‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 2, Episode 3 Recap: Should June Stay or Should She Go?

Episode three kicks off with June (Elisabeth Moss) enjoying some high-intensity indoor cardio. Who needs a running trail when you have floors and floors of empty office space, amirite? Before wrapping up her workout, she tends to her heartbreaking vigil and reveals that she’s been hiding for two months. Yikes. 

Meanwhile, we learn Moira (Samira Wiley) is cohabiting with June’s husband, Luke (O. T. Fagbenle), and the silent former Handmaid Erin (Erin Way), who Luke took under his wing in season one. From the looks of it, they’ve fashioned their own little version of Three’s Company. Moira is a motherly version of Janet, Luke is a smooth Jack and Erin is a sullen Chrissy. 

Back in June’s not-so-humble abode, she’s going through the Boston Globe archives and memorializing forgotten women. She thinks back on her mother Holly Osborne’s (Cherry Jones) lifelong dedication to feminist causes. Thanks to Gilead, she sees her mother’s conviction in a whole new light. June remembers a rally they attended when she was a child where women wrote down the names of their rapists and burned them. If that happened in Gilead...Who are we kidding, that would never happen in Gilead. 

Nick (Max Minghella) walks in with coffee and it becomes clear the pair have been carrying on their secret relationship these past two months. But it will all have to stop soon, because Mayday has informed Nick that it’s almost time for June’s final escape to Canada. She’s troubled by the news, and even more crestfallen when Nick says he won’t be back until Tuesday. Such is the lonely life of a fugitive Handmaid.

In the Great White North, Moira welcomes a new Gilead refugee, a fellow gender traitor who was forced to become a Guardian and hang his college boyfriend. She points him in the direction of the trauma counselors and promises it gets easier as she takes a deep, unsure breath.

Cut to Gilead, where a chariot truck arrives to take June to the next leg of her complicated escape. She’s scared to leave and tries to stall by telling the driver she left her belongings upstairs. He doesn’t sense her hesitation and cheerfully replies that he’ll take care of it.  

Lying on her back in the bed of the truck, June remembers a specific afternoon at her mother’s home before the country went to hell. June beams with pride and tells her mom and her feminist activist friends that she’s been promoted to assistant editor at her book publishing job. They nod unenthusiastically, but when her mom chimes in and says Moira is launching a queer women’s website, they transform into a much livelier bunch. June’s disappointment is palpable.

Back in the present, June arrives at the now-defunct Boston Logan Airport. A man walks up to her and inquires whether she’s “a good witch or a bad witch,” then asks for her full name and mother’s maiden name. He’s not just a nosy stranger, he’s with Mayday and he comes bearing good news: Come tomorrow night, June will be transported to Canada. Until then, she’ll stay in the “friendly house of someone brave or stupid, or both.” But just as they’re about to leave, the Mayday man learns the safe house has been compromised. Spooked, he tries to drive off and leave June there, but she stands in the way of his car and refuses to move. He’s conflicted and ultimately lets her into the car. He already knows this is a bad idea. 

As day breaks, June and the man arrive at the subsidized housing apartment he shares with his Econowife (the wife of poor or low-ranking man) and their son. This is where June would have lived if she “went to the right church or wasn’t an adulteress.” Instead, she and her viable uterus were forced to become a Handmaid.

The man’s wife is outraged when she learns her husband is trying to harbor a fugitive pregnant Handmaid. They step into the bedroom to discuss the matter privately, but June can hear their voices loud and clear. 

The Econowife comes out into the living room and gives June a disapproving look but doesn’t kick her out. She’s permitted to stay, but Mayday better figure something out and quickly. She tells June that Guardians threaten fertile Econowives that they’ll be forced to become Handmaids if they don’t obey Gilead, but she’d rather die than become a Handmaid and give a baby to a Commander’s wife. June listens politely and then says, “I used to think that, too.” Um, that’s why she’s here, lady.

