June Osborne is tired. Honestly, by the time we hit the opening frames of The Handmaid's Tale Season 3, the audience was pretty exhausted too. After that polarizing Season 2 finale where June decided to stay in Gilead—literally handing her newborn baby to Emily and turning back into the darkness—people were frustrated. They wanted the wall to crumble. They wanted the Commanders to pay. Instead, creator Bruce Miller and the writing team gave us a slow-burn revolution that felt more like a chess match than an action movie.
It was a bold move.
The third installment of the Hulu flagship series isn't just about survival anymore. It's about complicity. It’s about what happens when a victim decides to become a player in the very system that crushed her. If you go back and watch it now, the shift in tone is jarring. Gone is the quiet, suffocating dread of the Waterford house; in its place is a sprawling, messy, and often frustrating look at the politics of Washington D.C. and the cracks in the foundation of a fundamentalist regime.
Resistance Is Harder Than It Looks
You’ve probably heard the complaints that the show became "misery porn." I get it. The close-ups of Elisabeth Moss’s face—twitching, staring, simmering with a rage that never quite boils over—became a bit of a meme. But The Handmaid's Tale Season 3 actually does something quite sophisticated with its pacing. It forces us to sit with the reality that revolutions aren't built in a day.
They are built in the kitchens of Marthas.
The introduction of the "Marthas' Network" changed the stakes. Suddenly, the domestic servants weren't just background noise. They were the intelligence agency of the resistance. When June moves to Commander Lawrence’s house, played with a brilliant, erratic energy by Bradley Whitford, the show stops being a prison drama and starts being a political thriller. Lawrence is a fascinating contradiction: the architect of Gilead’s economy who can’t stand the world he built.
His dynamic with June is the engine of the season. It’s not a friendship. It’s a transaction. He treats her like an intellectual equal, which is perhaps the most dangerous thing a man can do in Gilead. It’s through this lens that we see the "Mayday" resistance move from small acts of sabotage to the massive, heart-stopping "Project Prototype."
The Washington D.C. Expansion
Remember the rings? The scene in D.C. where June realizes the Handmaids there have their mouths literally wired shut is one of the most haunting images in television history. It was a visual gut-punch. It served a narrative purpose, too—it showed us that as bad as June had it in Boston, the heart of the beast was infinitely more terrifying.
💡 You might also like: Why Love Island Season 7 Episode 23 Still Feels Like a Fever Dream
The production design in these episodes was staggering. Seeing the Lincoln Memorial shattered and the Washington Monument turned into a giant cross felt like a fever dream. It was a reminder of how quickly "normal" can be erased. High-ranking officials like High Commander Winslow brought a new layer of predatory power to the screen. Christopher Meloni played Winslow with a terrifying physical presence that made Fred Waterford look like a petty bureaucrat.
But it wasn't just about the shock value. These episodes explored the international pressure on Gilead. The Swiss diplomats, the tensions with Canada, and the realization that the rest of the world was basically just watching. It felt uncomfortably realistic. Diplomacy is slow, and while the bureaucrats argue over treaties, people are dying.
Serena Joy’s Descent and Betrayal
If June is the heart of the season, Serena Joy is its fractured soul. Yvonne Strahovski’s performance is, frankly, underrated. In The Handmaid's Tale Season 3, Serena is a woman without a country, even while she’s standing in her own living room. Her grief over losing baby Nichole (who isn't even hers) drives her to do the unthinkable: she burns the house down.
Literally.
Watching the Waterford estate go up in flames felt like a cleansing ritual. But Serena’s "redemption" is always two steps forward and three steps back. She’s a villain you want to root for, and then she does something so selfishly cruel that you remember exactly who she is. Her eventual betrayal of Fred in the Canadian wilderness was a masterclass in long-game revenge. She handed him over to the Americans (or what’s left of them) just to get time with a baby that wasn't hers. It was cold. It was calculated. It was peak Serena.
