It’s June against elements of nature and Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale season 2, episode 11. Here are a few hints for what to expect in “Holly.”

Offred, alone

“Holly” takes what is, for The Handmaid’s Tale, a unique approach to portentous events. This is not an episode populated by multiple plotlines, or dedicated to exploring Gilead’s own gruesome birth. Instead, The Handmaid’s Tale season 2, episode 11 focuses almost exclusively on June, stuck alone in a closed and silent house, and pushed to the limits of both her resourcefulness and her emotional endurance. All of her lives, as a daughter, a wife, a mother, and a handmaid, blur together in this week’s episode, and what emerges

Article Continues Below

While there are flashbacks, and one or two interruptions of June’s journey, “Holly” is meant as The Handmaid’s Tale’s ringing homage to the strength of its protagonist. All of her lives, as a daughter, a wife, a mother, and a handmaid, blur together in this week’s episode, and what emerges is the purest version of June that we have seen so far. There is plenty of pain in store, confronted in a multitude of ways, but The Handmaid’s Tale season 2, episode 11 suggests that there may be some deeper meaning behind the agony after all.

Man and wife

The predominant silence of The Handmaid’s Tale season 2, episode 11 is most starkly broken by an interlude with Fred and Serena, who are driven to frightening extremes by June’s latest disappearance. As June battles the elements, the Waterfords battle each other in a war of words almost astonishing in their violence.

As it turns out, Gilead’s grasping hand casts shadows over even its most loyal servants. And the changes that June experiences in “Holly” seem to have wider-reaching, and perhaps more unpredictable, outcomes than fans may initially have thought.

Lingering mysteries

This week’s episode of The Handmaid’s Tale does excellent work in its focus and intention, but it does leave a few established questions dangling in the wind. Nick’s fate, and Eden’s involvement therein, remain unaddressed in “Holly.” Emily, Jeanine, and the rest of the handmaids are similarly unaddressed. And while this may be frustrating, you’ll have to trust me — the wait is worth it.

What love does

The intimate drama of The Handmaid’s Tale season 2, episode 11 culminates in an unmistakably Handmaid’s Tale kind of way. Circumventing its own assumptions, “Holly” allows for some of the fundamental terms by which we understand the show — grief, sacrifice, love, family — to be redefined in even more poignant ways. June’s choices in the episode create a new context for the series’ ideals… and of course, leave us wondering yet again where this little epic will lead.

The Handmaid’s Tale season 2, episode 11, “Holly,” will be available for streaming on Hulu on Wednesday.