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'The Handmaid's Tale' Season 3, Episode 8 Review: Lydia, Aunt Lydia, Have You Met Lydia?

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Spoilers through Season 3 of 'The Handmaid's Tale' follow.

The Handmaid's Tale continues to be a bit of a mess in Season 3. I keep rooting for it to get better. It keeps letting me down.

While Season 3, Episode 8 "Unfit" wasn't as bad as last week's offering—which was just all over the map—it still fails to live up to the standards set by the first two seasons of Hulu's dystopian adaptation of Margaret Atwood's classic novel. Maybe that's because they've moved so far past the book.

Maybe it's because they have no idea what they're doing or where they're going or what the point of this story is anymore.

Whatever the reason, the sad truth is The Handmaid's Tale continues to stumble and lurch its way from one episode to the next with no rhyme or reason. The show's protagonist, June, becomes less and less likable or relatable each week. And the narrative, or whatever we should call it at this point, continues to slog and fizzle, slog and fizzle, slog and fizzle.

There were essentially two main components in 'Unfit'. In the "present" day, June is defiant and petty. She scornfully rebukes Aunt Lydia's attempts to shame her, telling the Aunt that she can't do anything to her because maybe she'll be needed on TV again soon, to help get baby Nichole back. Because a nation of lies really needs the truth of someone to show on TV. Or something.

If Aunt Lydia was as cruel, vindictive and clever as she was earlier on in this show, she would take her punishment out on June in ways that wouldn't show up on camera. Certainly there are parts of the human anatomy that would remain unseen in a broadcast. Honestly, she could put rings through her mouth at this point and they could just make her wear a veil. June's arrogance, however much she's in the right, is unfounded and foolish. The fact that she faces no retribution for her behavior is just . . . baffling.

I've called this "plot armor" in the past, and I stand by that now. I've seen Outlander. I know what a lashing is. Jamie's punishment at the hands of Jack Randall was far more extreme than anything June has faced, and were there cameras in 18th century Scotland, he could still show his rugged face without anyone being the wiser. But nobody thinks to lash June.

Why not? This is Gilead, after all. June might be a necessity for this whole baby campaign, but they wouldn't need to show her back. Again, it's not that I want June lashed or tortured or punished or hanged, it's that the sadistic bastards who run Gilead—Aunt Lydia included—have devised myriad means of punishment and terror. Surely by now they'd unleash a few of those on June for her constant attitude and disobedience. It's just weird that they don't.

In the circle of shame, June is brought to tears and that's the extent of it. At most, Aunt Lydia gets her all choked up. And then she turns the table, calling out the snitch Ofmatthew, telling Aunt Lydia that Ofmatthew doesn't want her baby. And that's all it takes to deflect attention away from her.

She goes home and speaks with Commander Lawrence. He asks her if she'll spend some time with his wife. She's good with her. She helps. It would mean a lot to him.

So naturally, instead of ingratiating herself with a powerful Commander, June spits in his face (metaphorically speaking) telling him that he should get her out of Gilead, that it's killing her, that he only pretends to care about her.

"That must have felt good," he responds, probably just as annoyed as we are. What on earth, June? Do you ever stop to think about things? Do you have any semblance of a plan? You have this one chance with this one guy to get what you want, to get the help you need, and you just keep blowing it, and it drives me crazy. I have less and less sympathy for her.

Her recklessness has already forced Hannah's "family" to relocate, making it 100 times harder for June to actually track down and locate her daughter going forward. It's just one stupid, poorly conceived action after another when it comes to June these days. How very, very disappointing.

So she pushes away Lawrence and then, later, at the grocery store she encounters all the usual suspects. Aunt Lydia calls her over, tells her it's high time they got her out of Commander Lawrence's house, what with the crazy Mrs. Lawrence and all the Commander's oddities. Now June starts to worry. Didn't Lawrence request her? "There are more powerful Commanders," Aunt Lydia replies.

