The Handmaid's Tale
Wednesdays on HuluThe Handmaid's Tale Quotes
I’m not nervous or worried or scared. I can’t fucking wait.
June
I am grateful to be speaking to you today, but mine is just one voice. Countless others will remain unheard, imprisoned by men like Fred Waterford. Women, my friends who lost their lives and can never be heard. It is for those women that I ask the International Criminal Court to confirm the charges against this man and put him on trial. I ask for the maximum possible sentence. I ask for justice.
June
Luke, I need to tell you something. I need to tell you something about the last time I saw Hannah.
June
Moira: Anger is a valid emotion. It’s necessary, important even to heal, but we can’t live there.
June: Why not?
Moira: June.
June: Why does healing have to be the only goal? Why can't we be as furious as we feel. Don’t we have that right?
Aunt Lydia: It was Gilead that saved you. Our boys cleaning out Chicago. They saved you from starvation and worse.
Janine: Where’s June? Is she dead?
Aunt Lydia: Your friend is in Canada.
Janine: She is?
Aunt Lydia: That godforsaken place.
Janine: She made it. I always knew she would make it.
Aunt Lydia: I don’t know why you’re so happy. June left you.
Janine: No she didn’t.
Aunt Lydia: Janine, don’t tell me she couldn’t have taken you with her. She’s done it before. Maybe this time you were just too much trouble. It’s difficult to know with that one, so unpredictable, selfish.
Janine: I know what happens here. I know what will keep happening until I die. Just don’t make me a handmaid again, please.
Aunt Lydia: Look what she’s done to you. She corrupts. She destroys everyone. You poor thing. You’ve spent your entire life losing the people you love.
Janine: Aunt Lydia please, just don’t send me back into service. I’d rather die here.
Luke: She says she doesn’t want me there tomorrow.
Moira: If she wanted a cheering section, she would have asked us to come.
Luke: I just don’t know how… I don’t know what she wants. She is like a stranger half the time. It’s like we talk about Hannah and in bed…
Moira: Getting over trauma is a bumpy fucking road.
Luke: Yeah.
Moira: You have to be patient ‘til June gets where she’s going. You don’t know what she’s been through.
Luke: Maybe that’s the problem.
Fred: Why did you want to see me, Serena? Tomorrow’s a big day.
Serena: Exactly, I’m concerned.
Fred: Dawn’s prepared. She knows what Offred’s going to say.
Serena: I’m not worried about Dawn. You need to get it together, Fred. Everything you do reflects on the both of us, all of us actually, so calling her June would help.
Fred: You know what would really help if you came to court, if you stood by your husband.
Serena: You know I haven’t felt up to it.
Fred: You’ve never felt better.
Serena: The world already knows I’m pregnant.
Fred: They need to know we’re a family. Appearances matter, Mrs. Waterford. Besides, do you want June to think you’re afraid to face her?
Serena: I’ll see you in the morning.
Fred: God tests us. He tests us with a heavy hand. The sacrifices we all made in Gilead were difficult, but where else on earth is the birthrate rising? Nowhere, only in Gilead because it works. It works. We chose God’s path and have been rewarded for our suffering.
June: Tell me, how was I rewarded for my suffering?
Fred: Your beautiful baby daughter and your other daughter. I let you see her. I arranged for the two of them to meet. A kindness, she left that out.
June: I am done. I am done.
June: I thought I’d have more in common with them.
Moira: Well, they don’t all come with their own security detail, so…
June: You know what I mean. Feelings, forgiveness, journaling. Why aren’t they more angry?
Moira: How do you know they’re not?
Aunt Irene: I’ve done some terrible things, every aunt has. We’re trained to deliver the corrections…
June: You mean the beatings, the torture.
Aunt Irene: The physical punishment was meant to help keep all of you alive, but what I did to you was worse. And I never even touched you.
June: What did you do?
Aunt Irene: I learned she had a lover at her first posting, a martha. They continued the affair after Emily was reassigned to Commander Scott and became Ofglenn, so I informed the eyes.
June: So you’re the reason why they hung that poor woman? And you are the reason why they mutilated Emily?
Emily: What do you want?
Aunt Irene: Since I’ve found out you were here, I haven’t had a moment’s peace. I want you to forgive me.
June: You crossed the border and pretended to just be any other refugee. You lied. You gave yourself a new life, a new name, and you thought you could just leave all of the shit you did behind. Why the fuck do you think you deserve forgiveness?
Aunt Irene: We are all God’s children.
June: Bullshit. You people hide behind God every time it serves you.
Aunt Irene: Please, please, please Emily. Tell me what I can do to make things better.
Emily: Nothing. There’s nothing you can do.
June: She’s pathological. She’s a sociopath. She’s toxic and abusive. She’s a monster. And by the way a consummate actress.
Mark: What do you think drives her?
June: Hatred and rage and underneath all of that there’s nothing but pure misery. And she’ll do anything not to feel that way, anything to feel OK even just for a second. She’ll do anything to get what she wants. Lie to you. Hurt you. Rape you. So if you feel yourself getting sucked in by her, run. Run for your life.
Serena: I prayed for this chance, and I humbly thank the lord for your visit.
June: You would. You never did give me credit for anything.
Serena: I believe that the lord brought you here so that I could make amends.
June: I brought myself here so I could tell you how much I hate you. You don’t deserve to make amends to anyone. The only thing you deserve is a life full of suffering and shame. You have destroyed my life, my family, my friends, my country, and my child. There is no one less worthy of redemption than you.
Serena: I’m sorry. I am begging for your forgiveness. I’m begging for the lord’s mercy, and for his understanding.
June: Do you know why god made you pregnant? So that when he kills that baby inside your womb, you will feel a fraction of the pain that you caused us when you tore our children from our arms. Do you understand me? Do you understand me?
