The Handmaid’s Tale Recap: Gilead Grabs [Spoiler] and [Spoiler]!

Professional: The story of the maid‘s June and Luke have their second date this season in Episode 5, that is good for the relationship and the common well-being! Cons: Said date night takes place so physically near Gilead you can smell the piety, and the evening ends in dismemberment and capture. But hey, there’s bowling too…?

Read on for the highlights of Fairytale.

No man’s land, here we come | June dreams of being in an aquarium earlier with Hannah when her phone rings: it’s Lily from Mayday letting her know that a watchman is coming to no man’s land and he will have information about wives schools, such as the one in which Hannah is. Before we know it, June, Luke and Moira are on their way to Lily’s camp, passing through a pretty intense anti-refugee protest along the way. When they arrive, things are chaotic: Gilead has only increased its border patrols as June & Co drove by, meaning they cannot safely leave Canada to meet with the Guardian.

Luke doesn’t care. “Everything we want to know about Hannah is there,” he says. And soon June announces that she is going with him. (Moira, meanwhile, thinks they’re crazy for risking so much.) They trade bags of supplies and are given a card and a code word; You should reach the meeting point by morning. Moira hugs her and they walk into the woods holding hands. A stone marker they pass indicates when they officially left the Great White North.

After dark, they come across a hanged man adorned with a sign that reads “rapist.” “Is that Gilead?” says Luke, shocked. “Gilead doesn’t use words,” June says clearly. Please note what becomes a recurring theme in this episode: Luke is (of course!) appalled at the violence they are subjected to, while June (unfortunately) has seen it far too often.

WHO ARE IN BOWLING? | Eventually, Luke and June meet up with their contact — the code phrase is “Raspberry Beret” (ha!) — but they cringe when he immediately says they need to go somewhere else to have a chat because it’s not safe, im to be free . The whole thing smells like a trap, but they’re desperate for information about Hannah, so they eventually decide to follow him to an abandoned bowling alley, where he sometimes holed up during particularly cold patrol shifts.

He reports that the “plums,” also known as the wives-in-training who wear purple, are treated very well when they learn to “keep their household.” They go through schools fairly quickly, he adds, so they can be matched to husbands. “She’s TWELVE,” says Luke. The guarian shrugs. “That’s how it works,” he replies. The good news: If she’s still in school, she hasn’t been married yet. And he gives them a USB stick full of related information. But as June and Luke leave to go, the Guardian protests, saying it’s not safe to cross during the day. If they can wait until after sundown, he will lead them back. And even though that’s beginning to feel like a very bad idea, Luke and June agree to stay.

They take very different approaches to biding their time with the Guardian. Luke chats and bowls with the guy. June stays on the alert, wondering how nobody ever hears him banging around there and is suspicious of how he got the beer he’s offering them out of a cooler. He is relatively young and was a child when America fell. “Everything from before is foggy, you know? Like a dream,” he tells them, oblivious to the knife in their heart as they remember that Hannah must have felt the same way. He says he doesn’t hate Gilead but is working to bring it down because “people should be able to talk to each other.” When he’s out of earshot, a confused June tells Luke, “I’ve never seen anyone in Gilead as pure as he is.”

On a slightly relaxed watch, she listens as Luke Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” plays and sings along on the alley organ. And then Hannah’s people dance slowly to no music while the warden shines his flashlight on the disco ball, adding atmosphere.

CAUGHT! | I hope you enjoyed the sweet interlude, because it’s about to get bloody. After dark, when they’re almost back to the Canadian border, the Guardian steps on a land mine. He flies; Upon landing, one of its legs is no longer attached to its body. He begs June and Luke to run away, but June insists on tying a tourniquet to his leg to save him. But when she and Luke hear the boy’s other guardians approach and call out to him, it’s time to run.

June and Luke are lugging buns to the border, and they’re SO CLOSE when a truck pulls into their path, blocking their path. Gunmen jump out and grab them and pull them apart as the episode fades to black.

VALUES OF THE WHEELER FAMILY | While all of this is happening, Serena is settling into the Wheeler house. Breakfast with Alanis Wheeler is an intense affair; She’s definitely a 15 out of 10 on the Gilead Fan Meter. Later, Mrs. Wheeler hosts a small gathering where her friends stop by and gaze at Serena’s pregnant belly with uncanny awe. The affair takes Serena back to a time during Gilead’s early years when she and Naomi Putnam toured an “orphanage” (aka a place for children who had been separated from their parents) and decided they weren’t raising someone else’s baby wanted to. perhaps they would consider getting maids.

The party with Alanis and her infertile friends serves as a brainstorming session for Serena, who later tells Lawrence and Commander Putnam that concentrating the Toronto center on Gilead was a mistake – it should be set up as a fertility center instead. “It’s about the babies. That’s what people want to hear,” says Serena. “People will yell to keep the doors open.” Commander Putnam is disinterested, but he’s also stupid; Lawrence knows a good thing when he hears it, and he’s intrigued.

We also learn that Lawrence has a plan he calls “New Bethlehem” that welcomes back and offers amnesty to “terrorists” who have harmed Gilead and/or escaped. He has very little support. “If we keep the walls up and the borders closed, this country will die,” he said. “All this will have been for nothing.”

IRON WILL | At the Wheeler house, all indications are that things are about to get a whole lot darker for Serena, and very soon. When she wants to “communicate” with a supporter who has arrived at the property, Ezra won’t let her because Mr. Wheeler left instructions for the wrought iron gate to remain closed.

She is later praying in her bedroom when Ryan Wheeler (played by Rising Hope‘s Lucas Neff) finally shows up. He tells her that Gilead will push her ideas for the center, calling it “a real stroke of genius.” She’s excited and wants to get to work, but he says no. “Your baby’s needs precede any plan or ambition,” he informs her patronizingly, then pours her some water and somehow threateningly forces her to take her iron supplements as he stands and watches. Just before he leaves, Serena asks for a cell phone, but he says no, citing “security concerns.” It sucks being pregnant, cut off from everyone you know and left to the whims of crazy people, doesn’t it, mom?

Now it’s your turn. What do you think of the episode? Mute the comments!