The Power of the Marthas
We need to talk about the Marthas more. Throughout the first two seasons, they were mostly invisible. In Season 3, they become the backbone of the resistance. Beth and Sienna at Lawrence’s house aren't just cleaning; they’re moving people, information, and supplies.
The shift in June’s status from "victim" to "leader" happens because she starts listening to the Marthas. She stops trying to be a hero on her own and starts organizing. This leads to the season's climax—the escape of 86 children.
📖 Related: When Was Kai Cenat Born? What You Didn't Know About His Early Life
It was a logistical nightmare. It should have failed. The tension in that final episode, "Mayday," is thick enough to choke on. When those kids finally board the plane, and the Marthas and Handmaids are standing in the woods, throwing stones at guards to create a distraction... it’s the first time the show gave us real hope. But it was a costly hope. June taking a bullet for the cause felt like the only way that story could end.
Why the Slow Pace Actually Worked
A lot of critics at the time felt the middle of the season dragged. They weren't entirely wrong. There are episodes where June seems to wander around Lawrence's house or the hospital for ages. But there’s a psychological depth there that gets missed if you’re just waiting for the next explosion.
We see June lose her mind a little bit.
The episode "Unfit" gives us the backstory of Aunt Lydia, and it’s devastating. We see a woman who was once a kind, lonely teacher turn into a monster because of a small rejection and a system that rewarded her cruelty. It humanizes the villain without excusing her. It shows how Gilead eats everyone—not just the ones in the red cloaks.
June’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic. She lets a woman die. She bullies other Handmaids. She becomes "the mistress" of the Lawrence household in a way that is deeply uncomfortable to watch. This is the nuance the show gets right: trauma doesn't make you a saint. It makes you a survivor, and survivors are often mean, selfish, and dangerous.
The Canadian Perspective
While June was fighting in the trenches, Emily and Moira were trying to live in the "after." Their storyline in Canada provided a much-needed breath of fresh air, though it wasn't exactly easy. Seeing Emily navigate the guilt of what she did to survive—and the awkward, painful reunion with her wife and son—was heartbreaking.
It posed the question: can you ever really leave Gilead?
👉 See also: Anjelica Huston in The Addams Family: What You Didn't Know About Morticia
Even in Toronto, the characters are haunted. They’re dealing with "Little Gilead" protesters and the looming threat of extradition. Luke’s journey from a passive bystander to an activist was a slow burn that finally paid off when he confronted Fred Waterford in a jail cell. That punch was three seasons in the making.
Impact on the Franchise
Looking back, Season 3 was the bridge to the total war we saw in later seasons. It moved the pieces into place. It established that Gilead is not monolithic; it’s a collection of feuding warlords and fragile alliances. It also proved that June Osborne is the most dangerous person in the country because she has nothing left to lose but her life, and she’s already made peace with losing that.
The season ended on a cliffhanger that felt earned. As the other Handmaids carried a wounded June through the woods, it looked like a religious procession. She had become a martyr, but she was still breathing.
Insights for the Re-watch
If you're heading back into the series or watching for the first time, keep these things in mind to get the most out of the experience:
- Watch the background: The Marthas are almost always doing something in the periphery of the frame that hints at the larger resistance.
- Pay attention to the colors: The palette shifts significantly when they go to D.C.—the greys and blacks become more prominent, symbolizing the "purity" and death of the capital.
- Track Lawrence’s books: Commander Lawrence’s library is full of clues about his mindset and the eventual fate of his wife, Eleanor.
- Analyze the silence: Some of the most important character developments in this season happen in the moments where no one is speaking.
The best way to digest this season is to stop looking for a traditional hero's journey. June isn't Luke Skywalker. She's a woman trying to claw her way out of a grave, and sometimes she has to use the bones of others to get a grip. It’s dark, it’s messy, and it’s exactly what the story needed to stay relevant.
To dive deeper into the lore, your next step should be comparing the D.C. hierarchy to the Boston district to understand how the power struggle between Commanders actually works. It explains a lot about why Fred Waterford was so desperate to regain his standing.