The anti-refugee sentiment that has been simmering in Canada for months reaches boiling point as the fifth season of The Handmaid’s Tale comes to a dramatic conclusion. It’s an explosion of intolerance and aggression that compels those opposed to the tyranny of Gilead to question whether sanctuary exists anywhere. Safe delivers a tense and disconcerting sign-off for the show’s penultimate season, that splits its attention between two territories neither of which feels in the least hospitable.
The previous episode Allegiance had ended with the armed attack on the memorial service for the US airmen killed in the failed raid on Gilead. The shooting was framed in such a way as to leave open the question as to whether Luke, June, any of their associates or any attendees had been shot in the attack. Bruce Miller’s script for Safe exploits that ambiguity for all its worth in the opening sequence, teasing the idea that Luke may not have survived. It’s an effective beat that misdirects attention from the horror that then unfolds in the street outside the couple’s house.
June spots evidence that her neighbours are moving out in fear of being caught up in protests against the presence of Gilead asylum seekers. But the recognition that Toronto has become a hostile place for June and her family comes too late to protect them from the consequences. When a truck driver targets June just yards from her front door, the attack on her is realised on screen so powerfully as to make many viewers recoil. Luke saves June from almost certain death by pulling the assailant from his vehicle and beating him into submission.
It’s a wholly justified defensive act, but when the attacker dies in hospital from his injuries, any hope of the family remaining at liberty in Canada dies with him. The idea that anti-immigrant hostility has been rising in the country has been seeded into previous episodes so well that there’s no sense that this horrific outcome comes across as an artificial narrative conceit.
Any doubts that Gilead’s agents have been stirring up anti-refugee protests are removed by the tacit acknowledgement that the driver was a regime asset. June’s refusal to become the poster girl for Commander Lawrence’s New Bethlehem project appears to have convinced him that she’s an implacable enemy that must now be eliminated. That’s certainly the suspicion of Commander Nick Blaine, for whom the assassination attempt severs his remaining binds of loyalty. Landing a punch in Lawrence’s face is the act that lands him in jail, and shatters the façade of his empty marriage. As to whether there is any way back into the regime’s good books for this errant and impulsive Commander is something left intentionally unclear.
More doubtful still is the fate of the troubled handmaid Janine. Madeline Brewer’s character has not played that big a role in the events of season five but, as Janine has evolved into Aunt Lydia’s most valued protégé, Brewer has been consistently superb in the role. With widow Noami now manoeuvred into an awkward marriage with Lawrence (the man culpable for the death of her husband), Aunt Lydia is delighted to assign her star pupil to the household and so complete the grimmest of fairy tales. But it’s clear that Janine has been timing a final act of rebellion for maximum effect, revealing her contempt for her jailers at the very moment they expect compliance and gratitude. It’s an act of personal rebellion that will come at a terrible cost – and could draw her character’s storyline to a close. In an episode full of shocks, the final shots of a defiant Janine, reconciled to whatever awaits her, still stand out.
Back in the director’s chair, Elizabeth Moss (June Osborne) imbues the episode’s final decisive scenes with impressive emotional tension. Not wanting to spoil any of the payoffs for those yet to see it, it’s safe to say that the showrunners have opted for the audacious and unexpected ahead of anything more predictable. Viewers will have different views about whether the new beginning suggested by this endpoint is plausible or a stretch too far. But what’s not in question, at the end of a consistently inventive season of the show, is the sense of ambition and confidence that still excites those putting together this bleakest of dystopian dramas. It’s entirely to the showrunners’ credit that season five ends with unanswered questions aplenty but with few clues about what the series will look and feel like when it returns for its final score-settling run.
THE HANDMAID’S TALE – SEASON 5 premiered in the UK on CHANNEL 4
Read our previous reviews of THE HANDMAID’S TALE below:
Season 5, Episode 4, DEAR OFFRED
Season 5, Episode 5, FAIRYTALE
Season 5, Episode 7, NO MAN’S LAND