And then, apparently because the shaming was so harsh, or because Janine was being so nice to her—I'm honestly still not sure—Ofmatthew freaks out. She attacks Janine (who keeps getting attacked by women losing their cool this season) and when a Guardian tries to stop her she kills him with a jar and then takes his gun. She points this way and that and then squares in on June, who just gives her one of those June smiles, so badass and uncaring (does she want to be shot?). June nods, and Ofmatthew turns the gun toward Aunt Lydia . . . .

They shoot her dead before she can pull the trigger, sadly. A pregnant Handmaid—would she really be worth less than an Aunt? Would they really shoot to kill? I wonder . . . .

Aunt Lydia

Beyond June being stupid and reckless and yet another Handmaid going crazy and losing her life (largely thanks to June) this episode mostly focuses on Aunt Lydia herself, both in her current work—going over Handmaid assignments with the other Aunts over a nice glass of red—and in her past.

Yes, we finally have a backstory episode for Aunt Lydia, and all I could think the entire time is: Do we really need this? Do we really need a backstory for Aunt Lydia?

I'm pretty sure the correct answer is "no." I can't really see what the point of these flashbacks was. Earlier on in the show we get a bit of Serena and Fred's back story, and that was useful. We saw them as young, idealistic activists in a world gone mad. They were conservative, Christian, anti-abortion . . . but you could see the fire in them. They believed that what they were doing was right.

It was a striking contrast to the depraved world of Gilead, with its rape ceremonies and oppression. Serena was an author and now she's not allowed to read, let alone write! Seeing that was important to our understanding of these people.

I'm not so sure that Lydia's bad date qualifies as interesting or useful. She's essentially taken in a young single mother and her son. Lydia was a teacher, you see, and a very devout woman. She took the woman and her boy under her wing, invited them to Christmas, formed a bond with them. But when the young lady gifts her makeup for Christmas, and encourages her to get out there more, things take a turn for the worse.

She goes out with her principal, also a devout Christian, and they have a nice time on New Year's Eve. Things get hot and heavy back at her place (really, she invited him back to her place on their first date?) and as they're making out on the couch her hand goes right for his package.

That's a bridge too far. "Too fast for me," he says, and she's humiliated. And that humiliation turns into spite, and that spite turns into her reporting the mother to the authorities and getting the boy taken away. It's her first time separating a mother from her child, but not the last.

The principal is aghast, dismayed and disgusted, and Lydia no longer wears her hair down.

But does any of this tell us anything new about Aunt Lydia? She was once a caring teacher but she always had a spiteful side. She probably needs to get laid really, really, really badly, but her messed up belief system (or messed up psychology) won't allow that. Why didn't she just slow down with this guy? He wasn't angry. He wanted to see her again. She could have done what I imagine many normal Christian people do who decide to save themselves for marriage: Take it a bit slower, or have a shotgun marriage. Or bend the rules, but not on your first date!

All I know is that this entire sequence felt gratuitous to me. Were we supposed to feel pity for her? Not really. Her actions in the end were so despicable. Were we supposed to feel less sympathy for her? Is that even possible given all the rotten things she's done?

So here we have an entire hour of The Handmaid's Tale and we come out of it liking everyone less. Well, not everyone. Janine was really nice. I just feel bad for her. And Commander Lawrence's retort when June tried to corner him was pretty hilarious.

But here we are again, wheels spinning. No forward momentum. June is becoming less and less sympathetic. Aunt Lydia remains a crude monster. Gilead is awful but its threat has become almost abstract. You can't hurt me, June says. And I believe her, not because it makes sense but because that's where this story has taken us, into a world where rules no longer apply, where everything is simply made up on the spot.

After the first two excellent seasons (which I did not review) I was so excited to review this show. With all my other shows falling apart around me—from Game Of Thrones to The Walking Dead—having something really high quality was exciting.

Alas, here we are. I'm still hoping that the final few episodes change my mind.

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