The Handmaid's Tale 5x08 "Motherland" Promo & Inside 5x07 "No Mans Land"

[la_loony]

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June considers a tempting but risky offer from a surprise visitor. Serena hits rock bottom and searches for allies.

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This was a good episode, they really had me on an emotional ride for Serena here and I liked the growth moment for June and countering it with Lukes actions (which are cold but understandable

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[la_loony]

To elaborate on my comment in the post, I found my reactions to Serenas struggles and how June handled them so interesting.

I never wanted June to leave her alone to potentially die in child birth, I wanted her to not become so cruel and was glad she didn't.
But the moment June thought about leaving Serena behind, I got it. The moment after the birth when she was holding the baby I was with it for a hot second to take the baby and just go, Serena couldn't have caught up to her. Same when Serena had fallen asleep.
And I felt sorry for Serena, birth is a scary thing and so many things can go wrong when you have nothing and no one around to help if it gets complicated.
Plus when she was asking June to raise the boy and leave her behind because she had no safe place to go to, but the child should have one and would have it with June...I appreciated the moment when she said she wanted him basically to grow up and be a better man than his father was, it felt genuine.
I was glad June got her to a hospital but also felt odd because I didn't want Serena to just have a nice life with her baby. So in a way her being separated from him now feels like something she deserves to have happen to her, but for the boy I hate that he might end up with those people who had Serena in their home. Also it's obviously uncomfortably close to the misstreatment of rl undocumented women who get separated from their kids.

I was happy they let June be the better person and just help, while I also get that Luke was not having any of that, for him Serena is much more the stranger who hurt his wife and helped keep his daughter away from them. And in his eyes the baby has probably a better life ahead of him being adopted by a Canadian family than with a mother tied to Gilead, so it's not like he is doing this to punish the kid as well.