Understanding The Word - The Handmaid's Tale
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Recap

June and Rita are taking down Eden's laundry. Nothing is left behind but the uniform each wears when they're gone.

Rita is regretting her treatment of Eden, a child who she treated like shit. June slept with her husband so she isn't winning at that particular game.Rita wishes she would have tried to help her.

June finds Eden's bible and sits down with it. Inside there is a page with writing scrawled diagonally across, and June takes it out to Serena Joy. It wasn't just one page, the entire bible is covered in notes.

Serena Joy says, "It seems like Eden was hiring a multitude of sins," and it launches the two women into a conversation about understanding God and the strange world of Gilead. How will Serena Joy keep a child, a little girl, safe under the horrifying laws of Gilead?

Inside the house, Nick is accepting condolances from Eden's for the horrifying behavior of his daughter. He walks off and the man apologizes to the Waterfords. Fred is rude and unkind using the moment to tell the man to ensure his other daughter learns from Eden's transgressions. The man says he will, after all, he turned in Eden to the authorities when she arrived home with the young man. June is horrified once again.

When June wants to know what Fred will do when they come for HIS daughter, he smacks her. She turns around and hauls off and hits him back. The smile on her face as he says, in essence, men are the root of all evil is priceless.

Nick and June fiinally get a chance to grieve for a moment, and in that moment find Rita in the nursery with Holly. She hands their daughter to them and they experience their first few precious minutes together as parents.

Eden and Isaac are hanging on the wall. Janine hopes they're together in heaven, and June thinks they should be together here.

Emily has her first ceremony tonight. Her son's birthday is next week and the girls imagine they'll celebrate in his absence.

Naomi and Serena Joy chat about their babies. Serena Joy wants to know if Naomi worries about their future. Naomi puts her faith in Gilead. The more they speak, the more obvious it is they both share concerns about the future of their children.

Emily is being summonded to her ceremony. Itchikoo Park is playing downstairs. After peering into the room, Emily decides to get a knife before entering the room. This cannot possibly end well. She kneels on a pillow in the middle of the room cradling the knife close to her chest.

Joseph calls Cora into the room with orange juice and turns off the album. He's looking for Cora again before he wonders what Emily is doing on the floor. Uh, no. He's not having a ceremony with Emily. He leaves before yelling back to go to her room.

Serena Joy is speaking before the rulers of Gilead, it appears. They're not keen on lights.

She and the other wives are bringing forward an amendment to the council.

It starts with the men uncomfortable, but Serena Joy pushes on when she knows she hasn't hit the mark. She picks up Eden's bible and reads from it the passage speaking to the Word of God being the first passage. As she read it, there was fire flaming out of Fred's eyes. Many of the wives left while she was speaking, thinking she had gone too far.

She had. Fred had Serena Joy arrested. There will be no consideration of her proposal at all.

When Aunt Lydia visits Emily and speaks to her with sarcasm, she gets a knife in the back and a trip down a flight of stairs for her trouble. She also gets the signature Emily foot stomp.

Cora finds Emily standing on top of her, rather triumphant, and tears her away putting her into a room where she does a little dance and then falls apart.

At the Waterfords, June opens the front door to the married couple. Serena Joy asks after Nicole immediately, but she can barely walk. Fred has given something June to carry up to the room. A medical bag. Serena Joy no longer has part of her finger.

When June asks Serena what happened, a stunned Serena shows June her hand to her partner in crime and says, "I tried." They hold hands on the bed before June descends the stairs with the most beautiful angry face Elisabeth Moss can manage.

Fred wants to know where the tea is kept. He also wants to know Rita's location.

Fred then taunts June with promises in return for the good behavior of a handmaid.

At the Lawrence house, Joseph is trying to figure out what to do with Emily. It includes a distraught wife screaming that she didn't get to say goodbye and it was nice knowing her while Joseph drags Emily into the basement.

They get into the car, Joseph puts on the radio and begins car dancing. Emily, crying, asks him to turn it off.

While tending to Holly, June sees a house fire across the street from the Waterfords. Rita and her friends have planned it. They are trying to get her out of the house.

It must happen now. June runs to her room and packs what meager belongings she has. Nick is in the street directing traffic while Rita gives her directions on where to go. He looks up into the window and nods his head. He gives June the go ahead. She's out into the backyard and below the greenhouse waiting to pass as instructed.

Inside, Fred is drinking and looking at maps of the United States. He looks outside at the flashing lights. He calls for Nick but gets only Rita. What's going on? She doesn't know, sir. The look on her face belies what she knows.

Nick gets inside and holds back Fred from searching -- with a gun.

Serena sees June trying to leave and wants to stop her, but June says she can get her out. They both know Holly cannot grow up there. June knows how much Serena loves the girl, but they have to let her go. Please. June strusts her so much she climbs first and allows Serena to lift the baby to her for escape. June offers her blessings.

There is an underground railroad of Marthas helping June escape. It's beautiful and mkes me cry.

They have accidents and housefires set up all over the city to get her out. It was very well done and perfectly planned.

June is in the tall grasses with Holly waiting for the next person to help. I have a feeling it will be Joseph Lawrence.

When in the grass, she pulls out Hannah's photo and recalls singing to her daughter in happier times.

A car pulls into the tunnel and June runs into it. Joseph lets Emily out, screams not to get caught and to keep away from drugs. June doesn't get into the car because she won't leave Hannah behind.

June looks like a crazed Red Riding Hood as she flips her hood up and turns back toward Gilead.

Show:
The Handmaid's Tale
Season:
Episode Number:
13
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The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 Episode 13 Quotes

June: What are you going to do when they come for your daughter?
Fred: Mind your tongue. The mouth of a woman is a deep pit. He that falls therein will suffer and find the misery of all men. All of you.

Serena Joy: It seems like Eden was hiding a multitude of sins.
June: What sins?
Serena Joy: What?
June: What sins was she hiding? Serena?
Serena Joy: She wasn't strong enough.
June: She was fifteen years old.
Serena Joy: Yes, she was fifteen years old. She should have been smarter.
June: She was trying to understand God! For fuck's sake, Serena, she was trying to read the fucking bible!
Serena Joy: Don't use that language around my daughter!
June: How are you going to keep her safe? How are you going to keep her safe?! What are you going to do? Are you going to lock her up here like an orchid?
Serena Joy: My daughter will be raised appropriately. She will understand the word of God and she will obey his word.
June: She cannot READ his word!!