In its fifth season, already available on HBO Max in Spain and Paramount+ in Latin America, the series The Handmaid’s Tale finds a point of hope for the first time. When June (Elisabeth Moss) becomes a refugee in Canada, the tone of the series changes. Or at least it’s varied enough to allow its brutal and violent atmosphere to have a slight tinge towards new perceptions. Can the state of Gilead have an end? The question is posed by reasoning in its first two chapters, which, of course, is not accidental.
Story The Handmaid’s Tale, which has received its sixth and final refurbishment, is nearing completion. One that should somehow cover the fall of central theocratic fascism, or at least reveal its inner weakness. The new season does. But it also includes new elements that support the idea that political horror is becoming a part of everyday life. Gilead is no longer an invincible colossus destined to endure despite all efforts against it.. His weakness is more obvious, but that’s why he becomes more dangerous. And it needs to stay at any cost, more urgent.
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The series reaches its fifth season, portraying a society that is as dystopian as it is believable. Safety pin.
The Handmaid’s Talewhose previous chapters have been accused of perpetuating sheer brutality for the sake of showinessreaches a new equilibrium. One that shows Gilead as a superpower doomed to collapse, but whose foundation is supported by fear. Even those who fled and can now look at the cruel landscape of the State from afar.
With accurate storytelling skill, The Handmaid’s Tale uses June (Elizabeth Moss) to showcase the depth of the season’s conflict. He does it so deftly that the sense of threat and persecution becomes more insistent than ever. And this despite the fact that the character is a living demonstration of the possibility of subversion from the center of dangerous fascism, from which he escaped.
But for all her rebelliousness, June still remains a victim. One who also knows that Gilead still demands her from afar, binding her with bonds she cannot shake off.. So the argument shows the irresistible. The character must analyze her abilities and understand that what lays claim to her on the other side of the border can no longer be saved. He managed to escape the harshness of Gilead, but left behind his eldest daughter. Again, the script analyzes one of the hardest things to digest. Achieving freedom (or a share of it) at the cost of ongoing suffering.
The Handmaid’s Tale: return to the place of horror
Previously, the script delved into painful details about the violence associated with the control of the patriarchal totalitarianism that crushes its characters. But in the new episodes, he asks questions about his cracks. In addition, he shows what the price (physical and mental) is of a collision with a political apparatus doomed to the destruction of the individual and dehumanization. June suffers, she is filled with a destructive rage that threatens her mental stability. when you need it most urgently.
The Handmaid’s Tale It has also always been a survival story. In the new episodes, she asks direct questions about what an experience like this can do to a victim under prolonged terror. It’s June, and although husband Luke (OT Fagbenle) and Moira (Samira Wiley) have joined her, darkness is not far off. The series makes a wise decision to show the duality of the mind of a character who struggles to fit into the present. But not only does he not succeed, but he knows that the past and everything he’s been through is closer than ever.
The camera follows June sternly through her new life. Bathing baby Nicole, dawns of unreal beauty, meetings between friends. Wide streets, no surveillance, complete independence that you enjoy. But this is not enough. June is marked by a need for revenge that she has been unable to fulfill. and this is now more relevant than ever.
In fact, the series reflects on the inevitability of retribution. Not only did it happen to Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) at the end of the previous season; It was punctual and not generic. June wants something more, she needs to face the real monster that is still a part of her life. It is from this premise that the argument begins to build new threads of its history.
A new look at an old pain
Until now, The Handmaid’s Tale underwent an evolution that did not always benefit the central story. If earlier attention to physical suffering was considered almost a pornographic detail, then in the new season the same thing happens with mental suffering. A transition that allows the series to grow and become deeper and deeper in its approaches.. This time, the severity of the pain is not in visible wounds, torture sessions or total power over the victims. It’s in the opposite place, and the change in tone reinvents the series from its foundations.
June is a different woman. He tries it, he believes it, and during the opening scenes it seems inevitable to assume that crossing the border has changed his life in a significant way. But really, the victim, who faced brutality head-on and triumphed, transcends the peaceful life she now enjoys. The first two chapters of the series focus on showing that Jun is a broken hero. A broken character whose mental and emotional parts are irreversibly damaged. What does June need, finally, beyond the reach of the totalitarian power that tormented her?
The question in the series has no answers. Not immediately, but obviously. June looks at himself in the mirror, silently walks back and forth. The camera focuses on Moss’ painful and tense expressiveness to convey a message between the lines. The character is close to making a decision, and the rhythm of the plot follows his mind. Canada is bright, clean, serene. An eternal landscape that is nothing more than a small pause between something big.
Horror has become a past that does not disappear in The Handmaid’s Tale
June is broken into levels that are difficult for others to understand. The series uses long close-ups to analyze his suffering and, at least in the first chapter, the question is clear. Can you overcome the experience as if you lived one way or another? The character is holding back tears, holding on to seeming calm. Also to anger. The one that pushes her to start thinking about a decision that for her cannot be postponed.
Of course, the series again plays with the paradox of the forced. June continues to remember the torture, Hannah is trapped in an increasingly aggressive and violent place. Actually, Did June manage to leave Gilead? The series makes it clear that this brief time of calm is just a moment to gather strength. Create a plan so that the strategy of countering force becomes firmer.
That while in Gilead the horror remains the same. Which, perhaps, is one of the minuses of the new season The Handmaid’s Tale. Gilead does not changedespite the demonstration of power at the end of the previous one.
There is a possibility of a riot. But the show is actually more interested in showing that the monster of totalitarianism heals his wounds with more control. What can the confrontation of the victim, convinced of the need to fight the darkness, and the inexorable system lead to? It’s a big question The Handmaid’s Tale you will need to answer for your new episodes.
