duty coldly, not in the service of Gilead, but in rebellion. They arranged flowers, smooth sheets, cleaned carpets and quietly brought a man's corpse into an incinerator – not to mention a chocolate on the pillow as a finishing touch.
I say "man," but Winslow was actually a personification of Gilead – a golem carved of misogyny, sadism, and hypocrisy. According to the commander who presided over the literal closure of the women 's mouth, his sadism should not have been a shock, any more than his presence in this assault pit, Jezebels (even the Arty room walls come with hidden swastikas – have you seen?). Winslow's pleading on "My children" as June imposed it, a powerful and bloody avenger, did not arouse sympathy. After the degradation of Jezebels and this painful battle scene, watching a symbol of Gilead's corrupt masculinity disappear into the flames was a triumph.
It was one of two triumphs of this episode, the other being the fall of Fred Waterford. (Just in case he did not already have the impression of enough asshole, The servant's tale was good enough to accessorise Misogyny Ken with blinds to cock head and a convertible Mercedes for the occasion.)
The arrest of Fred would have been easier to assess if it had not come with a mystery to solve. In a moment of humanization while he was being taken away, Fred protested that Serena had done nothing wrong, but was she as innocent as he thinks it?
Generally, of course not, but in this particular case? Was Serena at the origin of Fred's arrest, sacrificing her husband's worm in exchange for immunity and access to Nichole? If so, when did she change sides and how long did she play? Since DC? Since ballroom dancing? Since he's forced Joseph to rape June, setting off a bomb in Lawrence's wedding?
The scenes of travel on the road of Fred and Serena being an act of minute ambiguity, we can not yet know it. Yvonne Strahovski's performance was so well balanced that at any given moment she could be read as being back to her husband or saying goodbye.
Fred said all the good things in this conversation – admitting his infertility for what seems to be the first time, saying that he was not kidding about Winslow, he did not need pomp or no status, he did not want to miss their daughter growing up … but the carefully inserted reminder that he was in marketing gave him the impression that he was there to mine everything. Captain Waterford is a public relations professional. his words are like water.
Our best hint that Serena changed the horse she was supporting at the halfway point was the resentment and pain of her question "How can you take that away?" While the couple was nostalgically discussing her formerly flourishing writer career. (Oh, the casual sexism of this exchange "You were trying to make me fat" / "I did not want other men to look at you"). This accusation was the moment when it seemed to him impossible to have forgiven him. Fred may regret having put Serena in charge.
Between the assassination of Winslow, the loss of control of Lawrence and the arrest of Waterford, Gilead's commanders collapse like a chalk. Hallelujah and high speed.
Read Louisa's review of the previous episode, Witness, here.
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