Mary and Martha is the second episode of the third season of The Handmaid's Tale.
Synopsis[]
June helps a group of Marthas with a dangerous task while navigating a relationship with her pious and untrustworthy new walking partner.
Plot[]
June meets her new walking partner Ofmatthew and learns the Gileadean army is about to violently seize Chicago. Ofmatthew asks her where Ofjoseph is and June replies "I am Ofjoseph". The women go to Loaves and Fishes, where June briefly talks to Alma who remarks Marthas don’t trust Handmaids .
When she returns home, June finds Aunt Lydia sitting in the parlor with the Lawrences. The Commander describes to her the recent Ceremony as "aces" before escorting Eleanor out. Aunt Lydia, suspicious of Commander Lawrence, reminds June to report anything “unseemly”. When she stumbles as they start to go upstairs to June's room, June offers to help her only to be tased by her cattle prod. A suddenly irrationally infuriated Aunt Lydia points out that, unlike Aunt Elizabeth, she would have sent June to "the Wall" rather than to a new household. When she is caught screaming by Commander Lawrence at Ofjoseph, Aunt Lydia claims she was seen unacceptably "gossiping" at Loaves and Fishes. She leaves the house in her wheelchair as Commander Lawrence wonders aloud what the voltage is on the Aunts' cattle prods.
In Canada, we see Luke digging through some annoying paperwork. Baby Nichole is now living with Luke, Moira and Erin. Emily is being checked out by a doctor. They have a conversation about her scarring, with Emily showing her own considerable medical knowledge. She is given referrals to additional doctors, including an OBGYN specializing in clitoral reconstruction "when [Emily] is ready".
In the Lawrence kitchen, June runs into Beth and Cora, who are about to harbor the runaway Martha Alison and planning to help her escape. A suspicious Commander Lawrence wants to call a Guardian to send her home, but June follows him to his study and convinces him to "let her have a chance for something better." Commander Lawrence agrees, commenting "it's your funeral".
They disguise June as a Martha, and she accompanies Beth and Alison into town to drop the latter at a relay point at a commercial laundry facility in a section of the city where handmaids are not permitted because of chemicals. After the successful drop, June learns from Beth that Alison, a former chemistry teacher, is actually not fleeing from Gilead but getting "deeper in" the resistance as she is a skilled bomb maker. Beth also reveals that Allison was the one who made the bomb at the Red Center.
Back in Little America, Emily comes over for dinner and a rather intoxicated Luke asks her why she hasn’t yet contacted her wife Sylvia or their son Oliver. As it gets awkward and at a harsh urging from Moira, Luke storms out. Moira explains “He looks at you, he sees June”, adding he’d want Hannah and Nichole’s mom to call if she made it to safety. Emily says June would call, because “she’s a lot stronger than me.” Moira says she understands Emily’s fear, because a lot of the reunions aren’t the "storybook endings" that people imagine.
At the Lawrence home as Beth, Cora, and June are cleaning up, Alison suddenly shows up with an injured Martha and they hide her in the basement, with the Guardians that shot her following close behind. An incensed Commander Lawrence calls Cora a "liar" as she excuses the noise in the basement by the sighting of a rat. He orders June to fix things. As he heads to the front door to let the Guardians in, June realizes that the woman’s blood is on the wall and hurriedly attempts to scrub it off. Mrs. Lawrence orders Cora to scrub the wall and June returns downstairs. The guardians continue looking for the fugitives outside the window and in the house, with June desperately trying to stop the injured woman from moaning in pain and drawing the Guardian's notice. The Guardians eventually leave, but the woman dies.
Infuriated by the attention they've drawn, Commander Lawrence demands that June dispose of the Martha’s body all by herself; though Beth does help her carry the body outside to the yard. It takes her a while, but she digs a grave and puts the woman in it, then says a prayer over her final resting place. As June soaks in the tub later, Beth comes in with some salve for June’s ripped-up hands. She reports that Lawrence has sent Cora away since "he doesn’t like liars."
In Little America, Luke and Moira wakes up late at night to a fussing Nichole and they remember when Hannah was that small. Luke expresses guilt about how he couldn't get Hannah and June out of Gilead. Moira reassures him.
The next day as June leaves the house, she sees Mrs. Lawrence planting flowers on the dead Martha's grave. June and Ofmatthew talk about an escaped Martha. Ofmatthew expresses disdain for the woman, saying that she was ungrateful and even going as far to say they should take an eye when they catch her. June brings up Ofjohn #2 who recently died in a traffic accident and that Ofjohn #2's walking partner pushed her in front of a passing bus.
Emily gets new glasses and then decides that it’s time to call her wife. Sylvia, who is driving at the time, picks up the phone. They both start to cry while Sylvia causes a traffic jam by stopping in the middle of the street.
Cast[]
Starring
- Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne
- Alexis Bledel as Emily Malek
- Madeline Brewer as Janine Lindo
- Ann Dowd as Lydia Clements
- O-T Fagbenle as Luke Bankole
- Samira Wiley as Moira
- Bradley Whitford as Joseph Lawrence
Guest Starring
Quotes[]
"It's your funeral" - Commander Lawrence
"Come on Breaking Bad, let's go" - June
Trivia[]
Beth reveals about Alison that the bomb in the Red Center was "her work".
Emily reveals she was a vegetarian before Gilead.
Sylvia's car is a green Hyundai Tuscon.
Gallery[]
Music[]
Notes[]
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 | |