The tense exchange makes June think of her mother again. She recalls a time when she went over for dinner shortly before marrying Luke. Her mom asks if she really likes her job and chastises her for not doing something more impactful with her life, like becoming a Supreme Court justice (or Jordan Catalano’s wife). But that’s not all. Her mom doesn’t think she should marry Luke: “June, you really want to take all that energy and passion and give it to a man?” At the end of the condescending diatribe, June’s mom scoffs that she’s just playing house. It’s a clash between new and old feminism, and June isn’t interested.

Back in present day, June’s wary hosts leave for church. She’s unsure of what to do with her idle time, and when a neighbor knocks on the door she hides under the bed. There, she finds a book—something she hasn’t seen for a very long time. It’s a Koran, so she pulls out the prayer rug that accompanies it and revels in the sight of words, even if she can’t read them. Later, she busies herself by tidying up and is gutted by how much she misses her daughter. By then it’s five o’clock and she’s worried that something’s happened to her kind benefactors.

We then cut back to her time in the Red Center, where Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) hosts a little show-and-tell presentation about the atrocities that led to Gilead’s coup. Suddenly, June sees her mother on-screen and it becomes clear that she’s been sent to the Colonies. June and Moira commiserate later that night and wonder what led to her mom’s capture.

Back in present day, June assumes that Guardians have captured her hosts, so she disguises herself in the Econowife’s clothes and prepares to make a run for it. She walks out of the apartment undetected and arrives at the train station, where she safely boards. Guards with guns walk up and down the aisle, and June nervously glances at the map that shows her how to get to her Mayday pickup spot. She arrives at the train’s last stop, seemingly overwhelmed by the journey that lies ahead of her.

June follows other Econowives off the platform onto a sidewalk, then veers off the path into a wooded area. She’s suddenly struck by memories of the day her family was torn apart while trying to escape Gilead, and it’s almost too emotional to bear. We flash to Hannah (Jordana Blake), living peacefully with a family in Gilead. June knows she needs to leave Gilead, even if it means abandoning her child. So she makes a break for it and follows the map through a cornfield.

It’s impossible to know how long she runs before coming upon the airport where she’ll catch a flight to Canada. She takes refuge and muses, “Raise your daughter a feminist and she wastes all her time waiting to be rescued by men.”  

Meanwhile, Moira is at a gay club in Canada trying to forget what the refugee told her earlier. She and a woman lock eyes across the bar, then go into the bathroom to, um, let off some steam. After they’re done, Moira introduces herself as Ruby and looks into the mirror pensively. She’s a wreck when she returns home, but when Erin says, “Blessed be the Froot Loops,” her mood brightens. Everyone loves a good pun. 

June is still safely hidden under farm machinery when she sees the hopper plane that’s meant to take her to Canada. She walks onto the runway, and when the pilot questions if she’s really a Handmaid, she shows him her maimed ear. Suddenly, a former Commander’s driver walks onto the runway and startles them both. The pilot opens up the cargo compartment and tells them both to climb in, joking, “Welcome to platinum executive diamond plus.”

But their premium flight status does them absolutely no good. As June is about to leave Gilead behind, she remembers holding Hannah in her arms for the first time and a road trip with her mom spent singing “Hollaback Girl” at the top of their lungs.

“No mother is ever completely a child’s idea of what a mother should be. And I suppose it works the other way around as well,” June reflects. “Despite everything, we didn’t do badly by each other. We did better than most. I wish my mother was here so I could tell her I forgive her. And I wish Hannah were here so I could ask her to forgive me.”

It’s a heavy moment, and then, suddenly, shots are fired through the plane. June’s fellow escapee is wounded, and the pilot quickly lands the plane. He’s pulled out of the cockpit by Guardians and killed execution style. The Guardians swiftly reach into the cargo compartment and pull out the former driver, and then, despite June’s best efforts to escape, they capture her too. It’s heartbreaking.  

Guess we’ll have to wait and see what horrors await her back at the Waterford home when season two, episode four drops on Wednesday, May 9. Does anyone else feel completely gutted?