Allegiance is the ninth episode of the fifth season of The Handmaid's Tale. It aired on November 2, 2022.
Synopsis[]
June and Luke prepare for a rescue mission. Serena tries new tactics with her oppressive hosts. Lawrence makes a surprising proposal to elevate his status.
Plot[]
Tuello leads June and Luke through a hangar. He walks them through the raid of Hannah's wife school in Colorado Springs. Under direction of a commander named Elijah Vance, three aircraft will fly into Gilead under the radar, and paratroopers will drop in and recover 30 girls.
As June objects that the girls will be terrified, Vance offers reassurance by way of telling them about his own daughter, Emma. Tuello tells June and Luke that he’ll be watching it happen live. When June reminds Tuello this is happening because of her intel, he says he’ll try to get them in the control room too.
Serena and Noah are posing for publicity shots to be presented at the opening of Gilead's new fertility center in Toronto. She asks to attend the event in person, but Mrs. Wheeler refuses to let her leave the house again. Wheeler also wants her to wean Noah off nursing and switch to bottle-feeding.
In Gilead, Mrs. Putnam meets with Aunt Lydia and Lawrence at his house. They mention how Mrs. Putnam is now widowed and a single mother and thus can’t live in her current house, and Lawrence offers Mrs. Putnam to marry him, adding it can be beneficial to both of them. He gives her time to consider it further.
Serena approaches Ryan Wheeler in his study to pitch him her attendance at the center’s opening. He says he will think about it.
In the wife school, Aunt Paula has Hannah and her fellow students get ready for bed. When Hannah is alone, she pulls out a picture book and writes her name 'Hannah' next to a drawing she has hidden inside the book.
June and Luke arrive in the control center to watch the live feed footage of the evacuation, but the plane icons on the map suddenly go red and stop transmitting information. Tuello later tells them that the girls are still at the school, since the intel was wrong. Gilead anticipated the mission and took down all three planes as soon as they crossed the border. There were no survivors.
Lawrence rings June the next day and continues offering her to move to New Bethlehem, bringing up Nick will be there too. However, he wants June to go public and call the mission a “foolish act of aggression.” June refuses, realizing it would paint Gilead as the victims, and hangs up.
In the morning, Mrs. Wheeler slaps Serena several times in the face. She demands Serena stay away from her husband and calls her a whore. Both women head to the meeting in the fertility center.
Tuello offers June the chance to speak with Nick in person. He wants her to persuade Nick to defect.
Serena, with Noah in her arms, is talking with visitors at the center until the Wheelers want to send her home. Alanis tells Serena that she will be attending tomorrow alone with Noah and then asks for the baby’s bottle. The nanny has forgotten the bottle though, so Serena excuses herself to go and breastfeed in private. Instead, she rushes out onto the streets via an exit door, jumps in front of moving traffic and persuades a driver to get her away.
June meets with Nick covertly. He tells her that he can't leave his pregnant wife and life in a constantly changing Gilead now.
Naomi Putnam gathers with Rose Blaine and Mrs. MacKenzie in Lawrence's living room, where they congratulate Rose for her pregnancy. Lawrence has also invited Aunt Lydia to be Naomi's 'chaperone', as she puts it. Meanwhile the Commanders congregate in the study. They congratulate each other for China's, Russia's, and North Korea’s affinity for Gilead and its tactics, then Commander MacKenzie brings up June and notes that it’s time to “fix that problem”. When entering the living room, Commander MacKenzie raises a glass and praises Lawrence's leadership skills. Joseph puts his hand on Naomi's shoulder.
Back in Canada, Tuello reads the names of the dead at a vigil for the victims of the failed mission, with anti-refugee protesters crying angrily who have ringed the gathering. Emma comes forward to recite the Pledge of Allegiance; when she falters, June steps up to help. They’re almost at the end of the oath when someone shoots at them. June dives on top of the girl to shield her, bullets ripping into the flag that’s hanging behind them.
Quotes[]
“A significant quote, characteristic for this episode” — Describe here.
Trivia[]
Notes[]
Cast[]
Starring
- Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne
- Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy Waterford
- Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia
- Madeline Brewer as Janine Lindo
- O. T. Fagbenle as Luke Bankole
- Samira Wiley as Moira Strand
- Bradley Whitford as Joseph Lawrence
Guest Starring
Gallery[]
Music[]
- "Americans" - Janelle Monáe during end titles
References[]
| Season 1 | Offred | Birth Day | Late | Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum | Faithful | A Woman's Place The Other Side | Jezebels | The Bridge | Night | |
| June | Unwomen | Baggage | Other Women | Seeds | First Blood | After | Women's Work Smart Power | The Last Ceremony | Holly | Postpartum | The Word | ||
| Night | Mary and Martha | Useful | God Bless the Child | Unknown Caller Household | Under His Eye | Unfit | Heroic | Witness | Liars | Sacrifice | Mayday | ||
| Pigs | Nightshade | The Crossing | Milk | Chicago | Vows | Home | Testimony Progress | The Wilderness | ||
| Morning | Ballet | Border | Dear Offred | Fairytale | Together | No Man's Land | Motherland | Allegiance | Safe | ||
| Train | Exile | Devotion | Promotion | Janine | Surprise | Shattered | Exodus | Execution | The Handmaid's Tale | ||